avablog

Hey there, unborn baby.
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What up, unborn baby? Oh yeah. Not much, huh? That’s a uterus, for you! Hang in there.

Anyway, your mom’s been hassling me about posting something here, and, well, I guess I may as well, even though there’s not much new to report. You kick a lot lately. Your mom feels it all the time. But when she puts my hand on her tummy to feel you, you stop. What’s up with that, unborn baby? Are you scared of me? Mom’s also been admonishing me not to swear around you, even though you can’t make out what I’m saying, and you don’t know a cuss word from a crossword anyway. I say f*#k that.
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I wish I’d come up with that line.

Octuplets Mom Has 6 Other Kids

“She is young,” the acquaintance says, “fairly young. She has six children already. And in those six children, she has a set of twins.”

My Flickr stream doesn’t get a lot of action. Like the rest of the Internet — and everywhere else — hits are generated by images of cute girls. And if those cute girls are barely dressed, even better (a curious exception to this is this image, taken by my mother on a trip to France a couple years ago, which has almost 11,000 hits since it was uploaded; I blame Yahoo!Search).

I don’t take photos for fame, but I have to admit it’s nice when someone finds something of value in a picture I’ve taken. This is especially so when the photo in question is one I happen to like a lot, too, such as:

which today went over 200 views. I have friends for whom 200 views is a real slow day, let alone week or month. Maybe I just need more friends. In any case, congratulations, little photo of my pregnant wife. Let’s hope the hits keep coming!

Actually, it doesn’t. At all. There’s no going home again. And this attitude even after all the trouble we had conceiving…. Sure, we’re excited about the baby coming. We’re picking out names and car seats and trying to figure out finances. Leah has her eye on a co-sleeper. But, man, you never have that first baby again. There’s no guarantee, of course, that this delivery is going to be anything like Ava’s. In fact it probably won’t. Why should we feel any more prepared or nonchalant this time around? I don’t get it. It almost (almost) makes me wish we’d had twins the first time, just so there wouldn’t be this second child phenomenon to deal with.

Really, I should quit making up things to grouse about. We’re amazingly lucky and fortunate. It’s wonderful to watch Ava turn from a toddler to an honest-to-goodness little girl. I already find myself a little hurt when she doesn’t return my hugs and kisses; I can’t even imagine what junior high is going to be like.

Ava with her stylist:

I was driving around at noon, running errands, when I calculated that this is how many hours we see Ava each weekday. It’s just not enough. I try to convince myself that all Ava would be doing, were we together all day, would be watching Ruby and Max or coloring by herself at her table, but that’s a cop out, of course. I think about all the stuff we’d have to give up to have one of us stay home all day with Ava, and it’d be Leah and I taking the real hit, not Ava. She’s still fairly unaware of all the trappings of our lives.

This is how kids grow up so fast, when we only see them for 20 hours out of a week that has 80 waking hours. That’s 25%. It explains why I’m sometimes surprised by some new development or another in Ava’s life when we pick her up from preschool.

To be fair, my dad was home with my brother and me when we were kids, which Leah would be the first to point out was not necessarily a fruitful developmental period in my life. But they were good days. We had Big Wheels(TM), our bikes, and dirt to play in; if life did indeed offer more, what was the use in it? I do wish I could give Ava that life. More of my life.

Ava became obsessed with Jell-O recently. I don’t even recall how it started, though I’m sure Leah will enlighten us. Must’ve been in a magazine, or something. Anyway, Leah finally relented to Ava’s constant whining and let her make some the other day. Ava wanted to cut the Jell-O into hearts, so we cut the Jell-O into hearts. Which looked a little something like this (everything goes better with sprinkles, in case ya didn’t know):

Yesterday Ava decided she wanted to go to the children’s museum, so we went to the children’s museum. There was a sweet moment on the way out when Ava adopted her serious voice from the back seat and proceeded to tell us that even though bad things happen in the world, like robberies, for example, we all have each other, and everything’s going to be all right. We assured her that was true. I’m always amazed when the contemplative Ava shows up. It reminds me how smart this little girl is, and how much I take that for granted. And I don’t mean smart like she can spell BAT and RAT and CAT, but that kind of emotional smart, where she’s making abstract connections and thinking about them in practical terms. It’s striking, really…almost like there’s an adult in there somewhere. Perhaps I’m just stunted (quiet, Leah!).
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Hey, unborn baby. I took a couple more maternity photos of your mother over the weekend and thought you might enjoy a peek. Pretty, huh? I almost hope you’re a girl, just so these genes aren’t squandered on a boy.

