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And now for four minutes of my daughter eating avocado:

That was on the 14th, just shy of six months old. Since then she’s started driving and is up for another Nobel Prize. Wait… sorry, getting ahead of myself. Since then she’s tried banana (yes),  cantaloupe (yes), and lemon (yeeg! no, wait, more. yeeg! no no, just a bit more.) She’s also a big fan of sharing Mum’s water from her glass. She can fit her entire face in the glass, and she doesn’t swallow much, but it sure is the most fun ever.

A tooth! There’s a tooth poking out of her face! Right there in her mouth parts! I would say that explains the drool, but the actual quantity of drool seems consistent. Perhaps her Sophie the Giraffe has been receiving even more vigorous gnawing of late. Avery’s range of sounds is also increasing quite rapidly. Any relation? Does a bit of a tooth suddenly give you consonants? Now I’m imagining all the old toothless people I’ve seen trying to speak coherently, and I wonder…

We think the swing may be losing its mojo. She still thoroughly enjoys it, don’t misunderstand, but it’s not the magic bullet of nap times that it used to be. She’ll nod off sometimes, but more often these days it’s a fun distraction for a few minutes until she realizes we’re trying to distract her. She’s wily, that one. So we may let the swing go to its next home, and replace it with a table. You know, one of those things where a family gathers to eat and converse and be a family. Yes, Marjorie is leading that charge. Not that I object.

So if the swing has lost its… swing… then what’s the new trick? Brace yourself. This is a wild one. The Floor. Yes. Behold its mysterious power. Avery can now (only just now, actually. Like, yesterday now.) sit up on her own for pretty much as long as she likes. We’ve got a nice rug big enough for her to topple safely in any direction, so we chuck down a few cushions with a handful of toys in varying degrees of in reachedness, and she’s good. She can’t go from flopped to unflopped yet, but if we start her sitting up, she might be perfectly content to sit for five minutes before carefully toppling down on to her belly – and maybe even taking a little nap! Glorious! Actual observable self-entertainment for whole minutes on end, followed by the elusive catnap! You can’t help watching her be all independent, and then you shake yourself when you realize you’ve got upwards of five, ten, maybe even fifteen minutes to Do Something. Like eat with two hands. Precious luxury.

Pictures! Note the excruciating adorableness of Avery in her new sun hat.

Katie and Colin are in town! This is Katie’s first time. Marjorie knew she would love it, and her reaction reminds me of mine. Wide eyed and drinking in the energy and knowing that this is where you want to be. Sucked me right in. We’ll see if we’re calling them neighbours in a year.

So they’ve been touristing and we’ve seen a bit of Central Park with them, such as the Lewis Carroll sculpture. I had managed to miss that on previous excursions, so that was nice. Central Park is big, yo. It’s easy to miss stuff. Though interestingly, Stanley Park is more than 10% bigger. Yeah. A little trivia for you there.

While both Katie and Colin have enjoyed some Avery time, it has to be said that Avery and Katie seem to be fast friends. Almost inseparable, even. Very fun to see. Katie even came over this evening to babysit while Mum and Dad went on a date. Yes, you read correctly. A real date at a real restaurant. A nice one! Marjorie wore pearls and lipstick. I wore a tie with hardly any irony. We were giddy! Thank you, Katie, so very much for that. We had a top shelf great time. I suspect you had a pretty good time as well.

In other news, Chaos has pretty much wrapped the post on The New Me. We’re tinkering with the web site, then we’ll post the video and I’ll be able to share it with you. Please let me know what you think. PSA: when you watch, sit on a towel so you don’t wet the couch.

In case I don’t post for a few days, I’ll say it here: Happy birthday, Robyn! I love and admire you, dear sister. I hope your day is shiny.

(click for full size images)

I KNOW! I don’t post often enough. But when I do, hey, photo bonanza. Maybe I’d post more often if you sent donuts?

In the last couple weeks Avery has tried solid food and found it to be… interesting. She’s been notified she likes avocado, so she’s entertaining that idea. Squishy. Mum’s plan is to try a bit of something new each week for the next while, until little Pepper is making active grabs for our plates. Won’t be long.

Oh! Finally all the stars and planets lined up, and Lee delivered a little Christmas gifty for Avery from Kim and J. The best bunny hat ever. Adorable! Should be a perfect fit next year. Thank you, guys!

The other Big Fun News is that Matt came to town for a week. The plan was for Chaos Complex to shoot two shorts while he was here. Ambitious, but we’ve crushed crazier goals. One thing led to another, however, and long story short, it’s really hard to procure a prop gun in New York City. Go figure. I’m not sure it’s harder than it is in BC, but it’s certainly not easier. We actually wrangled a reasonable facsimile of the gun, and were seriously contemplating a script compromise, but in the end we really want the gun moment to ring true, so we’re going to hold off and do it right in a few weeks. It’s also not advisable to book fx makeup with three days notice, but that was not entirely in our control, because they want to know things like, “what day?” and “where?” and these things didn’t land as early as they should have.

Anyway, to drag us back on track, Chaos pushed two stories, but discovered a third. It’s a charming little bit of clone comedy. We think you’ll giggle. We still have to discuss how we’ll actually release it, with the festival circuit and such to consider, but I promise I will get your eyeballs on it as soon as I can.

So the Chaos Camp was a genuine success in the face of several adversities. We sent Matt home in victory (not counting some brutal stand-by flight delays – do NOT fly stand-by. Just don’t.)

Marjorie took full command of the Taverner household while the boys were out playing all week, and for that I am humbly grateful. She is a power of nature, and I’m the luckiest bastard you know. I brought her flowers. And pie.

I’m trying to remember when I last had a haircut. Could be ten weeks ago. Anyway, I looked ridiculous the last couple weeks. I tried a hipster flop, no deal. Mod flip, no deal. I’d taken to wearing it slicked back, which I do not carry as well as Brad Cooper. I get too hot wearing a hat indoors, so it was the slick or look, well, ridiculouser. So after missing one more opportunity for Chris to rescue me, I went for the clippers. No big deal, right? Adrian has pulled off this look before. The dudes like it. The chicks… the chicks do not care for it, as a general rule. I maybe look scary.

I had a moment of hesitation. Avery. I thought to myself, “Avery’s too young to be freaked out by this. She’ll be fine. Just like she’s fine with the dark, and dogs, and strangers.”

I was wrong. She went down for a nap, shaggy daddy. She woke up from her nap, velcro head daddy.

She was so confused. And had no idea how to deal with the confusion. So she was scared. Such heartbreaking tears! Inconsolable for half an hour! She wouldn’t look at me! Whenever she did, more sobbing! It took both Mum and Dad  that whole half hour to reassure her that all was still right in the world. That familiar face was still on the right head, and that voice was coming from the right daddy.

Make sure your child is awake during momentous changes. My advice pour vous, because I like you and you shouldn’t have to go through that.

Other tidbits o’ trivia…

The Taverners have booked their fabulous tropical birthday getaway. Thank you, Marjorie, for taking us with you. Very generous. We’re going to Barbados. Woo!

Also, Chaos is once again booked for the Banff World Media Festival. We’ll be hobnobbing with top level network execs and industry greats like Julia Louis Dreyfus and Will Arnett. You know, ’cause that’s how we roll. Whatever.

I’ll probably need a haircut before then…