avablog

I wanted to take a moment to formally welcome my brother-in-law Kevin to the wonderful world of Macdom. See, his new manager at work is a Mac guy, which means, among other things, that Kevin gets a new work laptop to replace his Dell. Turns out that new work laptop is a black MacBook loaded to the hilt brim. Very nice. He took possession only yesterday, but I suspect he’s already running Ubuntu on it. You can take the boy off the cli, but you can’t…erm…something about the cli. Anyway, welcome aboard, Kevin! And remember, contrary to what you might read in the Ars forums, Mac users come in all shapes and sizes.

Leah was tussling with a sassy Ava last night at bath time. They must’ve been going back and forth in a way that Ava didn’t appreciate, because she looked at Leah and said, “It’s not polite to talk that way to your Elvis!”

Elders, Elvis…whatever.

Good news: The manners lessons at daycare and at home are taking hold.

Bad news: We’re going to have to find Ava a teeny studded jumpsuit and cape.

It stands for hysterosalpingogram. A radioactive dye is inserted into the uterus while under an X-ray machine. An image is created that lets you know if there are any blockages or other problems with your uterus or fallopian tubes. It’s pretty amazing to watch. The hospital sent us home with a CD of images from the test, one of which I present to you now:

Hot, huh? She said, “You’re going to post that on the blog?” And I said, “What, you’re afraid someone on the street is going to recognize your uterus?”

EDIT: Here’s a link to an .mp4 of the dye being inserted and falling out the ends of the fallopian tubes. Pretty amazing.

OK, I stole that headline from today’s WSJ. Sue me (KIDDING, Rupert!).

Sunday evening we loaded into the car with Gramary and went out to see some Christmas light displays. Ava was very, very excited. There was one home in particular that we were looking forward to, and when we were leaving the house, we told Ava it was out in the country. From that point on, she’d ask us every block or so if we were “in another country yet.” Fortunately, the drive wasn’t that long. And it was sure worth it:

This place was nuts. The picture here only captures about a third of the total display, and it doesn’t include the music playing on the cold little boombox sitting in the front yard. Not an LED in sight. The guy must be made of money. Here’s a map:

Before we visited this place, though, we stopped at a live nativity scene at a church a couple blocks from our house. In addition to the wise men and other manger dwellers, there were llamas, goats, and a donkey, too. Ava was big into the goats; we had a difficult time prying her free when it was time to go.

As fate would have it, Ava received a little toy goat in her advent calendar yesterday this morning that looks exactly like this one. She named it Goaty Flower.

Pretend like she knows all the reindeer names. Also, at about 26 seconds in I flip the viewfinder over so Ava can see herself singing. You’ll note the change in her facial expression (and the bad framing on my part).

I told Ava we could share this video with all her friends, and she was very eager that her Aunt Leann and cousin Andrew see it. I hope they’re tuning in!

Ava’s been conditioned to inquire about stickers every time we approach a counter somewhere. Today we were at K Mart looking for some cheap, asbestos-free slippers for Ava to wear at daycare (“Everybody else has some”). Santa was there in full regalia, standing in the checkout line to buy a bottle of Desani. When it came our turn to pass, Ava looked at Leah and asked, “Do they have stickers?” We tried to redirect, but it was too late. The woman checking us out yelled down the line to ask if anyone had any stickers left. No dice. But one of them had something better.

I’m beginning to understand how K Mart went bankrupt.

Bow down to my mad iMovie HD skillz:

I wish the video were better quality so you could make out the words on the page better, but the sound isn’t too bad. You get the idea.

Ava sat in our bed this morning and “read” books while Leah and I scrambled around getting ready for work. In particular, Ava was working on What do you do with a kangaroo? I wasn’t paying much attention to her at first, but bit by bit, her mumbling became more recognizable. It sounded like she was actually reading the words on the page. So I went and stood over her, and sure enough, the words she was speaking were the very ones printed on the page she was looking at. When she finished with the words that were there, she turned the page and started in on the new words. I couldn’t figure out how she was doing it, so I pointed to the word “kangaroo” and asked her what it was. She said, “What do you do with a kangaroo?” She wasn’t reading the words, of course, but she’s managed to memorize the text of each page and associate it with the images there. I ran downstairs and got my video camera to get some footage of it. I hope what I captured is OK. I’ll try to get it online this evening.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 AP

ERIE, Pa. — An Erie woman has been sentenced to five to 10 years in prison for swinging her 4-week-old son at her boyfriend and striking him with the boy.

Twenty-eight-year-old Chytoria Graham was convicted in October of aggravated assault and other charges.

Graham says she missed her children as she was in court for sentencing Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Graham and her boyfriend got into a fight early on Oct. 8, 2006, after Graham came home from a night of drinking. They say Graham grabbed her son, Jarron, by his feet and swung him, hitting the boyfriend.

That fractured the infant’s skull. The baby has recovered.

Graham was also placed on probation for two years.

Chytoria? Jarron? Where the hell are these people from, Krypton?

On the frequent occasions when Ava comes into our bed at night, she often asks Leah to tell her a story. This is at, like, 2:30 or 3 in the morning. Sometimes Leah explains that it’s not morning, and it’s too early for stories; other times she just mumbles a little bit and rolls over to go back to sleep. Ava will eventually fall asleep.

