By Jennifer Lefner, M.D.Board-Certified Neonatologist and PediatricianSaratoga Springs, New York Baby food. It should be simple. Just food that your baby can eat. As a new parent, you might find yourself doing research, because, of course, you want to feed your infant only the best,......
16 August, 2021The post below was written by fellow parenting blogger, Daniel Sherwin, of DadSolo.com. You want your kids to lead healthy, active lives, but it can be hard getting them to engage when computer games and cell phones have their attention. Help them practice good health......
16 August, 2021The post below was written by fellow parenting blogger, Daniel Sherwin, of DadSolo.com. Working from home is always a challenge at first, but tons of people have been suddenly thrust into a WFH environment in possibly the worst way. The ideal home office environment is......
15 March, 2021The post below was written by fellow parenting blogger, Josh Moore, of DiaperDads.org. In the final weeks of your pregnancy, the excitement builds as you prepare to meet the newest addition to your family. You may be winding down at work and reading parenting books......
17 February, 2021The post below was written by fellow parenting blogger, Janice Russell, of parentingdisasters.com. Working from home when you have kids is hard, particularly when you have a baby and/or toddler in tow. Amid diaper changes, feedings, naps, and guarding your little ones against dangerous objects/situa...
21 December, 2020I should have written more during the pandemic. But writing requires a certain level of motivation, and pandemics have a way of draining the motivation from you. In many ways it seems silly to talk about survival when I have a full refrigerator, Christmas gifts......
01 September, 2020When you’re a kid, you wonder all kinds of things. Who will I marry? Where will I live? What will my job be? How many kids will I have? What will their names be? What will my wedding be like? What car will I drive......
30 August, 2020Yesterday I was talking to my therapist and relaxing in a swing and he said I seemed calm. I was calm, in a way. I had more or less resolved to homeschool, because homeschool is the only scenario in which I’m in complete control and......
06 August, 2020I’m not gonna lie. We’re unraveling here. Keeping in mind this is the cocoon. We will move through this. We will emerge. The way I was glued to Cuomo’s updates these past weeks, waiting for the day that we could see that New York had......
05 May, 2020Well, here we are on our 31st day of self-quarantine. We got to it a little early because we had flu in the house, giving us both a reason and an excuse to hunker down while it still seemed like an oddball thing to do.......
08 April, 2020We made vegan ravioli and the pictures are so cute I’m posting about them. This is a fun thing to do with the kids if you have a bunch of time to make dinner on a weekend. You can freeze them if you do up......
06 January, 2020I’ve been thinking about change. Tim Havens from Falls Farm and Garden said once at SUNY Adirondack’s Microenterprise Assistance Program (which is now called Startup ADK), “The first rule of business is: Stay In Business.” And then you realize — in order to stay in......
06 January, 2020As my kids get older, I realize these small things I noticed when they were just babies have turned into dominant personality traits. Henry’s fascination with how things work. Danny’s silly faces and movements intended for a laugh. These quirks define them and set them......
03 November, 2019It’s almost imperceptible, the easier-ness. It starts as a feeling like you were supposed to be somewhere or do something, but forgot. You’ve been so used to the chaos, the tornado of people needing you one hundred percent of the time, that if there is......
13 August, 2019I furiously pumped my arms up and down while my legs pointed up in the air at a forty-five degree angle. I wondered if a cardio class would have felt better than Pilates with all the rage I needed to sweat out. Do they make......
28 March, 2019As I drive to work this morning with a blemish on my chin I think about how maybe I should have done more to cover it up lest I offend the people I see today with my ugliness. And then I think further. Being Pretty......
18 March, 2019If you’re a parent on the internet, you have no doubt by now heard about Momo, this frightening face with bug eyes and a terrifying bird mouth that allegedly is spliced into your kiddo’s Peppa Pig cartoons on YouTube telling kids to harm themselves. (Don’t......
28 February, 2019I was in the shower just now and thinking about what I would put on when I got out. Jeans would be the appropriate pants for today, a day momming in and out of public. But who decided jeans were our casual wear? The jeans......
