Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

Sometimes it's hard to stay on top of everything that's in the pile underneath me.  A few updates:

• Ava is potty trained.  WHAT?!  Yes.  Almost completely.  Diapers happen at naptime and bedtime, but she wakes up dry 90% of the time.  HOWEVER, somebody may have stocked up on diapers less than a month ago, so we're going to use them up and then we're done.  In a related story, if you know anyone who needs size 5 diapers, point them my way.
• Our "Ava has never even had a prescription" streak ended simultaneously with the "Ava's never even seen a doctor besides her normal pediatrician."  Thanks to a particularly long-lasting encounter with croup plus fever, Ava now has joined the ranks of the masses for whom health insurance is terribly important.  She's fine, and now we know how to navigate a late-night run to the ER.  Hopefully it won't come up again anytime soon.
• New house?  Not so new anymore, but still fabulous.  FABULOUS, I say.  We're gearing up for Thanksgiving, which we are hosting because we have room, which is FABULOUS!  Really, I'm so excited.  We have more people coming than we have spaces at the table, so we're (temporarily, thank you Dad&Florence) bringing in a second table BECAUSE THERE IS ROOM!  So wonderful.  The abundance of it all is just astonishing.
• Work?  Work is still what it has been, which is a steady (albeit furloughed, reduced, increasingly precious) paycheck and not much else.  I'm working (HA! a pun.) on figuring out what I really want to be when I grow up, and it's hard.  Returning to my previous incarnation as an adviser of any sort is becoming less attractive as an option, and we're starting to entertain the idea of me doing something Completely Different.  That's really all the news on that.  Nothing has happened yet.  But I think what's important here is to have acknowledged the necessity for Something to happen and that such a thing would be OK. 

Part of the reason there hasn't been a lot new happening on the blog is that I can now just shoot a picture or a video on my phone and then put it on Facebook in real time.  I'd like to get back to writing more about what's happening, though, instead of "HEY look at this thing that JUST HAPPENED RIGHT NOW."  with no additional witty commentary. It's hard to come up with said commentary unless I'm in the right frame of mind, and I believe it's time to get back into the right frame of mind.

Brace yourself, then, for forthcoming wit.  I'm back.

A Double Feature

Long overdue, I know.

We went to Utah for July 4th, and we had a mostly good time. There were some baby tummy issues (you do NOT want to know...) but she handled the altitude all right (10,000 feet above sea level) and we learned a few good lessons about traveling with a baby. The cabin is about 5 miles from a ski resort (Brian Head, to be specific) and we stayed at a condo there and visited Dad & Florence each day. It worked out, as the cabin had no running water, and running water is a key component of an Optimal Baby Environment.



I like hummingbirds, hence the inclusion of the hummingbird clip. It was a great weekend and we're hoping to get back up there soon. The last part (it went kind of Blair Witchy, didn't it, and I'm not so thrilled about that...) happened on the evening of the 4th. There was this huge fireworks show that happened right in front of our condo. It was crazy and we were freaking out because HI WE HAVE A SLEEPING BABY YOU MORONS but she slept right through it. Rock on, kid.

Our evening entertainment lately is all about The Ava Show. She's a funny kid and does cute little funny things.



That bouncy thing is about the best hundred bucks we'll ever spend. She. Loves. It. She still kicks her legs all the time, and she's all about being jostled and bumped around so it really is fun to watch her catch a bouncy wave and go to town.

We've started feeding her Real People Food, not just formula. My friend Tammy told me about a great website that is all about making your own baby food. It sounds kind of earthy-chunky-granola, but you can buy an entire acorn squash for the price of two jars of it prepared by a corporation with who knows what additives. And it's easy. Cut stuff into chunks, steam it, puree it, spoon it into an ice cube tray and freeze it. So far, we have done broccoli, the aforementioned acorn squash, and a yam. Broccoli seems to be kind of hit or miss (as it is for many of us), acorn squash seems to be pretty well received, but the yam? Oh she loves the yam. NOM NOM NOM YAM. She'll also chow down a third of a banana pretty easily for breakfast. My kid loves food. No shock there, huh? I really do love doing family dinners--we feed Ava while we eat and it's just cool :).

