Holidays

Wow, it's been a while... I couldn't even remember the last time I wrote anything on here or what I even wrote about. I hope none of you have been holding your breath for my next post...

Here's a recap of our holidays for you all:

The day after the biggest storm that Philadelphia has gotten in quite a while, Matt went to see the Falcons play the Jets, so Ava and I were home alone. I called my mom and was telling her that we were bored, so my dad happily volunteered to come pick us up. (Matt drove my car because his awesome car was stuck in our parking lot.) We were going to wait until Tuesday and go to their house with my sister, but we decided we'd go earlier so that we could spend some time with my brother and his girlfriend who were in from Vermont. They hadn't seen Ava since the summer, so they were excited to spend some one on one time with her.

My sister came on Tuesday and on Wednesday everybody else came, Matt and my brother-in-law Mike carpooled and Matt's parents and brother arrived too. They drove in from NH which was really awesome because it meant that we wouldn't have to drive all the way there with Ava. The last time that Matt's brother saw Ava, she had just come home from the hospital and even though he gets frequently updated with pictures, he was blown away with how big she is. Matt's parents hadn't seen Ava since the end of the summer and they were also shocked to see everything that she could do now.

We did our annual Christmas Eve celebration with our 'family', the Paytons. We met them shortly after moving to Pennsylvania 25 years ago and have been great friends ever since. For the past 20 years or so, they've come over every Christmas Eve. My mom makes lasagna, we play games, and we just have fun. We had quite a large game of Catchphrase this year since there were 15 people, but it was a good time. I am proud to say that Mike and I were the winners of one of the games.

After a late night, we woke up early on Christmas because everybody except for us had to leave to go to other family Christmases. Ava was so excited that she feel asleep in the middle of opening presents! We got lots of great stuff and are very appreciative for everything. After everybody else left, it was just my parents, Matt, Ava and I. It seemed so quiet!

Saturday was another mellow day and then on Sunday, Matt went back to our place and my parents, Ava and I went to my aunt's house in Rochester. It has become a tradition that my dad's side of the family all get together at her house every year. I hadn't seen any of them in quite a while and nobody had met Ava, so it was great to see everybody. We had a really good time and Ava was great being passed around and held by everybody.

After being at my parents' house for a week and a half, Ava and I finally went home on Tuesday. It was good for Ava to settle back into her normal routine. It was so nice having all those extra hands though during the holidays! I hope everyone had a great holiday season this year!

I don't have any Christmas pictures on my computer, but I'll post some once I get them.

Wicked

This past weekend was a busy one for us. Friday night was Matt's work holiday party. My parents came down and babysat Ava for us so that we could go have some adult time. It was fun to get dressed up (which I never really get to do anymore) and it was nice to meet all of Matt's coworkers. We came home to find out that my parents kept Ava up until all hours... Not really, but she woke up at 9:30 and after my mom was in with her for 20 minutes trying unsuccessfully to get her to fall back to sleep, my dad went in and Ava decided it was play time with Danpa. She was laughing and talking to him and definitely did not want to sleep. Who can blame her? Playing with her Danpa is way more fun than sleeping. She eventually did fall asleep, but Matt and my dad paid that price the next day.

This is the only picture that we took at Matt's party.

On Saturday, Erin, my mom, and I went to New York to see Wicked. This was Erin's birthday present from my parents. We left Ava with her daddy and Danpa and off we went. We took a train into the city because it's so much easier than having to deal with traffic and parking, especially this time of year. After fighting through the crowds and all of the Santas that were there for some Santa Convention, we just barely made it on time to the show. As we were sitting down, the lights were dimming. The play was absolutely amazing! I highly recommend it. I'm so happy that Erin suggested that as a birthday present.

Back on the home front, I guess Ava was having kind of a rough day. She was tired so that made her cranky and I guess she was really missing her momma. We stick to a similar routine pretty much every day, so me being gone all day and not doing our normal bedtime routine 2 nights in a row was getting to her. They said that she kept looking towards the door for me which broke my heart of course.

Thankfully we didn't have any plans on Sunday, so I was able to snuggle with Ava all day. And I was able to get some much needed rest. As cautious as I am with germs and cleanliness, I still somehow managed to get sick. It's just a head cold and I think that it will be gone soon. So far, Ava hasn't really exhibited any signs of being sick, so I'm really hoping that I don't pass it to her. Despite being sick, I had such a fun weekend and am so excited that our holiday festivities will begin next week!

Teeth!!

