Catching Up

I had grand intentions of live blogging our trip to the mainland, but you know how that goes. Christmas shopping and baking and time with family and sick babies and lots of activities got in the way of that. I think that is better though. We enjoyed being in the moment, rather than wasting precious family time trying to analyze it. Some noteworthy things happened while we were gone, though. So, here they are, in no particular order.

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We spent three days in Chicago on the front end of our trip looking into a job opportunity for Daniel. If I had to pick one word to describe our time there it would be COLD. I mean, really cold. Wow. Subzero temperatures and 20 to 30 mph gusts on the day we left.

The good news is that it snowed. I can't remember the last time I saw falling snow. On Saturday, we bundled up and walked around Millennium Park. Ava was wearing the nice, thick coat I bought for her, tucked in the moby wrap, and zipped up into my coat. Even then, I worried about her. As we walked around, I looked down and saw a face that said, "Mom, what are you doing to me?" and a little tear sitting below her eye. I pressed her face to my chest for fear that the tear would freeze.



Very quickly we headed across the park to a little coffee shop, where we warmed ourselves with hot cocoa and apple cider.


Sunday we drove up to Palatine (where Daniel's office would be) and tried to get a feel for the area, then headed to the airport. Upon check-in, we were offered a chance to fly standby on an earlier flight. Getting into Dallas ahead of schedule sounded good to us, so we agreed. After getting though security, though, we were informed that there was no chance of getting on this flight. So we headed over to the gate of our scheduled flight, which had already been delayed several times. We did finally get to Dallas, but unfortunately, our bag got lost in the shuffle. It was not returned until the day for something like 4 days.

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Sickness prevented Dustin and Corrie from coming to my parents' house Christmas day--Isaiah and Addy had ear infections. And in addition to the ear infection, Isaiah had a nasty cough. So it was just my parents, Daniel, Ava and myself on Christmas morning.

Ava loved Christmas. She wasn't quite into tearing off the wrapping paper yet, but she very much enjoyed the gifts. It wore her out, though. She took a big nap after it was all said and done.


Unfortunately, we had a bout with a stomach virus that evening. Seven or eight times she threw up. I felt so bad for her. I ended up calling my doctor. On Christmas. I hated to do it, but I was so worried. She was so sick that she fell asleep on my chest. She never does that.

The day after Christmas found her miraculously healed and the Baker kids doing better, so we got to get together with Dustin and Corrie and the kids after all. We spent the rest of our time in Dallas hanging out with family and friends.

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While we were in Dallas, Ava learned to pull up. It was so funny to see her stand. She seemed very proud of herself.

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When we arrived at Daniel's house, Ava was very fascinated by the stairs. When she climbed on top of the first step we were impressed. "Way to go, Ava!" we cried. She then proceeded to climb the next 16 all by herself (with her mother making sure she didn't fall down them, of course). We could tell she was pushing pretty hard on the last few, but she did it and was just so excited--as she is about most things. (Brian: pictures please!)

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We got to meet Brian and Maggie's foster kids. We were so blessed to get to spend time with them. Such a beautiful family.

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I think (no, know) our baby has a little bit of Grandpa Roy and Aunt Amy in her. Like the former, she never knew a stranger. Like the latter, she is always the life of the party. She made friends with the surrounding 3 rows on every one of our seven flights. Preteens, soldiers, college students and more fell under her spell. She has to cut this out before boys enter the picture. Daddy, get your gun.

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That's all for now. Peace out.