"Hello Avi"

Garrett continued to win over Max and Aviva continues to be charming. Max and Garrett spent time at the park with Max showing Garrett that he can hold his own amongst bigger kids, and that he's even got a little charm with the ladies. No fewer than two girls approached Max to play, and one of them was forward enough to get a hug in advance of the play time. Garrett has also taught Max to say to Aviva by saying, "Hello, Avi."

Aviva is doing the one-week old thing: sleepy, eating, and hiccuping. It may just be our kids, but the hiccups appear to be a true rite of passage that every Ellis-Quinn child must endure. Even Max has learned to make fun of Aviva's hiccups as he'll smile and imitate the hiccup and then laugh.

Shauri arrived tonight to rekindle her rapport with Max, and her return did not fail to create a buzz in the home with Max running around screaming "shauri." Yes, he even got a little of the "sh" sound in there, which is quite the improvement.

As you can see from the picture, max didn't get the memo that the family photo involved green colors, but he just loves his elephant pj's.

And, demand for more pictures of Aviva has been heavy. We aim to please.

Garret Part Deux

Garrett renewed his aim for the title of "Favorite Uncle" with an early-morning viewing of Finding Nemo, Max's favorite movie of all time. As you can tell, it looks like one of Garrett's favorites also.

Uncle Garrett

Aviva met Uncle Garrett for the first time tonight. And as the pictures show, there was an instant connection. Of course, I felt the same way when I met Garrett, so I'm not in any way surprised.

Vindication

Vivi and I went to the Dr's office today. The conversation went something like this:
Dr: "It seems we've lost your file. Can you tell me why you're here?"
Me: "Dr. Josani (the Dr. we saw on Friday and not our usual Dr., the one we saw today) thought there was a risk of jaundice and wanted us to come back."
Dr: "From here -- and i'll check a little closer, she doesn't look yellow at all, does she look yellow to you?"
Me: "She didn't look yellow on Friday."
Dr: "Oh, OK."
[Dr. examines Vivi]
Dr: "Yeah, you can tell your wife there's absolutely nothing to worry about, there's no risk of jaundice."

Yeah, it felt good.

In other news, Aviva has gained weight at an incredible pace and she now weighs more than she did at birth. We're all so proud.

We took Max to the natural history museum today, and of course his love of all things monkey led him to befriend the statue of a monkey placed in the auditorium for the film on evolution. As you can see, Max spent most of the movie with his arm tightly around his new best friend. Unfortunately, we didn't capture the tender scene when Max kissed the monkey twice on the cheek before leaving. And no, Max never kisses us twice before or after anything.

Lazy Sunday

Today was a great day -- friends and family visited, Chris Cutler made the BEST lasagna we've ever eaten, and V survived another day without Max smacking his giant noggin' into hers when kissing the top of her head.

Max refused to take a nap today at his regular time, demanding instead to go to "(n)ursery," where all his church friends would be playing. He even fell asleep in my arms while we were in services and when I told him we were going home, he sprung up screaming "ursery"! He sure does love his church friends.

He also became quite intrigued by Kristin's breast-feeding. He kept trying to peek under the blanket and finally just flung the whole thing off -- luckily, Kristin's cat-like reflexes prevented any long-term Delsa-like embarrassment.

Vivi didn't really do much today except remain very cute and push her tongue in and out, in and out. She loves the feel of the cool breeze whistling across the tip o' the tongue. It's really cute.

Ella's birthday party

So Max has this friend, Ella, who probably has the most extensive wardrobe this side of Keely McKell. Today, Ella celebrated her 2-year birthday and did so in style. There was the blow-up gymnasium for the kids to jump around in, there was music time directed by a music teacher, and the party favors and deserts were simply adult-licious. None of that crappy kids-only stuff that's laced with 99% sugar and 1% flavor.

So how much of this party did Max enjoy? About 1 minute of the 45 we were there. He cried the entire time; he dropped elephant tears and exhaled monkey screams. That's why there's no pictures for today's blog -- I was too busy consoling and had no time to play gorillas in the midst.

So, to make up for it, we rented Happy Feet and let him watch that movie for his Saturday night activity. BTW, the movie -- it's really strange. Maybe those of you who saw it in the theatre caught something we missed, but wow. Crazy. And I'm pretty sure Max will be messed up for years because of it.

Tomorrow's post will have more to do with Vivi. But today she had her first sponge bath. And from what I heard, she didn't like it.

Jaundice v. Sleep

Vivi's doctor is afraid of jaundice. The doctor has counseled that we "wake up" Aviva at night to feed her. Apparently she has never heard of the well-known maxim, "never wake a sleeping baby." Kristin and I would really rather deal with a baby with jaundice than deal with a baby that's not sleeping because we're waking her up. If Aviva wants to sleep for 5 hours in a row, without a feeding, we're going to let her.

So, I have a poll for all experienced parents. Very simply: who's crazy, (1) Aviva's Dr. or (2) Abram and Kristin.


**Editor's note: upon reading the above entry, Kristin voted for (2), but really only thinks Abram is crazy. Kristin wants it clear that she would not rather have a baby with jaundice than a baby with bad sleep habits. She "claims" that Abram is prone to hyperbole.