High summer in Wisconsin, and the weather is perfect for being outdoors: sunny, not too hot, mild breezes. I was dying to pick up and find some woods to hike through.
Donald, meantime, wanted nothing other than to relax alone with his final volume of the Harry Potter series, which had arrived in its special muggle-proof cardboard box from Amazon.com in yesterday's mail. The publishing event of the decade, at least.
So Ulysses and I ... more »
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Sunday, July 22
by
duonexus
on Sun 22 Jul 2007 06:44 PM CDT
Wednesday, May 30
by
duonexus
on Wed 30 May 2007 07:34 AM CDT
New word last night.
Our living room couch is a convertible futon sofa. It folds flat into a futon bed. Last year, U developed the dangerous habit of climbing up to the top of the couch to sit and hang out. We couldn't get him to stop. So we folded the couch flat, into its bed shape, and decided that would be the configuration until he was mature enough to be safer. On Monday, earlier ... more » Monday, March 5
by
duonexus
on Mon 05 Mar 2007 06:49 PM CST
Ulysses drew this picture on his magnetic doodle pad, then took it to show Donald, saying, "Fish!" So Donald snapped a photo, and sent me Internet chat at work to tell me about it. I was so excited, I told everyone in the room, and I couldn't wait to get home and see my little boy's first picture!more » Saturday, February 17
Saturday, November 11
by
duonexus
on Sat 11 Nov 2006 11:19 PM CST
My friend Michelle came over to celebrate Slava with us today, and we cooked and feasted into the late hours. Michelle is fast becoming our Serbian holiday co-celebrant de rigeur -- she's already come for two Serbian Christmases in a row.
November 14 is my family Slava -- a Serbian custom celebrating the patron saint of the family. In my case, we have two, Sveti Kuzman i Damian (Cosmas and Damian). Slava originated way back ... more » Sunday, June 11
Thursday, June 1
Monday, May 1
by
duonexus
on Mon 01 May 2006 07:04 PM CDT
Ulysses's latest favorite thing to do is the big sneeze. He tilts his head back, opens his mouth and preps expertly with a series of stacatto inhalation-exhalations: "Ahh-a, ahh-a, ahh-a..." His head bounces and forward and back, just a little, with each one. Then there's the big pause, as he faces the ceiling, his back arched. Then the denoument: "Aaaa-TOO!" He looks up at me with a grin. "Aah-choo!" I echo, and we laugh together at the drama.
"Aaaa-too! Aaa-TOO!" The game continues. Ulysses throws out the faux sneezes, one after the other. It's easy to miss how carefully he's ... more » Thursday, February 16
by
duonexus
on Thu 16 Feb 2006 08:52 PM CST
2nd birthday Photo albumUlysses turned two today. He doesn't know about birthdays -- not as far as we know -- but he has been carrying around a tiny little board book called "The Birthday" for several days. One of his favorite pictures is a closeup of the birthday cake. U napped (conveniently and miraculously) while more » Thursday, November 24
by
duonexus
on Thu 24 Nov 2005 10:50 PM EST
This was our first Thanksgiving at home together as a family. (It was
Ulysses's second TG; last year we went to a dinner at James Reeb
Unitarian Universalist Congregation.)
Don and I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner at home together plenty of times, and even had people over. But somehow, because of Ulysses, it was a family thing. Even though all he ate was a ring of canned cranberry jelly at dinner and some of my homemade pumpkin pie later, at dessert. The food was incredible! The roast turkey with olive oil and fresh marjoram and laurel was the best turkey ... more » Monday, October 17
by
duonexus
on Mon 17 Oct 2005 09:43 AM EDT
Today is the first day of my new job. I am so excited. I feel like --
somehow -- it's my first real job out of college. You know, that
expression people use: "my first real job out of college."
So what have I been doing for the past twenty-plus years? Good question. Well, let's see, there were several years of unstructured adventure, including that handmade jewelry business that involved street vending and town festivals. And college student unions. And beloved Jazz Fest in dear, magical New Orleans. Also those years at the ashram. Somewhere in there was the performance ... more » Thursday, September 22
by
duonexus
on Thu 22 Sep 2005 08:35 PM EDT
Ulysses's first Happy Meal. There's a milestone for ya.
