Goodbye and Thanks

So...today's the day.

My last day of residency.

It's been a bitter sweet day at work. I've been taking pictures of everyone in clinic- staff, faculty, and residents. Lots of hugs...and lots of teary goodbyes. I've met some amazing people and had some amazing opportinities during the past two years.

So, thank YOU so much! To my friends and family who have supported me during the past several years- I am forever grateful. I wouldn't be where I am today without your support.

And to Patrick. There isn't a doubt in my mind that I would be lost it if weren't for you. You have taken care of me and looked out for my well being...and my sanity! :) You are the reason I can be strong. Thank you for loving and supporting me.

Ode to our House

We've loved many things about living here in Gainesville. But our house is probably one of the things I'll miss the most. I feel a little childish talking about leaving the way I do...like it's a great friend that I'll never see again. I've cried about leaving this house. I've lived in lots of different places, but none that have been this special to me.

Everything about it is perfect...I love it's openness, love that it's one story (especially when getting up with a newborn!), I love that it faces west so we get that fabulous natural morning light in the back of the house and that pretty, warm colored light in the evening in the front, it's got great (almost!) floor to ceiling windows (again....all that natural light!), love the neutral paint colors with the exception of the two orange colored accent walls, the yard is amazing...the best in the neighborhood, the back yard makes you feel like you're relaxing at a resort, loved having a fountain in the back yard to listen to over glasses of wine and jazz music at night, love that the patio if right off the kitchen with no steps which meant Ava had the freedom to walk in and out and enjoy the outdoors as she pleased, it also made it possible to enjoy our great backyard...even from the kitchen! LOVE the weather- hot as hell in the summer, but the most perfect winters you could imagine- a totally great combo, and I love that it's on the smaller side...just perfect for the three of us.

And I also love this house because it's where Ava was born. It's where she had her first 2 years of life. She spent her first night here...in her brown and pink room. It's where she woke up every two hours...cause she just couldn't stand to be away from her mama any longer ;) , it's where she learned her letters by writing on the bathtub wall with (washable!) crayons, it's where she learned to crawl, learned to walk, learned to eat and talk. It's where her love for Elmo and The Little Mermaid started. It's where she had long afternoon naps and slept 10 hours a night. It's where she had her first babysitter. It's where she learned to watch birds, it's where she learned to entertain herself by exploring around the backyard for an hour at a time. It's where she had her first Christmas Tree...even though it was 70 degrees outside, it's where she first dyed Easter Eggs and had an Easter Egg hunt. It's where she first learned to dance and "raise the roof!"

It's where Ava grew up. She became a little girl in this house. Sadly, she'll never remember this place...but I'll remember it for her. She'll hear lots of stories about our time here and how it was the most wonderful two years. While living here, we realized that it's the only place that made Patrick and I even consider not returning home and keeping our fabulous life here.

Two nights ago, I put Ava to bed for the last time in her perfect little pink and brown room. After I placed her in her crib, I was playing with her hair and talking about our house. We talked about how great the house has been and what a great room she has. I asked her is she loves her room, and she said, "yeah." We kept talking about how it's been a great house but that she was gonna go to her new house the next day...I started to tear and cry a little, and Ava looked up at me and said,"Mommy, cry." She was so sweet and I explained that I was crying cause I was sad. Her innocence and naiveity about leaving was perfect. She may not have memories from this place, but I'll never let her forget our time here.

We have much to be thankful for, and one of those things is this fantastic house. I only hope that I'll find a house one day that can compare. It'll be very hard.

So, we raise a glass for a toast to this house...To our little Gainesville home- we love you and will never forget the amazing memories that were made here.

Here are some pictures of our house it you wanna see! They're the pictures we took when we put the house on the market.

Ava 22 months and everything else!

Oh my gosh...where the heck do I start!!?? These past 2 months have been a CRAZY and WACKY roller coaster, and life has been BUSY x 10!! About a month ago, my residents and I took our pedo boards, and I'm SO glad to be done with that! A week later, we all went to Hawaii to present our research at the AAPD meeting (that was awesome!!) Two days after I got back from Hawaii, we (the family) left to go to Alpharetta for long weekend to take care of some things. I spent a little time at the office sorting out some things for when I start, but the main reason for heading home was to find a pre-school for Ava! Can you believe it?! Pre-school!!! I'll be working 3 days a week when we get back home, and she'll be going to school 2 of those days and then spending the 3rd day with her Michee! The school we picked is close to my work (and Bobbi's house)! Since Bobbi is a teacher and gets out of work around 2:30, she'll usually be picking Ava up from school around 3 and having Bobbi time until I'm done with work! It actually works out great because Ava will nap at school from around 12:30 to 2:30, and then she'll wake up and have snack. So, she'll basically be at school and be VERY busy for the morning, have lunch, nap, then play with Bobbi until I'm done with work! It's perfect! Then her Michee day on Friday! It's gonna be so great to be home close to family...we're really excited! We've been talking to Ava about moving, and when we ask her where her new house is gonna be, she says, "lake." Then we ask her, what else is at the lake? She says, "boat." Too freakin' cute!!

