avablog

I think we’ve read this book 20 times since G.G. left. Ava gets a huge kick out of the two trolls featured in the story, Mig and Tig. Mig and Tig employ the talents of a hedgehog to steal all the Christmas accouterments of a little girl named Treva and her brother Sami. Treva catches up to the trolls and teaches them about the spirit of Christmas. All well and good.

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In Ava’s forest of cuteness, one of the tallest trees is her hair. Leah likes to keep it nice and tidy, pigtailed or braided or otherwise pulled back and constrained.

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I’m still trying to figure it out, but there was something intimidating about the sight of them together. Or, if not intimidating, maybe a bit panic-inducing. As we drove on toward “school,” I wondered about the day that Ava comes home from school and is smarter than her parents. Hopefully, it’ll be sometime after fourth grade.

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Ava has never been anywhere near being a chubby baby. She was a healthy 7 pounds, 9 ounces at birth, but that’s as high as she’s ever been on the weight percentile charts. Leah and I were…I guess “worried” isn’t too strong a word, for a while, that our little girl would have trouble putting on weight. But she stayed fairly healthy, and while she hasn’t gotten fat, she does seem to be growing steadily along the y axis.

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Have you ever wanted to look at thousands of pictures of our adorable daughter but didn’t want to register an account at flickr, where they’re stored? Now you can!

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Memory is an amazing thing. In and of itself, the biochemical/electrical process that is memory is quite an invention. The way it persists, old memories fading away and becoming as good as forgotten in our everyday lives, only to come rushing back the moment we receive some sensory cue that immediately and vividly brings an event out of the past. And it’s usually the darnedest things that spur these memories. Like shag carpet.

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That’s my mom, there, overseeing my yawn. I can’t look at this picture without thinking about the day we brought Ava home and showed her our (her) house for the first time. There’s just no forgetting that moment when your life goes from two to three. It’s even more profound in many ways than being in the hospital and seeing Ava for the first time.

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Those of you who were prescient enough to register an account here at avablog have access to all the pictures I put up of Ava from time to time. If you haven’t registered, don’t despair! You can always click on the “register” link over at the right and set up an account (it’s easy and fast). If I know who you are, where you came from, or how you came across the blog, I’ll set your user level to allow you to see all the posts.

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Sunday night, Leah and I watched a show about the methamphetamine catastrophe in Iowa. When I was writing that first sentence, I hesitated for a bit in consideration of the best way to describe meth’s impact in this state. Epidemic is the word you hear thrown around most often. But after watching the soul-dampening profiles of these addicts and their families, it’s clear that this is more than “just” an epidemic. More, even, than a catastrophic epidemic.

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Sometimes it’s just weird to be around Iowa City without anything to do. But it sure is nice. No running around to get the car packed and Ava loaded up for a trip to Madison or Decorah or Chicago. No big social events to buy food and wine for. No parties to dress up and find sitters for. It’s healing.

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Our workplace has a United Way drive every year, during which we put on various events aimed at raising money for that organization. One of the main events is a bake / book / movie sale.  Employees are encouraged to bring in stuff from home that they’d like to donate, and it’s all organized and […]

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Our little monkey has an ear infection.  It caught us by surprise, as she’s barely had so much as a sniffle since she got her tubes put in last year.  But a couple days ago Ava started having some serious discomfort when she’d lie down.  She’d cry and stiffen up and grab at her right […]

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Yesterday we carved pumpkins. Well, I carved pumpkins. Leah took pictures, and Ava ran around with a big spoon. This afternoon Ava will come to our office at 4 for the building trick or treating. She’ll be dressed up in her giraffe costume, which is a loaner from one of Leah’s friends. Luckily, Ava likes […]

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I’m fairly excited about the weekend. First off, Leah and I are going to see The Departed on Saturday night. If it’s half as good as I’m expecting it to be, I’ll have a good time. But I’m really looking forward to working a couple “old” computers. One is an Apple iMac 400MHz DV SE, […]

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The guy who did the presentation at our conference yesterday was a younger fellow who works as a consultant. He told us a couple times how much time he spends on the road going from place to place across the country and how much extra work he does before and after “regular” work hours (his […]

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I found out today that a kid I went to high school with, and whom I’d seen now and again since we graduated, killed himself two days ago. This is actually the second death of a classmate I’ve learned of in as many months.  The first one succumbed to a long bout of alcohol abuse, […]

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Well, you hear rumors about how bathroom-centric your world becomes when you have a kid, but like everything else about having a kid, you don’t really get it until you live it. Ava’s on a roll with her potty training.  It seems like we’ve rounded a bend in terms of getting her to think about […]

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when your two-year-old tells you to “shoo” because “I don’t love you anymore,” and that you should “go away.” Kids.  What’re you gonna do?

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Well, here she is: Different father, different mother, same first and last name as our daughter. I mean, it’s not like we named our little girl Jane Smith, for crying out loud. Oh well. Hopefully Ava2 won’t grow up to be a serial killer or some other notorious figure (our Ava, of course, will be […]

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We had a great weekend in Madison visiting Aunt Rachel and Uncle Kevin. As usual, our time there was full of good food and drink, walks, coffee, and at least one knock-down, drag-out fight between the Klevar sisters. After we got settled in on Friday evening, we dined at a nearby Thai restaurant that Rachel […]

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