And no, I can’t believe I am posting this picture either because
    a) check out the metal mouth (5-1/2 YEARS of metal mouth mind you)  
    b) we look like infants and  
    c) it is yet another example of why I should never EVER take self portraits

Unfortunately there are a lot of photos like this, most of which have been burned if you know what’s good for you Katie Richey!)

Anyway Stef’s daughter is 3 months younger than Avelyn, and they were clearly meant to live closer together so they could be BFF’s and scream their little heads off with each other everyday. The introductions were a little rocky, with Avelyn refusing to speak to anyone or sit further than 1 inch away from me at the table.  I also suspect I’m not the only one who noticed her penchant for scowls and silence when she’s uncomfortable.  Who knew it was genetic? 

Once lunch was over and we got the girls to an unoccupied room in the restaurant they discovered they could run free and really hit it off.  And by hit it off I mean Avelyn decided that not only was running around really-super-duper-freaking-cool but running around with her mouth wide open screaming was FREAKING AWESOOOOOOOOOOME!  Like a natural born big sister (and don’t read too much into that statement; it’s not ANYTIME SOON) she set the example for her little friend who quickly followed suit. 

It turned out to be pretty cold in Austin that day and I started to wish I had worn something warmer than my old maternity sweater and my black leggings (Of which I am starting to think make me look fat.  Still considering this prospect).  Regardless of the cool temps, we felt it would be in the best interest of restaurant go-ers everywhere to take the screaming girls outside, where they proceeded to do two things very well:

One: look ohmygod-ohmygod-ohmygod-SO-CUTE!

And two: continue to run around screaming.

I had such a good time catching up with an old friend.  It was loads of fun to see Stefany again and introduce our husbands and A-dorable baby girls.  How lucky am I to have friends that would drive 200 miles to have lunch with me(!) after they already had 2,100 miles under their belt that trip.  (Really lucky for me is that I like her, as it is probably true that I might know several people who would do that, but not necessarily many that I like.  But anywho…)

(This picture has nothing to do with anything I’m typing, I just love it. Isn’t she a doll?)

After lunch I rounded out the afternoon with a genius plan I’d cooked up months ago when Stef told me they were coming to Texas.  There is an Ikea just north of Austin and we would just happen to be 15 minutes away the day after Thanksgiving.  SCORE!  I spent too much money and didn’t get nearly enough stuff but now I have an excuse to troll through my thousands of pictures on my computer and print out some good ones to be framed.  I also purchased a set of glass jars that I thought would make great craft supply organizers.  I was right.  AND I ONLY BOUGHT ONE FOUR-PACK.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?!  I could have bought 100 and found uses for all of them!  Now I have to make a point to drive back up there.  Ohhhhhh noooooo. 

So, that was my day after Thanksgiving.  And it was great.  And free of stress.  And to top it off I didn’t have to work that night.  What a difference a decade makes.

Luckily it didn’t come to that point – yet - but only because once dinner/bath/book was over with I flopped her down and ran  sweetly placed her (no really, it was sweet and with tons of kisses and “I love you”s) in her crib and took off. I just couldn’t take one more second of the whining.  The sheer amount of whining I tell you!  Seemingly about nothing!  Maybe her tooth hurts, maybe she’s bored, maybe she’s hungry, maybe a fly landed on some stray hair on her head, I DON’T KNOW because the child is still just a baby and can’t talk.  AGH I have never wanted a child to talk more in my life.  Please talk, Avelyn.  Please.  Mommy needs you to form actual words and tell me exactly what you are thinking.  I’m not a mind reader and this crying thing is not the best communication tool. 

I can hear some of you now.  You’re talking to the computer screen in a really obnoxious sing song voice saying, ”Be careful what you wish for!  One day you’ll beg her to STOP talking.” Well, you can keep your big mouth shut, thank you very much. I know that day will come and when it does I will appreciate very much if you would keep your, “See, I told you so” to yourself and if you just can’t resist don’t say I didn’t warn you when I reply back and call you a really dirty name.  When that day comes I will be the first to reference back to this very day, when I begged and pleaded for my child to speak.