So, as you can probably imagine, Ava has changed a lot in the last 2 months! She is truly amazing with the things she's learning, saying, doing, and understanding! I know moms always say that kind of stuff, but her mind is so unbelievable right now....it's hard to explain it without you being able to see her in action! She is seriously repeating everything we say. And I mean everything. The good, the bad, and the ugly. :) Some of my favorite words/phrases right now are: "new diapee" (new diaper), "otay" (okay), "Oh. My. Gosh." (with both hands on either cheek and a pause between each word!), "buff hay" (brush hair), "Doo doo" (Dora), "waca-moona" (guacamole), "I don't know" (along with a shoulder shrug!), "buff teet" (brush teeth), "pees" (please), "run to mommy" (one of her new favortie games- we sit on the ground, she runs full speed into us as we catch and hug her!), "nummy tummy" (yummy in my tummy), "Uncle Pat", and "Aunt Booda" (Aunt Booj). I could go on and on...since, of course, pretty much everything that comes out of her mouth is super cute. ;)

So, Michee sent her some "fancy pants" (real underwear) about a month ago since Ava has been quite interested in the potty. Here she is checking them out! She also found her belly button! :)
Shortly after those pics were taken, we had to change pants cause they were wet... oh well, they were cute for a few minutes! :)

Ava now has her own little potty that she likes to sit on. Sometimes, she'll even read a book while she's sitting. She's only actually peed in the potty twice...but that was just good, lucky timing. Mostly, she just likes to sit on the potty...fully clothed! :) But not for this picture. :)
I got Ava some sunglasses, cause she's always talking about "sun eyes." Can you even STAND it?!? Such a little diva!
Some cute stories:
I was in Ava's room the other day, and I opened her drawer to pick something for her to wear, and she came and looked over my shoulder and said, "Hmmmm." I laughed and repeated her....realizing that she had probably heard me say that a hundred times while I was trying to decide on clothes!

Ava was playing with a Dora doll and wanted her to walk up stairs, so she got some nesting stacking blocks (you know, the kind that get smaller and smaller and you can stack them inside the next) and arranged them next to each other like a stair case. Then Dora had "stairs" to walk up and down on! So freakin' smart!

She did the same thing with Elmo...she turned her Elmo chair over and used the back of it as a slide for her Elmo doll...."Elmo slide."

One of the cutest...Sarah, Ava, and I were shopping and looking at shoes deciding which ones were cute. Ava started to pull one shoe, then the other shoe off the shelf and show it to us and say, "Cuuuute" (sounded like k-yooot, with an emphasized "ooot")! She did this about 25 times! :) She's such a mimic-er!

When Sarah takes Ava in the car, she'll use her rear view mirror to see Ava...and one time she also opened the mirror in the visor. So, oneday I was in the car with Ava, she wanted to "see Mommy." So, I moved the rear view...then she said "dat too" and pointed to the visor mirror. When I got them both situated and she could see me in both mirrors, she smiled and got so excited and said, "TWO Mommies." Cutest ever!!

I was trying to get a cute shot of her sitting on my lap, but she's so freakin' busy and all over the place, this is the best I could get! On the move, and in the middle of talking!
Here's Ava in a super cute bathing suit that one of her cousin's got her last year. She finally grew into it! Check out those loooong legs! When did that happen?!?!
She LOVES to play with the hose and will do this for hours!! Notice her new "Doo doo shoes" (Dora shoes) that her Aunt Sarah got her!
Ava's getting so much better (actually really good!) at letting us fix her hair (thanks to Sarah who practiced and desensitized her)!! Her bangs are getting so long now that they hang in her eyes...and now she'll ask for a bow..."bow eyes, bow eyes!" Here's a teeny tiny pony tail I was able to get in there! She loved this mermaid dress (which is actually a nightgown!), and never wants to take it off!!

We went to the pool and brought lunch with us. Ava's so good at hanging out ....after we swim for a while, she's tired and wants to be "wrapped up." Then she'll just sit there for like 30 minutes eating a snack and watching the other kids! She wanted to call Michee...so, here she is talking on the phone like she's 13 years old!

