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My gorgeous and beloved wife had a birthday!  We had really great sushi and crispy beef from Shi.  And a cake that wouldn’t look out of place on the tailgate of a pickup truck at a barbecue featuring an entire pig.  See, because she had decided she wanted to make her own cake, decorations were a bit of a last minute thing I pulled together when she wasn’t looking.  That’s my excuse.  I also bought her a nice necklace, so it balances out.  Right?

The delicious red velvet cake Rita wrangled for a birthday dinner at Brio was an entirely more classy affair, giant flaming numerals notwithstanding.  Dinner was a treat!  And we presented Marjorie with our group gift – we’re going to send her somewhere tropical for a week in the sun to thaw out.  Avery and I get to go too.  Nice move, me.

Suz very thoughtfully made sure Avery didn’t feel left out of the love:

Those are some very big eyes.  If you are in a state of inebriation sufficient to see pink elephants, this one in particular might be reassuring.

And Avery had some big eyes for Chris:

Fascinating.  I do believe they like each other.

The next day was Avery’s 4 monthaversary.  Crazy!  We keep finding ourselves astonished by clothes she’s growing out of that seemed enormous a month ago.  All the outfits we bought for her – roomy, mind you – for Christmas are all too small now.  She’s wearing sleepers made for a six month old.  I’m telling you, volleyball or basketball, this girl’s all set.

The downside of milestones for babies is the trip to the pediatrician for the next inoculations.  The first time was a nasty shock for her, and a bit of a trial for me.  Possibly even more so than for her mum.  I’m a wimp, maybe.  We thought Little Pepper was a champ, though.  She cried for ten minutes or so that time.  Probably more in betrayal than actual pain.  This time, her third, was amazing!  She took her shot in the leg, uttered one squawk, and was done.  Sergeant Pepper!  That’s my girl!  And fifteen minutes later:

Sleeping like a baby.  Surprise.  Not that sleeping is her only trick.  She’s getting to know her feet very well.  She’ll suck on her big toe if she can coordinate it.  No luck with the thumb yet, but that big toe does just fine.  And now that she’s starting to get the hang of grabbing things, she can get a bit overwhelmed with the options:

Both feet, the dangling teddy flipper, and the crinkly butterfly.  Yes, all of them please.  All at the same time, thank you.

And so chatty!  If she’s got a story to tell, she will tell it at great length and in complete detail, no matter how long it takes.  An hour, easy.  And at ever increasing volume, so you understand the escalating drama of the narrative.

Riveting.  Possibly less so for the other guests at the cafe, but they should have known what they were getting into when they told her what a beautiful little girl she is.

Her crib arrived last week (thank you, Gramma and Grampa Taverner!), which means Avery is able to move into her own room.  When Mum’s ready, of course.  We started well enough with naps, but the first couple nights were a bit too much space for Avery and she ended up in bed with us after halftime.  The last couple nights, however, she’s been great.  It can take a while to get her down, but she loves all the room to stretch.  The move is happening just in time, too.  The bassinet was getting cramped.  She’s discovered she likes sleeping on her side (left side exclusively, so far), and that maneuver takes some real estate.

Soon enough will come the full roll (on purpose).  She loves being on her tummy for a few minutes at a time, but gets bored because all her limbs are occupied.  Soon she will figure out what magic can happen when she pulls a limb or two.

Six weeks ago we thought she might almost be there, but that lesson got pushed.  Possibly by the discovery of her feet.  Possibly by the discovery of a baby’s primary method of learning:

Everything goes in that mouth.  Mostly drool comes out.  And stories.  But seriously, gallons of drool.  No wonder she’s up to four ounce feedings.  Gotta replenish.

So there you have it.  Avery is four months old and a happy picture of blooming health, pushing 14 pounds and 26 inches.  And Marjorie seems just fine with 40 years old.  She says it’s no big deal when you’re content with everything in your life.  As a guy who is sensitive to the fact he lured her away from friends and family, that comes as sweet music to my ears.  A happy Marjorie is generally a happy Adrian, indeed.  Probably we should make more effort to remember that we’re a couple as much as we are a family, but that will come.  We’re both pretty fascinated with little Avery Peppermint, and she positively soaks up the time.  It’s unbelievable.  And I couldn’t explain it.  It doesn’t translate in print.  Good thing we like her so much.

Oh!  That reminds me.  We’ve got her giggling for real now.  Official new favourite sound in the universe.  Hands down.  No contest.  Her tiny little deep in the belly giggle makes me do the same.  Cannot be helped.

Meanwhile, work goes well.  I mixed Chris’ intro video for Redken’s Symposium in Vegas.  Fun stuff.  We should be able to post it on his site in a week or so, after the thousands of Redken faithful have seen it.  There are also a ton of videos on their way from L’Oréal Professionnel that will need mixing.  35 of them, I think, due February 1.  I can do that.  Of course, now that Avery is doing almost all of her sleeping in her room/my studio, I will be editing on the couch, and sneaking in final passes on the big rig while she’s awake.  I’m going to have to rethink this her room/ my studio thing.  I don’t think it’s going to work.  And Marjorie really wants a dining room table, so I’m not going to be allowed to move the big rig to that wall out here.  Tricky.  Maybe Chaos will sign a show and we’ll build a proper studio.  Inevitable, yes, but jumping the schedule a bit would be fine.  I’m about to lose my office!

