Teething and Other Adorable-ness

We're currently in the thick of teething. I've been saying this for, oh, only about the past 4 months but now we really are. It finally seems as though Ava's bottom teeth are on the verge of breaking through. Of course, since I'm actually putting this out there, it will take another few months before they actually make an appearance. My poor peanut, she seems very uncomfortable.

We've experienced some sleep problems as a result. At least we think it's because of the teething. Ava is also getting so much more mobile and seems to really enjoy sitting or standing in her crib and screaming her head off instead of going right to sleep like she used to. We've gone back to our sleep training and the "controlled" crying it out. Now we go in to check on her and lay her down in her crib until she falls asleep. Sometimes it works well and other times we have to listen to her scream for the better part of an hour.

But, I guess to make up for the screaming, Ava has been even cuter, if that's possible. She learned to clap the other day. If I sing any song (and I sing her many made-up, silly songs), she grins and claps. She's also waving at people. She's pulling herself up on the furniture and cruising about. Nothing is safe anymore which is making packing really, really fun.

My favorite recent Ava development, though, occurs when one of us pulls out our wallets. Whenever Fredo or I open our wallets now, Ava shrieks. A shriek of pure joy, no doubt. She is so my girl!

Musings

• We got the apartment. The movers are coming 7/23 and will be delivering furniture 7/27. We're going to MN (Minnetonka, to be exact) 7/25 to paint and sleep on air mattresses for 2 nights. And to see the White Sox-Twins (except I guess it would be the Twins-White Sox) game from a suite on 7/27.
• I should be packing. I have boxes but have not packed anything. I should probably get on that.
• I bought new shoes this week. I was (silently) freaking out that Fredo would yell at me for buying new shoes. I was planning on telling him I bought them for the box. You know, because we need boxes. He never said anything about them....and neither did I.
• I have a friend's bachelorette party to go to this weekend. There's the lingerie shower part, dinner (at 9 PM!) and then a club. This is also the week that Ava decided to begin waking up at 1 or 2 am and then crying anytime you try to put her down. So Saturday night should be fun.
• Lingerie is expensive! I was considering getting my friend some cotton Hanes undies from Target and telling her that the sexy stuff was for day 1 of her marriage and the cotton unsexy stuff was for the rest. Fredo did not find that as funny as I did.
• Ava is 9 months old today!
• I find it incredibly hard to find a belt. I never wear belts but I think a camel color thin leather belt would look good with my dress for Saturday night. So of course, I can't find a belt anywhere!

Alright, so, random enough for ya?!

Have a great weekend!

You Say it's Your Birthday...

Today is my birthday. I'm usually pretty disappointed by birthdays so I don't put too much emphasis on them anymore. I wanted a Kindle this year but then life and moving and buying food and diapers got in the way. I had a nice day though. We went for a nice walk to grab some lunch and then went out to dinner. I also got some cool Chicago art to decorate the new apartment from Fredo.

On the way home from dinner with Fredo and Ava, we walked past the eL stop where there was a guy handing out flyers for a bar in the neighborhood. The two guys (it seemed like a younger guy and his dad) walking in front of us got them. Then we pass the guy....and he just looks the other way. I mean, I know we were with our kid but maybe we would have wanted to go to this bar on Wednesday.

Way to make a girl feel old and boring on her birthday, random flyer passer outer.

How Was Your Weekend?

Mine was a blur. Up at 4 (well, 3:49 am...that sucked) on Friday to drive to Minnesota. Looked at 4 apartments Friday (was supposed to be 5 but luckily one called us to cancel) and another 4 on Saturday. We now know that Ava is, luckily, an awesome road trip baby. Here's how it went:

Apartment #1: Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous condo quality 2 bedroom. It had a fantastic new kitchen...and a view of a switching station so the apartment was next to gigantic power lines. On the plus side, there was a bar & grill in the building.

Apartment #2: Nice 3 bedroom town home. Two car garage, lots of space with an outdoor pool on the premises. The fixtures were a little dated but the size made up for that. This was Fredo's favorite by the end of the day on Friday.

Apartment #3: Three bedroom apartment with a nice updated kitchen. The rest of the apartment was OK but it was on the first floor, didn't really feel all that safe and overlooked a car wash and the dumpsters for the Big Lots! and Target that were right next door. It was a Super Target though. I liked the apartment but the area was just a little too sketchy for me.

Apartment #4: Gross. Just gross. But at this point we were glad that places were taking themselves out of the running.

Fredo's boss and his wife were nice enough to watch Ava while we were apartment hunting on Saturday, which was awesome since we were in and out of the car all day.

Apartment #5: Three bedroom townhouse with a great patio. This place had newer fixtures, granite counter tops (but old, old cabinets which was weird) and large rooms. It was definitely dated but was also inexpensive. There were no amenities here but it's still our second choice.

Apartment #6: Our first choice. It's a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath town home with a den and a 2 car garage. The complex has sweet amenities-- an indoor and outdoor pool, 2 fitness centers, dog park, playground and a path to the beach. Again, it's a little dated but the amenities are what sold us. We put it our application today.

Apartment #7: I had high hopes for this one since the pictures online were great. I was totally disappointed. The master bedroom was huge but that was about the only thing it had going for it. And it was expensive. When we got back to the office, the leasing agent asked if she knocked the rent down from $1605 to $1599, would she be in the running? Um, $6? Really? NEXT.

Apartment #8: Well, we were supposed to see apartment 8. We accidentally drove to apartment #9, realized we had another to go to, turned around and went to 8 to be told that the person I spoke with to make the appointment didn't ask if we had a dog and they didn't have anything in the pet friendly building. This was a giant waste of time but at least I got to see Minnetonka a little bit more. So, if I need to find the Maserati dealership at some point, I now know about where it is. Funny thing, they ended up calling us on Sunday with an apartment for us to look at. Yeah, no thanks.

Apartment #9: Awesome amenities but the apartment was kind of a dump. It was old with small rooms and the bedrooms were all in the basement. It was inexpensive but it didn't make the list.

So that's the wrap up of my whirlwind apartment hunt.

Did you have a nice weekend?

Hi Y'all

We're back from Texas. The trip was full of highs and lows.

Highs:

• Ava got to see her grandparents and meet her aunts, uncle and cousins.


• She did great on the plane! She slept a good portion of both flights. We got Ava her own seat and had her in her car seat, which I totally recommend. We, however, totally eff'ed up on the way there (see Lows).


• Swimming! We took Ava swimming for the first time and after a little bit of crying, she loved it.

Lows:

• We did not give ourselves enough time to get to the airport for our flight out. We made it, but got to the gate with only about 10 minutes to spare.
  
• I thought I was so smart buying a $20 BRU umbrella stroller just for flying. We put Ava in it in long term parking, made it through check-in and up to security. This is where the wheels came off...literally. As I was folding the stroller to put it through the x-ray machine, a wheel fell off, rolled away and we couldn't find it. I ended up throwing the stroller out as soon as we made it through security.

So now we're off to Minnesota tomorrow to find an apartment. We'll be looking at 10 places over the course of Friday afternoon and Saturday and most likely choosing a place Saturday night and signing a lease on Sunday, all with Ava in tow. Should be...interesting. But this weekend should give some blog material.

I Always Knew I Had a Big Heart...

I went to the doctor this morning. My EKG results came back and my heart rate was a little slow. She thinks I could have an enlarged heart and that it's kind of weird for a healthy 26 year old. She sent me for an electro cardiogram (basically an ultrasound of my heart) since the EKG just monitored the heartbeats and not the dimensions of my heart...or something like that.

I go back 6/19 for the results. I'm sure if there's anything truly serious she will call me before then.

I'm not freaking out about this. Not, at least, until I know more. I'm just going to enjoy my trip to Texas and Minnesota and worry about it on the 19th.

So that's the news.

Oh and I'm definitely not pregnant (they checked).

Overprepared

On Friday we leave for our first trip with Ava. We'll be flying to TX to visit my in laws and attend a high school graduation. Not only is it Ava's first trip but it will be our first time flying with an infant. I've been freaking about it for, oh only about the past 6 months or so.

In preparation I've been shopping up a storm. I got the inflatable duck bathtub, pack and play sheets, a mini food mill, a cheap umbrella stroller and a bunch of other things that I'm convinced will make our travels easier. In my defense we do have a few trips planned this summer so this isn't all for TX. In fact, we get home from TX on Wednesday and then drive to Minneapolis (yea apartment hunting) on Friday.

Last week I created a word document entitled "Ava's Master Packing List", containing all of the things I think we would need for any trip.

Today I packed up most of Ava's things.

Did I mention we leave on Friday?

So, yeah, anxious much?