"Hi Mimi. Pooo. Purpur noo noo." (Hi Michee. Pool. Purple noodle)!She still being super lovey lately...probably even more so. I'm definitely loving it and don't ever want the day to come that this ends! At night before bed, she'll now fold her hands and close her eyes to say prayers and says, "Amen" at the end. Then, almost right away, she starts spouting out her song requests...."Puff" (Puff the Magic Dragon), "ABC" and "Row Row." She loves them all and would let you sing to her forever.

I'm loving time with Ava right now, and I so excited that very soon I get to spend 4 days out of every week with her!! Can't wait! 18 more days!!

Here's some pictures of the past two months with Ava...21 and 22 months! Enjoy!

M.I.A.

So, I know I've totally been M.I.A. for a few weeks...but life is a little crazy right now. It's starting to feel a little more back to normal now...but then we're out of here in 3 weeks! So...back to crazy-ville for a while.

Anyway, here's a few pics to get you by. ;) I'll update with the good stuff soon!

Thanks to Aunt Sarah ("Rah-rah"), Ava lets us do bows now. In fact, her bangs hang in her eyes, and now she'll ask for a bow...."bow hey (hair) eyes, bow hey eyes!" The aftermath of a very messy sip from a big girl cup!Aunt Sarah made her home made popsicles out of apple juice and called them applesicles...now, Ava thinks ALL popsicles are "applsicles." Here she is lovin' a green one!There's so much new info, and I'm almost TWO months behind. Eeeek! Ava's doing and saying a billion things, so I'll try to update with good info soon!!

Leavin' on a jet plane....

Actually, a 747! "What the heck are you talking about" you say??! Well, for those of you who don't know, I am heading to Hawaii tomorrow with my pedo girls (co-residents) for the annual AAPD meeting!! Each year, the pedo department of UF sends the second year residents to the AAPD meeting to present their research. It's in a different place every year. Last year was DC, next year is Chicago, but THIS year, it's HAWAII!!! So, we really lucked out! They pay for our flight and hotel for the nights of the meeting. So, we all decided to take the whole week off and head out for a vacation before the meeting starts! Crazy, I know!!

So, we got to looking and we found a BEACH FRONT house on the North Shore of Oahu, and we're staying there!! Here are some pictures!!

Our beach!Our house!The outdoor patio

The back door!The newly remodeled kitchen!

Another view of our beach!!I'm so excited, and I think it's gonna be so much fun. The only bad part....no Ava. :( (And no Patrick too, but you know, Ava's only 21 months old)! So, it's gonna be really hard to be away from her for 8 days. She's just recently started talking on the phone, so I'm looking forward to that. And I may bring my computer with the webcam and try to get to some WiFi while I'm there so I can see her. I know it'll be really hard for me. I already said bye to her tonight since I'm leaving at 5am tomorrow morning. We had some nice mommy-baby time right before she went to bed. :( She's so sweet, and I'll miss her so much. But, I know I'll have a blast!

So, anyway, it' been a VERY busy week....I took my pedo boards on Monday, we had a graduation ceremony yesterday (we "walked," but we're not officially done for another 6 weeks!), and I'm leaving for Hawaii tomorrow! Plus, Ava turned 21 months this week. I'll do an update post when I get back! Everyone keep me in mind for a safe trip!!

ALOAH!!

PS. Check the next post for another, short update!

Loop

Well, here we are at the end of, yet another, road. This is a little bit of a sad end, however. Ava's babysitter for the last 9 months (April) had her last day this past week. :( Ava and April have come a very long way. At the beginning, Ava was very shy with her and would cry when I left for work. Now, Ava runs to her with big hugs while she waves and says "bye bye" to me on my way out! She talks about April everyday. For the past 1 or 2 months, Ava's been saying "Loop pool" or "Loop fly Lala" or "Loop park." We eventually figured out that "Loop" is April!! Now, at bedtime when I talk to Ava about her day, she tells me all about what she and Loop did. And when I ask her who's coming to see her, she says Loop! :) It's pretty darn cute.

April was so wonderful with Ava, and she went far beyond anything we expected from a babysitter. She was so attentive and kept Ava's mind guessing. She taught her so much. She took such wonderful and loving care of my Ava, and she did it perfectly! We are so appreciative of her, and she will be greatly missed.
Loop, Ava loves you, and she is lucky to have had someone so wonderful to care for her these past months! Thank you for everything you are!!

No More Call!!

