Another rainy day & a Life Lesson

And a cold one, at that.  It's been like this for the better part of the week, and it's really messing up my Saturday errands with the babe.  I don't know that I want to take her out in this mess. I see it's stopped, so I may hop in the shower, feed her lunch when she wakes up and get out.  Daddy's sick anyway, or at least not feeling well, and has also requested a rotisserie chicken, probably to make some soup, so I'll be making a trip out regardless.  I think it's just because he's been working out in this weather - it was 80 degrees this week, and then rainy and in the 40-50's.  I hope he's not sick sick.  There was a sick person at work this week, one of the ones that got us all started around Thanksgiving, so I really hope that it's not contagious.  But you know what happens, and what I've always said - it IS contagious when they say it's not.  Oy. Oh, and you know little Ava has a runny, snotty nose, too.  Ah the beginnings of daycare baby. So I'm a little stuffy too.  I guess I just have to accept this as a part of life and move on.  (even if I really do not want to...)

So I wanted to share something with you readers, whoever you are.  Something was brought to my attention this past week and it really hit hard.  In a constructive way, thank goodness.  It was pointed out to me that I gave the impression of being controlling. Gasp!  Me?  Um, yes. believe it.  It's true.  As much as I hate to even admit it, I know that this is a huge fault of mine.  I hate to say that I was raised in a house like this, but I was.  I won't say which parent, but if they didn't like something, they would say something, and try to correct it to their liking.  Be it the way one sits at the table, holds their silverware to cut meat, the way a buffet line at home should go, or how quickly one is to say, "excuse me," if they burp.  But I am a product of my parent(s), and it's taken me this long to finally see that this has to end.  The person that brought this to my attention is someone very close to me, someone I cherish and love as much as a sister.  She told me in such a way as to not make me feel badly, but it really just brought it to light.  It's one thing when your mother or husband tells you something, but when your friend does, we tend to take it differently.  I was immediately knocked down a peg or two.  Or three... or four... you get it.  I mean, this is something that I've been thinking about because of the way things may be going at work, and me not liking something.  I have no problem voicing an opinion if I don't think something is appropriate, but I'm not in charge. I'm not the boss.  My wonderful husband has reminded me of that, and that I really need to step back and let others (in charge) handle it.  If they don't, fine. But I can just not like it.  I don't have to say something about it, I can just silently disagree with it.  Not in a judgy-judgerton way, just to myself.   I thanked her and apologized profusely.  I love that she came to me about that, and how she opened my eyes.  I spend a lot of time with her, we are comfortable with each other to say such, and move past it.  She also mentioned something that I had been avoiding because of my embarrassment and shame.  I don't need to fight anyone's battles for them.  I don't have to say anything in their defense, or at all. They can handle it.  Even if it's coming from a place that is the same as theirs, or from a place of concern, we're adults.  We can handle our own.  I am so glad that she mentioned this too, because like I said, I was so ashamed that I said something a while back. You know when you open your mouth and out comes something that you want to immediately bring back in?  But you can't the damage has been done, and you think, "oh fudge..." Ya, that's what I did.  Lesson learned, and we are moving past this.  She forgave me and said we're moving on.  That's love.  And thank goodness for that!
Don't you just love learning lessons the hard way?

Diva In Training

I realize I am raising a little diva, and making her this way.  I have no problem with this.  And neither does her daddy.  (He better not... haha)
So Ava was sitting so sweet in her bumbo chair the other night and I thought it was the perfect time to get her toenails polished again.  So I rushed into my bathroom, got my stash, and let her pick out a color.  She went with a super cute pink, Essie's Poppy Art Pink - pure perfection!

