Thought I'd start out with a couple of pictures--both were taken on my phone this week. In the first one, Ava is crawling under the end table...she likes to crawl under/behind things now. In the second one she's desperately trying to destroy everything on the coffee table. (Please note: our coffee table is now completely bare.)
Anyhow, as you can tell from the title of the post--we are now on fall track-out! Even though I have a good group of students this year and I do enjoy my job, this track dragged on like never before--I think it's because I look forward the breaks so much because I can spend a lot of time with Ava. I've also needed the rest, physically and mentally...there is a lot going on here. Let's see....
**We are going to be quitting day care. The situation with the new teachers not having any clue how to care for Ava just got worse and worse: they never filled out her paperwork correctly so I never knew if/when she got diaper changes, or when she napped, or how much she ate. On Monday she had an unexplained bruise on her face, they seem to think she fell in or around a crib. That's fine--I expect a lot of bumps and bruises in this pre-walking phase--but to not have any idea what happened and to not have an incident report for me, even though I requested one TWICE, is not acceptable. She has come home with poop still on her from previous diaper changes--three times. She had the wrong diaper on one time (A SIZE ONE!), and an extremely tight diaper when she already had a terrible rash. She's filthy when I pick her up, too. ANYHOW--a former co-worker of mine (I worked with her for four years) now stays at home with her two little kids (including a girl Ava's age) and has offered to baby-sit, so we're going to meet up and work something out over-track out and hopefully Ava will be going there after track-out! It will be such a relief to know she's being well cared for again.
**We've not sold our house, in fact, we showed it today for just the second time since we put it on the market. However, we signed a deal with the realtor that he'll buy our house if it doesn't sell by the time we're ready to close on the one that we are building so that's good!! There are loads of paperwork but hopefully in another week we'll be able to commence with the actual building.
**Ava's 8th tooth poked through her gums this morning--with four on top and four on bottom, her mouth is starting to look a little more normal! No more vampire fangs.
**Our daughter is now completely mobile, crawling around and pulling herself up and walking around furniture like a crazy woman. She likes making monster noises at us---"RARRR! RAAAAAARRRRRRR!!--and has tons of energy, though she still seems to take pretty good naps and sleeps about 9 hours a night. (For some reason though, she slept a solid 11 1/2 last night, awesome!!)
**In less than a week, my mom will be here to visit--yay! We're very excited to see her, and Ava will have a lot of fun with her grandma! This also means that Craig and I will be going out on a real date, the first one since....I don't know. It's been quite some time now. We're going to a nicer restaurant than our last date, which featured lots of other people's screaming children. American Express sent Craig a $50 gift certificate for Ruth's Chris, a really nice steak place (even though I totally don't understand the name)....all he has to do is pay for the meal with the AMEX card. I think they sent it as one of those rewards for being a good cardholder, since he uses it for all of his business expenses. At any rate, we will enjoy a great meal for a discounted price. Can't beat that!!! I'm guessing we'll probably try to catch a movie as well, but we'll have to see what's out.
**I have big plans to read a few books (I have a Koontz, an Evanovich, and at least one Patterson to catch up on), and to work on my scrapbook, over track-out.
That's about it here! We're (mostly) healthy and happy, and now that the day care issue has been all but settled there's little to complain about. :)
But, I have been really lazy about posting lately so I'm going to do an update. Things around here are pretty crazy: I stayed home from work last Tuesday with that stomach bug, and my stomach went all wonky again on Friday so I missed another day of work. I'm kind of freaking out about that, but what can you do? Craig felt icky all weekend and is now taking antibiotics again....Ava's allergies (I'm assuming that's what her persistent "cold" is) are under control but she has a rash under one eye and in the past day or two has also had a raging diaper rash. Bad enough that she's screaming and practically shaking, and I'm crying whenever I have to change her diaper. There are new workers at day care during the afternoon and they are nothing like the original people, who were very on the ball with everything. Today, Ava's daily report sheet was incomplete (documents diaper changes, when she ate/how much she ate, nap times, etc.)....I rely on that report so I can keep up with her schedule. They also threw away one of her food containers and one of her bottle lids is missing. Her face wasn't clean when I picked her up, either--the other workers were pretty anal about keeping the kids clean, which was absolutely fine by me! I'm going to see how it goes tomorrow--maybe it was just a really crazy day or something--and then talk to the director if it doesn't seem better. Then there's one week until track-out so if worse comes to worse, I'll have three weeks to find something else. I'm seriously disappointed. Anyhow, parenting has really got me down lately....I just feel so helpless lately, and I constantly feel like I'm doing something wrong. We're on a new feeding schedule and I'm trying to introduce chunkier foods but I have no idea what I'm doing. I hate feeling so lost.