17 February, 2019“Where is my HAT!? I can’t go without my pink hat!” I shouted, stringing rainbow yarn through my sign. “And if I can’t find my PINK hat, I can’t just wear a DIFFERENT-colored hat!” I tore the mitten bench apart, then the closet, then the......
24 January, 2019Every family has a language; certain phrases or slang based on life experiences that is unique to that tight-knit group of people. For example, there’s Too Silly, something my dad would say about me when I’d hit that manic Jim-Carrey-in-The-Mask level of overexcited that never failed to....
10 January, 2019“How do other people do this?” my husband Cory asked the ceiling, with his palms in his eyes. It’s the morning after. We were up late. If you were to peek in our window at 9:45 p.m. any given night, you’d see a wild-haired naked......
13 December, 2018“Part of me is so excited for the holidays,” said a client of mine a few weeks back. “And part of me just wants to open my eyes on January first and have it be over.” I cocked my head at that. Wish away the......
29 November, 2018In a LiveJournal entry dated August 21, 2001, I made a list titled “What I Want.” (LiveJournal was the premier blogging website, back before blogging had a name.) I was living in Rutland, Vermont, at the time. Among bullet points like “Making art,” “A cell......
20 November, 2018This was our bedtime story tonight. — Once upon a time there was a little boy named Henry and his little brother’s name was Danny and his little sister’s name was Ellie and they liked to play up and down Morgan Avenue. One late summer......
31 August, 2018It is the most palpable letting-go since birth, my firstborn off on the two wheels of a bike for the first time. This baby bird, nurtured and grown, released from my hands into the wide open air of independence — leaving me behind, still running, even though......
29 August, 2018This was the story I made up for the kids tonight. It starts the same as they always do. I cried a lot during this one. — Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Henry and his little brother’s name was Danny......
28 August, 2018To helicopter or not to helicopter? That is the question. Broken arms, concussions, drownings, car crashes. You name it; I’ve imagined it and possibly prevented it from happening to my three kids. I wave my arms around, spotting them as they climb the ladder up......
27 August, 2018There are times in your life where everything just changes all at once. Leveling-up. My last major one was in 2008 — I got a new job at the Chronicle, a new apartment with my boyfriend Cory, and graduated from college all in the span......
27 August, 2018Glens Falls is the ideal place to raise a vegan family. I’ll back up and start at the beginning. I celebrated my 36th birthday earlier this month by taking a long weekend and getting out of town. It’s been a while since we gave ourselves all......
30 July, 2018Note — Sometimes I just write about poop way too much. Sorry. — My friend Meredith said, “that’s called a hippie fight,” when I told her that Cory and I couldn’t agree on what to do with the first Saturday morning we’ve had free in......
12 July, 2018I can close my eyes and know I’m almost home by the angle of my body in the car and the degree of the turn. That motion, that particular sequence winding downhill to the house my father built and my mother designed, is so deeply......
28 June, 2018“Dude, I need help!” Cory shouted through the haze. I sat up in bed with one eye still squeezed shut, making my signature morning face. An adult deer tick was stuck in his groin. Little jerk. (The tick, not Cory.) I hate ticks with a......
14 June, 2018Let’s raise a glass in salute to mothers: Here’s to their love. Here’s to their dedication. Here’s to their wrecked pelvic floors. Yeah, I said it. Your mom probably never told you this, but she’s sacrificed a lot for you over the years. And I’m......
07 May, 2018It all started when Danny stepped in poop. “I told him to do it,” said Henry. “I said, go ahead, get in trouble.” I was trying to clear the table after dinner and put food away and do dishes and make lunches, all while holding......
25 April, 2018Like holding a bite of chocolate in your mouth and letting it melt and savoring it, but what if you could never have chocolate again, what if it was the last bite, how long would you hold that bit? That’s how I felt holding Ellie......
06 April, 2018I had the best laid plans. I bought Henry a new lunch box. Well, new to us; a used Planetbox with custom magnets with all his favorite things; tornadoes, a fire alarm, our Chrysler Town & Country and a family portrait. Unknowingly, Cory’s parents also......