So, today marks the VERY LAST day that I will be on call for the rest of my residency! This is very good news! :) I'll never have to hear that dreaded beeping ever again!! I will have to take call when I start working in July, but it's heaven compared to this because it's split among 7 doctors, there is someone who carries the pager and screens the calls, and actually having to go in is VERY rare! Yahoooooo!!! So exciting! The first of many lasts....

Easter!

So, it's a little late, but here are some pictures of Easter weekend. Here's a picture of a not-very-amused Ava and me just before leaving for church. (I was able to trick her into a bow ....but not for long)!
A quick family picture...notice, no bow! :)
Bobbi (Barb) was able to come visit for several days since she had a week away from work for spring break. They had so much fun together and Ava completely adores her Bobbi! They spent almost all their time outside (which Ava can't get enough of)! Here's a quick picture (all pictures are quick these days with this busy body!) of Ava and Bobbi.
Bobbi made Ava an Easter basket with all sorts of fun things in it. Here's Ava kissing her new "Mommy dut" watering can. She's got a few other small little rubber duckies that she calls "baby duts." She loves these things. I cannot tell you how many times a day we hear, "mommy dut, baby dut" and "beat" (for 'beak')!! Her ducks are constantly with her!!
We also dyed Easter eggs that weekend. We stripped her down so we didn't ruin her clothes. She LOVED this!Sometimes she was really good at being gentle and carefully placing the egg into the water....we also ended up with a few broken eggs!Waiting for her eggs to dye. Bobbi got stuff for an Easter egg hunt for Ava the day before Easter. We weren't sure if she was going to like it or understand it, but she LOVED it and did great! Bobbi got regular eggs and we filled them with goldfish. She also got some Elmo eggs, and we put special M&M's in those. She was pretty excited about the regular eggs at first. As soon as she realized there was something in there, she would open each one as she got them and eat the goldfish. Well, as soon as she saw an Elmo egg...she was no longer even remotely interested in the regular eggs! Here she is before she saw the Elmo eggs.... Still interested in the regular eggs....loved to eat the goldfish right away. Many fell on the ground when she opened them, but that didn't stop her from picking them right up and eating them!
I think my favorite part was when she saw the first Elmo egg, she said, "Lala egg, Lala egg" over and over. You probably remember that she calls Elmo "Lala." Well, for the next few days, her Lala eggs were all she wanted! Once she found all the Elmo eggs, we just kept re-hiding them so she could keep "finding" them. We must have re-hid and re-found Elmo eggs for at least an hour! It was really a lot of fun. After a while, she left the basket behind and just decided to carry them all on her own. No need for a basket....she'll just hold her Elmo eggs!

We hope everyone had a great Easter! Bobbi, thanks for making this Easter so memorable and fun!

Here's a video of our egg dying fun! It's a few minutes long and the quality isn't that great since we had to make it so much smaller to upload. Enjoy! :)

Pool Weekend!

We visited the pool (and got in!) for the first time this past weekend! Patrick got Ava's floaty crab from the garage, and when she saw it she could barely stand it!! She knew that meant we were going to the pool...and she was ready!

Ava is starting to get a few freckles. I'm a little sad because I know that she had to get them from being in the sun (and I try to hard to protect her)! She got one on her nose, her cheek, 2 on her forehead, and one on her forearm. For a while, I kept thinking the very first one (the one on her nose) was dirt, so I kept washing it extra good in the bathtub. And about a week later...it was still there! That's when I realized that her perfectly porcelain skin was a thing of the past. Now, it'll be porcelian skin with polka dots. :) So, naturally, I had to slather her in 60 SPF sunscreen and put her swim shirt on to protect those perfectly white shoulders! And off we went!She loved the pool. Her favorite part by far was watching all the other "babies" jump in the water. I kept telling her that they were kids, not babies...but she insisted. :) She found a basketball there, and kept bringing it to Patrick in the water. Patrick would throw it and Ava would fetch! Such a fun game. :) On the second day, she found a different kind of ball. She squeezed it and water would drip out. Every single time she did that, she'd say "pee pee." :) Hilarious.

Here's Patrick and Ava being so sweet...Before we went to the pool on Sunday, we took a trip to target to get Ava a noodle and a pool toy. (She wanted everyone else's noodle the day before)! She picked out a $1.25 boat and a pink noodle. She held on to those things like they would fly away if she let go! Ava gets very repetitive when she's focued on somethig. Since we got those things, she's been saying, "nu nu, boat, poo, cold" .....for "noodle, boat, pool, cold!" (The pool is cold)! So freakin' cute.

Here she is looking SO super cute with that pony tial and hat!!!She had so much fun but got so pooped! Here she is takin' it easy.So, today, she went to go to the park (which is right next to the pool) with her babysitter, and she about had a breakdown when she couldn't bring the noodle with her. Apparently, she stood at the gate to the pool saying, "poo, cold, nu nu." Such an emotional girl...