Next time, I’ll have to get her to stand on something on the bed, just to get that headboard out of there.

Greetings again, unborn baby.

Two nights ago I felt you moving around in your mom’s belly for the first time. She’s been feeling you for a couple weeks, but you either haven’t been big or strong enough for those movements to be felt by the outside world. It’s a singular sensation. Even though I’ve seen you in a couple ultrasounds now, this really felt like our first introduction; I almost wished you could come out right then so we could start getting to know each other.

Today I’m going to try to get some more pregnancy shots of your mom. Wish me luck!

My mom often writes us nice summaries of her adventures with Ava on those days she stays with her. I was reading the latest one, and it sounded a lot to me like a blog post. So, here goes….
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Leah informed me recently that it’s time to take the 21-week pregnancy photo. In fact, I think it was this morning. I told her I’d grab my camera and take the picture right there in the bathroom as she did her makeup, but it wasn’t what she had in mind. We haven’t been taking weekly pregnancy photos so far, but it seems like I should be building up a set of shots for posterity’s sake (I understand the second child never gets as much attention as the first…you should see Rachel’s sad, barely-filled-out baby book). Fact is, I really like taking pictures of Leah, pregnant or not. But she almost always finds fault with anything I shoot.
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Someday I’ll tell you about Spike Lee. But not today.
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Come on, now, Nathan. Really? I can’t believe there are that many Pepsi drinkers reading your blog. Or maybe they just like to enter contests? I guess this post is worth five entries, eh? 😉

Go Steelers!

I know, right? “It’s about time.” I hear you. Seems like I should provide some sort of synopsis, even though most of you have heard the best tidbits by now.

The big news, of course, is that Rachel and Kevin were robbed. Actually, their room was broken into, and the thieves made off with Kevin’s iPod Touch (Christmas present), R’s celly, BOTH passports, car and house keys, and some other goodies. Photocopies of their passports were useless for anything other than documenting that they once had passports, and they were barely useful for that. Thank the Mayan god of comprehension that Rachel is fluent in Spanish, because the answering machine at the U.S. Consulate office in Cancun doesn’t even speak English. They scrambled around and received their new, temporary, $100(.ea) passports a mere three hours before our plane was set to depart for home. Nothing like living on the edge.
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As I was getting ready for work this morning, I had a moment’s pause when I thought it was only Sunday. Is it possible the weekend passed so quickly? Bah. We had fun celebrating my mom’s birthday, which included a couple dinners and sledding yesterday at a nearby elementary school. I debated whether to take a camera to the hill and finally decided against it. I’ll leave you instead with a shot of Ava I took at our favorite coffee spot (Ava’s favorite cinnamon roll spot):

As you can see, she’s ready for a refill.

Hello to you again, unborn baby.

Today your mother and sister and I went to get a look at you at our 20-week ultrasound appointment. Here’s what your profile looks like:

Ava was eager to learn whether you’re a sister or a brother, but we told her she’ll have to wait to find out, just like we will.

Your mom talks a lot recently about how much you’re moving around inside her tummy. I’m looking forward to the day when Ava feels you kicking in there. The technician at our appointment today says you weigh about 13 ounces. That’s not even a pound. But it’s just what you should weigh, so we’re not complaining.

This is just a quick note to let you know we’re always thinking about you, and that you’re already a part of our family.

Viva Mexico!

It really didn’t even happen on the trip.

Leah and Ava were separated from me on the plane home yesterday afternoon. It was sad. They were 5A and B, and I was 5F. I buried my nose in the kooky fantasy book I’d bought at the terminal in Cancun and tried not to think about all the cuteness I was missing across the aisle. The couple next to me were immersed in some Vin Diesel movie playing on their ThinkPad, so there weren’t many distractions.

About an hour from landing, the girls got up to use the restroom. I watched them as they squeezed out of their seats, and before Ava headed for the front of the plane, she turned and blew me a kiss. The two next to me saw the exchange as I returned Ava’s kiss and turned to smile at me after Ava ran off. I smiled back, as if to say, “Damn right! That’s my girl!” It was a great moment and a good reminder of how wonderfully different life is with children in it. I’m fairly certain Leah and I are crazy for bringing another kid into the world, but I suppose if we can increase the love around this place a little bit, it will have all been worthwhile.