06 September, 2017I remember thinking, when I saw footage of the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan, how crazy it was that a disaster could turn houses, libraries, schools, museums, cars, people, into debris floating in the ocean. After Hurricane Katrina, my friend Emma went to help and......
31 August, 2017I thought that my oldest son Henry turning five would have hit me harder. But the busy tasks of putting on a birthday party kept me occupied and it passed without any major meltdowns on my part. And I thought that him starting Kindergarten would......
30 August, 2017Henry’s in T-ball and we are experiencing Glens Falls Little League for the first time ever. I’ve lived in this city for something like ten years now and I had no idea that this big underground party was going on without us. Did you know that......
28 May, 2017I love Easter. I was baptized on Easter in a dramatic ceremony. Father Rick, the priest at the time at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Killington, Vermont, had a background in theater. It was dark, and then we came in during a procession,......
14 April, 2017I’ve written about this before, the rough patch I went through in high school. (I swear I’ll get back to cute kid stories soon.) I went to Northeastern Family Institute once and Brattleboro Retreat twice, for self harm and depression. I grew up with two......
15 March, 2017Ima start this out by saying that I know some FOXY moms. Some women who are drop dead gorgeous and their momming makes them that much more beautiful. Moms are beautiful. And a body is something that is beautiful because it’s functional and it does its job......
10 March, 2017I’ve only scratched the surface with the things I’m going through at my parents’ house. Maybe two boxes so far, and I haven’t brought myself to throw anything away, which is probably a mistake. But Marz’s death and this revisitation of time capsules from my......
06 March, 2017In the last week or so, these things have happened: 1. My parents have accepted an offer on the house that I grew up in and now have to move out by spring. 1a. Due to the above, my folks have brought me several boxes......
02 March, 2017I’ve been doing a year-end recap every year since 2005 in this exact format on ye olde LiveJournal. Here’s a slightly edited-for-the-public version of this year’s. First, the annual memes: Year in meme: 2016 The method: Copy and paste the first sentence of the first entry of......
27 December, 2016Our Elf was given to us. It wasn’t a trend I was interested in. It’s work. But my mom gave it to Henry and we couldn’t back out after that. Inevitably, every night we are in bed and then remember the Elf on the Shelf......
03 December, 2016Today, as has been my tradition for the entirety of Henry’s life, I made handprint ornaments with Dolores Thomson of Clay Concepts. We give them to the aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents every year for Christmas. Danny hands now, too. At this point, they get the......
30 November, 2016Henry drew a circle, and another circle. That reminded him of a hamburger. So then he drew another hamburger. This one had lettuce sticking out. And then it needed a face and legs. This is my favorite drawing Ever. And did I mention that this......
24 November, 2016World Awareness Children’s Museum knocked it out of the park with their Magical Woodland Tea Party yesterday. Fairy decorations greeted you from the roadside all the way in, even to the bathroom. Titania herself (Elizabeth Little Hogan, who co-chaired the event with Sue Knapp) greeted......
20 November, 2016So I’ve been trying to get Cory to go in on a third kid with me. He’s not feeling it. He has good points. Like, how we’re constantly close to the edge (or dangling over it by our fingertips) when it comes to balancing two......
03 November, 2016So there we are at the Great Escape last weekend and we see Sheldon and Henry’s favorite, Frankie Fox. Last year after the morning show she was in, he walked right up to her, and just wanted to spend some time around her, touching her,......
16 September, 2016I'm not gonna lie. I've shopped around. I drooled over Waldorf School in Saratoga Springs. The nature walks. The cooking. The daily tasks. It's the ideal way to raise children, to my way of thinking — take what's tried and true from years of child-rearing and get back to roots. But: Money. There's a...
14 September, 2016It’s exciting news: Glens Falls Hospital is planning a $5 million renovation of the Snuggery with a $250,000 donation from the David S. and Janet R. Sheridan Foundation along with $250,000 from Stewart’s Shops and the Dake family, $100,000 from The Sandy Hill Foundation and......
04 August, 2016Miss Conte, my favorite teacher, led schoolwide sing-alongs on her guitar at Sherburne Elementary School (Killington Elementary School). We belted out This Land is Your Land, Down by the Bay, and If I Had a Hammer, along with She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain, and Chicken Lips &......
