Ava Bijl knows what’s important in life: family, friends… and stickers.

The three-year-old has a thing for stickers, and during our interview she pulls out several different sheets of them and selects the perfect ones to affix to a colouring book, a stuffed animal, and her earlobes.

“Aren’t they pretty?” she asks after she checks to make sure they’re not upside-down. She pushes her dark hair back so I can admire them properly. “I like the rainbow ones with all the colours. I have lots of stickers.”

Ava, who is very excited to be turning four at the end of the month, lives on Harp Lake with her mom Melanie, dad Timo and baby sister, Makena.

After a long wait, she and her parents, a family doctor and a teacher, made the trip to South Africa to get the newest member of their family in March.

“Makena didn’t have her family any more so we picked her up,” Ava explains. “She was at a baby house.”

The plane ride was very long, but Ava says it was worth it. “We saw a big giraffe in Africa. Not in a zoo, from a truck. That was cool. Plus, I got these new stickers.”

Ava is a helpful big sister who enjoys looking after her sister. Sometimes she holds Makena’s bottle while she’s eating or gives her a toy if she’s fussy. When Ava returns home after being away, she runs straight to Makena, puts her face up close to the baby and makes funny faces at her. Makena gurgles and smiles in response. “She likes playing with me,” says Ava.

In her free time, Ava enjoys listening to music, reading books, dressing up, playing with her toys and doing crafts. “Mommy’s good at crafts,” she says. “I am too.”

Ava also has an active life outside of her home. She attends preschool at the Muskoka Montessori School five mornings a week and takes swimming lessons and dance classes. With a dance recital in the near future, Ava can’t wait to wear her costume and show off her moves. When asked what kinds of things she learns at dance class, Ava says, “Once the teacher showed us how to jump and clap.”

She’s more interested, though, in telling the swimming lesson saga of The Week the Small Pool Was Closed. “We were in the big pool the whole time,” she says, giving a little shiver as she remembers. “It was cold! And I swam with my lifejacket off, too!”

Ava says she likes school very much. She has lots of friends and her teachers are “good.” She says her favourite thing to do at school is to work with water, pouring from one container to another. “And I like washing tables,” she says. “I also find stuff to put on a mat sometimes. That takes a long time.”

Ava’s grandparents, both sets of whom live nearby, play a very important role in her life. She spends time with all of them every week.

“My favourite thing at Poa-poa and Geung-geung’s house is playing with play dough,” she says. Then her eyes widen. “Poa-poa even makes new play dough. Brand new!”

When asked about what she likes doing with her other grandparents, Ava says, “I like to have a sleepover at Oma and Opa’s house. It’s fun.”

Then Ava turns her attention to some Lego vehicles in a cubby in her play area. “Daddy built these with me,” she says. “We built all of them.”

Later, she points out the toy hospital she got for Christmas. “That’s like the hospital where Mommy works. Sometimes I pretend a doctor gets sick — but not all the doctors, because then there would be no one to look after them!”

I ask what her favourite toy is, and Ava has trouble deciding. “I like everything,” she says, summing up her attitude to life with a sunny smile. “Want a sticker?”

Thanks to Nico Byl for suggesting that Ava Bijl be profiled. If there is someone you’d like to see in this space, please call Paula at 789-5541 or e-mail  pboon@metrolandnorthmedia.com.