MY POSSE'S ON BROADWAY!

Before I forget: some people may not understand why anyone would visit New York City. It's big, kinda dirty, got lots of people with all kinds of problems, a lot of them talk funny, and country music only caught on about 10 years ago. Others may say those are perfect reasons to visit the city. Mine reasons are plenty, but were summed up accurately by the guy we saw walking the sidewalk soon after the following video was shot with his cat balanced on top of his hat. They were just walking along, talking with a friend, the cat brain-surfing with his guy. I told him it was the coolest thing I'd seen all year. True.

But Bella had a GREAT time in the Big Apple. She got to hang out with her grandparents - Nunya and Nana - and see her aunts, uncle, cousins, and made all kinds of new friends on the streets. On our last day up there, Jen and I walked with Bella and her Aunt Lindsey down to Columbia Circle from 95th Street - a 35-block walk. By the time we turned to walk back, Bella - who had been battling a cold all week - had enough of the stroller and being carried and wanted to walk the streets on her own. So we put her down and her mom held her hand as she walked a good five blocks.

Bella was amazed at the buses (which she frequently stopped to watch in action), the Christmas lights, the people, the tall buildings, the birds, the dogs, and everything else the city could throw at her. She soaked it all up and gave back with a fervor that only our year-old baby could. Take a look and listen (as her daddy works with Julie and Amre to get reservations for dinner)...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Isabella Rose Avett turned one today. We're in New York City with Jen's folks to celebrate the holidays - and the birthdays!

Hard to believe it's been a year already. Time flies when you are changing diapers and washing bottles apparently. It's hard to put in words just how much my life has changed in the last year. I feel like a different person, have found new strengths, and new weaknesses. This time a year ago, I had only held one baby - Rebecca's daughter Millie - and today I can do anything my little girl needs done. When Jen travels for a few days for work, I feel confident Bella is in good hands - my hands.

She learns new things almost everyday, is getting smarter, and her walking is almost a run these days. Looking back over photos from her early days makes it even wilder to see her walking around a corner and smile up at me today. She's healthy, beautiful, and a shining light in my life. I never thought anyone could even equal the place in my heart that Jen occupies, but Bella is right there with her.

But enough of this mushy stuff. We survived Bella's first year, and we need to celebrate! 'Cause the terrible twos are coming up fast.

WHISTLIN' PIXIE

We just returned from Bella's final New Parent Group at DeKalb Medical Center. It meets every Thursday and gives new parents an hour or so to meet other new parents, talk about problems and accomplishments, swap advice, and let the children play together (or try to at least). It's been a nice way for us to meet other new parents, and I think those of us graduating until, uh, the old parent category will continue meeting in some form or another.

Anyway, we got home and Bella was in my lap at the desk, when she picked up a whistle I have. She put it in her mouth, and I encouraged to blow. And, well, the camera was in arm's reach, and here ya go...

GOOF NUT

Jen came up with that term some months ago to describe our daughter at times. Sure, she's cute, smart, crafty, etc. But often she's just a plain goof nut. But don't take my word for it - take a look:

VIDEO HITS

Here's a medley of action from the past two weeks - Bella meeting her cousin Boo, Bella entertaining a very bored Squeak, Bella walking with her lion-on-wheels, and Bella walking.

JUST 'CAUSE

A new post simply because we have new photos of her.


Can't remember what was going on with Bella, but this turned out to be a captivating image I thought.


She's begun picking up the inflatable balls and throwing them - even the big one. Then she chases them down, lifts them above her head, and throws it again. Really more of a slam, actually.


She enjoys going to the kids' park in Decatur, swinging, going down the slide, crawling around, examining pine cones, and now getting up in this little plastic tower.


I put the bag on her head.

WALKIN' ON SUNSHINE

I truly hate that song, but seems like a good title for this post as Bella officially walked on Friday, December 5.

She had taken a few tentative steps before, sort of the two steps then lunge at something variety. But On Friday morning she grabbed ahold of the back of pants legs, and I started slowly walking. Normally she kept clutching the pants and took her baby steps. But Friday she let go of me, then start walking on her own - following her daddy's footprints as it were. I couldn't believe it.

By the time Jen got home at 5:30, our babysitter, Megan, had been working with Bella trying to get her to walk again - to no avail. No sooner had Megan left and Jen arrived than Bella started walking. Jen says the record now is six unassisted steps. She is also crawling on her hands and feet as opposed to her hands and knees. She's also been loving her walking toy - a lion on wheels that roars and laughs like an idiot when it bumps into something.