●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●          ●

(Today)
Thanksgiving was fine. The usual annoyances with the usual family members (but hey, that’s family) but thankfully (no pun intended) there were no tears, no breakdowns and no name calling this year.  A success in my book and that’s all I want to say about Thanksgiving. The Hobo helped me make a homemade cheesecake the day before and had a marvelous time with her “cookin’ stick”, which she uses to help at every meal she prepares.  Let me tell you that girl makes a mean cheesecake. 

Speaking of which, how long is cream cheese good for?  I’m still nibbling on it now, literally right now as I type.  Hope that doesn’t come back to bite me in a few hours…

I will say one more thing about Thanksgiving and that is A looked ravishing in the dress I bought for her to wear the day after Thanksgiving, but she insisted on wearing the day of.  She has hit an independent streak (don’t know where she gets it) and is very vocal about what she wears sometimes.  See above paragraphs regarding SHEER EXHAUSTION FROM THE WHINING.

The kid barely ate anything but if I recall she did quite enjoy the homemade cranberry sauce she helped me make and for that I was satisfied.  The rest of the day was spent trying to keep her calm and feeling safe since some other people had brought their dog to the house and A is scared of dogs.  Please don’t ask why they didn’t remove the dog from the family room where the family and my terrified daughter was because a) I have no polite answer and  b) it might cause WW3 and I really don’t think we need another unnecessary war right now.  Also I’m totally over it because the real reason I could come up with is rather sad and pathetic and anyway the Hobo and I had a great time walking around outside picking flowers and generally looking cute.

Thanksgiving.  It’s over.  The End.  I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS!

Kevin flew to Chicago on Friday so he wasn’t in attendance.  I made sure he was “there” by lending Jacob Kevin’s tux from our wedding and forcing him to talk on my pink iPhone while Kevin gave marriage advice before the ceremony.  He said, “Don’ do it dummy!”  Joking, of course. 

I’ve mentioned before that I regret not having danced with my brother at my own wedding all the way, way back in 2002.  I made peace with myself when Avelyn danced with him at his.  It kills me it’s so sweet. 

After the wedding we all drove over to an old historic house and they had pictures taken.  Avelyn was fit to be tied after driving nearly 300 miles just the day before and revving up to drive the same distance back.  She passed out on the way to the house, woke up crabby and screaming about 10 minutes later and screamed in most of my pictures.  We’ll see how their photos come out.  She looked so pretty with the bride anyway, and in the flower garden of course.  Love those OMG Texas is too freaking hot summer nights.

I started my FIRST day at my FIRST real job on Monday.  So far it has been hooooouuuurrrrrs of borientation.  I sit there all day long, nodding off and dreaming about all the things I need to learn how to do so I don’t kill someone.  Then I think to myself, Holy crap!  I’m getting paid a buttload of money to sit here and be bored.  WaHOOOOOOO!  Then, normally I go back to having the poop scared out of me because hello!  I’m a new nurse and I. Know. NOTHING.

It is now 9:57pm.  I am drop dead tired and missing Kevin like crazy.  He is in Chicago until August 2nd.  Have I talked about that yet?  I have been so busy and blog neglectful I’m not sure if I have.  He goes every year and runs a film camp for high school kids.  I miss him insanely and so does Avelyn.  We bought a webcam for my computer before he left and tried it out on Father’s Day.  You can see her unfiltered joy when she talks to her Daddy “on the screen” at the end of the Father’s Day “movie” I made him.  I just roll with amusement every time I hear that excited laugh.  I wonder if I would look younger if I laughed like that everyday. 

I remember after my dad passed away my mom would talk about seeing cardinals, and how she thought about it like it was him, showing her signs and pointing her in the right direction.  I thought it was crazy when I was young but at some point I started seeing them too.  And I only saw them at moments I really needed to see him.  Moments when I missed him something awful, or felt totally helpless or had no idea what to do.  Out of nowhere a bright red, beautiful cardinal would show up. 