23 May, 2016“When will I die, Mom?” A thousand thoughts at once flew through my head. I was driving Daniel and Henry back from the playground when he hit me with that one. I wouldn’t say he’s preoccupied with the topic, but his curiosity peaks up every......
13 May, 2016My husband Cory is a cardboard genius. He’s like MacGyver with some packing tape and an Amazon Prime box. I’ve got to start sharing photos of the things that Henry requests. Here’s a printer/scanner. The lid flips up and you can slide a piece of......
15 March, 2016I’m fairly certain that when I am very old, lying on my deathbed in some delirious state, tonight will be a memory I linger on. And I will know that I lived a rich, full life. We didn’t have Valentine’s Day plans. Usually we try......
15 February, 2016Maybe we evolved with Glens Falls, or maybe Glens Falls evolved with us, but it’s one of the two. My husband Cory and I had some fun in this little city in our twenties. We made some memories on South Street, the “Street of Dreams.”......
02 February, 2016It felt like months went by without leaving the house, and only once had I ever tried it solo with both my three-year-old son, Henry, and my three-month-old, Daniel, and, well. You know how that went. This particular day, my husband Cory was going to work the evening......
29 January, 2016I’ve known moms who quit their jobs after the first couple of days back after maternity leave. Heather Hickland, executive director of the World Awareness Children’s Museum and fellow preschooler mom, emailed me that she remembered the first day was “always hard on the heart......
19 January, 2016On November 10, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy Daniel using the HypnoBirthing technique. I wrote about it in my former column Family Time that ran biweekly in Glen Falls newspaper The Chronicle, but wanted to share an interview with our HypnoBirthing instructor,......
11 January, 2016I’m a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I figure January’s as good a time as any to set some goals, and to check in on last year’s to see exactly how far I am from being a perfect human being. Here’s my plan for 2016.......
29 December, 2015“WERRRNT!” exclaimed my three-year-old son Henry to a press box full of suited up off-ice officials at the Dec. 11 Adirondack Thunder hockey game at the Glens Falls Civic Center. Henry was dressed as the Civic Center’s scoreboard. Let me rewind: Henry has a history......
17 December, 2015My firstborn son Henry, now 3, was breech, and born via scheduled C-section. I was devastated. I had been practicing HypnoBirthing for months, listening to birth affirmations like “I turn my birthing over to my baby and my body. My body knows exactly what to......
19 November, 2015“There, there,” my three-year-old son Henry said, patting my hair. I was crying all over his cheek. He’d just suggested that I throw the pillow out of the bed and use him as a pillow instead, and so I was tucked up under one of......
30 October, 2015Henry loves his daycare, but lately we’ve struggled with getting him there in the morning because he wants to stay home with us instead. This morning I called his bluff and said fine, he didn’t have to go, but we had to get to work.......
21 September, 2015Today was Henry’s first day with a new teacher in charge of his classroom. His former teacher Marissa moved to California. He knew his new teacher very well, but it was still a change. I don’t know if that affected him at all or if......
01 September, 2015Though it’s still too early to tell for absolute certain, during a recent ultrasound at St. Peter’s, the doctor guessed that my second child would also be a son. His guess three years ago about my firstborn son Henry was spot on. First, I felt relieved that the baby......
18 May, 2015I had some feedback on my superwoman post that hinted about Henry’s days being too much for a two-year-old. So today, a “Mommy-Henry” Sunday (Cory’s working 12-hour day shifts this weekend), we just stayed in and hung out. It reminded me of why I like......
18 January, 2015So there are definitely days where I feel like I’m failing at everything because I’m trying to do too much. But there are other days where I’m all “I got this” and while it’s far from easy, I’m really freaking proud of all that I’m......
14 January, 2015Tonight Henry hammed it up for the Shirt Factory Tenants Association holiday party. He served himself a carrot with hummus from the table and then got me one and dipped one for Dolores Thomson. He pulled up a chair to sit at the table and......
