avablog

agp summer dance

It was pretty wonderful to watch Ava dance on the pedestrian mall this past Friday night. She was all alone out there, save for the shirtless drunk guy who appeared, wandered off, then reappeared to request his favorite song.
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Our friend Ken was nice enough to invite the kids out to see his beehives last evening. It was just about as perfect a day as you could imagine out at the orchard where Ken has his setup. The bees, as you might guess, were busy flying in and out of the hives, oblivious to our presence. Still, Ava took the appropriate precaution when visiting a hive:

Emmett likes to belly up to the counter at the island in the kitchen and watch me make scrambled eggs. Last week, I was going along with my scrambling one morning when I went to pour the eggs into the frying pan and happened looked up at Emmett, who was smiling the biggest, most beautiful smile. It was as if I was pulling bunnies and cookies out of a magic hat. It felt good. Not let’s-have-another-baby-so-we-can-have-this-feeling-all-over-again good, but still really, really good. And I suppose all that much better because I know how fleeting that adoration is. Before long, I’ll just be another “dumbhead” who won’t let Emmett go outside to play five minutes before dinner is ready.

petals n droplets

I figure this shot alone justifies the purchase of my 100mm macro lens, even if I never sell a print.

This flower has opened since I took this, and it’s beautiful, but I don’t think it’s ever going to be as pretty as it was in this moment.

L has it. And bad. The memories of the traumatic births of our two children have, apparently, completely faded from her mind. Tristan Davison is mostly to blame, of course; If he hadn’t come along and been so stinking cute, we wouldn’t be where we are today.
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I suppose if someone as cute and funny and lovable as Emmett had been dropped into my life when I was four, I might’ve had a difficult time adjusting to it, too. So it’s understandable that Ava sometimes feels like we’re spending all our time and attention on Emmett, even if reality doesn’t support that feeling. She melted down last night and went on and on about how Emmett is replacing her. As if.
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We all trucked up to Mount Vernon yesterday to have brunch and and see the town’s annual Chalk the Walk event. The chalk was all fine and good, but it was a gorgeous day, and it was just nice to get out with L and the kids to do something fun. I even managed to get a nice photo of them together for Mother’s Day.

Meet Tristan Louis Davison:

…he won’t be a little boy anymore.

Our friend Liz organized a nice brunch around an Easter egg hunt being thrown by the city of West Branch over the weekend. It was a great time. You may be surprised to learn I had my camera along, which came in handy when AGP, Hilda, and Thisbe got crazy with their baskets before the big hunt.

He’s a scamp. A troublemaker. A provocateur, even. Welcome to another video I shot when Leah wasn’t home.

magnolia w bee

The 2011 flower macro season. If you ain’t down with photos of pretty flowers, you’ll want to avoid my flickr stream for the next four months or so.

baby blanket rocker

To accompany the hat, of course. This is what I’d set out to make for a baby gift for Rachel and Kevin. It was the simplest pattern I could find and turned out to be a great first project. I had some yarn left over, so I made the cap, too. I couldn’t have done any of it without YouTube and my new friends at Home Ec Workshop!

knit baby cap

I made this cap for Rachel and Kevin’s baby, who is due May 23. Not a great time of year to be sporting a wool cap, but hopefully they’ll get a little use out of it.

I’m really not old enough to make that reference, probably, but this is an adorable video of ECP, regardless.

Leah put pigtails in Ava’s hair the other day. I’m a sucker for pigtails in Ava’s hair, so I thought I’d share.

ecp croci1

Here’s a picture of Emmett from this past weekend. He was marveling at the bursts of crocuses blooming in a neighbor’s yard; it seemed like a good opportunity for a spring photo.