A Baby Doll With Red Eyes

As is typical of most photos of Ava, there is a story to go along with this one. It was around 8am the day before her 4th birthday while we were at a coffeeshop with my dad. One of Ava's favorite pastimes is telling scary stories. The main character in most all of her stories is a "baby doll." Here is the story she shared with us this particular morning:

"One a time, there was a man and he heard a noise in the woods: Beep BEEP BEEP BEEP. And he looked outside and he saw a baby doll with red glowing eyes."

Where Ava's terrifying concoction of a baby doll with red glowing eyes began is--to borrow another Ava-ism--"a mystery."

When Ava was nearing 3 years, she, Evan, my brother Henry and his girlfriend Sydney were walking home from the fire station where we had stopped so Evan and Ava could check out the firetrucks. On the walk home Ava needed a lift so i carried her across my arms so that she was on her back and looking up at the trees and sky. She was inspired to ask me at that moment: "When you was a baby did you have red eyes?"

Months before she posed that bizarre question, she and Evan and I bundled up and took a mid-winter stroll around the neighborhood. When we returned home I told the children to return their things to a basket in the coat closet. Ava went over to the basket but instead of putting her things away, she plucked a naked Barbie doll with ratted hair of the basket and began to chase Evan around the house with it. While she was running she let out a very raspy "AHHH" sound which scared Evan (and me). She chased Evan all the way back to his bedroom where he shut the door and begged her to stop. She flashed a mischevious look back down the hallway to me and before I could get to her to put and end to her shenanigans she pulled one of the Barbie's arms above its head and stuck it under the door repeatedly while letting out her scariest "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH."


- Cousin Lily