A Visit with Family

This past weekend Brian went on his annual camping trip with his highschool buds in New York, so I took Ava to visit family. Oh, first of all we started out to see my life-long friend Hope, who also just had a baby boy in February. She lives in Dunwoody so we stopped there on our way to Athens. What a fun visit! Her little boy Luke is younger than Ava and they were very interested in each other. He would watch her push up on her hands and then it was as if he was trying to copy her and he would try to do the same. He is a cutie! It's kind of weird that she and I are moms now. I feel like we're still in high school sometimes! "What? When did we become adults?" She's been a great friend growing up and we always have fun together. And it's weird too how we always seemed to go through the same sort of stuff at the same time! And he we are at the beginning of motherhood together. It's neat how God worked that out for us. We will be a good support for each other I'm sure.

After that we took off for Athens and surprised Papa at work. Boy, was he sure a proud papa that afternoon! He enjoyed showing her off to the people he works with. We stayed in Athens that night and that Friday night too. Friday night Clark and his family visited so she got to play with cousins Brooks and Wade. Brooks is so funny with her. I think he thinks she's a living toy! He poked her and then threw his hands up and clapped and laughed! At one point her legs got stuck under the chair and he reached over and pulled her arm. He did this three times and finally got her out! Now, you have to remember that he's only 1 year old! That's pretty impressive. He's a smart kid. So the next day we went to see Ava's great grandmother. Now that was a surprise for her too. And she was so happy to see Ava. She had been asking dad about her and how we were doing since our trip, so I know she was glad to finally get to see this bundle of joy she'd been hearing about. She kept saying, "jan, she doesn't cry does she?" and I'd say "No, ma'am, not much." She did well during that visit until she got hungry and then it quickly got loud! But we whipped her bottle out just in time. I've been wanting to go see her for some time and you know how it goes, life gets in the way. Good intentions don't get me very far sometimes. Mom got pictures of that but I don't have any yet. I'll post those later.

After visiting, Ava and I drove to Acworth. She did okay in the car. Starting out was rough. She was sleepy and frustrated but eventually, after 20 minutes or so, she fell asleep. The drive wasn't too bad as far as traffic goes thankfully. So we got there and Jack who is 6 was so excited to see her and his first comment was, "she's so little! And her toes and fingers are so small!" He had seen her once before but was just taken with her this time around. The girls were excited too but I expect that from them I guess. He was just funny. So we were there part of Saturday and Sunday and left Monday. Jack was so great with her. He loved strolling her around the house and he'd stop and say,"is she smiling?" At one point he just stopped and sat at the kitchen table and looked at her for a while. Precious!!

He had lots of questions about adoption and I hope I was able to answer to his satisfaction! He's an inquisitive fellow who doesn't settle for a pat answer. He wants details and he wants to understand fully. But some concepts are harder than others. Well, it was good practice for me! He was just so wonderful and gentle with her. He was a good helper too. He'd go get me diapers and things. He was very interested in the whole baby thing. He was a little jealous when he saw Ava getting so much of Jennifer's affections. He's a mama's boy for sure but in a good way! But Ava soon drew his attention too and he was fine. Ava liked him as well and liked to watch him jump around and play. He must have been quite entertaining for her. She doesn't get to see stuff like that at home! When she was looking tired he said to me, "Do you think maybe Ava needs to get cozy with this blanket? That might help her get sleepy." So I put her under and then he got under. He even brought down his favorite stuffed animals for her to play with. Of course, that became more of game than a "getting cozy" time.

Jen and I stayed up talking Saturday night as we always do. I should have known better. As soon as I layed down at 3am (crazy!) Ava started crying! Aaaaagh! That tends to be how it usually happens. She just was out of sorts in this new place and only slept a little longer that night. By 7am I was exhausted and just put her in the bed with me thinking if she'll just play here in bed I can at least close my eyes. Next theing I know Jennifer is waking us up! We had both fallen asleep. So we very quickly got ready to go to church. Jennifer was looking forward to introducing us to her Sunday School class b/c they had been praying for us as well. What a beautiful picture of what the body of Christ is! I have been so sweetly blessed by all these people telling us they have been praying for us. Just wonderful. Ava didn't make it through that class without some "vocalizing" as we call it. So we headed to the nursery where she could make some noise and have a bottle. The rest of the day was relaxing. Ava took a 2 hour nap so I got to sleep as well. Aaahhh, beautiful sleep!

We had a lazy Memorial day. We got back home around 6. It was sad to leave the kids. They were SOOOO sweet to Ava. They keep her entertained! I love those kids. I think one day they will make excellent baby-sitters!!

Ava has been sleeping pretty well this week. I think the weekend wore her out. She actually slept straight through last night without a bottle...will it happen again tonight? We'll see. Maybe it's the start of something great! She gets five shots tomorrow so I would be willing to bet that whatever pattern may be starting to form will probably be interrupted tomorrow by sore legs and fever. I don't look forward to this dr. visit at all. Oh, one other thing, she has started scooting forward, like an army crawl. It's funny to watch. She sort of lunges forward. It's very cute. And she's started this whining thing when she wants me to get her something she can't reach. Yikes. Gotta nip that in the bud.


Ava's camera smile: