Sickness

Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. Ava got her first cold (and so did Mama). Unfortunately, it decided to show up and make itself at home. I kind of picture those little green mucus blobs from the Mucinex commercials.

At first, I thought it was a byproduct of teething; so did the pediatrician. But, I'm certainly not teething so I know we just have a nasty frickin' cold. We both have Niagara Falls running down our faces. (Sorry, probably not the hommage to Buffalo that some friends would want.) She has been sleeping pretty well so I guess I should count my blessings. I just hope this is all over soon. I want my happy baby back.

To follow up from my last post, Ava now has 8 teeth in the front and a random molar. She's always been into chewing on everything; now it just hurts. She left a mark on my arm that lasted a day. Little stinker! I think we're done with the teething thing for the time being.

Aside from being sick, we did spend Easter weekend down in Powell. It was a nice weekend and we saw a lot of family. The past week has been pretty nice in some ways (aside from the colds) because Chris is home during the day. He just switched to a month of night rotations. At first, I dreaded it but it has actually been really great. Plus, he has this weekend off so we're heading down to Powell to help my parents do some necessary cleanup/painting on the house. In case you haven't heard, they are selling the farm.

Anyway, here are some pics and videos from the past couple of weeks.

Ava with Aunt Cindy


Trying on her Birthday dress Grandma bought her. This is a 12m dress and she's only 8m.

Reading a book with Great Grandma Rich

Kid containment.

Hanging with Daddy.

Ava loves bath time.


Here is an example of how close she is to crawling.

Tooth Eruption

Well, as expected, Ava has busted out several new teeth. She's got a huge front tooth coming down with the other front tooth soon to follow. She also has another bottom one that cut last week. There are several others that are also on the verge. Surprisingly, she's been in a great mood considering her gums must be awfully sore. Katie Fulton came over yesterday and she said this is the typical age for "tooth eruption". Considering she is a dental hygenist, I figured she knew what she was talking about. Boy, the term is pretty accurate; they are exploding out!

Wearing her preppy school girl outfit.

"Drinking" from Mama's cup.

Pink toenails and a diaper.

Trying out her new scooter.

My days are much busier as Ava is at that in between stage where she is wanting to crawl but isn't quite there. As soon as I put a toy in front of her, she'll play with it for a few seconds and then want to crawl to another toy (or more likely to my cell phone or magazines) across the room. Ava will lean forward, get in the crawl position and rock. She hasn't figured out how to move forward. She's just started to crawl backwards. Man, does this frustrate her. So, all day long I'm propping her back up or moving her to another set of toys. I'm trying to limit how much I'm bending over because I can just see my back going out again. Please pray this doesn't happen.

Probably the biggest update is that we went to Darren Dinneen's wedding this past weekend at Pebble Beach. Darren was Chris' roommate and my track teammate for four years in college. Chris was a groomsman. Let me tell you, I have never been to a more beautiful wedding. The view was spectacular, the bride was stunning and the food, drink, music, decorations - all of it was amazing.

The view.

The first dance.

The flower arrangement at our table.

Tommy and Natacha.

Trev and Cindy.

Chris and I.

The Crew.

The roomies. (We missed you Joey!)

We were able to take Ava with us. We stayed in a cute little inn in Carmel, CA. That town has great window shopping. I specify window because it is outrageously expensive. But, the food was great, the weather crisp but sunny and the company fantastic. Chris' other roommates Trevor and Tommy were their with their wives, Cindy and Natacha respectively. His other roommate, Joey, couldn't make it. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and visiting. Unfortunately, the weekend went by too quickly. With everyone married now, we have to be a little deliberate in planning our next get together.

Ava loved all the dogs on the beach. She was going crazy with delight.

Beach babes.