First Fever

So, it finally happened. She got sick. I guess it's pretty good that she made it to 11.5 months before getting sick....but it still makes me sad. :( So, she's not really what I would normally call "sick" because she doesn't really have any symptoms except that she has a fever. She eating and drinking fine and still plays all day long. The biggest change is that she wants to be held a little more than usual. She's been a little extra cuddly (and a little moany) the past few days. Sarah first noticed that she was hot yesterday afternoon...so, she took her temperature (under her arm). It was 100.5. Not too bad. So, she got some Tylenol and we figured that would be the end of that. Well....I got home from work, we did bath time and I took her temp again....this time rectally (awesome, I know), and it was 102.7!!!! AHHHH!! It went up! WAY up! So, we gave more Tylenol, put her to bed, then called the pediatrician. They asked all the questions....is she eating, drinking, lethargic, etc.....but no other symptoms....just a fever.

So, the next morning (this morning) I took it again, and it was still up...101.9. I had to go to work :( so Patrick called the doc and they wanted to see her. They checked everything...ears, throat, chest, lymph nodes, all that good stuff....nothing. So, that's good news....except now they don't know what's wrong. So, they were a little concerned about the fact that she's got this consistant fever who no idea of what the problem is. So, they wanted to "cath her"...put a catheter in her to take a urine sample to test for a urniary tract infection. Patrick thought that was a little much for the time being and he decided to keep monitoring her instead. Well, later this afternoon, her temp was still up, so he went back and they attached a little pee bag to her that hung out of her diaper to catch her pee. :) (I didn't see this, but I really wish I had. Patrick didn't take any pictures). :) She was happily playing in the waiting room, and about 2 minutes later, there is was. Her perfect pee. So, they tested it and it was fine. Back to square one. So, as of right now....everything is fine except that the Tylenol hasn't really been working and her fever is still up. She's been a consistent 101.9 for the last 3 readings. :( I just feel bad for her...obviously something is not quite right, and her body is trying to fight it off. So, we've got an appointment with the doc again tomorrow morning at 11, so we'll see how things change between now and then.

She's being so sweet...and she gives lots of hugs (which I am loving!) when she has a fever. I know she must feel yucky, and I hope that she gets better soon!

Dad's In Charge

Yep, that's rain on my perfectly healthy little baby! Ava has been loving to play in the back yard on the patio. Well, apparently, one day it began to rain while they were out there, and Ava seemed to really like it...so they stayed!! HA! She's pretty darn cute in the rain! She looks so grown up in this one! Does she look like Patrick here???

Here's our Salsy. Something's wrong with this dog! :) Doesn't she look like a Gremlin?!

So, Ava has officially graduated to the Big Girl Bathtub! There's a lot more room in there, and it's super slippery. But she seems to like the extra space. Just means more room for toys!

Look at her beautiful smile!

She's been loving outside. She also really likes to look at you through the sliding glass door. Here she is saying HI!Close up of the left over bonk to her head! Still such a sweet, happy face!
This is the "chuck it" that we use to throw balls for the dogs, and it's definitely Ava's favorite outside toy!
So excited to be outside!
She just thinks it's so funny that I'm on the inside and she's on the outside. She got a kick out of this for a solid 5 minutes!Patrick was in charge of giving Ava dinner one night...and THIS is what I came out to see!! HOLY COW she was messy! I'm pretty sure that's black beans all over her face. I seriously think this is his secret way of not having to give her dinner on a regular basis! :) Patrick and I are actually headed on a very quick trip to New York City tomorrow! We're leaving Saturday morning at 6am and getting back at 11pm on Sunday night. Ava is staying in Gainesville with Aunt Sarah and Bobbi. Patrick is being a rock star runner and will be running NYC Half Marathon on Sunday morning! CRAZY! So, we decided to make it a very short, very quick fun trip! Everybody watch it on TV Sunday morning as Patrick will be breaking some serious records! ;) Hope all is well with everyone!! See you soon!

Blown Away!

We were all in the car the other day heading to lunch, and it was HOT outside! We had to have the windows down for a little while. Ava loved it!

11 months!!

