Happy Valentines Day from Aviva (and all of us)!
(PS Sorry I haven’t blogged much; Facebook has been getting nearly all of our picture and video uploads, since frankly, it’s so easy. I have a goal to start doing longer blog writing more again; expect that to start “any day now!”)
While we were in Michigan a few weeks ago, an old family friend stopped over at my parent’s house and entertained us all by putting on a performance of her puppet show, starring Coco the monkey. It was actually a very special moment for me to experience with Aviva and Joelle, as I have such fond memories of seeing the same show when I was younger. Aviva was enthralled with it all, but was especially amazed (and laughing) when Maureen/Coco pulled out her/his kazoo, and started (through ventriloquism) playing the kazoo; Aviva giggled more than any of us had seen before, and was rapt with attention whenever she guessed the kazoo was coming back out.
Upon arriving back in Seattle, I had finally got around to buying a kazoo for myself to entertain Aviva last weekend. As I dropped it on the floor by mistake last evening, Aviva “scooted” towards it, and picked it up – turns out, she’s quite a natural kazoo player – who knew?
Here she is learning the kazoo:
And here she is putting on quite a performance: (and yes, she’s starting to sit a little – can’t really hold it too well yet, so I am holding on to her feet in this video)
(as always, you might need to view the actual post to see the video.)
As a last minute fourth of July trip, we decided to take a quick trip down to San Francisco to see a couple of friends, get out of town, and see how Aviva did while traveling. Mission accomplished – she was quite the traveler – slept the entire plane ride down (we got lucky and had an empty seat next to us, so we were able to utilize the car seat), and most of the way back home (on Joelle’s lap). She also got to experience her first taxi-ride, train-ride, shuttle-van-ride, and bus-ride – quite a public transportation guru at such a young age!
Pictures, as usual:
First airplane ride
Quite excited for the trip!
Meeting Dan London
First Muni (tram) ride
A lot of stuff to schlep!
Checking out the fish in Chinatown
Very San Fran
Hanging out with Erica
Up the steps we go
Ferry Terminal Farmer's Market
They sell schmaltz! (treyef, though...)
Cousin Karen
I love picnics
That's a big head
Checking out the Giants game
Sam the cat did not like Aviva
Ready to see the town
First bus ride
Meeting my cousin Rebecca
On the plane ride back home
We are pretty lucky out here in Seattle to be near people from my past – which, to be fair, is pretty far away from most of my and Joelle’s families (Detroit and DC areas respectively). Not only does my sister live here, but also so do a great group of old friends, from infancy through college and beyond – including perhaps my oldest friend, Carrie. Our parents have pictures of us together from when I was about one week old (she was almost two months at that point). Her husband, Josh (or as many people know him, Rabbi Hearshen), is also a close friend, and we were friends from way back from being young in Detroit area as well. They had a beautiful daughter, Ayelet Nomi, back in November (she happens to share a birthday with my sister, Elana). Now that Aviva is here, we of course wanted to get them together to play, so they continue the generational story of being friends from the earliest of ages. Carrie and Josh were wonderful enough to bring us over dinner last night, and we got some great photos of the two girls together – make sure to view the full album to experience it all!
During the week before New Years, I had the week off of work. Our goal was to spend time organizing the house – unpacking boxes we never unpacked when we moved in, moving my office to the basement downstairs (to clear out the room it was in for a nursery), and painting the nursery.
Between Joelle and I, we got everything done, but I made sure to schedule painting for a day when Joelle was at work – even though we were using Low-VOC (i.e. low toxin) paints from Benjamin Moore. So Clodagh (thanks again!) came on over, and painting her and I did. Turns out, this paint (we used Aura paint in Acadia Green for the nursery, and Aura in Queen’s Wreath for the bathroom), is amazing. One coat, no primer, even over our brick red bathroom; no paint even dripped off of the brush while painting – it was pretty darn thick. Highly, highly recommended, especially for the time savings, but also for the cost savings due to not needing the primer or second coat.
Pictures, of course, tell the story:
The comparison between birthday presents is quite striking this year. One present, which a friend of mine graciously got for me, was to have the Seahawks wish me happy birthday on the big screen during the Seahawks-Jets game on December 21st, which unfortunately, as it turns out, we were not able to attend (then again, neither was he, so I don’t feel as bad!) – as with much of the city, we were snowed in, and going to see a 3-10 team (at the time) did not seem quite worth the schlep across town. If we would have known this surprise was happening, we definitely would have done everything we could to have made it.
One present I wish I had received was a shovel; having one would have made our snow easier to deal with, especially, as I pointed out in previous blog posts, the city did nothing to deal with it. Friday of last week, I drove around to quite a few stores, looking for a snow shovel, so that I would have one for the future, if not this storm. Being unsuccessful (everyone was out, at least for a week), I decided to place an order on Amazon, especially since I have free 2-night shipping due to Amazon Prime. This way, we will have one for the next storm (3-4 more years?), and I won’t be caught shovel-less again. I figured if I waited for the stores to get stock back, I would forget about it, so ordering online it was. The box finally came today – and the FedEx guy said to me: “Wow, that’s a weird sized box – and strangely light – what is it?” Informing him that it was a shovel, he just laughed – and mentioned it was a great idea – he’s going to order one now too! He’s right – the box is strange – and very, very tall – look at how much it dwarfs Molly. At least I am prepared now for the next snowstorm!
A couple of updates from the real world, many through the blogosphere.
As Halloween approaches this year (conveniently on Shabbat, so we’ll be home having dinner when all the kids come a knockin’ on the door), I’ve been sick for a few days. On Sunday however, for a couple of hours at least (downturn again today, unfortunately), I started feeling a little better, so we took a quick jaunt out to the Craven Farm in Everett to do some pumpkin picking and drink some cider (however, no cider donuts to be found – damn those things were good in Michigan!)
Pictures (as always, click on the pictures for larger versions)
 Is that a pumpkin in your stomach, or what you’ll look like come early next year? |
 Little Hobey is about this big right now! |
 Thankfully, the ultrasound shows Little Hobey to be a person, not a pumpkin! |
 Riding the hay ride with Stephanie Lorber (née Fidler) |
Tonight, we decided to get a head start on carving – as it’s election season, we’re showing our support via the patterns up at yeswecarve.com/
(and yes, for Friday night, we’ll use Shabbat candles and make the pumpkins our candlesticks…)
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Over the 4th of July weekend, we decided to take a trip up to Whidbey Island, for a few reasons:
It was just what we needed – it fit all of those goals above, and we are really super-appreciative of the Arndt’s for hosting us. Molly had a fantastic time too – she got to run around their property, go swimming, get lots of fun new treats, and just be one happy (and tired!) dog.
Pictures – click for larger ones as usual:
People:
Dogs:
Arndt House:
Videos – might need to visit the actual blog post to view:
