Young Grasshoppers: BLINK!!!!!! OH SHIZ.........Two months has passed!

First and foremost lets just acknowledge that Ava today lost her first tooth!!!!!!! Jasmine was awesome and got to the be the one to snap the first shot and give extra loves which she did fantastically after school!!! Ava has been for months begging to lose a tooth - since she's the youngest in her class any sort of developmental thing is epic for her since she's usually the last to have it happen. So she's been....well maybe no so patiently waiting for this day. And her teacher was the one to pull it out! Thankfully for me because the whole thing gave me the willies.

It's been two months since I last blogged. Forgive me for my sins there. It's just been beyond crazy here. I was only home a week in April due to two different week long work trips and then a very lengthy stay in ICU for Ava. She caught a really really bad chest cold which settled in her lungs and triggered the scariest asthma attack ever. We should have called 911 but I ended up driving her to the ER where they immediately grabbed her from my arms and ran screaming down the hall. You never want to see your child be that way and unfortunately I had to. Andy wasn't far behind after A&J got home - we were babysitting J that night so he had to wait for them to return which didn't take long at all. They are great. They had Mason two nights while we figured it out and then Michelle came to save the day and kept Mason's life running while Andy and I sat and stared at Ava breathing. She got better but took her sweet time at it and that's OK. May was pretty much taken up with numerous doctor's visits to specialists. The result was pretty anti climatic. She's allergic to dogs and cats but not so allergic that we need to find Cooper a new home. He just as to stay out of her room. We got a Dyson (WOOOHOOOO) to help keep the dust mites (her third allergy) out as much as possible and now we just have to be OCD on the house (which for two full time working people with two small children is exhausting). She was on steroids for about 3 weeks - which made her so hungry and she gained some weight that she probably needed anyways. Though she's slowly returning to normal bird like conditions. And she's on a preventive inhaler that may or may not be continued indefinitely. There was no root cause other than our allergist/immunologist saying "it was probably a freak thing". There just isn't enough test data to point a finger and it's such an anomaly for her normal asthmatic behavior that we just have to wait and see what happens the next time she gets sick. Just make sure we watch her like a hawk for the early signs that we now know so that we don't end up back there. It was an eye opening experience and I don't think I'll ever stop thanking God for making Ava better and for the family and friends that made that ordeal a whole lot better than it could have been.

So besides that dramatic event........we also squeezed in these more light hearted things:

This is pre-drama........we got a visit from Mimi and Pupu.......it was a super great time!

Andy and I celebrated being another year older

I ran another 5K...........

and enjoyed some beach time with the girls

We enjoyed the new car....a lot. Can I just point out how much space the kids have between each other? And how bright and airy it is inside? We still miss "the black car" as Mason calls it but Friday night we parked next to one and I marveled at how teensy it was inside. I miss the gas tank a little but quite honestly it's not so bad and the space and comfort and heated seats and AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION is well worth it. Ok. Sorry. End Brag.