What a fun month this has been! Ava is changing so quickly and learning new things daily! Her mind is totally amazing to me! She now tries to imitate words that we say- some words she imitates are: "hot," "apple," "bubbles," and "daddy." Of course, I can't possibly explain how incredibly cute the sound is that comes out of her mouth!! I'll have to try to capture it on video so you can witness it! :) She's able to identify some books by name now and will bring them to you if you ask! She'll get her Nemo and Brown Bear books on demand and bring them to you!

I started brushing her teeth consistently about a month ago, and (as you know!) she's been "opening big" for the toothbrush. NOW, she opens her mouth at the mere mention of the toothbrush! ...which she totally LOVES and gets upset when I don't let her hold it fast enough! I'll tell her we're going to get her toothbrush, and there she goes....wide open! I think my most favorite new trick is that she learned what a fish sounds like! When I ask her to make the fish noise, she opens and closes her lips over and over and makes a soft little fishy sound...very hard to explain...I'll definitely get that one on tape soon! She knows both dogs by name, and she will look at people when you say, "where's ____?" And just in the past 3 or so days, she's started to dance on demand! She either squats up and down or steps back and forth with her feet. Oh my gosh...the cutest ever!!! Patrick's been working with her to teach her how to "high five," and today she did it with Sarah. It's just crazy how quickly she's learning...everyday something new!

She's broadening her food horizons too....some new foods are deli sliced turkey and sliced chicken breast, many kinds of cheese, graham crackers, oranges, and pretzels. She does really like to shovel food into her mouth pretty quickly (she got that from her Dad)! The whole "open big" trick has really come in handy with all the turbo eating. When Patrick feeds her, every now and then he'll ask her to "open big" so he can make sure she's actually chewing and not hording her food in those fabulously plump cheeks!! :) She's got to be having a growth spurt with all his eating she's doing! She's now a whopping 18 lbs! So, lots of new things these past few weeks! What fun!

Recently, she's been waking up with bed head! When I walk in her room in the morning, and she looks at me with that sweet smile and her hair sticking straight up, I can't help but laugh. It's so freaking cute! She's got this one patch of hair directly on the back of her head that is more coarse than the rest of her hair and tends to stick out all crazy if she leans on it or sleeps on it. We have come to call it her "Michee hair." The texture of that particular spot of hair is just like my mom's, and that's what we named it! This pic isn't of Michee hair, but a minor case of bed head! We celebrated the 4th of July at my parent's lake house, and we had some friends come as well. One of them left this 6 pack beer case out, and Ava loved it! :)
She's a very patriotic girl. She had two 4th of July outfits, so we had to wear them both! This was the second of the day!
Aunt Booj and Ava hanging out on the 4th. Ava just thinks everything is so interesting and captivating that pretty much everything gets a monkey face!
Ava and Keegan playing at Michee and Pop's house. It was so nice to get to have some quality time with Keegan, Booj, and Ian. Usually it's so rushed, but we were home for several days, so it was great hanging out! Can't wait to be back home so we can do this all the time! Look at these two!
They are going to be serious trouble makers for sure!!!
Ava finally got to meet her blog buddies, Jase and Carmen!!! They got to hang out and even swim a little! They were pretty much on the go, but I was able to catch a few sweet pics! Here's Jase just after I asked him to kiss the baby! Awwe!
More playing! Look at the difference in their size. It's amazing that in just a short time, there is this much difference in size! (Wow! Ava is seriously white)!
"Jase, will you be my friend?" says Ava. :)
The day after the 4th, we headed back up to the lake- just Patrick, Ava, Michee, Pop, and Uncle Pat. We went out on the boat for a while. Ava had to wear this ridiculously gigantic life jacket. We were able to keep her distracted for a while, but after that, she had had enough!!
Here she is (post- life jacket!) with favorite Michee and Pop!
My two most favorite babies in this world!
Patrick put this cow lovie on his head and started "moooing" at Ava...she thought this was hilarious and would yank it off his head in total giggles!
Shocked by the good looking baby in the mirror! ;)
So, this month has been totally fun, and Ava just get better everyday! When I come home from work, she gets so excited....flaps her arms, smiles so big, and comes to me as fast as she can. It makes me feel so good and so special to be her mom. I just love this life of mine.

