This is going to be one of those sappy posts. Just thought you deserved a fair warning...
When Ava was born, one of our neighbors gave us a few baby gifts, among them a pink onesie with the words "Faith, Hope, and Love" on it. It's a 6-9 month size, so Ava is finally able to wear it. The reason I bring it up is simply because every time I see her in it, I can't get over how perfect those three words are to describe our daughter:
Faith--because when we encountered obstacles in the trying-to-have-kids thing, I had to have faith that there was a greater plan at work than any that I could make; and no matter what, things were going to work out for the best. Faith that someday, every bit of frustration was going to be worth it.
Hope--even when I was able to accept that I was not in control and was able to let go of the anger and anxiety, I was hoping for the best.
Love--Ava is without a doubt the greatest joy and love of our lives. We don't love her more than each other, but in a way that is so completely different, it's altogether amazing and indescribable. I start getting impatient every day after lunch because I just can't wait to see my baby again and when I do see her, I can't take my eyes off of her. I want her to stay little forever but at the same time, I love watching her learn new things and enter new phases of her life. I can hardly even remember my life without her. Was it worth the frustration, and the pain (physical and emotional), and if I could, would I do it all over again? Absolutely.
Ava at three months
There's a lot of movement right now...in addition to moving to a new house in February, Ava has started to move forward--she started to crawl on Saturday!! It was so cool, seeing her finally figure out all the movements and put them together, giggling the whole time. We caught it on video and I'd like to say I'd post it but I'm not that ambitious...at least not for now! She's still a little bit unsteady but will get up on her hands and knees and slowly make her way towards whatever catches her interest, usually a toy or a cat or a speck on the carpet that I have to go grab so she doesn't stick it in her mouth. I can't adequately describe what it's like to see her go from one stage to the next, but it's amazing and also a little sad to see her losing her "babyness" a little bit at a time. Parenthood is frustrating, exhausting, scary, and without a doubt the best thing that's ever happened to us. :o )
Speaking of frustrating. We went to the doctor YET AGAIN today and this time we're going to try treating Ava for allergies, since whatever she has isn't in her lungs (no pneumonia) and doesn't seem to be a cold. As much as it stinks if she's got allergies, at least it'll be something common and treatable. We'll see. I was worried about getting her to take the Zyrtec (grape-flavored, how awful) because more often than not, she gags on medicine and ends up spitting it up along with whatever she's eaten in the past week, and perhaps even things she hasn't eaten yet. So, I mixed it with her veggies at dinner and she never even noticed. Excellent!!
That's about it for now, I just looked at the time and we need to get a bath going! I'm coming down with a nasty cold myself so as soon as Ava is down I'm showering and going to bed. NOT FUN.
Well it's a bit sudden, but...we're moving! Okay, the decision is sudden but the move itself won't be--we're going to have a house built and closing is currently set for Feb. 27 of next year. So this is what happened...
We started looking around at houses just for the heck of it a few months ago...we have kind of wanted to move for a variety of reasons but we didn't HAVE to move so we just started poking around to see what we could find. Turns out not much, because we're picky--we don't want to be right on top of our neighbors, we'd like a decent chunk of land. We want an established neighborhood, but we also want new construction so we don't have to spend the time and money cleaning up someone else's idea of interior design. We want a homeowner's association, neighbors who care about their property, and preferably a neighborhood pool although that was not a deal-breaker. Anyhow, mortgage rates started to go up and Craig got worried that if we didn't do something now, we wouldn't be able to afford to do something down the road, so he started talking to a realtor just to see what our house was worth, what's out there, etc. Well--this guy works with a lot of builders, buys and sells a lot of properties and lo and behold, he had exactly what we were looking for. There's a beautiful neighborhood up in Youngsville (about 15 min from our current house, in the direction of my job, I'll be closer in miles but about the same distance time wise) that's been going up for awhile so it's well-occupied and the houses are beautiful--there are a few left for sale and a few empty lots for sale as well. It's only about 60 houses, wooded, and almost all of them are nicely landscaped and kept up by the owners. There's a homeowner's association and a pool. So, we found a really nice 1-acre wooded lot and a house to put on it--they wouldn't come down on the price so we negotiated by getting them to throw in a bunch of crazy upgrades...it's a custom builder, so it's got all kinds of nice details and we get to pick out everything: paint, flooring, appliances, fixtures, etc. How could we pass it up?? It's EVERYTHING we were looking for! Not to mention, this is the kind of house you stay in forever (or at least until you retire and move to the beach... ;o) So, we signed all the papers with the builders yesterday and next week we square things away with the bank, and building will commence shortly thereafter. YAY! I have to say it IS a little sad to see the "for sale" sign in our yard..oh well.
That's about it for now! We're all doing quite well...of course now that our house is going to be on the market, it has to look perfect at all times in case the realtor wants to show it. Bleh.
Six month pictures from July :o)
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As you probably noticed from the ticker, Ava is now seven months old!! I can't believe it's going by so quickly--I'm already thinking about her first birthday party. (No, it's NEVER too early to think about these things...) She's babbling away like crazy and is always making us laugh with new noises and faces...she still sleeps well (naps aren't as consistently good but she NEVER fusses at bedtime) with the exception of crying at approx. 4am EVERY SINGLE NIGHT...but I think I have it figured out--she's uncomfortable for one reason or another. Sometimes she gets up on all fours in her sleep and can't figure out how to lay back down again, sometimes the covers are off and she's cold, etc. The good thing is that as soon as I go in and fix whatever is wrong she drops right back to sleep. She's almost crawling--gets up like a pro, can move her knees, but the hands don't seem to know what to do. She still has a cold and I'm considering calling the doctor and telling them to either do something or refer me to somebody who can. Poor kid has had a million checkups concerning her tailbone, kidneys, and hip joint--all of which appear to be fine--but nobody will do anything about what is REALLY wrong with her! It's extremely frustrating.