One appeared on Thursday, the day before “the day”.  It flew all around our backyard.  I saw it while we were eating lunch, just the three of us, at our kitchen table.  It was beautiful and flittering around the tree outside the window.  I smiled and told Kevin to look.  I asked if he knew what day it was, what tomorrow was and he said yes and smiled too.  Sure it could be a coincidence, it’s possible there are swarms of cardinals flying around me all the time and I just don’t see them until I need to see them.  Even so I can’t help but feel like his presence was there, giving me the peace I felt all day Friday.  Giving me peace when I miss him most. 

I miss you, Dad. 

Bruce Robert Norman, 1955-1994

Hobo Baby has been sick since Wednesday suffering from her first bout of fluid imbalance (AKA vomiting and diarrhea-ing all day).  Close to half the kids at school including three in her class were out with the same bug.  Four weeks in and the Bubonic Plague Academy of the World (daycare) has kicked my kid to the curb three times.  A cold, an ear infection and the heaves.  

Speaking of ear infections, after sleeping all day Thursday and barely eating anything she ran a 103.5 temp so Kevin and I took Hobo to the doctor when they got to Houston.  Guess what she has?  Duh da da daaaa, another ear infection.  This is two times in the left and once on the right.  Three since December.  I can almost hear those tubes a-comin’.

Since I have packed up most of the house and eaten everything worth eating in the pantry Kevin stopped at Luby’s to pick up some dinner.  I had my usual, LuAnn with fried fish, green beans and mashed potatoes.  He had the chicken pot pie.  The man loves him some CPP.

I ran Avelyn a bath which finally made her remember who I was and we bonded a little.  Oh, did I forget to mention that my ten month old(!) daughter has decided that she loves Kevin like she used to love me and vice versa?  Well she has, little turncoat.  I hobbled around for weeks after her gorgeous body came ripping out of my hoo hoo and this is how she repays me?  By pretending that this temporary shift in home base somehow means Daddy is her savior?  Oi.  I thought this wasn’t supposed to come for a few more years.  Or months at least. 

After she hit the hay we ordered the moving truck, reserved the storage space and got to packing up the rest of the random crap laying around our house.  Where does all this stuff come from?  Why do we own it?  I don’t use this stuff but I can usually find one reason not to throw it away. That being said, in the future please refrain from sending anymore crap my way.

As the night dragged on Kevin kept making reference to his sick stomach, worrying that that his Seinfeld-esque vomit streak was soon to meet it’s end.  Eventually I told him to go take a “not hot” shower and go to bed.  I hate packing all by myself but what I would hate worse is vomit in my open box of barware.

Just when I decided to call it quits for the night I heard the thunderous stomp of a man running for the bathroom.  Damn.  Good thing he took that bucket with him to bed.  Being a good nursey-wife I sprang into action and bounded upstairs, only to veer off into Avelyn’s room to check on her until the worst of the gut wrenching heaves had stopped.  Hey, I can handle all kinds of gooey goodness but there is no reason to stand above a man hurling the entire contents of his bowels into a toilet.  He ain’t got no hair to hold back.  I did take care of him after that and now he is sleeping peacefully.  Hopefully he didn’t get Avelyn’s bug and just caught the death from the Luby’s.

Damn chicken pot pie.  

It also brings family which in itself brings stress and anxiety. Oi.

My time in San Antonio started out great. I finished my final on Wednesday the 17th, had lunch with some friends and hit the road for SA. I pulled in just in time to see Avelyn’s face light up when she saw me and I put her to bed. Man she’s beautiful. We had some good days of shopping and eating and baking cookies then Avelyn caught a nasty cold. She was so pitiful and congested and couldn’t eat much for days. It’s hard to suck on a bottle when your nose is full of snot. For all of it she sure makes being sick look good.

