"I want to be a tap dancer when I grow up!"

Today, Ava has spent the day beaming.

When she learned how to walk, she discovered tap shoes in our dress up box. They were WAY too big on her...and when she learned to talk...she said "I want to learn to tap dance!"

She's had a love-hate relationship with those tap shoes, and so have we. WE have endured hearing them CRASH to the floor as she drops them off her feet during a meal. WE have taken many deep breaths, saying "Our wood floors now have character" from all the tap dings. AVA has lived in the tap shoes like many live in slippers. AVA has also suffered a pretty bad fall--because of the tap shoes. Last year, she was wearing her beloved shoes, stepped up onto the bathroom stool to turn on the light and slid off, onto the tile floor...hitting her mouth as she slid to the ground. It was during a blizzard; the pediatrician's office told us that it would take us too long to get there to have her teeth/mouth checked out--she was gushing blood and we could not tell if her teeth had been jarred. We frantically called the Schinschke's who live 1 mile away and Scott agreed to take a look at her in their house. Andy drove her over, spewing blood all over her jacket, and Ava was checked out in the Schinshke's laundry room--where the brightest light was! Ava still talks about "Dr. Schinschke looked in my mouth and I had to lay on top of the washing machine!" Turns out, that fall created a gash in her lip which did get infected, and her 2 front teeth are STILL loose! But, the love for those tap shoes continued.

Finally, today, she started her 1st tap lesson. Needless to say, she loved it, she can't wait until next week for her next lesson. The big girls have been talking about what they want to be when they grow up...and Ava's response was "I want to be a tap dancer!"