avablog

Sometime today, Ava has a recital with her music teacher at school. The kids can choose to do pretty much anything they want, it sounds like, so long as it involves music. Ava, bless her sweet little heart, has decided to do an interpretive dance to Missing Persons’ “Walking In L.A.” Really. [...]

[Read more →]

There has been a request to post this video here so it’s viewable by a wider audience. Let it never be said I’m not responsive to my public.

[Read more →]

Let’s face it: The kid owes me something for my having stayed home with him all this week while he gets over his feverish coughing sickness.

[Read more →]

Listen, we’re friends, OK? And if you like the Charmin ads featuring the adorable bears running around, picking clingy pieces of TP off each others’ asses, that’s fine. Just don’t tell me about it. I don’t want to know. I don’t want that information to color our relationship. Let’s just [...]

[Read more →]

If you haven't seen District 9 (I liked it better than The Hurt Locker), you're missing out on one of the best acting performances of the last couple years.  The lead, Sharlto Copley, provides an incredibly plausible and forceful portrayal of a man turning into an insectoid alien.  If there's an emotion he doesn't convey [...]

[Read more →]

Leah pointed out upon viewing this video in camera last night that I sound like her in it. Oh well. It is what it is. And now, for your viewing pleasure:

[Read more →]

Enough of this hand wringing over the dispensation of one’s filthy lucre. On to more important, relevant matters….

[Read more →]

Today we took Ava out for her first ice skating adventure. I was astounded by how well she did. This is toward the end of our outing, when she circled the rink twice with almost no help from me at all.

[Read more →]

I always knew there was something about that Fallon kid that I liked. I’m happy that I can now put my finger on it. If you need a reference for these lyrics/backstory, google “general larry platt.”

[Read more →]

This video is fresh out of the camera today. I hope Emmett isn’t one of those kids who walks before he crawls. I hear they have all kinds of problems as a result.

[Read more →]

Gosh, I bet I’m the first person to ever title a blog post this way. Cool!
Weekend before last we went over to a friend’s house so Ava could make a gingerbread house. We had to amscray early to make it back for a play date (for Ava) so didn’t even get a chance [...]

[Read more →]

Fresh snow trumps freezing temps. Either that, or Ava has some undiagnosed nerve damage that makes it impossible for her to feel cold. Oh well. So long as she’s having fun….

[Read more →]

Make popcorn. This is how we always used to make popcorn when I was little, before air poppers and microwaveable bags. Ava and I popped some yesterday and then tucked in to watch Willy Wonka (Wilder Willy Wonka, not Depp Willy Wonka). Actually, Leah and Ava tucked in to watch the movie [...]

[Read more →]

OK, so Emmett was clearly caught unawares on the first go here, but it didn’t take him long to come around.

This is our boy.

[Read more →]

First, an aside. Why can’t squirrels be more like farm chickens? I mean, you can’t run over a farm chicken if you try, but squirrels just seem to freeze up when a car comes upon them. Anyway, I squished one on the way home from dropping off Ava at school this morning, [...]

[Read more →]

I’d be hard put to come up with an image from the last couple months that better describes Ava’s summer. Pigtails, corn dogs, and carnival rides. Oh, and those boots. Always with the boots. This is a shot Gramary took at the Regina Fall Fun Festival over the weekend. Poor [...]

[Read more →]

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:

[Read more →]

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

[Read more →]

Before I left the house this morning, I made Ava pinky promise that she’d give her mom a break today. It’s Leah’s first day home solo with both kids, and I’m sure it’ll be trying.

[Read more →]

This is not a political blog.
I’m not talking about that most fragile of all kinds of hope, the kind that you put in a man to end the appalling policies of his predecessor on unlawful detention and torture. I’m talking about that larger hope, that hope that the next generation — and all generations [...]

[Read more →]