Anyhow--a quick update of the week. Monday we stayed home from school because Ava had a really rough night the night before, she was up most of the time, screaming with terrible gas pains. I didn't want to drag her to day care after that so we stayed home...good thing because she randomly came down with a fever of 102.2! What the heck? I really don't understand kids and fevers but luckily it wasn't serious and some Tylenol brought it right down. The rest of the week went smoothly except for me having a small meltdown Wednesday evening...I was just feeling really guilty about leaving Ava all day so I could go to work. I still think it's the best thing for our family and she's doing great, but every now and then I miss her more than usual and break down a little bit. Yesterday Aunt Kathy and Uncle Chuck came over for our (3rd) farewell meal, but this time they are REALLY leaving. :o( Going to Arizona in about a week. We're really going to miss having them around! Ava had fun hanging out but it stinks she's too young to remember it. Anyhow, this morning has been my morning on baby duty and it's been wonderful. She woke up at 4am of course, then again at 6:00 to eat--went down afterwards for about an hour and woke up so I brought her in to bed with me and she slept for another 1-1 1/2 hours! It was raining outside and there is nothing better than snuggling in bed and dozing while it rains outside. When she woke up for real, we sat on the porch in our pajamas and watched the rain. Now, she's bouncing in the Einstein jumper and I'm about to get her breakfast ready.
Lastly--if anybody knows of a photo site that sucks considerably less than Bubbleshare, could you clue me in? I'm trying to post photos but it's being a piece of crap and not working. UGH!!!!!
There's been a lot going on around here so updating has been the last thing on my mind! I wanted to wait until I could upload a few recent pictures but that may not happen. The new school year is getting off to a good start, but I am so tired I can't stand it...I've been either alone during the week or doing 90% of the work myself, and it is NOT working out very well. (For me, anyhow!) Anyhow, in Ava news--she's still fighting off yet another cold, and I'm going to choke the next doctor and/or nurse who tells me to elevate her head, use a humidifier, and use the saline/aspirator on her nose. THAT POOR KID HAS BEEN ELEVATED, HUMIDIFIED, AND ASPIRATED HALF TO DEATH FOR ALMOST HER ENTIRE TIME ON EARTH!!!! Clearly, it isn't helping! I'm really not buying that we can do organ transplants and create super-awesome artificial limbs for people but can't do ANYTHING for a baby with a cold. In spite of this she's still pretty happy and enjoying trying out new foods every few days--her menu includes rice cereal, apples, pears, peaches, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, and green beans. She likes all of them. We had bananas for awhile but she didn't like them as much and they made her really gassy, even when we gave her Mylicon, so forget it. I hate bananas too so maybe it's just proof she's my kid. ;o) Anyhow, she has five bottles a day and two of those bottles have a meal with them--cereal and fruit in the morning, two veggies, cereal, and fruit at night. I think I'm allowed to start adding meat but I don't really want to go there yet....I'll wait until she's at least nine months I think. Same for yogurt.
Also--she is going to crawl any day now! In just this past week she's gone from kind of being able to tuck her legs up under her to getting up on all fours and staying like that for awhile. She can also sit up well when someone puts her in a sitting position, and really enjoys touching and rubbing things with different textures--I should probably get her some of those touchy-feely books.
That's about it for now! In other news, MJ finally had her baby last weekend, so Ava's future best friend is now outside of the womb. ;o) We were lucky to get to meet baby Sophia in the hospital, and mom, dad and baby are doing well at home. Congrats to them!!!
Last week was teacher week, which is why there was a severe lack of posting. Ava went back to day care full time and I headed back to work full time, although I don't really count it because it was just teacher inservice, which means meetings and lesson planning and setting up the classroom but no students. I usually go into psycho workaholic mode but because Craig was back on the road for the first time following his mono episode, I had to end the day at the regular time and come home to take care of Ava. Not that I mind--in some ways, it's a good thing that I'm forced to put work down and come home because otherwise I go a little crazy. (I told you--workaholic.) Anyhow there are a few loose ends to tie up so as soon as Craig wakes up to watch Ava I can go back and take care of them. Yesterday was my morning to sleep...today is his. Anyhow, I think this year will probably be good...or at least get off to a good start. From what I hear the kids have lower academic skills but are pretty sweet and they do try hard, which is all I can ask of them as a teacher. I'm so easy--if you do your work, try hard, and behave, we get along fine. If you don't, then we will have a problem. I don't understand what's so complicated about that to some kids.
ANYHOW--I got Ava's six month pictures yesterday and in spite of how much she freaked out at the photo shoot they did turn out pretty cute! I'll try to scan and post them but it may not be for awhile, since things are really busy around here with work and such. I think she's fighting a cold (and luckily seems to be winning) because she goes between having fussy sleep and sleeping like a ROCK. Three hour morning nap yesterday!! The rest of the naps were bad but in all fairness, we were dragging her to the store, Cheesecake Factory, etc. Last night she slept nearly 11 hours, much to my relief, and now she's back down after only about 1 1/2 hours of awake time which is unusual. Usually this is what happens:
6:00 or 6:30 am--eat
Go back to sleep until about 8:00
Awake and playing until 10:00
10:00--baby cereal and fruit, and a bottle
10:30--morning nap
We'll see. I would like to go to the mall after I work to take advantage of the Loft gift card Craig gave me for our anniversary + the 20% off coupon from Jen + the huge sale at Loft but who knows what will happen!
