Ava Got It In Drive

OK, I finally have video of Ava crawling forward. Sorry it took so long. I'm sure you all put your lives on hold waiting for this video. Well, you can finally get back to prodding the cattle and shaving the sheep (or whatever it is you do) because here it is:




Yep... after months of being stuck in reverse, Ava finally popped her gear into "drive".

(Did I do that car analogy right? I know cars about as well as I know sports. But I am pretty confident that I hit a touchdown out of the park with the above car-related metaphor.)

Yartide

Here are some random Christmas pictures. (Random in that they were carefully selected so we all look semi-entertaining, halfway competent, and relatively good looking.)

Here are the kids on Christmas morning. Bub is showing Ava how her fancy new blocks work.



We went to Grandma and Grandpas. By the time we got there, Bub had decided that since it was barely below freezing that going barefoot was best. He was re-shoed before being allowed out of the car.



Ava yarred out everyone with her Christmas dress.


She enjoyed feeling Aunt Rachel's face. It felt facey.


As usual, grandpa was emitting powerful sedatives. She was unconscious within moments of being in his arms.




Yea, Christmas!!!

Fun with Funnel Fundamentals

Here is Tim putting the FUN back in the often dreary world of funnels.



.



.








Please note: no babies, or funnels, were harmed in the making of these videos. Please don't write a letter to PETF (People for the Ethical Treatment of Funnels).


So that was us putting the "fun" in "funnel". Somedays we put the "el" in "funnel"... which means we put the "the" in funnel. I don't know what that means either... but that's why this is called "Our Dumb Blog" and not "Our Highly Insightful and Dare We Say Witty Blog".

We need MORE SPRINKLES!!!

Alexander decorated Christmas cookies. He was very careful with the colored gel...



And he showed enormous self-control with the sprinkles....



Wait...did I say enormous self control? I meant the opposite of that.





May your holidays be filled with excessive sprinkles!



MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Kids Say the Darnedest blah blah blahs

Yes, it's another installment of my kid saying the darnedest whatnots and whathaveyous...

Alexander likes to play with the weather channel feature of the Wii. He goes around the world, clicks on various cities and gets the weather forecast. He reports the temperature to us, and whether it is cloudy, sunny, raining, snowing, etc. Perhaps this will translate into a lucrative career as Al Roker someday.

Today he clicked on a city where it was night time and clear. So instead of a sun, it had a picture of a moon. He said "43 degrees and moonie."

Whaaant-waaaaaaaaah! (<--- Trombone enhanced punchline.)

(As a sidenote...One downside of him learning numbers on the weather channel is that he has started adding "degrees" to at the end of almost every number. For instance, the speed limit up the street is "25 Degrees". If we ever get pulled over, Bubby is doing the talking.)

...


In other news... Ava is now crawling FORWARD!!! After months of backwards crawling, she has finally figured out how to get her hinder out of reverse. So there is a whole new world of shenanigans for her to explore, head first.

Clean Up on Aisle Ava

Alexander really likes to be a helper. By “helper” I mean someone that causes everything to take twice as long and be three times as messy. One way he likes to help is by feeding his sister. Check out the yar.




Here is a picture of one rockin’ meal. Literally. Bubby and Ava both look like they are screaming their way through an Iron Maiden record. Plus, check out Ava’s right hand.

A Boy and His Tree

We went out last weekend and got a Christmas tree. It was skinny enough to fit in the playroom, and fat enough to still be a respectable Christmas tree.




("meh.")




("yeaaa!")

Alexander was so insanely excited about getting a Christmas tree that I felt like Momineezer Scrouge for not getting a dozen trees… for each room of the house. He loves the tree. He says good night to it before he goes to bed. He talks about it quite a lot. He makes sure Ava knows how awesome the tree is.




I’m not sure how he will take the news that after Christmas, Grandpa is going to both remove the tree from our house and to BURN it in his backyard. Hopefully by then he will be over tree mania. Otherwise, you'll see a post in Feburary titled "A Boy and his Fire Hazard."

Bundled Bub

There is something so endearing about a small child immobilized for a harsh Midwestern winter.




He can’t even find his hands. Awwww…

Kitty-like Baby

Exhibit A:
Serious tongue action when eating.



Exhibit B:
Happiest on high perches.



Conclusion:
Parenting responsibilities are falling too heavily on Cow and Bear's shoulders.

Gobble.