And Bella, as she rapidly approaches her one-year birthday, is an absolute joy to be around. She's always in a good mood, loves to have fun, fake us out when she's eating, make faces, make goofy noises, and put things in her mouth and crawl around making weird noises (a la the title photo to the blog).



She got over her first cold - and gave it to me - before Thanksgiving, and went with us to Dalton for a few days over the holiday. Once there, she got to see her uncle Reid and Aunt Claire again - they had not seen her since she was less than a week old. And Bella also got to meet her cousin Boo - a 140-pound Great Dane puppy that Reid and Claire drove done from Washington. Well, they didn't DRIVE the dog, but he was in the car with them.

Anyway, Boo for all his gargantuan size was an absolute teddy bear around Bella. He was so concerned about her well-being, always checking in on her if she sounded upset in another room, sticking his head in her bath to lick her head, and generally laying down on the floor to let her pat him. When she took naps, he would even disappear from time to time to go stick his head in the door to our room to check on her. It was a great first encounter for both, I think. Jen thinks it was love at first lick!





I should also mention that Bella is going to Parents Morning Out twice a week at the North Decatur Methodist Church. She seems to really enjoy it. She may cry for a few minutes when Jen or I first leave her, but her teacher says she is good the rest of the day, entertains everyone, and naps every once in a while. I think she likes being around other kids - including our friends' son, Greyson - and it's good for me to have a few hours each week to work or work out.

VISITING VERMONT

A few weeks ago, Jen took Bella up north with her so our little girl could hang out with her grandparents - Noonya and Nana - in Vermont along with her aunts, Lindsey and Stephanie, and her little cousins, Wyatt and (the littlest) Travis. Jen took the camera with her and snapped some of the excitement, but rest assured Bella had a good time with everyone, was well behaved all the time (wink wink), and very happy when mommy showed up again after a few days of meetings in Boston. I finally downloaded the images, so here are a few for you.



That's Bella with Wyatt and Travis in the tub!



Bella shows Travis her new favorite book - Colors - which she has destroyed.



Considerable time, energy and laughter were apparently expended trying to get all three grandkids to pose by the fireplace. This was about the best photo that could be taken.

SHARING

Just a quick post here before I forget to mention it (and while Jen has the camera out of town - you should have seen how cute Bella looked today!).

One thing we've kinda inadvertently taught Bella is the art of sharing. Maybe it wasn't totally inadvertent, but it seems to have stuck with her. These days when she has a block or a ball or piece of paper in her hand, she checks it out first, then usually offers it to whoever is closest. We say "thank you" and take it, then we check it out ourselves and then offer it back to her. Sometimes she takes it, sometimes she doesn't. But all this hit home with me the other day when we sat down for a meal. I was trying to feed Bella spoonfuls of whatever and had also put some star treats on the table for her to pick up and enjoy. Midway through all the trial-and-error that is feeding time, she held a star out to me in her hand. I leaned forward, ate it, and said "thank you." She smiled back at me.

There I was feeding her, and there she was feeding me. It's great to know that not only are we teaching Bella the most important lessons in life, but she's also reminding us of just how important these little things really are.

RUN, BABY, RUN!

So anyway, Bella has always liked to run her legs. According to Jen, she was very good at it even before she was born. These days she enjoys stretching out on the floor, kicking her legs and - a recent addition - smacking her belly. Here's the video...

FASHION SHOW!

No posts for a while, and Bella is out of town with her mom visiting her grandparents and aunts and cousins up north. So here's some shots of her in recent - warmer weather - outfits. Enjoy!

ELECTION DAY 2008

Guess who voted with her mommy this morning? That's right: Bella! The line at Hooper Alexander Elementary School on Memorial Drive only took about 30 minutes. I won't spoil the fun of letting you guess who she voted for, but needless to say Bella is not the only one who needs changing.

GOOD DOG CARL?

Good Dog, Carl : A Classic Board Book by Alexandra Day

My review

Good Dog Carl is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read, and I've read American Psycho and the seedier passages of The Starr Report.

We open with a woman asking her dog to look after the baby while she is out. What kind of example is this setting for young parents out there? "Well, I really need to get to Sonic during happy hour so I can get a milkshake for half price. The baby's napping, so I'm sure the dog can take care of anything that happens while I'm gone." Slam. Vroom!

From there, the dog watches the lady leave the house, then allows the baby to climb out of the crib and onto his back. He walks the baby to another room where he allows the baby to play with what appears to be cosmetics and sewing accessories. Way to go, Carl!