Every morning for the past few weeks, I've expected to see a little tooth in Ava's mouth when she woke up because she's been chewing on everything and drooling like crazy. At one point yesterday, I felt her gums and I could feel a tooth. It hadn't broken through her gums yet, but it was about to. Along with a tooth cutting through comes crankiness... Ava was so fussy and cranky yesterday and I felt so bad for her. She was so tired all morning, but just wouldn't fall asleep even when we were holding her. She eventually took almost a 2 hour nap in the afternoon and was much more pleasant when she woke up. I gave her some teething drops and they seemed to help. Thankfully, the teething didn't effect her sleeping and she slept her usual 11ish hours.

This morning when I went to get Ava out of her crib, I looked in her mouth and I could see where her tooth was coming up! It must have come through enough so that it doesn't hurt so bad anymore because she's been in a great mood today. It's her bottom, left tooth in the front. It's so cute watching her because she keeps sucking in her bottom lip and running her tongue against her gums. And of course, she's still gnawing on everything that she can grab. I know I say it all the time, but I cannot believe how quickly she's growing up! She'll be 8 months next week!

Ava's so excited that she got her first tooth on her Danpa's birthday!

And a picture of Ava and her Danpa. Happy birthday Dad, we love you!

Shopping and Santa

Matt and I are so blessed to have the best baby ever! I may be a little biased, but she really is. She's always so good whenever we go out. She really only gets cranky when she's hungry or tired, and seriously, who doesn't? Yesterday we made our second annual shopping trip to King of Prussia. We don't go there often because it's huge and very overwhelming.

We got there around 10:30 and didn't get home until 4:00! Thankfully, Ava was so good! We brought her lunch with us and fed her and then she fell asleep while I carried her. But most of the time, she was perfectly content just sitting in her stroller and looking around at everything. I am very happy to say that we are done shopping for everyone! I also got all of the Christmas cards sent out and all of the presents are wrapped. I'm so excited for Christmas and I know that the next few weeks will go by quickly so it will be here soon!

And Santa...

A few weeks ago, we brought Ava to get her picture taken with Santa. We decided to take her as early as possible so that we would miss the long lines and crowds. After seeing how long the line was yesterday, I'm so happy that we already had it out of the way! As always, Ava was really good, but she was tired and as hard as we tried, we just couldn't get her to smile. Here is one of the pictures.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Last weekend after we got back from my parents house, Matt, Ava, and I went to get our own Christmas tree. After looking at a bunch of trees, we ended up getting the first one that we saw. It's the perfect size for our space. Originally we were only going to have a little table top tree because we didn't think we had room in our apartment, but I couldn't stand not having a big tree, so we made room. Getting a tree and decorating really helps to get into the holiday spirit!

Thanksgiving and other things

The past week has gone by pretty quickly for us, so I'm just posting an update about Thanksgiving now. Last week, Matt and I went to see Phish on both Tuesday and Wednesday night, so my parents babysat Ava for us. Since they were going to be here anyway and it would have just been the 5 of us at their house for Thanksgiving, we decided to just have Thanksgiving at our place. It was really nice not to have to go anywhere. My mom had the turkey in the oven by about 7:00 and our neighbor said that it smelled delicious when she woke up. My mom has the time management down perfectly and everything was absolutely wonderful. After Ava was done eating her sweet potatoes, she decided she wanted to try mine and tried to grab them off of my plate!

Later that day, Ava and I went back to my parents house so that we could get a Christmas tree with them. My dad worked a good chunk of the day and finally when he couldn't stand it anymore, we went to get a tree. My mom stayed with Ava since she was sleeping in the car while my dad and I trekked all over to find the perfect tree. For those of you who have never seen their trees, they usually get monstrous ones. I think the biggest one they've gotten was about 15' tall and very full around. After walking all over the tree farm, we heard my mom yelling for us. Apparently they had already cut down a bunch of really nice big ones, so our hike through the woods was for nothing except a little exercise. Shortly after we got home, Matt showed up to help my dad put the tree up. We decorated the next day and it looks great. Of course I didn't take any pictures, but I'll get some next time we're there.

'Tis the Season..

..for credit card fraud. I went online to check my bank account over the weekend and had a weird charge to Carfax. The always optimistic Matt said that maybe whoever entered the number made a mistake...right. So, I tried unsuccessfully to contact Carfax, but you literally cannot reach anybody on the phone, all of their customer service is done through email. So, I left a voicemail with my info and emailed them explaining that I thought somebody stole my credit card number and I wanted them to refund it. After 3 days, I finally heard back from them and they said they'd refund the money.

So, I've been monitoring my bank account carefully to make sure no other questionable charges were made. This morning there was a charge made to yahoo and there was a phone number, so I called and talked to a very helpful guy. He said that somebody used my card to start some bogus car trading website. They had my address and everything. He refunded me and shut the website down and I called the bank to cancel my card. Luckily, it was only a total of about $70 and I'll get it all back, but it's just such a horrible feeling. So the moral of my story is to check your bank accounts often this holiday season.