Monday some of Kevin’s family arrived and we had a good time introducing Avelyn to them. She fell in love with Kevin’s cousin, warmed up to Great Aunt K the second day and took a few more days to get past Great Uncle T’s mustache. I guess she thought he was trying to hide or something. Tuesday morning we learned two things. One, that she is a born gift wrapper and took to decorating packages like a pro. (Or at least ripping bows off and beating people with empty paper rolls.) Two, that the kid loves Truffles. (Or at least the noise they make when you shake the heck out of them.)

Wednesday was Christmas Eve, and only slightly more stressful because everyone who was coming to Christmas was here. Between becoming a mother (and the empowerment that comes with it) and Prozac I am much better equipped to handle this kind of stress than I used to be. I know I can take a deep breath, go in the other room for a bit and come out renewed and refreshed. If all else fails I can always use the excuse “Well, Avelyn is so stopped up that she can’t breathe when she sleeps. I’m going to lay down with her so she’ll get a decent nap.” I don’t know what I’ll do when my kids are grown and I can’t use them as a getaway excuse anymore.

We went to Christmas Eve service and danced Avelyn around in her gorgeous red Christmas dress. She looked so beautiful! I took her up front during the kids reading and the preacher talked about what Joy meant and handed out little “JOY” ornaments to all the children. I just kept watching her face light up when she stared at other kids faces, or at the beautiful red poinsettias everywhere. Her face is the definition of pure JOY.

Kevin and I both know each other’s family traditions. It took me years when we were dating to accept the fact that (gasp!) not every family worked like mine and opened wrapped gifts on Christmas morning. As a matter of fact, I can remember most of our “How the Holiday’s Work” conversations, including the most recent on 12/22/08, going a little like this:

“But the holiday is Christmas! Not Christmas Eve! You don’t open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve!”

“Yes you do! You only open Santa presents on Christmas day.”

“But you’re all old. Nobody gets Santa presents anymore!”

“Yeah. Now we open them all on Christmas Eve. We got Santa presents when we were little. He left them by the fireplace.”

“Uh, what? What do you mean by the fireplace? Not under the Christmas tree?”

“No. Why would he leave them under the tree? He comes down the fireplace, leaves the gifts and runs back to his sleigh. He’s got a lot of houses to hit. He doesn’t have time to walk them all to the tree. And they’re not wrapped, that’s how you know they’re from Santa.”

“WHAT!?!? What do you mean they’re not wrapped? Presents are always wrapped! And under the CHRISTMAS tree! It’s Christmas!”

“Uh, why would Santa wrap presents? He doesn’t have time to wrap presents. He makes toys in his toy shop and leaves them by the fireplace. Unwrapped.”

“Please stop talking, you’re going to make me cry. I’m serious. That is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. Our children will always have wrapped presents from Santa under the tree.”

After a heated discussion and some tears on my part we eventually found a compromise. Our kids will have the bulk of Christmas on Christmas day. On Kevin’s year when we are with his family we will do big family Christmas on Christmas Eve and save our special “just us” Christmas and Santa presents for Christmas morning. On my year we will stay at home, in our house so they can wake up to presents under their tree in their house with just us. It’s important to me. Oh and their presents on Christmas morning WILL be wrapped, under the tree. Some “big” Santa gifts, like a bike or say, a pink piano will be uncovered, left quickly by Santa. Maybe by a fireplace, maybe not.

Anyway, that part is settled. At least until next year I’m sure.

After Christmas Eve service and Christmas Eve cheeseburgers, tator tots and baked beans I bathed Avelyn and got her ready for preseeeeeeeents!! She pulled a pretty good haul and is one of the best gift receivers I’ve ever seen, especially for an eight month old. I was both impressed and proud. She did awesome until four presents from the end when she decided she’d had enough and refused any more gifts. Man, would you guys ever turn down gifts? She can be such a baby when she wants to.

