friendship plant

so i've always been told that if you insert half of a partially peeled avocado seed in a cup of water, with the big side down, held up by three toothpicks at the top of the glass, it will sprout, you'll watch the roots grow, and eventually leaves will grow straight out the top. what happens after this, i'm not sure, because most everyone i've ever talked to says they're avocado plants usually die shortly after planting in the ground. the internets, of course, has a wealth of information on this, but i start to feel a little overwhelmed when i'm supposed to be measuring the pH of the soil and such (probably why most of my plants end up dying.) Anyway, being a mother of young kiddos, I thought that I should probably at least attempt to grow an indoor avocado plant, so they might benefit from the observation of such a process. Well, I tried, and tried, and tried. I changed my water frequently (in order, they say, to keep it well oxygenated), I kept it in a sunny spot, I talked to it, babied it, everything. Nothing worked. It never even sprouted. Our good friends the Wahlens would come over, and each time note, very politely, of course, that nothing had happened...still. Well, it then became a little competition, in which they started their own plant. And what do you know, their plant sprouted quite rapidly, grew at what seemed a rather astonishing rate, and quickly proved that Mr. Wahlen certainly had something on us that we didn't know. We finally gave up on our little avocado seed, but the story doesn't end there. When the wahlens left to move back to Wisconsin (sad. we are very sad), they couldn't very easily transport their baby plant, so it was given to us, as a friendship plant, to love and care for, just like our friendship. how sweet, right? right. no pressure or anything! just for the record, i am yet to be successful at keeping ANY plant alive longer than 3 months. They all die. I will say that there are probably some very obvious things I could have done in some of these cases (like water them), but in some instances I have worked very hard, lovingly and painstakingly attempting to keep the things alive, yet to no avail. Well, I am happy to say, that we received the responsibility of caring for this beautiful plant on May 21st, and the sucker is alive and kicking! Here's a picture:) (try to ignore the broken leaf...not sure how that happened). So, wahlens, you can rest assured that our love for you is alive and kicking as well;)