Here are some more pics of the last few weeks!

Peachtree Road Race

So, we did it! Actually, Patrick has been running races for months now, but I haven't! So, I guess I should say, "I did it!" We got up at the crack of dawn....well, several hours before dawn actually....4:45am! We were out the door at 5:10am and on MARTA (the Atlanta version of a subway) by about 5:40am. Of course, all this being-there-2-hours-before-the-start-of-the-race business was my husband's idea. We got to the race before the sun came up! So, then we just hung out and relaxed until the start! Here's a picture Patrick took with his phone of us on MARTA!

There were 55,000 people who ran this race! That's a lot of people in one place! Here's a pic of our starting corral!

We were in the second group to start, so we crossed the start line about 6 1/2 mins after the official start of the race. (People in the last group started more than 1 1/2 hours after the official start of the race! That's how long it took for everyone to get across the start line)! So, anyway, we were into the race for about 1 mile when Patrick had to take a bathroom break!!! I mean, COME ON!! One mile?!?! But, he was really fast, and I think we lost about 20 seconds or so! I did pretty well (and by "pretty well," I mean "didn't die") until we got to the top of what's known as "Cardiac Hill" at the end of mile 4! Ugh! I had to walk after that thing...we walked for about 60 seconds while I got the feeling back in my legs and then we finished the rest of the race running. At the beginning of 5 miles, I thought....no WAY will I be able to finish this thing running! But, somehow I made it. Patrick, of course, was easy breezy running and was a few feet ahead of me the entire race! He could have ran the whole thing without the I-need-to-feel-my-legs-again walking break...but he was very supportive and stuck with me the entire race.

The Peachtree is a race that has spectators the entire way. People are actually out there in their tailgaiting chairs with their coffee, coke, beer....whatever! We passed many people who were handing out water, fruit, etc....but the best part were the people holding beer out for the runners! Budlight, PBR, Natty, all those yummy beers! At the end...when we were all running up hill to finish the race, runners started taking these beers, popping them open, and drinking while they were running!!! The guys holding the beer would say, "come get your vitamins" while holding the can out for us to get! Crazy! We passed all the bars in Buckhead and Midtown, and of course, there were people there, bright and early, spectating from the sidelines with their Bloody Mary's in hand. It at least gave us many interesting things to watch! Here's Patrick and me after finishing the race!

They had people taking pictures of the the finishers about 50 yards before the finish line. Here's a link to the site with some pics of Patrick and me. You have to click on the pic to see it a little bigger!

Overall, it was really fun and I'm really glad I did it. We'll do it again next year. Maybe we'll make a family tradition out of it!

Happy Belated 4th of July!!

Happy belated 4th of July America! I just wanted to share this great picture of Ava taken by one of my friends and former colleagues, Jacob Fu. We really enjoyed spending time with everyone at the lake!

Great pic Jacob!!

Heading Home

So, we're heading home for the weekend of July 4th!!! CAN'T WAIT!!!! I feel like it's been forever, and I'm so excited for everyone to see Ava! I've got many people to see while we're there, but it'll be great! I took Monday off from work...so, I have an extra long weekend!

In case you've forgotten, Patrick and I are running the Peachtree Road Race (a 10K) early in the morning on the 4th. I might die of heat exhaustion....or just plain ol' exhaustion...but I'm gonna finish it, darn it! So, I'll keep you posted! Ava (most likely) will finally get to met Carmen (my most loyal blog reader!) and her son Jase while we're home. They're heading to Atlanta too, and we're trying very hard to get together!!

Sarah, Ava, and I are flying out of Gainesville tomorrow (Thursday) at 5:30pm to head to Atlanta! I feel like I've been waiting FOREVER for this to get here! Just one more day! So, we're all packed a ready to go. Oh yeah...Patrick and the dogs already made their trip to Alpharetta yesterday...we're not just leaving them down here! So, I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July!!!


Ava has been crwling under her crib lately. In this video, she makes her way to the crib, but she's not quite sure if she wants to go under! She studies it for quite some time! I got another video of her actually going under, but it's too large to download....I'll keep trying!!