After some tears, some bottle and some hugging Avelyn went to sleep and the grownups opened preseeeeeeeents! Kevin and I made out pretty well ourselves as evidenced by the best present ever, the iPhone box (we got the phone a few days prior), and my favorite surprise present the SoundSpa Premier Clock Radio that projects time and temp on the ceiling. It’s awesome. Especially if you sleep in the same room as your baby and you constantly worry if she’s too cold or too hot. For some reason Kevin got a ton of dress shirts and we’re still not sure why but they are very nice shirts so he should be set for a while. Thanks Welch Fam!

Okay, that didn’t happen. What did happen was pretty cute though. We set up the video camera and used the last 20 minutes of tape to record Avelyn’s First Christmas. It should be up for an Oscar this year. She absolutely loooooves her pink piano! She can’t get enough of it and she is really good. She mostly plays good morning tunes and some progressive jazz. She also plays for tips so if you’re ever in town…. In addition to the pink piano Santa left some books, a bucket of pink blocks, time honored pop beads, a super fun flower pot thing-a-ma-bob and some things I’m forgetting. Santa did well and it was a great morning. See what a natural talent she is?

After a fun filled day of Santa, snacks and the most incredibly raunchy movie ever that caused me to use my Momma card and excuse Avelyn and me to another room, we had a visit from my mom and brother for Christmas dinner. And Avelyn got even more gifts. She looked so cute in her Christmas dress and red tights. If I were you I would really watch out for world implosion. I don’t know if a planet can take this much cuteness.

Everybody ran outside on the deck while I watched through the window. They started calling out to them to dump water on it, then to spray water on the roof to keep the flames away from the house then to dump flour on the fire. Kevin’s dad ran out their garden hose and tried to help spray from over the fence. There were flames and water and flour flying everywhere. After a few mentions of calling the fire department I saw the flames fly higher into the air, above the fence line, above the roof and grabbed the phone.

Now I’ve called the cops more than once in my life. Oddly never in Chicago where we had gunshots on our block more than once, a pipe bomb explode on our beach and a fire set in our stairwell by some neighborhood punks. I’ve only called the cops on loud obnoxious partying neighbors in San Antonio when they wouldn’t turn down their bass at 3am on a Tuesday.

Anyway, I called 911, was politely asked if I needed Police, Fire or Ambulance and was transferred to Fire. I calmly told them our address and that the house behind us had a large uncontrolled fire brewing in the backyard. The polite dispatcher thanked me and let me know someone was on their way. After I hung up I varied between watching the craziness through the window and watching the baby monitor. Since Avelyn was somehow sleeping through the commotion I decided to run down the street and stand on the corner to direct the FD to the appropriate residence of the idiot boys. It was all very surreal.

In the end the FD kind of drizzled their hoses on the fire which at this point was dying down and stood around with the boys. Cousin S crept outside and eavesdropped on the conversation which went a little like this:

Fire Dept: “So whose house is this?”
Idiot Boy: “My house.”
FD: “And who owns the house?”
IB: “My parents.”
FD: “Are they home?”
IB: “No.”
FD: “Maybe you should call them.”

After the adrenaline rush of the fire (which totally made me regret not choosing ER for my High Acuity rotation this spring) we had a good laugh at how stupid teenagers are and I swore to go over to that house the next day and make sure their parents knew about the fire. Then we ate dinner.

Long drawn out sigh. I wish I could say the night had ended there.

After dinner was over we sat around some more trying to figure out whether to watch The Dark Knight on Blu-Ray or play games. In the end we somehow decided on games, a decision which will go down in the halls of history as one of the worst ideas. Ever. Ever ever.

The game started okay, with two teams on either side of the room and my MIL reading the questions. If you have ever played Trivial Pursuit (or any game for that matter) then you probably know Murphy’s Law of game playing: one team always seems to get harder questions than the other. Well, my opposing team was getting those questions. It wasn’t like our questions were easy, but theirs were more abstract.

Anyway, we had all had a glass or two of wine at dinner but a few people on the opposing team had been drinking a lot. This, unfortunately, is not unusual for them. Henceforth the person of consequence shall be referred to as Heinous Bitch Good Time Ruiner.

