A Walk in the Park...

Thank you to all of you who sweetly prayed, encouraged me and gave me some good advice after the "no-nap incident of 2009."  I am happy to tell you that I am blogging right now because my little Ava is ASLEEP in her swing.   She has been asleep for awhile and with God's grace she will be for a little longer!  Yesterday we had a great day and she fell back into her "normal" routine much easier.  She napped all morning and afternoon, in between feedings, and was a little charmer most of the day.  Now last night, that was a different story...let's just say she was more than "worked up" the minute we got home and all the way until bedtime.  However, she slept 6 hours last night and another 2.5 after I fed her, so all is forgiven today :) 

We had a fun morning and afternoon yesterday and I've got some darling pictures to prove it!  We started the day off by saying good-bye to my Mom, who has been with us for the last 10 days.  Sad.  But we rebounded with a visit/drop-off to my cousin Jenny's house, while I went back to my OB for my 6 week follow-up visit.  Ava did great with her "aunt Jenny" and my appointment went well.  I was harassed by the receptionist, nurse and doctor however, when they realized I didn't have the baby with me.  Good grief, am I the only one who wanted to use this visit as a "break" from my baby??  Seriously, they all looked at me and asked me in a rather accusatory tone, "and where is your baby?"  I was half tempted to say that I left her at home with some toys in her crib, just to see their reaction.  I decided against that when I realized that may be grounds for a psych consult!  Oh well, I was happy to discover that I was 20 lbs lighter than my last visit, however disappointed to realize I had 20 more lbs to go.  Bummer how that works.  It just confirmed my growing realization that I'm going to have to start regularly exercising in order to melt these last pounds away.  Again, a bummer.  The terror of swimsuit season rapidly approaching haunts me every night.  I decided to mull my "options" over on the way home, while eating a candy bar in my purse :)  Now you know why I'm in the situation I'm in!  

After we left Jenny's house, we met up with Travy, who wanted to spend the afternoon with us.  

Ava is always up for a visit in Daddy's office.

Can't you see her excitement??

She was stunned with joy :) 

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day here and we took her out for a long walk around a lake in one of our favorite parks.  We stopped first at Jamba Juice though and got some smoothies to sweeten the deal.   Anyway, I was in hysterics this morning while watching the Today Show, because they were doing a calorie comparison between certain items from popular places that don't seem so bad for you, but in reality they are loaded with calories.  I chose a Strawberry Surf Rider, that was 100% fruit and incredibly good.  It was also not so bad for you.  Travis however, chose some Peanut Butter Smoothie (gross) and it was featured on the show as one of the worst offenders!!  To be fair to him, I don't think he was going for a "healthy" choice when he ordered it, he just wanted a sweet snack.  To his horror and my delight, we learned that his smoothie was the caloric equivilent of eating 35 Oreos!!!  I got such a kick out of the look on his face, he was mortified.  My smoothie was 1/3 the calories that his was, thank you very much.  The ironic thing is that when I met Trav, he was a total health nut and he would never have eaten that.  I would have, but he wouldn't.  For his own good, I've helped influence him the other direction :) Just another benefit from marrying me.  

Ava chilled in the stroller and slept while we walked.  Then we put her on a swing with us and she blew bubbles the whole time!

Oh how refreshing a good walk is and a baby who's napped too!

This was supposed to be a shot of the three of us, but my arm could not reach that far so instead, it's just the two of us :) Like back in the "good old days" before this blog was hijacked by a baby!

Aren't those eyebrows telling??

I think she LOVES it when I smother her with kisses already!

If only we'd have known how quickly this cooing, adorable little girl was about to try our patience and scream when we got home...

Oh well, somethings aren't worth dwelling on!  

She sure was sweet at the park :) 

Yep, a warm summer's night and a long walk in the park did this family good :)