As if that wasn't bad enough, Carl then pushes the baby down a laundry shoot, dumping the baby in a dark basement. Miraculously, the baby survives this tumble, so Carl takes it upstairs and dunks it in the aquarium. Carl then dances for the baby, allows it to eat butter, chocolate milk, and whatever is in the red cookie jar.

Finally, Carl gives the baby a bath, blows it dry with a hairdryer, and pushes it head-first back into the crib.

Folks, this is a twisted and disturbing book. I wouldn't read it to my kid again, and certainly wouldn't show it to a dog.


View all my reviews.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

POSS POSS

This post is important to understand the next post.

Years ago, my friends Libby and Diane presented me with a stuffed animal possum after I had written several columns in the Jackson Progress-Argus about possums. I thanked them, and put it up on a window ledge in our house so I could see it when I pulled into the driveway.

Last month, when we moved into our new house, the possum somehow got included with Bella's many stuffed animals on a shelf in her room. I'm not sure if Bella found it first, but one night before bed Jen started playing with the possum and Bella. She would make the possum charge Bella and make beeping noises as it bonked its snout into Bella. Bella made loud laughing sounds. She loved it. And in no time, Poss Poss became her favorite stuffed animal. She would holler at it from her crib, cackle with joy when he jumped into her arms, patted its head and back, ran her finger along his whiskers, etc.

A month later, Poss Poss and Bella are still close friends. She even took him to her first day at Parents Morning Out today and apparently found great comfort in holding onto him several times in a new environment with strange children around her. So this Halloween, we honor Poss Poss - and Libby and Diane. Stay tuned!

10 MONTHS

Well, as of today Bella is no longer in the single-month age category. She's 10 months old. We weaned her from the breast between eight and nine months. She got her fifth tooth last week - and only fussed about it for two hours the night before it arrived. She's crawling faster and more accurately. She's smart as a whip. She loves to laugh, and makes friends wherever we take her. She's changed our lives and changed them so much for the better.

As a kind of birthday gift to her for making it out of the single months. my folks brought Squeak and Fatty Nacho back to us on Sunday. Fatty was already spooked from fireworks in Dalton the night before, then on top of the drive down there was a little person positively screaming every time she caught a glimpse of Squeak. So Bella hasn't actually SEEN Fatty yet. But Squeak is cool as a cucumber. He hangs out with us, and lets Bella touch him up to a point then he scoots away.



Bella can't believe she has a cat living in her house. She's so excited whenever she sees Squeak. Squeak, for his part, is not as thrilled, but seems resigned to her high pitched squeals, banging toys together, and constant attempts to sneak up on him despite her thumping-hand crawling style. Yet, when she does get a chance to pet him, she's very gentle and sometimes won't even reach out to him. She seems a bit unsure exactly what to do once she gets that close. I'm sure all that will change.

Oh, and I've got to put together Bella's Halloween costume.

ZOMBIE BABY!

Just in time for Halloween!

THE APPLE OF OUR EYE

Handing Bella an apple allowed me to snap a few up close shots of her while she was preoccupied.

BELLA'S BOOK REVIEWS

Well, she's not writing them, but I am over at Good Reads (or whatever it is).

Little Quack by Lauren Thompson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
As soon as saw the cover of this book (a gift from a family friend for me to read to my daughter) I was less than thrilled. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that I told myself I'd never read it and regift it for someone desperate for images and words with their newborn.



As much as I hate to admit it, I kinda fell for the story here. Mind you, the story is one in which a mother duck tries to convince her five ducklings to leave their nest and join her in the water. SPOILER ALERT! They all do eventually, and quite honestly how anyone could create a book about that simple act - much less sell mass quantities of it - is beyond me.



They key to reading and enjoying Little Quack is to develop a different voice for each of the ducklings and - most importantly - the mother duck. I use a kind of Vicki Lawrence voice for her - rather deep, motherly, assuring and odd. For Little Quack's two sisters - Widdle and Piddle - I simply use high-pitched voices. The fun comes in with the three brothers: for Waddle, I give him a lispy-but-proud voice; for Puddle, I give him a good ol' boy from middle Georgia voice; and for Little Quack, I give him a pre-pubescent squeal.



This being said: read this book when no other adults are around, or you are in for trouble later on.



The best part of the book is on the fifth spread page after Widdle has jumped into the water. The illustration shows the remaining four ducklings cuddle close in the nest and Little Quack has his hands (wings?) clasped to both sides of his head and his beak is open as if to say "Oh my GAWD!" It's great.