On a day where there were many occasions to take him out of the car and put him back in, he was exceedingly miserable with getting in. We'd drive a little and then have some reason to get out, and then putting him in to get to the next place was a screaming, tortured nightmare. It didn't help that his midday nap had been cut short by a soaking wet diaper and he never managed to drift back into it again.Finally, errands out of the way -- and more » Sunday, September 11
by
duonexus
on Sun 11 Sep 2005 08:31 PM EDT
Ulysses was pushing his toy shopping cart across the bumpy lawn towards
the sidewalk. Not easy. With about a third of the way yet to go, he
backed away from the cart. Then he reached up towards me, a cue for my
hand. He grasped my wrist and placed my hand, palm down, on the cart
handle. He made little high-pitched grunts of dissatisfaction until I
was stationed properly behind the cart, both hands gripping the bar.
Then he walked behind me, placed his hands on the backs of my knees, and pushed. Squeals of delight as I began to ... more » Sunday, September 4
by
duonexus
on Sun 04 Sep 2005 11:04 PM EDT
Today we all went to the Union Cab picnic at Demetral Field. The
candidate's forum was at 1 pm. Don is running for the Board, so he was
there for that. He made his statement and answered questions with the
other seven candidates. That lasted about an hour and a half. For an
hour and a half, I chased Ulysses around the Demetral Field picnic
shelter and kept him off the hot grills, out of the dog poop, and away
from Don's lap.
Every time Don started to talk, U screamed with happiness and ran straight for him. I would ... more » Monday, August 8
by
duonexus
on Mon 08 Aug 2005 03:03 PM EDT
Ulysses was working at one his favorite tasks, scrubbing the toilet
in the front bathroom. I left him happily at it for a minute or two,
but when I came back to see how he was doing, he had added a new
element.
He looked joyfully up at me as I approached, glad to show me what he'd done: he'd put his life-sized toy biscuit into the water, and it bobbed gaily in the bowl as he plunged the toilet brush up and down. But his pride quickly dissolved into confusion and shock. Instead of praising his cleverness, I cried ... more » Wednesday, July 27
by
duonexus
on Wed 27 Jul 2005 03:52 PM EDT
Today around noon at the oak-shaded playgrounds of Lake View Elementary
School, Ulysses for the first time showed cognizance of the rungs of
the jungle gym. One had curved rungs along a concave arc. He stood both
feet on the first rung and looked towards the next, about the same
height from the ground. He stepped off onto the ground and walked to
the next rung, and slung his legs around it, looking to the next rung,
a little higher up.
He spent some minutes contemplating the rungs and threading his body under and around them, sometimes stopping to crouch ... more » Monday, July 4
by
duonexus
on Mon 04 Jul 2005 10:30 AM EDT
This is Ulysses's favorite picture. It came from Ocean Meir at James Reeb Unitarian Universalist Congregation in May, along with a thank-you card she sent me for making baklava for the month's International Lunch, Greek theme. You can see where he's affectionately sucked on the edge of it. He carries it around in the seat compartment of his Sesame Street rider. Every now and then he takes it out and holds it up to admire, looking at the faces of the three animals and saying his word that means "animal": a baby-pitched "Woof, woof!" more »
Tuesday, June 7
by
duonexus
on Tue 07 Jun 2005 09:08 AM EDT
Hot, hot, hot! This Wisconsin summer has finally begun in earnest.
Yesterday evening, Ulysses was desperate for a drink of water, but
unfortunately we couldn't figure that out before first offering hot
dogs, crackers, the breast, Children's Tylenol (in case it was teethin
pain), all the games we could think of, a Teletubbies episodes, play
session with the ferrets, etc. Finally I thought to offer a soda bottle
of water. When he gulped down half of it, and then instantly quit
screaming, we knew it was the right choice! It was a hot and sunny day
and we spent most ... more »
Wednesday, June 1
by
duonexus
on Wed 01 Jun 2005 04:25 PM EDT
After going out to the Coppertop for breakfast to celebrate our wedding
anniversary, we stopped at a playground we noticed on Segoe Road.
