Ava got back and celebrates President's Day with her first word - sorta

President's Day in Seattle was a heaping armful of sunshine and blue sky. It's the kind of day in this city that makes you want to unfurl from your dreary winter days-induced fetal position and spend the whole day walking around, drinking refreshing beverages, and doing anything, heck even picking up roadside trash, if it keeps you outside longer.

We skipped the trash (been there, done that, got the recycled hemp t-shirt) and instead checked out the Olympic Sculpture Park newly opened by the Seattle Art Museum. The park is up on a hill and has several long, gravel walking paths with oversized art installations that seem perfectly suited to the openness of the outdoor locations and the amazing backdrop created by the blue sky, snow-covered Olympic mountains and Puget Sound shimmering below.

Although Ava enjoyed being outside, the sun kept getting in her eyes making her fuss. So as Jason pushed her in the stroller, I had to walk at just the right pace beside her to block the rays. In so doing, I not only blocked the beautiful view, I replaced it with my butt with each step. Here's one of your first lessons kid: life is all about trade-offs and sometimes the options are "bad" vs. "worse." So it was only fitting that her onesie for the day sported this saying:


Sorry to break it to you my love, but it's not the diaper, it's your DNA. I've wondered if there's a niche market to be had in producing diapers based on Nelly's Apple Bottom jean line or Beyonce's House of Dereon jeans, for those with a little more junk in their baby trunk. If I see someone do these on Donny Deutsch's Big Idea, I'm going to buy stock.

Baby bum's aside, we had a lovely family day out in the sun and thoroughly enjoyed Ava's burgeoning attempts to talk. She's been practicing the mouth movements for a few weeks and is starting to add sounds. We think we heard her first almost word while we were out at lunch. Check out the video and tell me what you think.



J. of course swears it's Dada. I admit it's pretty darn close and pretty cool considering she's only been out in the world for 5 months(!). I used to just think babies were cute little blobs. Now I think their whole development cycle is amazing.