avablog

Ava went downtown with her Gramary over the weekend to partake of the festivities surrounding a sand castle building competition. One such festivity was a free concert, and, well, you just know Ava’s gotta move. Photo by Gramary:

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I suppose it makes sense that a photo of Emmett is the 13,000th image I’ve uploaded to flickr since late 2004. I’m just glad it turned out to be a photo that I’m happy with, even it is was taken with a rented lens.

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Testing out a new lens yesterday as Ava prepared to go over to her friend Mac’s house in her new raincoat. Certainly not the sharpest image ever taken, but I like the color and the look on Ava’s face. Not to mention those curls….

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Ava brought this home from kindergarten today: I do love the kid’s use of color, but I’m a little dismayed that someone’s already turned her on to the little dots at the intersections and ends of the lines on her letters. I guess she’ll be ready to join a sorority one day.

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Uncle Scott was over for dinner last Friday evening and took a few moments to toss Ava up in the air as high as he could. Which was high.

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I felt like a bit of a failure as we pulled away from Willowwind this morning after dropping Ava off for her first day of kindergarten; I didn’t get nearly as many shots as I wanted, and because I was toting the boy around in his car seat, I couldn’t even get out my Vado [...]

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Leah’s been struggling with how and whether to wear Emmett around. He’s balked — loudly, I’ll add — at all conveyances up until recently. The trouble, it seems, was that he was facing in rather than out. Baby wearers claim that wearing a child Em’s age facing out provides too much stimulation, but I’ll tell [...]

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Not a political blog, remember? Frank knocks this out of the park. Can this woman possibly have any friends?

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Subtitle: Moment of cuteness My mom got this picture of Ava last evening at their picnic in City Park. I don’t know how much my mom pays attention to framing or composition when she takes a picture, but this shot turned out about as great as you could hope for. Between Kevin’s shots and my [...]

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Uncle Kevin posted his Grand Marais pictures today (they’re awesome, of course), and I wanted to put up one in particular that I’d been looking forward to.

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“Interesting” story today in the WSJ about the consequences of broad spectrum antibiotic use. My favorite bit? I’m so glad you asked.

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Leah just sent this along. I know it’s an issue close to her heart. Maybe a NOSSA membership would make a good anniversary present? Short People Debunk New Study on Height Short Men and Women Say They Are Butt of Jokes and Ridiculed Well Beyond Childhood But a new University of Michigan study published this [...]

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It seems worthwhile to reproduce this list here, if for no other reason than it demonstrates good old fashioned stick-to-itveness. FOOD ON-A-STICK The Iowa State Fair boasts nearly 200 food stands and more than 50 delectable items available on-a-stick. Search our Food Directory for more delicious Fair food! Here’s the list as of August 2009:

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I took the shot below purely by chance during a shoot with Em the other day. He was sitting on the couch in a really well lit spot, so I was clicking away, just waiting for him to do something cute. Or anything at all. So, natch, the minute I take my camera away from [...]

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Or maybe it just looks like that many. Could be. It’d be difficult to count. Instead, I think I’ll just enjoy the view:

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Ava got a new headband. Big news? Maybe not. But our friend Mindy tells us that feathers are “in” these days. Leah says this new adornment makes Ava look like a little flapper.

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I was uploading the pictures from our recent vacation last night and noticed there were precious few of Emmett in the mix. At only two months old, he wasn’t going on any hikes or skipping rocks or drinking hot chocolate down at the harbor…nothing, really, except sitting in the shade of his car seat or [...]

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One of the neatest things about the vacation this year was that there was a real sense that Ava was making it her own. She’s at the age now where she’ll start having lasting memories of the things we do, and it’s clear that Ava has her favorite activities (let’s face it, she has a [...]

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Remember me? Anyway, we’re back from the annual trip to Grand Marais, MN. It was nice and quiet. Emmett slept the whole way up, pretty much, and was awake the whole way back, pretty much. Ava did a great job in the car both ways, thanks in large part to the Magic Treehouse audiobooks I [...]

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