Wrapping up September

Wow, September flew by and so did our little girl's fifth month. 5 months old already and an incisor is erupting on her bottom gum. She starting to be more cuddly and expressive which we love! She's ticklish too and we adore her laugh!
Here are some random pictures from of late. Enjoy.
Ava and I went for a walk to see if the river was flooded after all the rain and we discovered that the very old chimney on "Engagement Hill" had fallen down.

We had another bout of thunderstorms Friday night and when we woke up Saturday morning I discovered Fisher wearing some new apparel...
"But Mom, I thought the swing would protect me..."
"Thanks for saving me Dad!"

Graceland- Memphis, TN

Here's pics from Ava's biggest road trip yet with Momma and Nana. She was such a good sport! Here she is in the morning after her first night staying in a hotel.



Here she is watching cable TV for the first time that her Nana put on for her- The Disney Channel!

Here we are in front of the gates, a scene reproduced from my Mom's visit with me 30 years ago!

Graceland proper.

It's on the National Register of Historic Places.


A wall in the trophy room highlighting Elvis' start at Sun Studios there in Memphis.


The Jungle Room!

The TV room.


Mom and her buddies.




Elvis' plane the Lisa Marie- pretty snazzy!

Ava being all sophisticated in our hotel suite.

Look at this sweetpea! Her first outlet mall shopping trip!

STARI--Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness

Poor Ava got her very first tick bite about 3 weeks ago! Since we had just recently dealt with Jeremy's bout of what we thought was Lyme Disease, we were especially attentive to Ava's tick bite, and it was a very good thing too. The tick that bit her was a baby seed tick which really couldn't have been much bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. We think she picked it up from just sitting out on the porch a couple hours before and it was probably carried up there by one of the dogs. We took the trip to Douglas a couple days after the bite and it really just didn't seem to be healing up like a normal tick bite, which is exactly what happened with Jeremy's bite. The day after Labor Day we took Ava in to see her fantastic pediatrician and she was wise to say "Well since it has a rash, I'd rather ere on the safe side and go ahead and start her on antibiotics." The very next day Ava and I set out for our trip to Graceland with Nana Phyllis and her friends. The day after the rash was becoming a definite bullseye. I called the pediatrician and actually emailed her a pic with my iPhone on the road and she decided we should up the dose and lengthen the duration. Whew, I was so scared it was going to be rough on her like Jeremy, but it seems we caught it early enough to prevent any really bad effects.

As a follow up, the day after we came home from Memphis, I took our dog B.B. to the vet. He and I had a discussion and he swore that of all the dogs he ever tested for Lyme Disease, only one who regularly traveled to Connecticut ever had it. This prompted me to do some research and I found out that the CDC has classified a southern form of Lyme Disease with the anagram STARI- Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness. Its side effects are milder than the northern version but it also can develop the signature bullseye rash. It's the same genus as Lyme Disease but a different species and carried by a different tick- the lonestar tick (a deer and dog favoror with a penchant for people when it can) This tick only has a white dot on its back when it's an adult. Just thought all my southern friends should especially be aware that this exists. I'm not really sure why they don't publicize it more.

Visiting Pa and Grandma Tarver in Douglas, GA

Ava's first long road trip was a journey to her grandparents house in South Georgia. The trip which used to take 3 and a half hours now takes us about 5 and a quarter as had to stop to feed and/or change Ava and walk her around in the stroller to break up the monotony. However it was all worth it, because when we arrived we got lots of attention :-)

Grandpa bemoaning the fact that nobody loves her...

Bubba probably planning on when to teach her the finer points of black-smithing.

Grandma Tarver helping out at 6 in the morning :-)

Also a big deal this trip was Ava's first time in the pool. As you can tell from the pic below, she's really cheesing it up. Erin and Mathew Russ invited us to swim in Erin's folks pool, which is only a block away from my folks. The cool thing about this pool was that it wasn't hyper-chlorinated, but rather was a salt water pool! It was awesome, I've never swam in one of those before. We took things slowly at first, letting Mom hold Ava close to the water, then dipping her feet in, and finally her legs and torso.

Pretty quickly she started smiling and cooing, and we put her in a cute little princess float. All the swimming goods were courtesy of Erin's folks, who were super nice and let Gail borrow a swim suit. The little floaty they got for their granddaughter, Matthew and Erin's little girl Isabelle.

Notice in the video how Ava sucks in air excitedly. She did this a lot in the pool and a fair amount on the trip. Mom calls it "hamming it up." It seems to be one way for her to deal with new things.

This post was actually a collaboration.

Pictures coming as soon as possible!

I'm not really sure where the cord is right now for downloading the pictures for the camera, but as soon as I find it, I'll be getting pictures up from our recent trips to Douglas, GA and Memphis, TN. Ava and I have been traveling for a week and a half straight pretty much and I know we're both very tired and recuperating. I will say though that Ava adapted so well to being away from home, staying at the Grandparents and hotels, she must have inherited the travel bug from all that work we did together out in the field. I was so impressed!