03 January, 2015We’ve been trying to conceive Baby Two since February. I’ve been trying to get to a yoga class at Lemon Tree since I moved in to my Advokate office here at the Shirt Factory since August. One of those things finally happened today. Spoiler: I’m......
24 November, 2014As kids, my little sister and I liked to dance to oldies tunes and Disney songs. We’d put on shows for my parents and give them tickets to our performances. I sometimes danced around by myself. More so in the dancing-by-myself moments, I’d grab a......
11 November, 20146:00 a.m. Woke up and had coffee in bed thanks to my wonderful husband. Henry was the perfect boy and read books in his crib while I showered and got ready in my businesslady outfit and darker lipstick than made sense in daylight. Then I......
05 November, 2014Last year, Halloween was easy. We took baby Henry trick-or-treating on our street in upstate New York, and my husband and I ate all the candy! Henry was only one year old, and we gave him a little dark chocolate and he was happy. Now we’re......
20 October, 2014Henry’s so good. It doesn’t make for funny stories so I don’t often write about how good he is in my Family Time column, but he’s really just so good. Today after dinner as I was putzing in the kitchen, I heard him playing the......
14 October, 2014I envy the calm, lilting tone I hear some mothers use. “No thank you!” they recite, gently guiding their child away from climbing the radiator around the perimeter of the children’s room at the library that all kids gravitate toward. “We’ll get them at the......
09 October, 2014Born in 1982, I’m on the cusp between Generation X and the Milliennials, which TIME Magazine recently called the “Me Me Me” generation of lazy, entitled narcissists. Raised by hippies, I did grow up in the era of Mr. Rogers, talking about my feelings. I......
25 September, 2014My parents used to sing the Rolling Stones song, “You can’t always get what you want,” to me when I was little, and I hated it with a fiery passion. I get where they were coming from now that I’m parenting a two-year-old, though. In......
11 September, 2014My son Henry turned two on August 22. On the eve of his first birthday, I went through his tiny baby clothes and heaved profound guttural sobs over the loss of my little newborn son. I remember him seeming so big compared to his first......
22 August, 2014I often think to myself, “One of these days I’m going to look up some charming ideas on Pinterest and spend the day with my son Henry making bumblebees out of pool noodles and painting every surface in the house with chalkboard paint.” I place......
14 August, 2014We have some outrageous family lore on both sides of my family tree, like how my uncle Johnny ended up in the upstairs apartment painting the walls for the tenants when he was three, and how my dad at 18 months toddled across the railroad......
09 August, 2014We like to take our toddler Henry to the Monday night City Band concerts in City Park. But I’d be lying if I said he peacefully enjoys the music. While he listens, he also pokes his fingers in the irrigation control valve covers, smacks the......
25 July, 2014Last month at my 15th high school reunion in Woodstock, Vermont, I had a chat with my class’s valedictorian. She’s nowhere to be found on Facebook, so this conversation was a genuine catch-up — that is to say, we didn’t have to pretend we had......
17 July, 2014Does “AXYDLBAAXR = LONGFELLOW” mean anything to you? In a cryptogram puzzle, each letter stands for a different letter of the alphabet. I don’t like to brag, but I’ve been doing newspaper “Cryptoquotes” with my mom since I was a kid, and I’m a real......
03 July, 2014My brain is like a cobwebby attic where I spend most of my time labeling boxes of things and putting them on shelves. That, or making sprawling lists of things to do or remember. Or just chasing rascally squirrels out with a broom. When I......
19 June, 2014I get freaked out about branded products with chemicals and additives. I realize they’re formulated to do a good job, but I saw one too many articles on Facebook about potential carcinogens and rolled up my sleeves to make my own deodorant and toothpaste from......
14 May, 2014“No, no, no, we don’t throw our food on the floor,” I find myself saying for the zillionth time, wagging my finger. I thought that when my toddler Henry mastered the fine art of cutlery he would stop flinging pasta all over the place, but......
08 May, 2014It’s 9:32 a.m. and in the rearview mirror on the way back from dropping Henry at daycare I’m eyeballing the tumbleweed on my head that is supposed to be a ponytail. Can I swing a third day without a shower? Will my 11 a.m. client......
