June - Busier than I thought we would be...

June was a much busier month than I anticipated! At work we held new student orientation, the Athletic Hall of Fame, the Citizen's Gala, and an Institutional Advancement event in my home town - Cazenovia... They were all great events but time flew right by. We also had a party for Fran, Larry and Matt - all are leaving Hartwick by the end of the summer (or changing divisions). Ava and I attended Jake Bicknell's graduation party - I can't believe my best friend from high school has a son going to college - Am I really that old? The Palmeri's and Grammy came out for the Merideth Dairy Festival and Fran and I took Ava to a "Big Truck" event at Fly Creek. For Father's day, Ava was with her dad - so I went to Boston with Fran and spent the weekend with his family. We also went to see Eddie Vetter in Albany in early June. In addition to all the events I had a pretty solid case of laryngitis... which made public speaking a bit of a chore.

Ava's favorite DVD is Ice Age, she discovered that she loves chocolate milk shakes, and prefers "comfy shorts" - no buttons allowed and especially not denim. Mom's favorite word - lellow for yellow. Ava loves to dance...

O.K. now I will take a nap...

Mother's Day and the month of May

I had a great Mother's Day. I picked Ava up from her Dad at 9:00 am and received a very nicely colored card - she added color to it for the next week. On the way back to Oneonta we stopped at Pie in the Sky for pancakes with real maple syrup - yummy! Ava was great - she played Ava checkers and poker with Fran then after we ate we bundled up (it was cold) and went outside to play in the big doll houses - little house shed things... When we got home I was told to relax while Ava and Fran planned the dinner menu - I then received beautiful flowers and another very special card. I was encouraged to play with Ava for the rest of the day - which I did. For dinner we ate food Ava would choose, if she chose the menu - right down to the desert. We had Bologna, mac and cheese, carrots, apple juice, "gramma" cheese, gold fish and cupcakes - yummy! (Actually Fran and I had a little more for dinner - like seafood alfredo, after Ava went to bed - what a good guy :)

What have we done since my Easter post other than celebrate Mother's Day?

Well - Ava spent some time with Grammy Belva and Grammy Marva. She played on the play ground several times and I think she has brought home almost a sandbox full of sand in her shoes from day care. She is still doing well at day care and loves that she can go outside and play now that the weather is good. She requests lucky charms every morning, must have her princess blanket (made by Darci) when she goes to bed, and has two books read to her before I leave the room - she is beginning to recite most of the stories to me and feels if she "reads" then I still have two more to read. She has decided the bedroom door must be open when she falls asleep and if she wakes up at night and it is closed - she is not happy. No more getting stuff done upstairs after Ava is in bed... She comes in my room in the morning with her blanket and Diego, requests a cup of juice and sits on my bed to watch Handy Manny and Mickey Mouse club when I am getting ready for work. In the evening, she loves to ride her bike and swing at the park! She always want our dog Topi to go to the park with us.

Over the last month - I had my second set of Board of Trustee meetings and took part in all of the closing festivities of spring semester on Campus. Today was commencement. We went with Tom and Jane to Albany to see Bruce Springsteen earlier this month. The concert was great! Fran and I celebrated his birthday by going to Hershey PA (to see an AHL playoff Hockey game) and then I had some of his friends over for dinner on the actual date. I bought a grill - so it was fun to cook out and host my first party at the new house. It works pretty well. Between work and wanting to be outside with Ava, I have been pretty busy just doing what I need to do each day. It was a very good month. I am definitely looking forward to the summer and hopefully a bit slower pace.

Happy Easter & the Frozen Four

Well... It has been a busy month. Ava spent a couple of weekends with Grammy Belva and Emily. Thanks Grammy. Mommy went to the Catskill Symphony Orchestra with Fran one night and got all dressed up - it was lots of fun. The President of the College was a guest conductor so it was work and play - I had a good time. Ava has visited the doctor a few more times - her ears still have pressure behind the wax build up... She is having a great time at preschool - it is wonderful to see that she is adjusting so well. She speaks regularly about her friends at school and what they have done.... including Ms. Diane telling her to ride her bike slower after Ava showed me a boo boo and tales of being the "line leader". Some other cute things - she calls Fran's beard - spider and ants, has a pair of shoes she calls her Ballerina shoes, still adores Diego and Dora, strings along a lot of sentences to tell random stories and has very specific stories that go along with her pictures.

For Easter, Ava was with Daddy. So, I spent the weekend in Washington, DC. It was my first time to visit our Capital and I soaked in every minute that I could. I was awestruck by the magnitude of the buildings and the depth of history. I was able to see Kate R. (one of my students from IC) who works for a Senator and she showed us around the Capital Building. We traveled with friends who were a lot of fun to be around.

We attended the Frozen Four tournament (NCAA Division I finals for hockey) and watched some awesome hockey. Boston University won - it was hard to hold true to my BC Eagle roots and not cheer for BU, until I heard the BU fans ripping on BC and we were not even in the tournament... I wore red for the final game (both teams had red as a school color) but could not bring myself to wear the BU terrier gear... Even at the Irish pub after the final game the BU fans choose to stir the BC/BU puddle - just wait till next year BU.

Ava and I celebrated Easter (Easter Baskets) on Sunday night after she returned from Daddy's and Fran made us an Easter ham dinner on Monday night - he's a great cook! After the last week - I am afraid to stand on a scale but it was worth every mouth watering bite!

