Avi was a little girl...

My littlest sister LOVES books. This kid (as I frequently tell you) is amazing. Her favorite book, titled "A Mother for Choco" is a story (with an adoption theme) about a lonely little bird named Choco. He looks different from all other animals and he can't find himself a mother who looks just like him. In the end Choco is adopted by a mother bear. It's pretty cute.

But what is REALLY cute is my sister has the entire book memorized. And when I say memorized I mean MEMORIZED.

She cannot actually read yet, but it you hand her that book she will be begin at the title page ("A Mother for Choco" By: Keiko Kasza) and work page by page, word for word (and there are like 3 sentences to a page) up until the very end. 

"Choco was a little bird who lived all alone. He wished he had a mother; but who could his mother be? One day he set off to find her..."

I'm telling you, she has it DOWN. At first we were doubtful, but then we realized she didn't even need the book or the pictures to tell the story. Any one of the people in our family can say, anywhere, anytime, "Choco was..." and she'll recite us the whole book. The child is a freak. And I love her.

Yesterday was her third birthday. She is a special little girl who deserved a very special present. I, being the creative chick that I am, thought it would be fun to make her an amigurumi (crocheted) Choco. I made very sure to copy him as best as I could. the book very specifically mentions that he is yellow, has stripey legs, wings and big round cheeks. I gave him all those things. I was rather interested to see if she would recognize him out of his book context and made of yarn.

 I hand her the gift bag. She pulls out my creation and instantly, with no hesitation whatsoever, exclaims "HIS NAME IS CHOCO!"

Needless to say, I was thrilled. I had successfully created her favorite story character in such a way that she found him recognizable. She also said it was her favorite birthday gift. Major points to big sister Bella!