08 May, 2014Some of you out there might be headed to a baby shower or gearing up for a birthday party, and so I wanted to share with you Henry’s top 10 all time favorite toys. You’ll win some major kudos with the kid of your choice......
14 April, 2014I shielded infant Henry from the wall-to-wall TV screens at Recovery Grill as if they would blast into his brain and rot it on impact. I’d nervously twitch when my parents wanted to FaceTime. The American Association for Pediatrics says on their website, “Television and......
14 April, 2014This was written as a Family Time article for The Chronicle, but I decided to withdraw it before it was published. I’ll share it with you here, though. * * * I don’t really know what to say when my 18-month-old son Henry points to......
13 February, 2014I wrote this on September 3 and emailed it to myself. I’m newly vegan, though I have slipped up here and there – I’m trying my best. This piece of writing has been sitting in my inbox for more than a week, just simmering. I......
13 September, 2013Tomorrow I turn 31. I just feel so tired lately. It could be because I haven’t been eating right. It’s hard to find time, and I’ve been picky lately. Skipping meals. It’s no good, because then I just feel drained, like I ran out of......
14 July, 2013Tonight, rocking Henry after he had fallen asleep, the vague realization of the smell of Henry’s sunblock sent me reeling. Before I knew it I was crying and holding him so tight. Today was a typical Very Busy Day in that there were a lot......
21 June, 2013There’s nothing like a baby laugh to melt away the day’s stress. Today was one hell of a day. Just non-stop juggling at work. I got home at 7:30 and was still working via text and email, during dinner; hardly a minute to look the......
12 April, 2013Tonight Henry fell asleep in my arms, nursing before bed in the rocking chair in his bedroom. There’s nothing unusual about that. It happens most every night. But tonight. Tonight I looked down at my sleeping baby in my arms and realized how big he......
09 April, 2013Man, my head is spinning about what to do with food. For six months we’ve had it pretty easy with breastfeeding, and now starting solid foods is boggling my mind. Like an issue of Women’s World where you’re told to eat cranberries for your bladder......
27 February, 2013I had something like a panic attack in the grocery store just now. Let me back up. I went to the Glens Falls Farmer’s Market on Saturday for, embarrassingly, the first time in a long while. My problem is that I can’t get my act......
24 February, 2013Parenting feels like a train I just can’t catch. The familiar scene where the hero races up on his horse and stre-e-e-etches out for the railing on the caboose to grab hold and triumphantly board the train. It’s going so fast, cacti whooshing by in......
19 February, 2013I had read about how background reading aloud is good for a child’s developing brain in the opposite way that background TV is bad for him, so I picked a wordy book off the shelf to read to Henry today while he played on the......
03 February, 2013Make your own caption… http://memegenerator.net/Coffeehenry/embed?languageCode=en&watermark=austinavon.com Share & Follow!...
29 January, 2013Yesterday we had Henry’s Gram and Grampa over for dinner, along with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Mindy and Great-Aunt Sandy. Gram and Grampa are heading to Florida for two months. I kept so busy with dinner and visiting that the bitterness of the occasion didn’t......
28 January, 2013I hope to raise Henry with a healthy, educated view of stuff. It’s tricky. My own relationship with stuff is conflicted. I like to hold onto things that trigger memories, but I also don’t want anything new.The Story of Stuff films and book have really......
27 January, 2013As I read yet another post on Facebook about abortion laws, the thought occurs to me again. I try to enjoy the moment. Live in right now, where everything is lovely, people he knows are bursting with love for him and the only pain he......
25 January, 2013Henry is bundled up next to me on the couch. He’s looking at me and sucking his pacifier. I know he’s sleepy because he’s been dozing on and off since 7. It’s 8:30 now and we usually put him to bed at 9. And this......
23 January, 2013A friend posted on Facebook asking what her friends did today to make the world a better place. I wrote: “Made Christmas cookies with my family. Raising Henry to be a loving, empathetic, soulful creature who is secure, generous, kind, confident and self-reliant is my......