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Our new house has the garage under the kitchen. This is nice for a number of reasons, the main one being that the car stays warm and dry during inclement weather. The downside is that if there’s an ice storm – -like there is today — the driveway becomes a super slick inclined plane.

When we were leaving this morning, I pulled the car as far forward in the garage as I could and gave it a good run — in reverse — at the driveway. Ava was a little scared, mostly because a droopy, ice-laden tree at the top of the driveway rattled across the car when we pulled out. But we made it. The streets aren’t that bad right now. Just wet. And a little flooded in spots. Whether we’ll be able to get home later today is anyone’s guess. I’m just wondering how long it’s going to be before the electricity starts going out.

8:52 p.m. update: We never did lose power. Hope we’re out of the woods. Here’s a link to the photographs of the ice I took this afternoon.

Disembodied hands to keep infant feeling secure

From BoingBoing:

Behold he Zaky Infact Pillow. “Zaky — It’s Like Leaving a Part of You with Your Baby.” It’s ‘s $38.95 at the Pregnancy Store.

The Zaky is also great when you have to leave your baby with someone else — at your baby’s daycare facility, when he stays with a babysitter, or goes to visit his grandparents. The Zaky will provide a constant and familiar support giving your baby a sense of security. The Zaky also assists the caregivers on positioning your baby and your baby will feel and smell mom.

If you haven’t given birth yet, the Zaky is great to bring to the hospital when your baby is born. Scent it with your own scent beforehand to help your baby when he/she is in the bassinet next to you or give it to the nurse when your baby is taken to the hospital’s nursery. This way you give your baby “your hand” with your scent, and the nurse can use it to support and position your baby. Also, because your baby smells and feels something constant from birth, the Zaky helps the transition to going home.

G.G. came into town on Friday to see Ava and to accompany us on some holiday errands, including getting our Christmas tree. But first things first. I said I’d try to get a face-on shot of Ava’s new haircut, and I did. Here it is:

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In response to all you who have silently wondered, “What if avablog were written by a handsome, tech-savvy, funny version of Mark and a brunette version of Leah?” I give you ava’s blog.

Now you know.

UPDATE: Oops! Looks like my four readers crashed the server. Let’s hear it for Drupal!

Ava’s a hair twister. I was too, at her age, but then I had a lot to work with:

That photo was taken just before my second birthday. When I wasn’t twisting my own hair, I was twisting my mom’s. What I don’t recall from this period was creating the impossible knots that needed to be cut out of my hair. Ava specializes in these. But she got a new cut yesterday that we hope will slow her twisting for a while. I love it. Just when I was thinking Ava couldn’t get any cuter:

Leah tells me this is a “layered bob.” That sounds more like a meaty sandwich you’d get at a truck stop. But I’m sure the sandwich wouldn’t be as cute.

I’m typically not as sensitive to this kind of thing as Leah is, but holy smokes, this strikes even me as stupid at best and criminally negligent at worst.

ORLANDO – An Orlando parent said she was appalled when her 9-year-old daughter brought home her report card cover and it contained an advertisement for McDonald’s promising free Happy Meals for good grades, attendance and behavior.

For realz? I mean, that’s tantamount to a large Midwestern Research I institution signing its beverage soul away to Coca Cola. Ahem. Would my impression be different if it were, say, Whole Foods instead of McDonald’s? I dunno. Maybe a little.

EDIT 12-07-07: I see The Consumerist grabbed this story, too.

I was really looking forward to having this disc, too. Since the gift won’t be given now, the CD I wanted was Alice Coltrane’s Journey In Satchidananda.

Mark,

Hello and thank you for your email. I apologize for the incorrect item you received. Unfortunately we do not have another copy available to send out to you. I have gone ahead and submitted this order for a refund. Please allow 7-10 business days for this to post back to your method of payment. Please keep the wrong product on us, do not worry about returning it.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. If there is anything further that we can do to assist you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank You,

Kim G
Hastings Entertainment, Inc.

Anyone who knows me can tell you that I am overly anxious. I worry too much. I fret. I obsess. I indulge endless neuroses. Every once in awhile, though, I experience an epiphany of sorts–a moment of pure, bright joy–that reminds me of how little in life is actually worth all the damn blood, sweat, and tears. This morning was one of those moments.

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We experienced a major potty training setback yesterday. Ava had a total of four accidents, including #1 and #2, between 6 a.m. and midnight, when she wet her bed. Leah suspects a bladder infection, but Ava hasn’t really been complaining about any pain. And it sounds like she’s been getting to the bathroom. Just not enough, apparently. She’d been doing great up until the last couple days, so it’s a bit confounding to see her regress now. I suppose we’ll just have to wait it out and see how things go.

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For your consideration:

Yahoo!’s Top 10 Searches of 2007:

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE
3. Paris Hilton
4. Naruto, The Japanese Manga Series
5. Beyonce
6. Lindsay Lohan
7. RuneScape
8. Fantasy Football
9. Fergie
10. Jessica Alba

Google’s Fastest Rising Search Terms of 2007:

1. iphone
2. webkinz
3. tmz
4. transformers
5. youtube
6. club penguin
7. myspace
8. heroes
9. facebook
10. anna nicole smith