So, GTR was having a heyday being rude to my MIL for laughing while reading most of the questions. Very rude and hurtful. Then GTR (and to be fair, the team) started complaining (some funny, some serious) that their questions were harder. Okay, they probably were but I believe most normal people playing with family during Christmas would have just laughed at the irony. GTR just got more obnoxious and stupid as the game continued making snide comments about our teams intelligence and topping it with a dumbass joke about “putting a hex on us” when we got a question wrong. It was so childish and lame.

In my head I was rolling my eyes but honestly it wasn’t really bothering me too much. We were playing a game after all, and I was having such a wonderful time being with these people I love so much. A few minutes later Kevin got a little heated, wanting the game to end so the ridiculous behavior would stop and jokingly said something like “well why don’t you guys just put a hex on us?” to which I also jokingly replied “No I wouldn’t do that because I’m not a child.” This was followed by an ice stare from Kevin who knew this wouldn’t go over well and a comment from GTR. “Yes you are a child Jennifer. Eff you. Why don’t you go back to your effing playpen.”

Yep.

Fortunately for me I only heard “Yes you are a child” and nothing else. Avelyn had started crying a few minutes before so I jumped up to go rock her and when I opened the door to come back to the game I heard some shouting from GTR that could only have been about me. I quickly shut door, picked up Avelyn and curled up to fall asleep on the bed. I didn’t need that drama.

Needless to say GTR ruined the entire night. Kevin came in a few minutes later red faced and furious and grabbed Avelyn out of my arms and demanded I go talk to GTR and work this out. I absolutely refused, saying I had done nothing wrong and I was not going to talk to them while they were behaving this way. Then he said it wasn’t about the game, it was about something regarding GTR and Avelyn that I had never even said. Ridiculous. I stomped out of the room, flushed, heart racing to find MIL, Cousin S and Great Aunt K sitting stunned in the living room.

I threw my arms in the air when I walked in and said “What the heck? What did I do? I thought we were playing a game and having a good time!” They all just stared and said “I thought so too”. Then I told them what Kevin said and that I was NOT going to go outside and talk to GTR because they were drunk and mean (like usual) and I wasn’t going to talk to them about something that wasn’t even an issue. MIL said “No, you shouldn’t have to do this. It’s stupid. You didn’t do anything wrong. You go back to your room and hold your baby.”

Have I said it before? RIDICULOUS.

I went back to the bedroom and told Kevin I was not talking to this person about something that wasn’t an issue, especially when they were drunk, and I just wanted to go to bed. He apologized about being so angry, said he knew I was not in the wrong and went back out so I could sleep with Avelyn. I just laid there for the longest time, heart pounding, unable to sleep. I was so… so… I didn’t even know.

An antidepressant really messes with your ability to feel. It’s very odd. I couldn’t cry about it. I couldn’t get seething mad about it. I couldn’t laugh about it. I just felt… something. After a while I started thinking about my dad, and how much I was missing him this Christmas. I thought about how hurtful it was that Kevin didn’t stand up for me and say something to GTR when they said what they said (I still didn’t know exactly what it was). Then I started to cry. For the second time since Prozac. Kevin finally came to bed and said GTR had left and if I wanted to say bye to the people leaving early in the morning I should probably go out while they were still awake.

I went out and gave them each hugs and apologized for the evening ending so badly. They all made me feel better by saying I was not responsible for any of it. When I hugged MIL to say goodnight I just started crying. I felt so awful. I didn’t know what I had done or said to be treated so bad and I didn’t know why no one had done anything about it. She sat me down on the couch and we talked for a long while.

It was a wonderful conversation and made me feel better about not being the problem and sad that this was not the first or the last time she would deal with this situation. Then she gave me half an Ambien and I slept like a baby for the first time in months.