Happy Thanksgiving! We had family over and ate crock pot ham and a smoked turkey ordered online. So like the pilgrims... I didn’t take part in the meat-fest, of course. I just stood back and watched in horror… or mild disinterest. I’m not what one would call a Tofuist (a name I just made up for insane vegan activists - it makes them sound sort of cute and fun! Not like the tree hugging, hemp-wearing, compost piling, red paint throwing, condescending head shakers that some tofuists really are.)

The meal was good, but our house took a beating this year. A coffee table, a toliet, a bathroom door, an ice maker... those were just a few victims of the holiday. Next year we are installing full-nerf coverage on every guest to keep them safe and immobile.

Alexander LOVED getting to play with his cousin.


And Great Grandma got to see how massive Ava has become.


Speaking of Ava... she is locomoting at lot more now. She makes pretty good time crawling backwards. She can also hinder-hop forward while in a sitting position – like a levitating Maharishi. Much to her dismay, her first tooth is coming in:



Nevermind the sweet potatoes up her nose. (Don't ask.) Here is an "enhanced" shot so you can see the tooth better.


She’s clapping, waving, and “talking” more. Total yarfest.


Tim just turned 40. He's also clapping, waving, and "talking" more. We had a little party and I paid our local bakery to make a cake for him. Using his money. Aren't I a great wifey??
He'll miss being a member of a key demographic, but he still knows how to rock.

(See file photo below of Tim Rocking)

New Hip Young (very young) Musical Act

One plays the harmonica while the other provides the laugh track. This is the future of music... at least in our house.



If we can get enough songs written, we'll finally have a use for that album-cover-esque picture of Alexander from when he was 3 months old:



Awwww....sweet album coverish memories.

Can't...stop...taking....pictures!!!

Long time, no blog. Sore-Ree!!! (Apologies always sound better with a Canadian flare, don't you think?)

Pretty much the expected level of yar, drool, tantrums, mantrums, messiness, happiness, sugar n’ spice, and everything twice here. Lots of pictures continue to be taken, even though the family camera only barely works. The zoom function stopped working a while ago so I have to zoom the “old school” way… which is to run up to people saying “ZOOM!!!” Maybe shouting “zoom” isn’t necessary, but it makes for some interesting expressions.

So what have we been taking unzoomed pictures of lately?

90% Kids

9.9% Kids, but out of focus so you can’t tell

0.1% The inside of my purse.

Here are a few of those 90%….

Alexander loves to swing. By that, I mean he literally goes insane with happiness. Literally.




The big kid swing was pretty fun too.


But didn’t allow for these kind of (possibly illegal) shenanigans.


Ava couldn’t figure out why we had a spatula at the park. It looked like Alexander was getting ready to do some weird performance art piece...and Ava is so over performance art. What is this, 1993??

And Ava was all ….



But then the magic of bubbles made everyone happy…



Except for the grass and trees. They probably weren’t thrilled to be covered in Dawn dish soap. At least they are no longer greasy. They were greasy, filthy trees before we arrived. Covered in bacon grease and grime...shameful. So…YOUR WELCOME, nature.


In other news... there are still no teeth in sight for Ava… but she’s looking for them every day!



Our kids are also practicing their “Tilt of Adorability”. It’s that very subtle head tilt that is so endearing in small children and select small animals. Please don’t try this at home. You might pull something trying to look THIS adorable. (Not that you aren’t cute… but… er… I mean, I love what you are doing with your hair. Very cool. Um, I gotta slowly back out of this…)




And that’s just ONE DAY of pictures in our big eyed world right now. No wonder our camera has worn out.

Ava vs. Gravity

Here is Ava standing with minimal support:







Here is Ava falling with minimal support:


It’s the school of hard knocks here, people.

(And she was fine after lots of kisses from mommy. Yes, she was. Moo-moo-moo-moo-mWAH!) (But, really...Hard knocks.)

Trick or Meh

Alexander wasn’t thrilled with the Elmo costume which was purchased, evidently, more for the amusement of adults than for his own enjoyment. Adults who stood by and did nothing….or, worse, took pictures… as Elmo opened his impossibly wide maw and devoured Bub.




“Elmo has a taste for blood. Yeeeeeaaaaa!!!! Hahaha!”

**shudder**

Alexander was, however, thrilled to trick or treat with his cousin Harrison.


Some houses had some elaborate animatronics. Some people had elaborate costumes. The look on Alexander’s face says it all.



Meh.

This look sums up what Bub thought of the tremendous effort put into Halloween costumes and decorations displayed in his grandparent’s neighborhood.



Total meh. With a dash of "really? really??"

But lameness of the holiday aside, hanging out with Daddy is always good for a laugh.


Oh…and Ava was a lady bug…and just glad to be with grandpa.



Happy Halloween.