And after reading Little Quack about a hundred times see if you can't get mother duck's constant refrain of "you can do it, I know you can" out of your head. I can't.


View all my reviews.


Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
At first glance, you think this is a Dr. Seuss book. But it ain't. However, it does have that Suessian-beatnik-I-grok-kids'-imaginations-and-words-that-rhyme feel about it. I don't know how we got it. Books have a way of just appearing on our daughter's book shelves or in unstable stacks beside our bed.



If Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb has more than 40 words in it - 40 different words - I'll eat my hat. You get a lot of "hands" and "fingers" and "thumbs" - duh, look at the title. But there's also a lot of "monkey" and "drum" or "drumming" and a whole bunch of "dum" and ditty." To read this book cover to cover will take you a minute if you stop to look at the pictures. It's best to do that first, and then tell your baby that you're going to read it again TWICE AS FAST. It makes if more of a challenge for you, and postpones bedtime by another 30 seconds for baby.



I enjoy this book, and our daughter now enjoys it mostly to chew on, but I will say this: it is extremely terrifying if you stop to dwell on what is presented near the end of the book. Close your eyes and picture THIS, my friends: "Millions of fingers, millions of thumbs, millions of monkeys drumming on drums." If that isn't one of the signs of the Apocalypse, I don't know what is. The accompanying illustration is a massive wave of brown fur, smiling monkeys and drums. It'll send chills down your spine.


View all my reviews.

Bright Baby Animals by Roger Priddy

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Much as I wanted to like this book on account of the ecologically friendly paper, I just can't bring myself to recommend you go out and get this. Yes, the pictures of a different animal on each page is bright and clear. And yes, most of them have a colorful background behind them. And yes, the book is a good size for little hands to hold.



But come on. Last time I counted, there were over a bazillion animals on this planets. This book has something like 20 pages to it, so 20 animals. But we get one page with "chicks" on it, and another with a "hen" on it. How about splitting the difference, calling it a "chicken," and give me a new animal like a giraffe or platypus? And why show a "calf?" Why not just a "cow?" Wouldn't that be easier for babies to grasp since EVERY OTHER CHILDREN'S BOOK CALLS THEM COWS? Same goes for the "macaw." Maybe that's it's real name - like dolphin is to mahi-mahi - but I tell my daughter that's a parrot.



And the image of the tiger is that of a little tiger cub, not a full grown specimen. And the photo of the "bear"only shows its head and neck. I could on, but why bother. The same should apply to you when it comes to this book.


View all my reviews.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

I was thinking the other day that I should write about what a typical day is like for Bella and her father. So here goes...

7:00-7:30 a.m.
Bella gets up as does either her mom or dad and feeds her a bottle and changes her diaper.

8:00-8:30 a.m.
Bella and her mom hang out, get dressed, eat peanut butter toast (for mom) and Cheerios with fruit (Bella). Then mom leaves for work.

9:00 a.m.
We switch the radio from NPR's Morning Edition to WREK's Just Jazz. We put the radio in the bottom of the stroller, and get dressed for a walk. Bella and her dad have a two-mile loop they walk almost every morning along Oldfield Road, then Kirk Road, then South Candler, then Midway Road back to Oldfield. Along the way they look for squirrels and cats (with names like Toughie, Toadie, Fluffy Black, Puddin, and Bear), count cars and buses that pass on South Candler, touch leaves and tree bark, and every once in a while get to watch a dog play fetch in the park.

10:00 a.m.
Back home, Bella plays quietly in her room, pulling books off her shelves, or bashing plastic toys together.

10:30 a.m.
Bella's morning nap begins, which allows her dad to shower, dress, make a turkey sandwich, check his e-mail, and chill out.

12:00-12:30 p.m.
Bella is up and ready for a bottle and a diaper change.

1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Bella and her dad either go shopping, run errands, or clean the house and play (depending on the weather).

3:30-4:00 p.m.
Afternoon nap begin, which allows her dad to work on his book or artwork (or take a nap if it's been a rough night/day).

5:00 p.m.
Bella is up and ready for another bottle.

5:30 p.m.
We go for a walk down Oldfield to the Columbia Seminary, stroll through the campus, and come back home. This time we keep track of the number of squirrels, chipmunks and either cats or dogs we see. Out record squirrel count so far is 25.

6:00 p.m.
Bella's mom comes home from work, and Bella is very excited about that.

6:30 p.m.
Bath time with mom.

7:00-7:30 p.m.
Reading books in bed with mom or dad. This typically involves a dozen books or more and rarely takes a full half hour.

