Archive for the ‘Ava’ Category
We officially started our holiday season today with Thanksgiving dinner #1 with my family. (Oh my word, I’m still stuffed HOURS later.)
We haven’t visited my folks in a while and since we have J’s folks coming to our house for the actual holiday we decided to make a quick (quick being relative since it’s a 5+ hour drive) trip up before the holiday. Fortunately my family was game with moving the holiday up to accommodate us so we spent the whole day doing nothing but cooking, socializing, and eating. And make no mistake, we definitely ate. A lot.
My whole entire immediate family (+ an uncle) was here which is always cool. I know these days can’t last forever so it’s especially nice when we can make it happen. Most of the grandkids were also here so Ava had cousins upon cousins to play with. And to be clear, by play with I really mean boss around. She’s the youngest so she tends to be a tad bit spoiled (by everyone) sometimes.
What I really love about these days is that I can relax a bit with Ava. It’s so nice to know that I don’t have to eagle eye her every minute because I know that my mom and my sisters and her cousins are watching her too. On top of that, it warms my heart to know that all of this running about and playing with her cousins are building these lifetime memories for her. I remember all of the holidays with my grandparents/aunts & uncles/cousins and I so want her to have at least a taste of the same. It’s harder, of course, since we don’t live close enough to make it an everyday thing but we’re doing what we can with what we’ve got.
Also nice is making that last minute trip to the grocery store (that’s a Thanksgiving tradition too, isn’t it?) and running into an old childhood friend that you haven’t seen in years and years and years. That can only ever happen in your hometown and you realize how much you miss stuff like that after you’ve moved on and moved away. I mean, running into people we know happens at (now) home but these are people I’ve known for 12 years or less. The gal I ran into today has known me almost my whole life. Even though we don’t often talk there’s just a comfort level with people you’ve known and been friends with forever that you don’t have with anyone else.
You know what I don’t miss about my hometown, though? Trains. Stupid whistle-blowing at all hours of the night gets old fast…
Heading back home tomorrow and will jump right back into the hectic rat race and all of the stress that awaits me in my real life. But today was a really, really nice day and gave both J and I a desperately needed break. The rare opportunity to relax a bit today made the whole drive worth every minute.
To Mamaw and Papaw’s house we go for an early kickoff to our Thanksgiving celebrations.
We have at least a 5 hour drive and we’re leaving at rush hour with nothing prepared in advance. This means throw some clothes in a bag, the kid in the carseat, the dogs in the kennels and hope for the best.
Wish us luck.
Updated: We made it. 6+ hours later with a detour by Wal-Mart for cough medicine for the husband and kid including an impulse purchase of a toddler cheerleader uniform that was strategically placed by the door as I walked into Wal-Mart. Hey, we are in Hokie country now. How could I resist?
I was going to do a random phone photo post – - except I’ve just spent the last 30 minutes looking for my iPhone and I can’t seem to locate it. On top of that, Find My iPhone isn’t working for me right now so I have no clue where it might be (except maybe in the car and I’m not going out there to look tonight – too cold).
Crap. This means I’ll probably have to do an Ava purse search in the morning. That’s where I found my debit card last week after it had been missing for ages. And my keys. And my work ID badge.
So that’s all I had for you tonight. Sorry.
Oh, wait. Ava had another fabulous day at school. I dare not hope we’ve turned the corner completely but it’s given me hope in a week when I sorely needed it. Work is, ummmm, stressful (not in a bad way) right now and knowing that I can come home to an easy(ish) night and just relax (well, not much due to school) is priceless.
Now that’s really it for tonight.
After our mega long parent-teacher conference the other day (did I mention I booked the last appointment of the day because I already knew it would take me way longer than 15 minutes?) it appears that we are seeing a little bit of improvement. Ava had a rocky day Monday but the last 2 days have been great for her and I can tell that her teachers are making a concerted effort to praise her more for her successes AND to make sure to tell us, in front of her, how well her day went. Even going so far as to provide us with a few examples of her good behaviors during the day so we can continue to reinforce the positive.
I realize we’re only a couple of days in but this shows me that her teacher did listen to our concerns and is trying to help. I feel much better about that.
And I’ve given myself a stern talking to as well. I need to adjust my attitude as to how I react and respond to these issues and learn when and what to let go. I’m not saying I’m backing down – just reminding myself that I need to choose my battles and not sweat the small stuff. I will also admit to recently going on a oh-please-somebody-teach-me-how-to-parent book buying binge at Amazon so some of my attitude adjustment is coming from there. In particular I’m finding this book, The Pocket Parent, to be very helpful. Highly recommend for toddler/preschooler parents. I wish I’d read this one a little sooner.
So that’s the good news.
The bad news is that apparently when her horrible, sucky, bad choices kind of day packed up and moved out it just hopped right on over to my office and settled in. It’s been a long time since I had a day this bad. It started when I left the house and only let up for the few hours I spent with her this evening (and honestly, even then I was a little distracted by it). But you know what? I’ll keep it if it means she doesn’t have to deal with it.
<Sigh>
I’m going to bed now just to get this day over with. Stick a fork in me ’cause I’m done.