Thanksgiving 2009

We had a wonderful time in San Diego with Rob's family. AJ, UK, and BA made sure that Ava's first Thanksgiving was just magical. They even put up a Christmas tree and had a present ready for her (thank-you note is forthcoming...).


Such a fuss! They went all out, as they usually do, and we can't thank them enough for spending so much time with us throughout the week.

I'd also like to give up a shout-out to Hampton Inn for their almost entirely childproof rooms and the fact that the coffee table is the exact length of the distance between the bed and the dresser. We had a little Ava Corral that helped us all keep our sanity :)

We also had a little fun with giggling.



Surprisingly, this was after a Night Of No Sleep and a Day of No Naps. OMG we were exhausted, all of us. I think part of the laughter is just out of delirium.
Friday we went to Birch Aquarium at Scripps in La Jolla. Ava likes watching fish when they're on Discovery Channel, so we figured she'd really be into watching actual fish. She loved it! Even though it was crowded, we had a great time watching her watch everything else.

She got eaten by a shark...

And she giggled quite a bit more...


We have so much to be thankful for. It sounds kind of cliche', but Ava has made our lives amazing. Every day is an adventure that we are thrilled to share with our families and friends. We're SO excited for Christmas, and we're starting to plan a birthday party (shhhh..... don't tell her! It's a surprise!).

'Twas The Month Before Christmas

It's been a little hectic.

To recap, with bullet points...

• It wasn't a tooth; it was roseola. Roseola is a stupid illness.
  
• Her gastronomic repertoire of solid food consists of sausage, pancakes, quesadillas, string cheese, rice, honeydew melon, tilapia, chicken (grilled, baked, fried, and nuggeted), bananas, cheerios, peas, fish sticks (but she's not a gay fish, and if you don't get this, you don't watch South Park), soft tacos, bean burritos, spaghetti & meatballs, ravioli, and just about anything else we can cut up small enough for her to feed to herself
  
• Twenty-one pounds, nine ounces,
• First haircut happened and, no, I didn't save it. It was just a trim of a strand that was hanging in her eyes.
• The crawling is out of control, and she is officially faster than we are.
• She really doesn't like people. If you're not me, Rob, Grams & Gramps after about 20 minutes, or any of the Daycare Ladies, don't get too close.
  

I think that's it.

Last night, we went to the opening night of the Opportunity Village Magical Forest. We figured it wouldn't be too busy (see above RE: don't get too close...) and it wasn't too chilly outside. Grams & Gramps were there too, and I'm so glad they came with us. Ava got her first taste of Christmas. She saw Santa in his sleigh with his reindeer and 4 showgirls in elf suits (hey, it's Vegas, whatever) and her first Christmas tree, 40 feet tall, covered in lights and all twinkly. She saw all the things that make Christmas look like Christmas. And she loved it.

One of the attractions is a train, and we thought she might like it. She likes to look at stuff and at people (as long as they don't get too close...). I think it was a success :)




How cute is that! We had so much fun! Toward the end of the night, she even smiled at people she didn't even know. Her heart grew three sizes that night!


So now our quest is to find any Christmas light display that we can find and show it to her.

Tuesday we're driving to San Diego for Thanksgiving. Ava will have her first turkey and mashed potatoes (we have rubber bibs locked and loaded) and we're looking forward to getting out of town and seeing the folks. Safe travels and Happy Turkey to all!

If This Happens For Every Tooth, I'm Going To Need A Bigger Wine Fridge.

This is going to be a terribly interesting summary of Ava's first fever, which will also serve the purpose of reminding me about what to do when future fevers happen. Blog = baby book.

So Friday morning we got up and Ava was warm. Rob noticed it first. We took her temperature and it was 98.5 under her arm which means her core temperature (I just learned this phrase, thank you Auntie Nurse Amy) was 99.5. She usually runs about 2 degrees cooler, so we knew something was up. She didn't sleep worth a damn last week, so between that and a higher temperature, we figured it was teeth. When her bottom teeth came in over the summer, she ran a little warmer than usual.