Ava had her six month check-up (and vaccinations because we don't want the Polio...). Little missy is 24 inches long and 17 pounds 9 ounces. She's grown almost 5 inches and she's gained 10 pounds, mostly in her cheeks and thighs. Very Wise Doctor seems pleased with her progress--she's still a little on the short side for her weight (runs in the family) but well within the normal range. We talked about her milestones: laughing, babbling, reaching, grabbing, sitting up unassisted. She's not so much into rolling over yet, and that's evidently an important precursor to the whole Crawling Thing, but I think we're close. We're about to start childproofing the house, mostly because we want to be ahead of the curve and if she does suddenly take off, we don't want to be running around the house with a drill like a couple of crazy handymen. Yeah. It's about to get fun.

Four Months Old

This was Ava's first picture, taken just over a year ago. My, how she's grown.

In spite of some really really long days and nights, we're always surprised to look at the calendar and realize that Ava's been with us for such a short time. Some quick stats, as of last week's well-check and vaccination extravaganza:

• 23 inches long, from a debut size of 19-1/2 inches
• 14 pounds 13 ounces, up from 7 pounds 8 ounces
• Important milestones include sitting up with minimal assistance, smiling, reaching for stuff and then holding on to it, almost rolling over, the discovery of her feet and the subsequent kicking of everything within a surprisingly large radius
• Establishment and implementation of a regular eating/sleeping schedule, which includes sleeping most nights from, get this, 10:30 or 11:00 PM until AFTER SIX AM. I'll say that again: Ava sleeps nearly eight hours at a time, and she does it at night, almost every night.

We take absolutely no credit for that last one. In talking to our Friends Who Have Kids, we've learned that this is quite unusual and we should expect some sort of retribution later on, perhaps when she learns to drive or becomes a Raiders fan (RAIDERS SUCK!). Right now? Yeah, she's asleep in her bouncy chair. Most nights, we wake her up for her last bottle between 9 and 11 and then she goes back to sleep, either in somebody's lap in the rocking chair, or on her own in her crib. We hit Baby Lotto with this kid, and we know it.

There's not a lot else going on. We're planning a trip to San Diego next month, and that will be our first family road trip. I'm estimating what four days worth of infant gear will look like, and what will be a good idea to pack (like the bouncy chair--yea or nay?) or overkill (play mat? boppy pillow?). I generally overpack as it is (for example, last year I went to NYC and Washington DC for just over a week for a conference and had an entire suitcase of just shoes...) so the car is likely to be loaded down pretty significantly. But we're looking forward to getting out of town--the last time I was away for more than an afternoon was Labor Day weekend. I'm needing a change of scenery, for sure.

This week is our anniversary. Three years, on Wednesday. We'll go out to dinner, and we'll have Ava with us. We generally keep it pretty low-key; usually just lunch at the golf course where we got married. We'll probably get up there in the next week or so. Last year on May 20, we had known I was pregnant for about 2 weeks, and I don't think we had told anybody yet (I may be wrong--it's kind of a blur). There was this undercurrent of excitement about the coming months. But really, we had no idea what we were in for. It's been amazing. And the next few months are going to fly by even more quickly than the last four have. We'll take as many pictures and videos as we can, because there is already stuff that she no longer does that I'm so glad we have a record of (like the nightly kicking before sleep no longer happens). It really does go so fast. We make a point of stopping and looking around because we don't want to miss it.

Ava 1, RSV 0

Ava is a Tough Little Panda.

We saw Very Wise Doctor this morning, and got good news! Ava is cleared to go back to Daycare! VWD said that the fact that she tested positive for what can be a pretty serious condition but didn't ever really get sick is quite unusual. It never hit her lungs or affected her breathing, she never got a fever. She most likely would have been OK at Daycare this week (only after they douse the whole place in Purell, of course...).

She's with Gramps & Grams today. Daycare can wait one more day.