Life with Ava

Are kids ever NOT sick? Ava has yet another cold and I'm a really bad mom who sent her to daycare this morning anyway. She's not running a fever or anything but she's fussy as heck with the teething and the runny, stuffed up nose. I know she's feeling under-the-weather because she spent a good portion of the afternoon/evening laying on me instead of her standard non-stop movement around the house.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I will likely have the cold in a day or two myself. There's just not enough hand sanitizer in the world to protect yourself when you're wiping a runny nose 600 times per day.

Daycare has hit a plateau. Ava has decided that she will not take a bottle from anyone (or hold it herself) while she's there. She has also made the executive decision to forgo her AM nap, leaving us with a baby who falls asleep in the car seat before we get out of the parking lot. This would be fine if she could be carried out of the car and put to bed but no, she wakes as soon as you open the car door and thinks that 15 minute catnap is sufficient. It's not and it makes for a miserable kid by late afternoon. Remember this is a kid that usually naps for nearly 3 hours per day (1 hour AM and 2 hour PM) any other time. I hope that once she learns to relax a bit in daycare the naps will resume. It just worries me that she's not drinking or sleeping while she's there. Not such a big deal when she's only there for 4 hours but will be a bigger deal next week since she'll be there about 7 hours per day.

J went with me to observe the drop off routine this morning and Ava showed her best behavior by not screaming bloody murder when we left. Probably because we cracked the code and discovered that if we put her in the high chair she's distracted enough by food to not care as much that we're leaving. We peeked through the window on the way out and she was totally engrossed in stuffing Cheerios into her mouth. J then picked her up and talked to her caretaker about how we normally get her to take her bottle - it's imperative that she be allowed to put it in her mouth herself otherwise she gags and gets freaked out. She's fine with it if she can get it situated to her liking.

Work and baby have left me with less time for blogging (and everything) and I'm behind on some posts that I want to get out. I still have an Easter post (with photos), her 1st birthday party recap, and the official birthday portraits to show off. I'm coming to the conclusion that I may not ever get official adoption announcements out although I'm not throwing in the towel just yet. I also still need to get the announcements in some of the local papers, hometowns and where we are now, since I wanted those for her scrapbook. Let's not even talk about the many thank you cards that are still outstanding.

Lots of stuff to do and we have some household projects that have to be done - like the felling of two huuugge trees before hurricane season starts and the drains and driveway that needs to be finished (hopefully this weekend). Oh, and J will be traveling on business for about 2 weeks fairly soon. I'm not looking forward to that disruption. Ava and I will be fine with each other but I'm afraid of how this is going to affect her - she doesn't deal well with big changes like that and Daddy not being home every day is going to be huge. I know we'll deal but it's not going to be fun for any of us - but J definitely gets the worst end of the deal since I get to be here with her.