8 months came & went

happy little Ava in her leggings

Little Miss had a big 8th month. She had some big changes, growth, hit some milestones. It's been pretty fun and we have enjoyed watching her go through these things.  Ava's eating people food, loves turkey & chicken, and even butternut squash.  She loves yogurt, too. She had a love for carrots, but now I think she's not so sure about them anymore.  I wish she would drink from a sippy cup, but she prefers her water from a cup. I just found a sippy cup with a soft tip, more like a nipple, and she got the hang of it last night. Yay!
Ava's also standing up more on her own, not holding on to anything.  She's making a few reaching steps, which is scary because that means she's even closer to walking.  Yikes.  Or Yay.  We've not really decided on that yet.  She's so smart, though, because she knows that if she can't reach it, she'll sit right back down and crawl that half inch and stand back up.
The biggest change that Ava has gone through is the transition from being at home with a nanny to her first week of daycare.  After much thoughtful prayer, Don & I decided that it was best for Ava to go to daycare.  We loved having her at home with a nanny, and we loved our nanny. She was here with Ava for 3 days a week, and my mother was here with her for one.  We had the nanny for Mon-Thursday, but Don's work schedule was so sporadic that she may be here 3 days, maybe 2, maybe 2 1/2, but only once 4 days in a week.  After we all sat down and hammered out some scheduling issues, we decided to keep her here for 3 days a week.  This way, she could get another job on the other days, and have a more set schedule.  Wouldn't you know that the first week we were on 3 days, we needed her all 4 days.  But due to scheduling conflicts, she wasn't able to be here that 4th day.  Also, my mother had a terrible migraine headache, so we knew she was out for Friday.  I had to take a half day, Don took the other half, and we were able to get the nanny here on Friday.  It was so crazy!  I shouldn't have to feel like that, and we shouldn't have to take off.  Also, in all fairness, if we have a set schedule with the nanny, we kinda have to stick to it.  I told her that I couldn't get upset if she arranged her schedule around her days off.  (I would do the same.)  So we looked into some daycares, asked around to some friends we trusted, and were able to find one.  How amazing that there was one, only one, immediate opening.  How amazing that we had an immediate need.  It's at a church. It's not a large school.  It's on the way to work (minutes from, to be exact).   I was able to do a tour, had such a peace about it after all the prayer and the divine coincidences that led to this decision, and told Don that this was going to happen.  He was already on board because of the recommendations we got from his friends.  We both knew that we would one day have to make this decision, but didn't realize it would be best to do it sooner than expected.  I left the school Friday after paying the registration fee, and was told by the director that she would pray for me as I went home to break the news to our nanny.  Surprisingly, it went very smoothly.  Another blessing!  It was just one big ol' blessing in disguise.  The nanny even came back to be with Ava the next week (which I was hoping she would, since I didn't want her to feel like she was "fired" - it was not personal).  She understood that it was something we had to do for Ava, to be consistent. I told her that I loved that she was so understanding and cool about this.  That's why we loved her too!  So Ava's first full week is this coming week, and she's already had some fun. I checked on her during my lunch break and what was she doing? Playing and having fun.  They went to chapel, she loved the music, she played and met some new friends.  They were so excited to have her!  She was exhausted by the end of the day, and I'm hoping that this will help her get on an earlier bedtime schedule.  God is so good and had His hand in this from the beginning.  Yay! 

Having fun playing at school!

Ava cute as can be on her first day of school!  (toenails polished & everything!)

Little miss

It's getting a little more difficult to keep little miss still for a staged picture.  I think this is just precious, though.  Santa's little helper! I found these cute leg warmers and hair band on etsy, from Lilly Bow Peep, and Ava liked them! Well, I loved them, she didn't mind them haha.
www.etsy.com/shop/lillybowpeep

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, y'all! Hope everyone had a safe and fun time. We spent the day relaxing, enjoying the time off with little Ava. We went out for brunch & then just came back home and played around. Come midnight, I had to wake Don up to toast in the new year with some ginger ale. I know, I know, boring. But I didn't want to bust open a bottle of champs in the last 50 seconds, to only drink a little bit & it go flat. Plus, I just didn't care to do all that mess. So I poured the ginger ale up in our flutes that we used on our wedding day, and got my smooch! We have had an amazing 2013. A year ago today, the purchase for our home was approved. Being that it was a foreclosure, we waited for probably 6 months to hear that. We even backed out before Thanksgiving 2012, and then we were offered something we just couldn't refuse with this house. I was pregnant! We were staying at my mom's b/c we had to move from our rental. We had so much stress going on in our lives, it was almost unbearable. But the joy and excitement pushed through, as we started to feel our little Ava kicking & dancing. We should've known then how much she would grow to love music. This little thing LOVES the guitar, so daddy makes sure to play her music on his guitar all the time. She crawls over to his guitar stand now, pulls herself up, strums and sings. It's one of the most precious things in the world! She's been such a blessing. So anyway, in 2013 we were living at mom's, waiting to close on the house, finally closing on the house 1/31, got settled here, set up the baby room, had a baby, found a nanny, lost the nanny, found another nanny, and we're still figuring out how to be parents. This journey is amazing and I don't believe I would change anything about it. We are so looking forward to the new year, time for some resolutions... or something. I mean, let's be real, now many people say they're going to eat better, exercise, lose weight? Um... pretty much everyone. So be a little more original. For me, the ones I can think of are as follows: - wash my hair more than one time a week - give myself more mani's - give Ava pedicures - i.e., polish her piggies - wear pearls more often (like I had mentioned in a post a couple of years ago. 11/12 - shave my legs more often - do some devotion time. I actually thought of a couple more but forgot... Regardless, mine are a little more original than "exercise, work out, eat right" huh? It's almost the weekend - have a good one! xoxo

