ocean-beach

as ava gets older, she and daddy are developing more and more common interests. one of those is ocean beach. okay, ava's not exactly up for surfing just yet, but she does love to go hang out on a sunny day and watch the waves. ava loves all aspects of beach trips with daddy, starting with a treasured ride in the van, but especially the part where she gets as sandy as possible.

on this particular trip, ava reached an important milestone : she finally managed to get both feet off the ground simulaneously, in an action vaguely resembling "jumping". (see video at bottom). now, i think hope that her vertical leap will improve somewhat over time, but this may be one (of many) areas in which she is somewhat genetically doomed. john and i are both slow-twitch muscle dominated, and are loaded with endurance, but low on attributes like "spring".

john and i share a few more attributes. for example, we were both born with an innate ability to derive the correct answer on a graduate level math / physics/ chemistry exam - regardless of whether or not we actually have any idea what exactly it is we're doing. and, we're both hypnotized by bad television, although john prefers "reality tv" (deadliest catch, etc.) while i prefer "other wordly soap operas" (lost, battlestar galactica). it's a very good thing that we don't actually own any television reception devices.

so . . . how does ava stack up against her parents? perhaps it's time for our second genetics showdown . . .

john	cailin	ava
blue yes	brown eyes	pond-scum eyes
salt-with-a-few-shakes-of-pepper hair	brown hair	blonde hair???
medium-tall	mini	giant
mellow	OCD	OCD
flexible	stubborn	beyond stubborn
single-threaded	multi-tasker	has been spotted simultaneously watching tv and reading a book
meditates daily	last time sat down at home and did nothing for more than five minutes = highschool?	has yet to sit down and do nothing for five minutes

well, so far it looks like physically ava is just headed in her own weird direction, while behaviorally she matches mommy. of course, most traits shared with mommy are also shared with most toddlers. hmm . . . what exactly does that say about me?

click read more (below) to see live action of ava at the beach.

today was one of the six days of the year when it was nice enough to go hang out at the beach in a bathing suit. ava has a love/hate relationship with the beach. she loves rolling around in the sand and getting filthy. she hates getting dunked in the freezing ocean to clean off.