Looking forward to this weekend and more family pool time with Patrick and Ava!

20 months!

So, it's been a very long while since I posted last! I've had such good intentions of posting several times in the past month since we've had so much going on with Ava. But, I feel totally 100% busy to the max, and when I have an extra minute (although I really need an extra hour!), I just don't have the energy to be cute and witty on this thing. So, forgive me for the massive post today...and for not being cute or witty!

Ava is growing so fast now and is truly amazing us everyday with the amount of stuff she knows! Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She'll pretty much repeat just about anything we say, and it usually only takes us telling her one time before she's walking around the house repeating it to herself! It's such a fun time with her, but I do find myself getting a little sad that she's kinda almost (but not quite!!) a little girl. :( Here she is already stealing my money!
We've been trying to get the house ready to be put on the market, and one of the things we're fixing up is the yard. Planting flowers and laying mulch and stuff. We, when we were done, we ran the sprinklers...and Ava hasn't really seen the sprinklers since we don't run them in the cooler months...well, they turned on and she walked right into the darn thing and was totally caught of guard and ended up completely soaked! I scooped her right up and told her it was water and she recovered quickly...but here's the aftermath!
We went to a place called Paines Prairie here in Gainesville which is a huge nature preserve with wild horses, buffalo, alligators, birds, and other wild animals. It was really cool, and Ava LOVED looking at all the animals. (I can't wait to bring her to a zoo)! Here are her and Patrick checking out a small group of wild horses!Ava's starting to eat a little better lately. She's finally starting to do a good job eating meat. She mostly likes hotdogs (which she'll ask for by name now!) and chicken. She discovered that she likes pudding too! :)A week before Easter, our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt. Ava had a great time...she got one egg. It had a balloon attached to it. You can see her blue balloon sitting in her car in the picture below. She was so fucused on that one egg that by the time I was able to get her to leave the balloon behind, all the other eggs where gone. But she didn't care! Here she is with her Elmo Easter basket and the hat she picked out all by herself! :) In her egg was a lolly pop which she lovingly called "pop!"
Catcher is a very good sport! The balloon is tied to his neck! Sweet Catcher and AvaAva carried the balloon around with her all day. We tried to tie it to her wrist or her belt loop, but she wanted nothing to do with that. So, she was in the backyard carrying the balloon around hours after she got it, and all of a sudden we heard, "help, help, help." I went outside and she was pointing to the sky....and there was her balloon floating away. I told her that the balloon went bye-bye into the sky, and she looked at me and said- "down." She wanted the balloon to come back down. Well...we watched the balloon until we couldn't see it it anymore, she took a nap, and after her nap she went right back outside and said, "down." She got upset and almost cried since the balloon couldn't come back down. So, what did we do?? We went to publix and got a new balloon. :) Then Ava's world was complete once again.

So, people still think Ava is a boy when we're out in public. I mean, I guess I can understand when she's wearing semi-neutral clothes with that straight hair that hangs straight down her forehead....but COME ON, when she's wearing pink ruffles?!?! I'm telling you, it happens all the time. Usually with older people. So, I wanted to get her some bows. However, Ava is kinda the anti-girl. She doesn't want any bows, rubber bands, headbands, etc in her hair. She loves to hold all of those things and put them in my hair...but the second I try them in her hair, she grabs them and says, "no bow, no bow" in a very pitiful voice. So, I have to try to sneak them in, and sometimes she doesn't realize they're in there....here's one of those times! So freakin' cute!
The MacMaster mouth! I love it!
Mommy and Ava just after I tricked her and got a hair clip in there! (This is the kind of shirt she wears when people say, "Oh he's so cute!" I mean, really??!?
Salsa is so wonderful with Ava, and they spend so much time together. Here, Ava is about to share her rock collection with Salsa. Very sweet.
So, everything is going so great! Ava is developing at lightening speed...it's really amazing. She completely understands everything we say. Sometimes we spell words out around her, and she's gotten to the point now where she freaking knows what we're spelling! (example: "B-O-W")! She says so many words that are truly understandable and clear. She recognizes many letters and will tell me what they are when I point. She's starting to know her colors...so far, yellow ("lello") is her favortie, but she also can pick out red, blue, and purple. Amazing. I've got some videos and I'll post some soon of the letter stuff. She's just doing great, and I'm pretty excited that I'll soon be able to spend more good, quality mommy time with her (10 weeks and counting)!! I have a billion pictures of Ava during the last month, so here's more if you're interested!