Bub’s Bug, Car’s Crap, Ava’s Awesome

Bub caught another playground bug… a stomach and throat sickness. He’s such a trooper when he is sick and really keeps his sense of humor through the mucus and misery. He sounds like he’s a two-pack a day man when he talks now… which is really weird to hear when he says very 21-month-old things like “Bye-bye fow-fow!” (interpretation: “bye-bye, fountain.”) (He’s chummy with the neighborhood fountain.) Here’s a milestone that rarely gets reported – Bub now knows how to blow his nose! Credit the 30-day runny nose for this one, plus Tim’s excellent instruction. Goodbye, booger vacuum!

Here bub is working on his tan in healthier days...


The Saturn has been in the shop since Tuesday, and they still don’t know what exactly is wrong with it. At this point we are expecting a snarky diagnosis such as “Well here’s your problem right here…you bought a Saturn.” The issue is related to the hybrid system. Of course Saturn is no longer in business and GM apparently sold all the repair manuals at the estate sale…and so no one can figure out what is going on. It’s like the mechanics are Dr. Zoidberg and assuring us they are experts in working on humans, but then asking us to stick out our proboscis and say “aaah”.


(simulated mechanic, actual mechanic may vary)

Everything is covered under warranty, but it’s a pain hauling the kids around in a dinky wee little Chevy sedan. So we are thinking about trading in the Saturn for something bigger and with less always-in-the-shop-like qualities.

Ava’s doing super awesome. She’s sleeping in three hour stretches at night now, and prefers to be awake more in the day. When she is awake she spends a lot of time oscillating between happy:


and bewildered:



I put her down last night and about two hours later I saw she was flailing and (quietly) fussing on the monitor. So I went into her room and looked down at her in the crib – when she saw me, she gave the biggest smile and then went back to sleep. I immediately ODed from the cute and was only revived from the yar-induced coma when Cow hacked up a hairball on our carpet. Thanks, Cow, that was some fast thinking.