16 December, 2012We have a very cute son. Henry John Charles Austin-Avon. He was born Wednesday, August 22nd at 10:05AM. He’s healthy, he’s happy. Mom’s healthy, we’re happy. We’re having a good time. A lot has happened over the past seven weeks. A lot. We’ve grown, heR...
11 October, 2012So this isn’t a happy-mushy thing to talk about, but it’s kind of all-consuming for me right now. Baby is breech. When the ultrasound tech told us that at 32 weeks, I thought eh, so what. We have time. But the OBGYNs said weeeell, you......
17 August, 2012This little dude is breech. We’ve tried everything: Inversions both on the ironing board and frontward off the couch, acupuncture, moxibustion, crawling around on the floor, bouncing on an exercise ball, the chiropractic Webster Technique, “sifting”, hypnosis, playing music and shi...
09 August, 2012Oh! And here are pictures from our 32-week ultrasound earlier this week. Baby A-A is breech right now so I’ve been standing on my head and Auntie Erika took me for acupuncture and moxibustion… Of course, Baby A-A is a big rascal and will do......
09 July, 2012Running through the background of videos of my first few months on earth and all my childhood memories were the tunes from a black cassette tape with Kate’s Birthing Tape written in my dad’s penmanship on it. It’s a mix that my parents made together......
09 July, 2012Whoa. Only two months until the projected due date. We know the baby could come at anytime and certainly within a week or two of the due date (either earlier or later). Anyway, we first started the whole pregnancy adventure last summer. In August/September of......
22 June, 2012What’s worse than finding a dead mosquito on your delicious homemade grilled pickle-olive-ricotta pizza whilst playing cribbage on the porch? Finding half a dead mosquito on your delicious homemade grilled pickle-olive-ricotta pizza. Why I’m writing about it here? My gagging and dry heav...
10 June, 2012Today was one for the history books. I asked my grandfather Poppy if he would take me to the Homestead, the house that his great-grandfather Nathan Austin built in Upstate New York, where Poppy used to spend his summers as a boy. He’d take the......
20 May, 2012this is for the grandmother who walked a thousand miles on broken glass to find that single patch of grass to plant a family tree where the fruit would grow to laugh – Andrea Gibson, Say Yes This weekend I am going to Alfred, New......
14 May, 2012Peanut and I had a lovely Mother’s Day with both of his grandmothers, my Nonnie and Auntie Jo (who is herself a grandmother-to-be)! We went to the buffet at South Station and I ate too many cream puffs and chocolate-dipped strawberries. This morning I had......
14 May, 2012Seemed like a good time to add some pictures. Last weekend was the Shirt Factory’s open house so I spent some time in the studio – the first stretch of time I’ve spent there since the holiday open house back in December. Below are some......
11 May, 2012Last night Cory and I saw the baby move for the first time. Earlier in the day, Grandma Avon felt him kick for the first time. Seeing him move was crazy. Like in the cartoons where somebody’s banging on the door and the whole door......
07 May, 2012This has been a fun ride so far. Nothing makes a person reminisce and appreciate the past more than a significant future change. Kate and I have had a good past. We’ve had a lot of fun and have made many great memories. We make......
23 April, 2012Wrote a blog post on Advokate’s website about finding balance. Share & Follow!...
20 April, 2012My sister asked me this morning some questions about when in your life you stop being grossed out or scared by pregnancy and childbirth. I don’t know if I ever stopped! But my answer was something like this: So yes, it is completely weird that......
19 April, 2012Grandparents are an important part of Baby Austin-Avon’s life. They are caring, generous, silly people. After many shots of them making weird faces, we landed this nice one. Of course it’s blurry, though. This was taken at Coffee Planet in Glens Falls after yesterday’s ultrasound.....
18 April, 2012Mom Austin-Avon is awesome. Will ya check out this snazzy new website she created just for us! Oh, the endless possibilities… what a nice way to share our memories with family and our son-to-be. I’m excited! Share & Follow!...
18 April, 2012Yesterday we saw Baby Austin-Avon’s face in a 3-D/4-D ultrasound. What a beautiful boy he is! Share & Follow!...
18 April, 2012