Oops - flew by Thanksgiving

I forgot to post for Thanksgiving! My goodness... sorry! Ava's first Turkey Day. We spent it as we have been for the past few years in Waycross, GA with my father, his wife & son, my brother & grandmother. It was nice, cool weather, sunny, perfect. Delicious, and over too quick! We had planned to do mom's family that weekend, but things just fell thru left and right. So for the most part, it was a great long weekend. Don's bro & wife, and my mom came over Saturday, and we had a little get together. Planning holiday gatherings just isn't easy when there's so much family to try to get in. Another reason we got a nice house, with an open floor plan - so we could just do holidays here. We decided that every holiday is just going to be here from now on. It'll be easier, central, and did I say easier? Yes. There you have it.

How many days until Christmas?

Seriously, I think it's less than 2 weeks. Oh my goodness. I cannot believe that it's almost time again, and I feel like I may have said the same thing last year. I'm pretty sure I did. I'm thinking it's because Thanksgiving was just a couple of weeks ago, and time has just flown by. We don't even have a tree up! I know, it's a shame. No lights outside, or inside. I've barely put any decorations up, either. I have a few things here and there, but eh... This is our first year in the house, I kinda expected that we would be more into decorating, etc. Even with the baby, it's firsts all around. Last year, at this time, we were prepping to move all of our things into storage, and to move in to my mom's downstairs apartment. I was pregnant, and not really feeling the move. Bitterness, frustration, anxiety, on top of the pregnancy was all going thru my body. Thank goodness, and God, that everything worked out. And here we are today. In the house that we could only dream would be so right, with a baby that we couldn't have imagined being so perfect, and being blessed beyond what we deserve. God has a way of pointing things out to you, pointing out how He will handle things when you truly give them over to Him. We didn't think this would work out, and I know that both of us, Don & I thought that there was still the possibility that we wouldn't close on the house, or that something would fall through again and we would have to find an apartment or stay at my mom's for longer. We had already started in the side of our minds (ya, moved up from the back to the side) how we would arrange that little apartment at mom's to fit a crib, a sofa, table. We finally, completely just asked God to take it - and help us trust that it would work out. Jan 31 rolled around and it all fell into place. Amen. So I move on to the fun part - Ava. Our little miss fancy pants is now 7 months old. She's crawling all over the place, is pulling herself up and standing, and doesn't like to stay down much. She's learning what "no" means, and is an ok listener. She's 7 months, what can we expect? She's coming out of her waking up in the middle of the night to eat or cry phase, which is lovely. The past few nights she's been much better. I don't remember if I had mentioned in her 6 mo update, but she was waking up and crying, and was hungry. Our perfect sleeper had decided to flip the script on us. We were not amused. But we got her off the food, and would just find her pacifier, give her that and it would hold her for a few more hours. Her morning schedule was different, then, she wasn't waking up at 7:30 a.m. either, but whenever. So that made mornings interesting for a while. Then she would sleep most of the day and stay up so late! Oy! So now she's getting back into her groove. This weekend she went down at maybe 11pm Friday night, which is great, and slept until 10am Saturday morning! Um, so did I. We were out and about most of the later afternoon/early evening, and she was great. Snuck a few naps in during car rides, but other than that, she was up. I put her down at 10:45 and she woke up this a.m. around 6, and I gave her her paci, and she slept until 10. So it's been nice catching up on our sleep. It took us 3 nights to watch Man of Steel, which by the way is an awesome movie. (Doesn't hurt that Superman is super hot...) No teeth yet, just the same as usual. Her eyes are still light, a hazel, like mine. :) yay! And her hair is a light, golden brown. So she looks just like her daddy, but I get the skin/hair/eyes. Not too shabby. xoxo