ANYHOW--the past weeks haven't been without their good points! Ava is babbling away like a maniac, constantly making shrieks, squeals, and growls that crack us up. She crawls all over the place, tries to climb the stairs, pulls herself into a standing position, and today she removed the cat bed from under the end table and tried to crawl under the end table but then changed her mind and tried to lay in the cat bed instead. I got a few pictures, but they're still on the camera. When she gets up in the morning on the weekend, we bring her back to bed with us after the 6am bottle and she will snuggle and sleep there with us for up to 3 hours! We never did get to take her to the petting zoo so I think we'll just wait until my mom is here (IN TWO WEEKS!!) and go during the fall festival. YAY! I love fall....even if the weather isn't very fall-like around here yet. Still hot. But, we've had a lot of dreary, rainy days this week and that always makes me happy. I know it sounds ridiculous--usually sunshine makes people happy--but I like a few days of steady rain. I find it very soothing and it reminds me of home.
Okay, there's the update....here are a few pictures from last weekend. And I need to go get some sleep! :)
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I was up all night throwing up. Feel awful today. Not as bad as when I had food poisoning but it still pretty much sucks...think I have some kind of stomach bug. Ugh. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, this is my second sick day this year--usually I use 2-3 for the entire YEAR, not for one quarter!! Glad I toughed it out when I had a cold and went to work, unless Ava is sick I'm not using any more days on myself unless I'm throwing up.
NOT. FUN.
EDIT: I almost forgot....Ava has a THIRD tooth coming in...three at once...poor baby! It's her other front tooth so pretty soon she won't look like a vampire anymore. :)
This weekend--weather and Craig's health permitting--we are going to take Ava to a somewhat local petting zoo. She thinks animals are hilarious and laughs whenever she sees one up close. If we make it out, I'll definitely be taking a lot of pictures and maybe even some video. :o) Living in the south pretty much since college, I've really missed autumn, and strangely enough, pumpkin farms. We get beautiful, drawn-out autumns here in NC (as opposed to NOTHING in Florida) but no pumpkin farms...or so I thought. The petting zoo where we are taking Ava--yep! Pumpkin farm! They even have a fall festival that will be happening at the same time my mom is visiting so that will be a LOT of fun. (If you are from up north, you understand the pumpkin farm obsession... ;o)
In other news we're cutting two more teeth! (Ava, not me. I have plenty.) One on the top left (Ava's right), next to one of her current vampire-like teeth. I'm hoping the other top tooth isn't far behind...the other one coming in is on the bottom right. This explains the copious amounts of drool and the sudden diaper rash, but not the rash she now has under her eye. There is no winning with this child and her health, but I think that's probably true about every baby, isn't it? The Zyrtec seems to be helping her cough and runny nose, so that's good...I'll give it another week and then call the doctor: we discussed what to do if it didn't work but not if it DID...does she continue to take the medicine? Do we just keep it on hand and give it to her whenever she seems sick? I don't get it...oh well.
I have no artistic skills or concept of color. The background is yellow and the inside of the mouth is grey simply because white was boring.
In house news, things are progressing slowly. Technically we've bought the lot and signed the paperwork to have a house built, but we have to get the builder and the bank to agree on something as far as if we don't sell our current house, if that gets us out of the contract, etc. The deal isn't off if they can't agree, it'll just make things more difficult for us. We'll see....we're determined to do whatever it takes at this point!!! Our house has only shown once so far and already I'm over it, I don't care if it sells next week and we're stuck in an apartment for six months, I just want it sold! Having to keep the house in showing condition 24/7 and having to vacate the premises with a baby at a moment's notice is kind of stressful. Bleh...oh well...it all ends with us in what's essentially our dream house, so I won't complain too much!
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.
