A near miss!

Mike and I have had two date nights in as many weeks. Last week was "Infant Safety and CPR" class which was terrifying and not too much fun as far as date nights go. Tonight was nearly worse! We had tickets for Evita! We've seen this several times and bought tickets many months ago when I was still pregnant. We thought it would be a great date. My mom came over to watch Ava and we were off. We checked on our way out the door and verified that the tickets were indeed in my purse. Check! The weather here tonight is absolutely frigid and the wind is howling. After some friendly banter over where to park, Mike and I found a spot in a garage and set off for the show. It was so chilly that we started to run, nay, skip to the show with big smiles, teasing each other along the way. How adorable. As we raced into Jesse Hall I waited for Mike to catch up and glanced in my purse. As he approached I said "the tickets probably blew away". We did a little giggle and then I started looking for the tickets. They weren't there! The smiles faded and the theater lights flashed. Panic! We thought maybe they fell out in the car so we hauled butt back to the car blocks away. Did I mention it was FRIGID? No tickets in the car. We start yelling at this point. It gets ugly. We decide to head back to the theater and I plan to ask if perhaps the box office has some sort of database of purchased tickets, knowing all along that isn't likely. As we are running I spot some paper in a snow drift on Ninth Street. The tickets! Amazing! We grab the tickets and sprint to Jesse. I presume we'll be lucky if we can just stand in back until intermission when we can take our seats but at this point I'm so happy we found them that I don't care. We arrive at Jesse, the lights are still up. We run up to our seats, sit down and the lights dim. MIRACLE! We were shocked.

Long story short, it was a great show and great night. We celebrated our good fortune after the show by indulging in Coldstone Ice Cream. I figure we burned plenty of calories running back and forth that we can justify the treat. However, I'm so wired from the sugar that I can't sleep...which is why I'm blogging at nearly midnight on a Tuesday night. Totally worth it.

Perhaps Santa Evita was watching over us tonight.

Scenes from January

Our friend Amber knitted the adorable red hat and booties Ava is wearing here. I love the shape of the hat. She used a pattern from an old knitting magazine from the 30s. I love it! Who doesn't love a baby in red?What a big girl I am! Little sweetie with red cheeks. It occurs to me looking at this photo that she may have had a fever here. She didn't seem sick at the time but Monday morning she woke up quite stuffy. Zzzzzzzz.....

This month has been an adjustment for me. It has been difficult getting into the groove of work and day care. Ava seems to be doing well. Her sitter is now at full capacity with 3 infants and 3 toddlers. Mike goes to work early in the morning and I drop Ava off. Then I work late and Mike leaves early to pick her up. This limits the time she is without us, but not by much. What stinks is that she's plain tuckered out early in the evenings and goes to bed anywhere from 7-9. She hardly slept at all this weekend and didn't nap today so tonight she was totally pooped at 6:30. I wouldn't admit that this was the case so she ended up getting worked up and fussy and screamed for an hour until she finally crashed. Had I just put her down at 6:30 all the drama could have been avoided.

I should note some of Ava's current hobbies. She loves looking at her right hand. She'll do it all day if we let her. In keeping with her current hand-obsession, she loves the "itsy-bitsy spider". She is also laughing, smiling and "talking". She isn't rolling or sitting yet which is fine by me. I'm probably stunting her motor skills by not letting her out of my arms when I'm with her. Ah well, she can work on that stuff at day care.

20 weeks old today!

Ava Laughing

Ava thought Mommy was hilarious!

19 weeks old today!

Already honing her martial arts skills.

More shots!

Well Little Bear had her four-month check up today. She now weighs 14 lbs, 5 ozs. and is 24 inches long. She's in the 75th percentile for height and weight and the 90th for head circumference. I'm not really sure what all that means but I thought I'd share for those interested.

She was such a great sport, as usual. Her appointment was at 2:30. I left work at 2:05, picked her up from day care and got to the clinic at about 2:20. The last time I remember looking at the clock in the waiting room it was 3:30 and we got home at 5:00! Argh! Oh well, I'd rather be playing with her in a waiting room than away from her and sitting at work. She was a trooper through it all. They checked her ears and said her infection had cleared up. They gave her Tylenol and then the shot. She screamed but recovered quickly. When we got home we had to give her another dose of antibiotics. I hate that she had all that stuff (Tylenol, immunizations and antibiotics) in her system in such a short period of time. Yuck. She went to bed very early tonight with a bit of a cranky demeanor. Can't really blame her.

I couldn't help but reminisce about this photo: Can you believe how much she's grown?

18 weeks old today!

Ava stretches out to look REALLY tall!

Geography Reunion Weekend

This weekend we got together with our friends from our days as geography graduate students. The alumni are far flung across the nation now so it is wonderful when we can all get together and catch up. Even more exciting was having Ava meet Elle Roust of Roustabout fame.

"Psst, hey kid...I've been around a few more months than you and I'll tell you this...your parents are geography NERDS!"
"NO!!!!!! Why couldn't I have gotten cool parents?!?!"
Ava's new hat from cousin Katie! We love it because it protects her little ears from the wind...oh and it is hilarious.

She speaks!

4 months old today!

17 weeks old today!

There, there zebra.

Ava's had quite a day. She went to day care with the cough she's had for about a week. Her sitter called me at work and said it seemed to be getting worse. I called the doctor and they were able to get her in this afternoon. While she was being examined the tornado sirens went off! It was 70 degrees here today...in January. Weird. Anyway, the tornado threat passed and I was told that Ava has an ear infection! Poor little kid. She never complained, never seemed to have a fever, never fussed. We started her on antibiotics tonight. I really hope this isn't a trend. I hate for her to be on antibiotics. Our parent educator for the Parents as Teachers program is coming tonight. I'll update late if there is anything interesting to report. Ava's napping to prepare for her special guest!

Our first family photos

I've been dying to post these photos but I had to wait until after Christmas. As a gift to our parents, and ourselves, we had our friend Taisia Gordon of Taisia Gordon Photography come and take some photos of Ava. She came the day after Thanksgiving but we had to keep it a secret until we unveiled the photos at Christmas. Taisia also took our engagement photos. She does such an amazing job! Check out her website here.

Click the image below to see the entire photo session.

Sometimes a thumb just won't do...

Other options include:

The Fist of Rock

The Whole Darn Fist

Those CHEEKS!

Over the Christmas holiday relatives were asking about Ava's cheeks. What is she storing in there? Where did they come from? Did you have cheeks like that? Well, apparently I did. This photo was taken at my first Christmas when I was 3 months old. A little under 3 weeks younger than Ava.