A boy of about three ran over to meet us, smiling. He approached Ulysses, who was smiling at him, too. As they neared each other, they slowed down and then stopped, their faces about a foot apart. "Hi, baby! Hi!" said the boy. Both faces were lit with curiosity and eagerness. I marvelled at how naturally adept they each seemed to be at appropriate social interaction, the way the boy had stopped at a distance that was ... more » Thursday, May 19
by
duonexus
on Thu 19 May 2005 06:22 PM EDT
It started with trying to go outside. Oh, how Ulysses wanted to get out
that screen door to the yard. I decided to distract with him the
package that had just arrived via UPS from LaserMonks. I made a big
show of opening the cardboard box, and I succeeded in attracting his
interest. Whew.
Then I saw what was in the box. Dozens of styrofoam peanuts were stuffed around the ink cartridges. Looking exactly like snack treats. Uh-oh. I quickly brushed the peanuts into an empty Amazon.com box that was nearby on the floor and brought back the LaserMonks box. ... more » Wednesday, April 13
by
duonexus
on Wed 13 Apr 2005 09:36 PM EDT
It finally happened -- the big milestone! Ulysses took his first
unassisted steps this evening. We were sitting around the living room,
watching TV and kicking back after a long, rough day (me: the office;
Don: an 11-hour lone stretch of childcare) when Don said, "Look! Look!
He's walking! By himself!"
Sure enough, U was making his way across the room, one stagger at a time. In one hand he clutched a Medela breast pump bottle, still attached to the 4" wide flared part that fits over the breast while pumping. He was pressing the flared horn against his face ... more » Friday, January 7
Thursday, January 6
Monday, December 27
Monday, November 29
Wednesday, November 17
by
duonexus
on Wed 17 Nov 2004 06:24 PM EST
I posted a new photo to AmmasVisit.
Tuesday, October 19
Thursday, October 14
by
duonexus
on Thu 14 Oct 2004 10:24 PM CDT
Finally, for the first time since Ulysses was born, I got let out of
the house without the baby ... more »
by
duonexus
on Thu 14 Oct 2004 11:15 PM EDT
Thursday, September 30
by
duonexus
on Thu 30 Sep 2004 03:57 PM EDT
When we drove down to Missouri on Friday, Ulysses was in the rear-facing infant seat. By the time we were on the way back the following Monday, he was in a sit-up chair facing forward. Our little boy is growing up! more » Monday, September 6
by
duonexus
on Mon 06 Sep 2004 10:35 PM EDT
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about us
In alphabetical order, we are:
b. 1963 from New Jersey and Georgia Ulysses Eugene V Kovach b. 2004 from Madison, Wisconsin Vesna Vuynovich Kovach "blogger in chief" b. 1962 from Baltimore Search
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Ulysses drew this picture on his magnetic doodle pad, then took it to show Donald, saying, "Fish!" So Donald snapped a photo, and sent me Internet chat at work to tell me about it. I was so excited, I told everyone in the room, and I couldn't wait to get home and see my little boy's first picture!
VIEW SLIDESHOW
Ulysses held up a toy T-Rex -- a dark purple, realistically styled, suede-ish critter about 4" high, once merchandise from my street vendor days in Philly -- and said, all throaty and gutteral,
Today is our 14th wedding anniversary! It's been a long road from that June morning in 1992 that we drove to Las Vegas, six days after we met, and got hitched by 
On a day where there were many occasions to take him out of the car and put him back in, he was exceedingly miserable with getting in. We'd drive a little and then have some reason to get out, and then putting him in to get to the next place was a screaming, tortured nightmare. It didn't help that his midday nap had been cut short by a soaking wet diaper and he never managed to drift back into it again.
This is Ulysses's favorite picture. It came from Ocean Meir at
...
To celebrate Don's birthday, we went to Poppa's Gyro's on ...