I'm Gonna Get You!

The Radio Super

Faster, Dad!


Mom, doesn't this look like me on the trike?

Our neighbor, Bob, pulled down the old Radio Super from his garage shelves so Ava could have some fun in the alley behind our house, just as Bob's kids did in the late 50s, early 60s. Look at this little girl smile!

Outdoor Fun

Ava sticks her tongue out and off to the side when she's goofing around.

Memorial Day Weekend

Ava gets a kiss from Grandpa Vinje, who was inducted into the MN Golf Coaches Hall of Fame last week. Way to go, Papa!


Hi, Dad! Ava looks out the picture window onto the deck, Daddy, and Mississippi River before bedtime.

What I'm Reading Now

I picked up a book my sister-in-law Bethany lent me last summer. It's called, Waiting for Birdy: A year of frantic tedium, neurotic angst, and the wild magic of growing a family by Catherine Newman. Last summer, I was a little too green in the parenthood department to see the forest-for-the-trees, not to mention craving sleep far too much to even try to read. This spring, though, I pick the book up each night and find myself laughing outloud before bed. I GET it and it's so funny. The curious thing, too, is that I keep hearing Bethany's voice as the narration. :0)

Here are a few samples. Newman opens by citing a section from Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions: "It feels like I'm babysitting in the Twilight Zone. I keep waiting for the parents to show up because we are out of chips and diet Cokes." Here's another: "Until it happened to us, I didn't understand that having a baby would feel like falling in love, but like falling in love on a bad acid trip. With an alarm clock--a pooping alarm clock. I wasn't prepared to lie awake by the sleeping babe, my heart pounding audibly and so swollen with passion that I could barely breathe. I hadn't realized that my mind would scan constantly for disaster, like a metal detector casting around for the big stuff and turning up endless bottle caps. What is that? Pneumonia? A brain aneurism? Woops, okay, no, just a little cold." (3)

For The Dog in the Pod

We think Maggie is on the far right--one month old. Can
you imagine holding three squirming puppies in your hands?
What fun!


Puppy love.



Maggie at work.


Maggie Moo-pie

When's that baby going to get here?

Okay. So I just finished reading/crying through

Marley and Me by John Grogan, which led to this

post and lots of extra love & forgiveness for Maggie

(Oh, you want to chew up Ava's Little People, princess

balls, and shape sorters? You want to get dog hair

everywhere? That's okay, you're our dog.) I thought

I'd share an excerpt from the book that I really liked. I

bought the movie yesterday, which will lead to more crying,

and more forgiveness for Maggie. From Marley & Me:

"In a dog's life, some plaster would fall, some cushions would open, some rugs would shred. Like any relationship, this one had its costs. They were costs we came to accept and balance against the joy and amusement and protection and companionship he gave us. We could have bought a small yacht with what we spent on our dog and all the things he destroyed. Then again, how many yachts wait by the door all day for your return? How many live for the moment they can climb on your lap or ride down the hill with you on a toboggan, licking your face?" (226)