avablog

Ava, our beautiful girl, at 13 7. *sigh* It seems like she’s losing some of her childlike ways recently, though she still loves a Garfield strip and a stuffy at bedtime. Sometimes I wish my brain weren’t wired to forget all the challenges involved in raising a child, if only so these rose-colored glasses I use to view her passing childhood weren’t so, well…rosy.

It’s impressive to see how good Ava’s become on her bike over the last couple weeks. I volunteered at the Hoover bike rodeo yesterday afternoon, so I got to see Ava in action among her peers. [Read more →]

Ava’s just started riding her bike to school in the last week. It seems like we’ve waited a long time for our daughter to take to her wheels, but now that she’s up, it’s difficult to get her to slow down. The new method of transportation also seems to have reestablished her friendship with her guy friends in the neighborhood, boys who’ve been biking for a couple years now and who literally and figuratively left Ava in the dust when they took to the road. [Read more →]

We’re certainly at a stage right now where AGP and ECP are fighting for dominance/attention at home. They can usually manage to sit together for about five minutes before one of them hits, pinches, or otherwise annoys the other to the point that a fight breaks out. So your dear narrator could be forgiven the occasional muse on whether these two kids like each other at all. This morning, however, came an affirmation. [Read more →]

AGP takes some time out to give her little nephew a snack. As cute as TLD is here and the two of them are together, I’m particularly struck by how beautiful my daughter is. Here is the person she really is. This is her steady state. I only wish she would return there more often.

After hearing Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” on the very short drive to drop off Ava at school this morning, I was totally incensed and all fired up to write a blog post about how, back in my day, songs weren’t such steaming pieces of shit. And if you haven’t heard Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night,” you can take it on good authority that the song is, in fact, a steaming piece of shit.
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I’m sure you’ve been waiting impatiently to see pictures from our recent trip to lovely Isla Mujeres. Well, I’m hereby rewarding your lack of patience!

Enjoy!

Ava was too sick to come along to the work trick-or-treat session last night, but Emmett and I had a great time. We practiced his thank yous, and he did a good job filling up his little pumpkin bag (I told him we had to make sure we got some candy for his sister, too). Even so, I think he missed having his zookeeper along.

And, in motion, where you can really appreciate the magnificence of the beast:

“Car-shoes.”

“Gosh,” I hear you saying to yourself, “I wonder what Ava and Emmett look like these days.” I’m glad you mused. These shots are from our trip to Sass Family Farm last weekend.

Apologies to Neil Diamond.
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He’s a funny little guy. Why would a crocodile bite an iPod, anyway? Silly.

Srsly. And here are the photos to prove it:

When I saw AGP this morning, sitting on the porch swing with the morning sun shining through her side pony, I had to force her to sit for a portrait. Sometimes when I look at yet another picture of either of the kids, I wonder why I never get tired of looking at pictures of them. One thing’s for sure: Someday I’m going to be able to make a badass photo collage of their early years.

We had a nice weekend in Decorah at Nordic Fest (no matter what Rachel tells you!). It was fun to see Baby Tristan and to sample Norwegian delicacies. I think we might go back next year, especially if they can get Michele Bachmann to appear in the parade!

Poor Emmett came down with a fever this afternoon, but it didn’t keep him from accompanying us to the theater for a screening of the new Winnie the Pooh feature. I got a pretty good nap in, and Emmett and Ava had fun laughing and eating popcorn. Win/win. Later, Emmett got a popsicle, which he enjoyed on the front porch.

I was emptying some compost this morning when Leah came out on the back porch with Emmett. She spotted a cicada clinging to the wall near the stairs and alerted ECP to its presence. It was at that point I asked Leah to grab the video camera….

Big news out of The Ranch in the last 24 is that ECP expressed interest in — and did then subsequently use — the potty for #2.
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My friend Jay let me borrow a manual focus lens recently. I didn’t get many shots with it, but the couple I did were nice. If I do say so myself.