Busy, Busy, Busy

Ava and I had a busy weekend while Scot was at Guard. On Saturday morning we visited my good friend Angie in the hospital - she had her baby boy (very) early at 36 weeks! She wasn't due until July 13th, so it was quite a surprise when she called (though I imagine she was a little more surprised than I was). Despite being so early, baby boy GRANT DAVIS was perfectly healthy at 5lbs, 2oz and 19 inches long. It was great to see them both - he is a beautiful baby and Angie was doing great. Ava wanted to hold him, but when I told her she couldn't she quickly got bored so we only stayed for about an hour. Angie is actually happy with the way things turned out - she is a teacher so now she will get more time home with her baby before she has to go back to school. If she had the baby around her due date, she would have been pressed to get even her 6 weeks in.

After leaving the hospital, we stopped at McDonald's and had a picnic in the backyard when we got home. After that, it was naptime for both of us :-)

When Scot got home, we all went to the Oakdale Fair and indulged in corndogs, fried cheese curds, mini donuts, and lemonade...AHHH...nutritious indeed. Ava had a blast riding some rides and playing on the playground equipment nearby.

Ava and I had another busy morning on Sunday - we had signed up to do the annual walk for the Minnesotan's Military Appreciation Fund. Unfortunately, since Scot had Guard he was not able to join us...I DID write an email inquiring about their choice to schedule the walk on the MN Air National Guard weekend (kind of a funny way to appreciate the military) and I received a nice email back, explaining that they had unique scheduling conflicts this year with the Republican National Convention and the Twins games. Sigh...I guess that is understandable. So, I decided to do it anyway and dragged Ava along with me. Yeah, it didn't really go all that well, from an Ava perspective anyway. The event itself was wonderful - it was great to see so many people rallying for MN troops. There were lots of speakers and there were several families of fallen soldiers in attendance. Before the walk/5K run started, the Patriot motorcycle riders drove down the street with flags - it was pretty moving. But anyway, it didn't go well for us in particular for a few reasons. Ava was crabby before we even left the house. The walk started in downtown Minneapolis by the Metrodome - because there was a Twins game that afternoon, all the parking was jacked up so I ended up paying $10 for a spot in a lot after driving around and around. The gathering spot was in another parking lot and there wasn't anything for kids to do. I was fairly disappointed - on a side note, the three of us did a walk/5K last year called the Pacemaker 5000 that is sponsored by Medtronic, which was also in downtown Mpls but on the riverbank. There was a lot of space to move around there and they had lots of activities for kids (bounce houses, face painting, etc). I kind of assumed this event would have the same kinds of offerings but it didn't. So Ava basically had to stay in her stroller because I really didn't want her roaming through the parking lot through crowds of people. She whined and cried and whined and cried and I was at my wit's end. I made her a race tag to wear and safety pinned it to her shirt that said she was walking in support of her daddy and she ripped it off. None of this was really her fault - she was bored and there wasn't much I could do. Fortunately, they supplied a lot of food and drinks so I was able to keep her somewhat busy. The actual walk went fairly well - she kept quiet during most of that. The ride home was miserable. More whining and crying until she fell asleep. For about 5 minutes. She woke up as I got her out of the car and was completely miserable again. The rest of the day was much of the same, including NO NAP, so I was SO happy when Scot got home and could turn things over to him for awhile.

Anyway, back to the MMAF - the Minnesotan's Military Appreciation Fund was created to show citizen support and appreciation for the sacrifices made by military personnel deployed in combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan since September 2001. They provide cash grants to all MN soldiers and to the families of those killed in combat. I'm not sure how much money I helped raise - I didn't have the visibility to that like the way I did when I raised money for the American Heart Association.

Here is a video tribute dedicated to MN troops (definitely puts things in perspective):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMjLxZUar6k

And here is the MMAF website to learn more about the organization (you can also donate here!):
http://www.thankmntroops.org/MMAFflashindex.html

In other conversations with my dear daughter...I was telling her to be careful around my tummy.
Me: There is a baby in my tummy, remember?
Ava: Baby Ava?
Me: No
Ava: Baby Michael? (That is the baby at daycare)
Me: No
Ava: Baby Hungry? (That is Henry, our friends' baby)
Me: No
Me: This is a new baby, it doesn't have a name yet.
Ava: OK.

And I'm proud to say she counted to FOURTEEN the other day. This wouldn't be a big deal to most parents of 2 1/2 year olds, since they all seem to be counting much earlier than Ava...but it was for us. Up until then she counted this way: 1-2-5-2-5. And then more recently when we kept asking her what happened to 3 and 4?: 1-2-3-4-3. So, it's a breakthrough for us.

And in other family news...yesterday was Gardy's birthday. He would have been 64 on June 25th. Happy Birthday, Gardy.