At 4:00 Daycare Lady called me at work. We were on deck to take advantage of a delightful thing they occasionally do at Daycare called Parents Night Out, where they host a slumber party and watch movies until 10:30. Their threshold for Calling Parents and Sending Children Home is 101 degrees, and Ava hit it. OMG. So I wrapped up the week, shut stuff down, and picked her up a little early. I walk in, and they all look at me like "There's Little Miss CrankyPants's mom now." Evidently she spent the day glaring at everyone. Parents Night Out (a nice relaxing sushi dinner, in our case) was abruptly cancelled.

Over the course of the weekend, Ava's temperature steadily rose. I got some great advice from the aforementioned Nurse Amy, and another BFF called to give some fantastic info about fevers and Baby Tylenol (a freaking miracle drug...) and between the two of them, we felt pretty confident about what to look for and when to start calling doctors or running to the ER.

Saturday sucked. She just flat didn't feel good. Poor little boopy, she tried to play but quickly realized that she preferred to sit quietly and cuddle. This was alarming. Saturday night she woke up at 3 and the thermometer stopped at 101.9 which adding one for armpit (even simple math at 3AM was very trying--I'm going to put a sticky on the thermometer that says "just add 1"). Had it hit 102 (meaning 103...) that's when you call doctors or run to the ER. But it stayed at 101.9. She didn't have any other symptoms, either. Just a freakishly high Fever Of Unknown Origin (OMG DO NOT LET ME GO ON WEBMD AT 3AM). We could feel the heat radiating from her poor little head. It was awful.

Today she was better. No fever at all since we got up this morning. She just went to bed, and is a nice cool 97.5 (oh just do the freaking math...). So we're all better, and very optimistic about getting some sleep tonight.

Last night (it counts as "last night" rather than "this morning" because I did go back to bed after she went to sleep) I suddenly felt like a mom. As upset, uncomfortable, unhappy, and generally pissed of she was, she held on to me because Mama Makes it Better. There wasn't a lot I could do about the fever, but she didn't care. She couldn't rest in the crib, but she calmed down and was able to fall (and stay) asleep in my lap. She was holding on to me with one hot little hand, and holding on to the binky with the other. Mama and Binky. We're a good team.

She's OK now. I'm still taking her temperature at every diaper change, but she's cool to the touch. And it's weird--suddenly, I can tell if she's got a fever just by putting my hand on her head. I've always wondered How They Do That. And I still don't know. But now I can do that too. Because I'm the mama, and Mama Makes It Better.

Oh and that freaking tooth better be the best goddamn tooth ever to break through a gum when it ever shows up.

R2D2

Ava's favorite uncles Mike and Clay loaned us R2D2 to help us complete her inaugural Halloween costume theme. He is a functioning voice-activated robot droid thingy, and he'll do what you tell him to do if you know what to say. He beeps and pings and rolls forward and back, and when Ava knocks him over he makes this farty sound that cracks Ava up.

:)

Halloween 2009

The Force is strong in this one.


Halloween turned out to be pretty uneventful, which turned out to be OK with us. Our trick-or-treating plans fell through so we went over to Dad&Florence's for pizza and then came home and went to bed. It seems that two of us are too old and one of us is too young to really get into Halloween right now. We'll try again next year.

Ava had her 9 month check up a couple of weeks ago. She's 21 pounds, 27 inches, and is growing just like she should. She's all over the place, so when she's awake, we are generally involved in some sort of surveillance and pursuit. She did get a flu shot, but the H1N1 shot is elusive. I don't know that we'll have the opportunity to get that for her, and I'm not too thrilled about that. I'm a big believer in vaccines, and while I'd be unhappy if I got H1N1 myself, I'd be devastated if she came down with it. We're being super careful about handwashing and basic hygiene--that's generally a good way to avoid getting sick. Daycare sanitizes everything every day in her classroom, and they keep the little kids away from the bigger kids, so we're hoping that helps her stay safe. Ugh. I'll be glad when this flu season is behind us.

She eats what we eat, and I love that. This morning, we all sat down to breakfast and we all had pancakes and sausage. She can feed herself--I think she prefers to, actually. So whatever we're eating, we break it up into little bits and put it on her tray. She takes it from there

The holiday season is officially upon us, I suppose. This year, she's mostly indifferent to anything that doesn't directly happen to her, so anything we do, we do for our benefit and for the purposes of pictures. So we weren't too upset when we ended up being home early last night. We'll be in San Diego for Thanksgiving and home for Christmas. And I think we're going to keep it all as low-key as we can for as long as we can. Next year, all bets are off.