So!  Tropical paradises.  Any ideas?

Oh she loves mornings just fine.  She’s bright eyes and big smiles as soon as she sees we’re awake.  She makes it very difficult to be my usual taciturn self.

And her left foot has joined the ranks of her favorite snacks.

Hope your Monday is as awesome as all that.

Man, last time I wrote I was on the other side of the continent.  Avery had only ever laughed once, and that in her sleep.  And not a single crane had collapsed outside my window.

We had a medium-good few more days in Vancouver.  Marjorie’s cold swung a pretty heavy hammer, and the rest of the family was falling like dominoes.  Avery had a bit of a sniffle, but I’m thinking Mum’s body was doing the work of fighting the cold for both of them, so a little sniffle was as far as it went – nothing the snot sucker couldn’t handle.  And I was feeling better, so Avery and I enjoyed some one on one time for a couple days.  Plenty of snacks – we had to cancel our New Year’s Day social.  All the spinach dip you could ask for!  And sausage rolls!  All mine!

But we did manage to spend some quality time with everyone in the end, even if it wasn’t nearly enough.  I set up the Wii for Gramma Judy, and she schooled Marjorie in the ways of cow racing.  Andrea brought Lucas and Lily over to meet Avery, and they all got along fabulously.  Avery loves kids.  Lucas loves Angry Birds.  And, on our very last day, we met up for lunch with Brian, Karen, Miguel and little Sofia.  Sofia is a stunner of a precocious little charmer.  Gorgeous!  And if you need someone to throw down some high volume Christmas carols?  She’s your girl.

And then it was time to come home.  We were ready.  Looking forward to our own bed.  You know how that can be – we had such a good time with everyone (Gramma Di’s pavlova, the Harrington’s merino wool socks, Santa’s Happy New Beer), but after two weeks and three different beds and three different showers… we were ready for home.

After another good flight with exceptional and outstanding service from the Cathay Pacific attendants, we burrowed into our bed and slept for as long as Avery would let us.  She was pretty understanding and gave us four hours.  Marjorie let me have one more.  She’s sweet that way.  Mostly.

Little Pepper grew while we were away.  She’s stretching even her big 3 month sleepers, and will have to swim a bit in the 6 month sleepers pretty soon.  Her bassinet will be retired just as soon as the new crib is delivered.  I don’t think she’s claustrophobic, but she doesn’t go down easy if she’s in there.  A bit of a flailer.  Trying to fly?  High speed semaphore?

And she’s ever more alert.  It’s hard to describe, but there’s more comprehension behind those eyes all the time.  She’s reading at a third-grade primate level, fluently using all four limbs:

She’s starting to purposefully reach for things now, and when she holds something, she’ll take an interest in how it feels and tastes.  Oh yeah, must taste.

And just today she laughed while Marjorie was playing with her.  It was small, but unmistakeable.  Naturally we spent the next ten minutes trying to coax another out of her, but she only smiled good-naturedly and offered us some more semaphore.  Tonight Marjorie got a few more proto-giggles out of her, but I suppose there shouldn’t be any rush.  We thrill with each new discovery, but there’s a part of me that looks, with just a brush stroke of sadness, at how much more real estate she takes up in that bunny swing than she did three months ago.  Sigh.

To distract me from futile melancholy, a crane collapsed right outside our window this afternoon.  It was really frickin loud.  Very crashy.

The emergency crews were there in minutes.  Very impressive.  I guess in this town, if you cry “crashed crane”, they come a-runnin’.  Thirty-five stories of crane popped a pin or something, and crumpled straight down.  You can see the bundle of lumber they were lifting toward the bottom right.  I heard, depending on your news source, that six or eleven people were injured, all workers on the site, but no deaths.  With all the activity on the job site, that’s pretty lucky.  At any given moment there are easily a dozen guys working on the upper deck.  It’s possible that there wasn’t anyone underneath on the ground level.  Pretty lucky.

This on the same day that a ferry rammed the dock in Lower Manhattan at speed, injuring 55 (one critically).

Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo gave a rousing State of the State speech, promising an equality act for women, an overhaul of gun regulation, sweeping improvements to storm-preparedness infrastructure and many other things that felt great to hear.  His administration put it all down in a 300+ page book, which should make it pretty easy to make him accountable this time next year.

So, happy new year.  Count your blessings.  Count them again.  Shell out a few meaningful hugs.  You have your health.  You have your life.  It’s easy to take it all for granted.  Because we are all immortal, right?  Each of us the star of our own movie.  Now if only we had final edit on the script…