avablog

agp jump shadow

Jumping rope is one of Ava’s new hobbies. Like everything she gets involved in, she wants to be perfect at it within minutes of picking it up. This approach is good for her focus and perseverance, but bad for her patience. The best thing to do is back off and give her her space until she calls you in to see how well she can do.

Our neighbor and friend Teja made this super cute bunny doll for Ava. As you can see, it features all of Ava’s favorite colors. Thank you, Teja! We <3 U!

What better way to celebrate the coming of spring than to visit a farm full of baby animals? Gramary took Ava and her pal Mac to Pavelka’s Point Farm yesterday to see some lambs and the piglets that had been born just that morning. The kids got to sit on a tractor and bottle feed the lambs. Ava reported back that one lamb even sucked on her finger, but that the lamb’s teeth were very small and didn’t hurt at all.

I was home with Emmett and Ava yesterday afternoon, as both were sick with…something. I can’t even keep the illnesses straight anymore. Anyway, I was home with them, which gave me a chance to take some photos. Like this one:

He’s starting to look more and more like a big boy. And maybe less like a little old man? One can hope….

I like how Ava looks like Cindy Lou Who here.

Ava woke up in one of her increasingly-rare frights last night and sat clutching her stuffed pink rabbit until I came up to snuggle with her. After a trip to the bathroom, she settled back into bed and began to doze off next to me.
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Completely. Utterly. Irredeemably. Unabashedly! I never did anything in my life to warrant the blessings heaped on me by these two kids. Which makes them even sweeter. Like money for nothing.
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Emmett now seems to be entirely over his recent bout with pneumonia, and Ava’s been crazy about getting out into the piles and piles of snow that still linger after our recent storm.
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Our poor little buddy boy has had a rough week. Activities included falling down the stairs and pulling a full mug of coffee off the counter and onto his head (who knew he could reach the counter?!). There is nothing the kid won’t get into.
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When I look at this picture, something inside me clicks, as if to indicate some checkbox on a mental list has been marked: “Encourage Ava to love books.”

I suppose my choice speaks more to my blindness to any flaws of Ava’s or Emmett’s than it does to the technical merits of this photo, but gosh, my heart just swells when I look at this.

Boys! Sheesh. Go figure. For every emotional challenge we had with Ava when she was younger, Emmett presents a physical equivalent. Over the weekend I watched him scramble up the *raised* side of his crib — from the floor — and flip himself over the top rail and onto his mattress, where he looked up at me with a huge, self-satisfied grin. The dad in me thought, “Bad ass!” The parent in me thought, “Oh, shit.”
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Our awesome sitter Lindsay took on the challenge of looking after Ava and her two friends Mac and Aaron all morning yesterday. Somewhere along the way, they all sat down to work on some art, and Ava produced a self portrait. It looks a little something like this:

Gosh, I take lots of pictures. Lots and lots and lots. Sometimes I run to get my camera because I’m so excited to capture something I’m looking at, and other times, frankly, I have to drag myself to snap a shot. Sometimes I look at my camera and just can’t bring myself to touch it.
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It’s really cool to see how Ava and Emmett interact with each other as Emmett gets older. Mostly, it’s still Ava acting upon Emmett, but he’s increasingly an active participant in their games. Like last evening, when they got decked out in beaded necklaces and cowboy hats.

Ava was doing watercolor paintings for her mom and other folks the other day, and she whipped up this quickie of a pear for me at the last minute. I think it’s one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen, and not just because she’s my daughter. Really!

Spent quite a bit of time taking pictures over the weekend. What else is new, eh? Anywho, here’s one of the shots I got of the boy. He’s cute! Also, he loves cars (CAH! CAH!).

Our friend Danny alerted us to the hitherto unknown info that you can — and probably should — eat kiwi fruit with the peel. At first, I was incredulous; those peels don’t look very appetizing! So I conducted a test. Using Emmett. Of course.

Ava came inside from a chilly day yesterday with cheeks that so closely matched her pink sweater that I couldn’t help but grab my camera. Luckily, she was in the mood to sit for a photo, at least for a couple seconds….