avablog

It began well enough. Ava was excited to go to her new school, and her mom went to the extra effort in the morning to put braids in Ava’s hair, complete with tiny bows at the end. The day seemed full of hope and promise.

After this:

Below is a video of Ava watching a video of Ava watching video of Ava. And she’s watching that video on a 19.5″ LCD TV I had lying around. I took two wire hangers and, after elongating them and trimming off the hooks, covered them with duct tape and slipped one over each end of the TV. Then I ran strips of duct tape around the top and bottom edges of the TV to secure the hangers. Lastly, I used a bungee cord to run from each hanger at the back of the TV across the front of the driver’s seat headrest, “securing” the TV in a perfect viewing position for Ava. The TV then plugs in to the 120VAC, 100W outlet at the rear of the front seat center armrest. As near as I can tell, that TV probably draws fewer than 50W, and the iPod Touch that serves the video via composite cables draws much, much less than that. A test run of the setup last weekend went off without a hitch, so we’re all set for the drive to Grand Marais at the end of the week.

This blog sucks! Eh. It was a busy July.

I took the photo below yesterday afternoon after Ava had dressed herself to go play outside. Pay special note to the orange ribbon in her hair, which she specifically wanted to be visible from under her sunbonnet.

G.G. is in town this week to spend some time with Ava, who has a week off camp. Yesterday, the two of them put together a nice picnic lunch and met L and me in the park next to our office, where we dined on sandwiches, chips and fruit under a cloudy sky. It was very nice. Because I can’t just live in the moment without taking a photo to commemorate each second, I snapped a quickie of the girls.

L, of course, thinks she doesn’t look good here. If this is “not looking good,” I don’t think I could deal with good looking. I mean, really. WTF?

Ava just had her third horseback riding lesson this past Sunday morning. She seems to enjoy the riding, and she’s good at it, but I think her true passion lies in brushing the horse before and after the lesson and feeding him carrots. For crying out loud, I never thought I’d be the dad who takes his daughter out to riding lessons. What’s next, summers in Nantucket and ski vacations in Aspen every year?

To my relief, Ava hasn’t made any noises about getting her own horse (and she sees other young girls at the stable to have their own horses). I think she probably realizes that’s not going to happen, even if she doesn’t understand the reasons why.

I realized over the weekend that I’m way behind in getting shots of Emmett. Easy enough to rectify, fortunately.

I want you to know, Dearest Boy, that I feel frustrated today by the knowledge that we have all been here in this world for so long now that every word I want to use to tell you how inspiring you are has been used thousands and thousands of times in every way to profess inspiration for an amazing child. But know hereby that today I tried, again, to make these words work anew. You are my son. I love you.

Dear, earnest Leah ignited a firestorm on her Facebook page the last couple days when, after posting a picture of Emmett and professing her undying love for the child, she received a comment on said picture from a friend who opined that the love a parent has for a child is a unique kind of love, unattainable to childless people.
[Read more →]

This is not a fancy, thoughtful post. It is just a quick list of things I want to write down for our children to read someday. I guess I’m just trying to do a brief snapshot of this moment in time in their lives.
[Read more →]

Ava’s trip to her grandmother’s out of town is providing a most unwelcome look into our future. A future in which her parents’ faces aren’t the last things she sees at night nor the first things she sees in the morning. I’m discovering I really don’t like not having her near. I just keep looking at her pictures and missing her….

We miss our little girl! Yesterday I took her to lovely Quasqueton, IA, and dropped her off with G.G., who then took Ava the rest of the way to Decorah for a two-day visit, just the two of them. Ava did experience some trepidation about the whole thing, but the prospect of today’s trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Burr Oak seems to have taken her mind off of how much she misses her mom, dad, and Em Em. I think we’ve talked to Ava on the phone seven or eight times after dropping her off. Our conversation last night just before bed was the worst, as Ava was crying and wanting very much to come home. I quickly fired up the Web site for the LIW museum while Leah tried to calm Ava, and we noticed that the gift shop sells dolls. Thank jeebus! We told Ava to tell G.G. that they have our permission to buy a doll at the museum, which I presume they’ll do sometime this morning.
[Read more →]

I did all the cutting and sewing but got A LOT of help from the owner of Home Ec in Iowa City, who’s great. Go there. Spend money.

In other news, it appears Flickr has changed the way its users can access their photos, so clicking on the image above will take you to the page for this photo at Flickr. Unless, of course, you don’t have access to see it at Flickr. Sounds like another half-baked Flickr change. Joy.

I know, I know: This is too little, too late, since Father’s Day has come and gone. However, it must be said, in spite of its tardiness: My husband is a GREAT dad! And I owe the divine bearded one BIG PROPS for what he’s done today. In fact, he moved up my estimation ladder by several rungs.
[Read more →]

Emmett is a big fan of dogs. It’s interesting to watch him approach them when they happen by, and to watch how he instinctively reaches out to pet them on the back. If the pooch happens to lie down, Emmett takes that as his cue to plop down on top of the dog for a big hug. Here’s a shot from last evening of Emmett and our friend Lisa’s dog:

He got Leah’s good looks, but by God, he got my smarts!

Emmett likes to wear a trash can on his head and stumble around the house blind. (Cameo by the lovely AGP, too; what’s not to love?)

Please enjoy this video responsibly.

“They grow up so darn fast.” It’s going to be fun to someday look back on Ava’s “horse period.”

I was home with Emmett the other day when he decided to scale one of the dining room chairs and proceed on up to the tabletop. We may have mentioned that ECP is much more of an explorer than Ava ever was. It’s exhausting to try to keep up with him, but it’s also wonderful to watch him getting so involved in the world. Until he falls off the table….

What a time we had. Emmett’s present to us yesterday was a nice, long nap that ended 25 minutes before his party started. We sang and ate and opened presents and tried to stay cool; in the end, a good time was had by all. I managed to snap a couple photos of the boy on his big day, some of which I’ve even uploaded to this World Wide Web thing everybody’s talking about. Here’s a sample:

So two nights ago, ECP woke just as L and I were off to bed, fussing and rolling about with no signs of being tired. By now, the missus and I recognize the signs of an illness…or at least of discomfort, in the boy. Sure enough, the little fella had a low fever. So we gave him some generic Motrin, and L set about adjusting her pillow in readiness for nursing. The irritation/tiredness levels were pretty high for mom and pop, and we were probably as frustrated with the tyke as we ever get. As Leah moved her pillow, she knocked over a full glass of water off her nightstand. As she grumbled and jumped up to go grab a towel, little brother got to his hands and knees on the bed, scooted over to the edge where he could see the carnage, and said, “Uh oh.”
[Read more →]