Dressing up to travel

Ava loves dressing up and putting on clothes, jewelry, and shoes. Last weekend I bought her a pair of cowgirl boots at a yard sale. They are a size 11 and she only wears close to a 7, but I thought they would be fun to play in. I was right! She wears them with everything! As we were getting ready to head to KY last weekend Ava was wearing a cute little summer outfit, these brown boots, and a pearl necklace. She had to check herself out in the mirror and true to form said, "I so cute!"

Check out the Baby Countdown

If you look over to the right side of the blog you should see a little widget to count down to our Baby 2009's arrival.

This week I am 8 weeks along and the baby is about the size of a kidney bean. It is amazing how fast it is growing every week.

Ava has decided it is a boy and says she wants a brother.

Black Patch in KY

Last weekend Bradley, Ava, and I went up to KY for Princeton's Black Patch Festival. Black Patch is a festival that celebrates the harvest of tobacco. We didn't get there as early as I would have liked (because I am married to Bradley and we are never on time), so it was really toasty once we got to Princeton.

For Black Patch the Main Street is blocked off and people have booths of food, games, crafts, and other odds and ends. In the few years since I have been to Black Patch, the amount of people and booths has significantly decreased. There is nowhere near what there used to be. It is just a small example of small town America and its celebrations.

Bradley and Ava had never been so I thought it would be a fun family activity. We started off at Black Patch with Bo and Mike and went through most of the street in just a few minutes. Of course you ended up seeing people you know and haven't seen in forever, so every once in a while we would stop to chat. The best new addition to Black Patch was a little petting zoo for the kids. Ava thoroughly enjoyed that and in the course of a few minutes had kissed a pig and licked a goat. Disgusting kid! Trayton eventually made it to Black Patch and he and Ava went through the petting zoo again and played at the Rubber Duck Pond.

But after a trip up and down the street twice, we were hot and ready to go. We topped of the day with a visit with Mammaw and Nanny and dinner at my parents' house.

Cholesterol Test

Ava had to go to the dr. today for a cholesterol test. At her 2 year check up she was screened for high cholesterol due to high risk factors. The screening came back a little high so after fasting since midnight, Ava went in to get blood drawn. It was not as bad as I had anticipated. I felt so sorry for the little squirt. It took me holding her, a nurse holding her arm, Nana sitting in front of her, and the blood taker lady. Of course she cried through the whole thing starting with when they put the tourniquet on her arm, but once she put her big purple bandage on, she was good. Also I am sure she was starving and thirsty, so once she got her milk she was in great shape.

As far as the cholesterol goes, her is what the doctor said: They are testing to see the ratio between the good cholesterol and the bad. They have to test every year to get baseline readings because at age 10 if it has been consistently high she will have to take medication. At this point we need to monitor her diet and watch fried foods and fatty ones. They want her eating Fat Free Cheese and Fat Free Milk. So monitor the diet is the answer. Seems like some pointless pain just to tell me to watch what she eats. But it is over now and barring any sickness, she doesn't go back until Feb.

(all photos taken by Nana)