avablog

Because it’s still avablog

map — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:20:33 +0000

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.

And speaking of biking

map — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:00:43 +0000

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.
I worked the “Signals and Turns” station, at which riders were required to navigate a short course of four turns before earning my initials on their “passports.” The event was set up on a fairly bumpy, very grassy area near the school, and I wasn’t sure how well young riders would be able to keep momentum while signalling with one hand and trying to pedal through the turf. And then here comes plucky Ava, toodling hard across the field toward my station. She wanted to be the first to try my course. So, after a quick refresher on the hand signals and a warning about the big bumps on the fourth corner, I sent her on her way. To my amazement, she rode the entire course — signals and all — only faltering as she rounded the last corner. My grinch heart grew three times, at least, as I watched my little girl stand on her pedals and race down the backstretch to the finish. Of the couple dozen kids who came through that afternoon, only one — a sixth-grade boy — did as well as Ava. She had a big grin on her face the whole ride back home after the event, and rightly so.

New biker

map — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:00:19 +0000

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.

Just as when I saw her up on a horse for the first time, watching her pedal off down the road to school in the morning simultaneously astounds and saddens me. Ava gets frustrated so quickly, yet she has a firm resolve that always seems to carry her through whatever task she’s undertaken.

The next step in this journey will be to get Ava riding the classic Schwinn that Poom Poom had refurbished for her. She’s ridden it, but it handles differently than the smaller bike she’s on now, and the handlebars are different, so it’ll take some getting used to. But she’ll manage, as she always does.

Fond farewell

map — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:50:26 +0000

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.
Ava was hurrying out the door to mount her bike and head to her friend Mac’s for the ride to school. She was all bundled up against a stiff, cool wind and had her backpack on. As she stopped in the driveway to put on her gloves, she looked back at the house and saw her brother looking out at her through the window at the bottom of the stairs. She waved, blew him four or five kisses, and mouthed, “I love you Emmett.” Then she set her bike on the ground and ran right up to the window to blow more kisses. Emmett returned them from his perch atop the baseboard inside. Then Ava ran back to her bike, hopped on, and was off.

As I watched the goings on from the window at the landing, it warmed my heart to see these two be so affectionate to each other without a parental plea. I hope this is the place they always come back to, no matter what happens in their lives.

Feedin’ time

map — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:48:29 +0000

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.