8:00 p.m.
Bottle and bedtime (with her parents' fingers crossed for success).

...but how often do we really have "typical" days?

NEW PHOTOS

Here are some shots from the new house. Bella is nine-and-a-half months old now, crawling everywhere, opening anything she can, and vocalizing almost non-stop.

THE ZOO and THE GARDEN

Jen and Bella went to the Atlanta Zoo with our friends Jen Wood and Grayson, who is a few weeks younger than Bella. They had a good time petting goats, seeing monkeys and otherwise taking in the wildlife.

The following weekend all three of us went and joined the Botanical Gardens and met our friends Tim and his boys, Jasper and Cisco, there in the children's garden. The boys, who are older, enjoyed running around and playing on the slides. Bella and her mom went down a few slides as well. And Bella got to touch her first pumpkin. The picture here was taken at Peter Rabbit's place - Jasper, Bella and Cisco.

THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN

So Bella had been working toward crawling for a month or two. She could easily get up on all fours and rock back and forth, and she even got a little reverse motion going from time to time. It seemed to Jen and I that she would crawl any day. That was one of the main reasons we wanted to move out of the house we were renting into a newer, larger and CLEANER one. So we did, and the week we moved - Bella started crawling.

Jen saw her do it first, and then on September 11, 2008, I was playing with her in her room on the floor. I was trying to pictures of her with my cellphone to send to Jen at work, and Bella likes nothing more than to get her hands on my phone and look at it and push the buttons (usually when Jen or someone is on the other end of the line). So I wanted her to crawl, to show me she could do it and knew how. Then it dawned on me: throw the phone across the room and see if she'll go get it. I did and she watched it tumble to a stop five feet away. Then she popped up on all fours and crawled over to it.

This video is a compilation of a few moments from that day.



Now, the new house is getting cleaned all the time, we're child-proofing the cabinets and drawers, and Bella is everywhere. I can leave her in her room and a minute or two later her little head pokes around the corner into the kitchen - a good 20-foot crawl. I can hear her when she leaves her room and starts crawling on the fake wood floors because her hands pat down very heavily.



We now have a 12-foot by 12-foot area of the living room covered in foam rubber activity pads, and most of her toys and the jumparoo and others larger items are there. I've put pillow and a rolled up rug and other things at the kitchen end of the living room so she can't crawl out of there without considerable effort. But she mostly enjoys hanging out on the activity mats - her romper room - and crawling to the jumparoo to stand up beside it and play with the features from the outside.

We went for her nine-month check up last week - her nine-month birthday! - and everything is OK with her. She is 28 inches tall, weighs 18.5 pounds and still doesn't like getting shots. Though she seems to be getting used to the experience. Or is it just me?

WHO IS THAT BABY IN THE MIRROR?

STANDING TALL

One day during the first week of September, I put Bella in her crib to nap. She hollered for a while, and then kept hollering. After about 20 minutes, it really ramped up in volume and intensity so I went in to check on her. Lo and behold, Bella was standing in her crib, holding on to the rail, and screaming at the wall a few inches from her face.

It was the first incidence I knew of in which she stood up on her own.

Over the next few days, she fell in the crib and hit her head on the side (which hurt) and then learned to fall straight down and land on her butt (which doesn't hurt). All of this meant I had to drop the level of the mattress in the crib down a level so she couldn't somehow topple over the top of the crib rail.

Bella also began enjoying grabbing onto parts of her parents when we were laying down with her and trying to pull herself up to a standing position using us. She tried the same plan with pillows, clothing, toys, boxes and anything else she could dig her nails in. This meant we could no longer simply leave her anywhere that didn't have four walls to hold her in place. It was a good thing we began packing boxes to move that week.

The move to the new house - a half-mile away - was precipitated by Bella's newfound mobility. She wasn't crawling yet, but we knew it wouldn't be long. We wanted to move into a house that was bigger and (most importantly) cleaner. We began moving on September 4 and soon found out we did so just in the nick of time.

PHOTO DUMP

Here's a bunch of photos that you need to see but that missed being attached to any specific post.


Sound asleep in August in her parents' bed.


Smiling in her crib.


She believes what she reads!


Practicing her downward dog yoga position.


By the end of August, Bella had mastered how to assume the crawling position, but just wasn't making much headway. She did, however, look good wearing her shirt over her head!


We call this her Popeye face, which she makes often in her high chair when she's not ready to eat whatever mush it is we're trying to pass off as food.


Sometimes it helps to get close to your food before you pick it up, taste it, and drop it on the floor.