I woke up Saturday morning after a most peaceful night’s rest, and decided Avelyn was well enough to drive to my dad’s side family Christmas, 2-1/2 hours away. I needed to be around people that make me feel good about myself and this was the place to go. We weren’t even there three hours before we had to leave and get back to San Antonio but I felt rejuvenated, warm and loved and that’s just what I needed. It was so good to see everyone. Most of them had met Avelyn at Thanksgiving but there were a few final meet and greets. I think everyone in the family has met her now. Avelyn spent most of the day chewing on fingers, toes, toys, spoons, anything she could get in her mouth to work that tooth out. She is growing into the most beautiful girl.

In case you’re wondering what happened after the infamous ‘Day After Christmas Day Debacle’, the answer is nothing. No apology from GTR. They just sucked up and pretended like everything was fine. I was civil, not rude but not friendly, when spoken to. Kevin later told me they apologized to him and his parents Saturday morning and were really upset about the evening but they were terrified of me and afraid they had irreparably damaged our future. Good, I said, they kind of have. For me to get over it I just need to not see or talk to them for a few weeks or months. They should have apologized first thing Saturday morning when I got up. Since they apologized to everyone but me, it was a little too late right now and I did not want to hear it. I don’t want to have some deep serious conversation which is clearly in order for whatever they perceive to be the “real” problem and I don’t want a part of it. My life is going pretty well right now and I don’t need them to ruin it.

So, that is my baby’s first Christmas. Aside from the last ruined evening it was pretty cool.

Tuesday brought both elation and tears. Elation because GTR, who had decided to stay a few extra days (DAMMIT!) finally left Tuesday morning and tears because Kevin’s cat of nearly 18 years was very ill and had to be put down. The rest of the past two weeks have been a bit of a blur, full of window shopping, eating, way too many football and basketball games and lots of playing with my awesome baby. This past Sunday her bottom right tooth finally broke its way through and by Monday the left had too. YAY AVELYN! The days following were full of lots of whining, drooling and pain. We’ve tried Tylenol/Orajel and now moved on to the Teething Tabs. We’ll see which works.

She is so very cute since the teeth. They are barely there, not even noticeable to the eye, but she can feel them with her lips and tongue. As soon as they broke through she started “chewing” at every meal. Not much to chew with pureed baby food but it’s instinctual I guess. I promise to post pictures as soon as she’ll let me see her mouth. She’s very possessive of those sore gums.

Oh yeah, Avelyn also started crawling! And sitting up by herself!! What a break this has been!!! She started getting up on hands and knees the week before we left Houston and since then learned to roll/sit up to get where she wants to be (very quickly mind you) and has taken to crawling 2-3 steps in a row before falling. Just tonight she crawled about 6 feet across the room to get to a pack of diapers. Her favorite new thing is crawling into very tight spaces and looking extra adorable.
I can’t believe she is almost nine months old. It is going by so very fast.

Luckily for all involved she has recently discovered the joys of the teething ring. That and cold baby food fruit. She must be my child after all.

After some screeching, talking and general complaints she assisted me in making pancakes and bacon for Daddy while he slept like a baby upstairs (ha). Pretty soon she showed the usual signs of needing a nap and went down for an hour and a half (!). Her (not new) thing is to awake from naps wailing the usual Cry of the [now Scared] and Abused Baby so that was a lovely treat. I was dressed and ready to go, got her dressed while Kevin showered and we were out the door.

I was excited for her to see my dad’s family. She sees my grandparents weekly and she had met a few of them over the summer but a few were new and she is not great at meeting strangers, especially when they’re in a big group. I can’t remember the last time I went to a Thanksgiving at my grandparents and we had so much fun. The first few pass arounds went okay, then she got a little testy. I don’t know, maybe it was the altitude up there or something.

After lunch we sat around and visited. And laughed. A few of us slept. One of us might have tried to eat some foliage. One of us might have been kidnapped in a stroller and pushed around until we screamed to come home.

(are you totally sick of my pictures yet?)

Before Avelyn decided it was finally time for a nap we rounded everyone up and took the customary family picture on the fifty year old swing. Keep in mind we’re missing eight more people. There is no telling how many pictures have been taken on this swing over the years.

Oh yeah, last but certainly not least… self portraiture of the original Michelin Man baby.