Charlotte's Photo Booth

Sandwiched

While Ava basques in the limelight, Charlotte prefers the alternative band cover album 'lookaway' pose.

conversations with Ava

In a moment of insanity the other day, I ventured out to run some errands despite Charlotte's obvious discontent at simply being awake. The following conversation with Ava changed the direction of the evening:

(While in line at Walgreen's waiting to buy vitamins)

Me: "Ava can you hold this for me?"
Ava; " Sure...I'm gonna pay."
Me: "You are? How are you going to pay?"
Ava: "With my credit card."
Me: "Oh really? What credit card?"
Ava: (digging in her purse) "See, credit card" (holding up my old drivers license) "Hold on one minute, my phone is ringing." (gets her phone from her purse and proceeds to wedge it between her chin and shoulder while "talking" to a friend.)
Me: "Great! You pay." "Sure, no problem...I'll wait"
*Side note-the nice man behind me who let us go first is now laughing to himself at this exchange*
(Ava now off phone)
Me: "What would you like for dinner?"
Ava: "couscous"
*Man behind us bursts out laughing and states "Where did you get her? This is the most hilarious conversation I've heard in a long time. I was expecting pizza or mac and cheese, but couscous? That was the icing on the cake!"

We were then called up to the counter where Ava slaps her "credit card" up on the counter for the lady to ring up. The pharmacy tech looks at me and I said "she's paying." *more snickers from the man behind me and a confused look from the tech*

Excited Big Sister

As you can tell, Ava was thrilled with the idea of holding her little sister for the first time.

Postprandial Charlotte

Charlotte

While we are not the prolific bloggers we once were in the recent past, and given the fact that much of this blog's recent entries have centered around the happenings of Ava over the past two years. . . we thought it was only fair to give some adequate press time to the new addition to our household. . . Charlotte. Charlotte Mary came into the world quite a bit easier and faster than Ava did, albeit with a little more collateral damage to Emily in the process. Weighing in at 8 lb., 10.9 oz., she nearly approached Ava's birthweight of 8 lb., 12 oz. She's fairly long, like Ava was, measuring 21 inches.

She's demonstrating that she's fairly content, with nary a cry, but more satisfied with little 'grunts' and 'squeeks'. Aside from Emily healing from surgery, the next few weeks will most likely prove most difficult for Ava, but change is inevitable, and realizing that you're not the center of the universe forever is probably a good lesson. Chris' lesson for the day is that he is quickly becoming an endangered male species in the Barwacz household, being outnumbered by the more prickly estrogenic conundrum.

So welcome Charlotte, or "Charlie", we're looking forward to seeing what you're all about.

Stumptown

About five or six years ago, about the same time that I started driving Emily to work in the dead of winter (invision dark, very cold, very windy mornings), I discovered the benefits of coffee. Mostly, it was a way for me to perk up before facing a brutal walk into school, since parking is a scarcity in Iowa City. McDonald's drive-through served as my gateway coffee of choice, as it was a mere 99 cents.

Fast forward five or six years, and I pretty much have found myself to not only benefit from the eye-opening properties of coffee, but also genuinely enjoy the taste, smell, and act of making coffee (sounds like a smoking addict), and have tried developing a rather novice palate for different types of coffees.

Recently a co-worker of mine gave me as a Christmas gift a coffee from a brewer in Portland, OR called Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Specifically it was their Guatemalan variety, and it has been a really great brew! 

So, if you happen to enjoy really really good coffee, or you just happen to find yourself in Portland some time soon, I would check out their coffee, it's worth your time.

The Mountain

Cleaning the Forest Floor

It was a beautiful, albeit windy autumn day here in Iowa City. We spent the first half of the day with Ava out at Lake Macbride, where she enthusiastically attempted to demonstrate the importance of leaf taxonomy. After wearing out her energy, we watched the Hawks finally defeat Northwestern. Can a fall saturday get much better?

Cheesy

We're not sure if it was because we said "Cheese" or because we told her she was going to be a sister . . . we'll keep you posted once we find out . . .

Summer Couture

Cuddle Time

Overall Rider

Typical Iowa biker garb . . .

Keeping Up With Current Events

Who cares about Osama when Ava has Lindsey . . .