Ava still has a smile that makes her mom love her even more - all scrunched up.... So - life has been very busy being a mom, at work, and spending time developing friendships. But, it has been a very good month.

Happy Easter!

Relay for Life and St. Patricks Day

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY 2009!

When I took Ava to the doctor for her "after pneumonia" well visit - we found out she still has an ear infection. Therefore, we started on another round of antibiotics. At least the nebulizer is put away for now...

Ava has two great college student baby sitters. Our first weekend in March we went to see events in which they participate. Stacey is a Hartwick student active in a sorority - Ava went with me to "Bid Night" - this is the event where each Greek Organization publicly announces the students invited to participate in their new member development process. Here is a picture of Ava with Stacey.

Her second babysitter is a student from SUNY Oneonta that works at the daycare center. Ava LOVES her - If Caitlin is working day care, I am chopped liver as soon as we walk in the door. Caitlin rides for the SUNY Oneonta Equestrian team, so we went to see her ride in the show hosted by Hartwick over the weekend. My Mom came to visit on Saturday, she seemed to enjoy the Hartwick activities that we participated in and I felt good knowing she was here with me instead of home alone the weekend after Dad passed.

Last weekend Ava was at her Dad's, so I walked for 12 hours in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life - it was a lot of fun. Thanks to the people who helped me to raise money for the American Cancer Society and also to those who walked with me :). Here are some pictures.

Some of the Hartwick Staff (no Fran is not in the picture - I need to work on that)

Hartwick Students and Staff

The next day I attended my first water polo match, Hartwick has a team. That is a really tough sport! Then I went to a HC men's lacrosse game - it is fun having Athletics report to me, especially on beautiful Spring days. That night I went to a Binghamton Senators hockey game and dinner with Carol. Carol is the most amazing friend in the world!

I am still kind of afraid to sit still, because when I do, I spend too much time thinking about Dad... Please keep my family in your prayers - my brother and sister are taking his death very hard and they are exhibiting their trauma physically.

Buddy (my cat is sick again) so I met our vet this week. I think he will be o.k. On Wednesday night, it was not about Ava's toilet soup (referencing back to January) or Buddy the cat's infected anal gland, but my dog Topi was sick and painted every carpet from the second floor to the door going outside from the kitchen with nasty brown sh __ __. Anyone have a trick for getting dog s__ __ t out of carpets? Fortunately Ava was sleeping during Topi's episode, so I was not fighting with her interest in poop while cleaning... Also, the guy, whose name is Fran, has not run screaming away after the last month - he felt pity for me when I called to describe what had happened and brought over more carpet cleaner for me when mine ran out - I did not have enough to do the whole house and Ava was sleeping....

Sorry for sharing that gross story - but this is blog about our life, and as Ava ages past potty training and my animals move along in life, I never want to forget how large of a role cleaning up bowel movements and urine have been the last two years. Three years ago, I would never have been able to imagine it....

Spring break started today... YEAH. I still have to work, but hopefully I will have some time to work at my desk. Tomorrow we are going to a HC lacrosse game and then out to Albany to see Grammy Belva and Emily.

February 2009 - An interesting month...

So - I have been a blog slacker... sorry.

Ava -

The Oneonta area families that have adopted from Asia hold a "Chinese New Year" celebration and Ava and I were invited. We had a lot of fun. We did crafts, met about 15 other families with children adopted from Asia, and participated in a Dragon Dance. We also found a new favorite Chinese Buffet. A few people from Hartwick have participated in International Adoption and have been careful to introduce themselves and offer support as a new member of this community (China, Russia, and Ethiopa). The pictures above are from the New Year Celebration - Ava and I even had a picture in the local newspaper...

Well, if you remember she had a bad case of bronchitis in January. On February 16th she had a fever so I took her to the doctor again and guess what - pneumonia and an ear infection - so another 14 days of nebulizer treatments, steroids, and antibiotics kept us busy at home.

Me -

Work - I had my first set of Board of Trustee Meetings as the VP of a College - talk about an interesting experience - especially with the economy taking a nose dive. I received positive feed back from the Board members and my colleagues but it didn't make me any less nervous each time I prepared to present or challenge people in a discussion. One of the more exciting things that happened was that I was asked to go out with some of the Board Members (alumni) for drinks after one of the formal dinners. We ended up at a small out of the path bar called "No Place" - it was very much - a no name, no place local kind of bar and when I walked in with my Chanel suit and patent leather heals I stuck out like a soar thumb - the guys took their jackets & ties off - but I was not so lucky. Note to self for the future - keep an extra set of more casual clothes in the car when the boys come to town. I also realized that when the Board of Trustees are in town, Ava needs to spend the weekend with Dad because the days are very long. Two weeks later I attended a dedication for our new gymnasium at the College - it was a lot of fun - but once again lots of testosterone. Ava was at her dad's that weekend also, so the two weekends I could have spent unpacking or relaxing were spent working long hours.

Personal - My friends talked me into trying Match.com - so I did. I did not like it... so that was very short lived. But on the last day of the Board Meetings (Valentine's Day) a friend, who is a guy, asked me to go to a hockey game that night. I said yes. I didn't even think of it as a date... but it turns out it was a date. He had impressed me earlier that week when at a basketball game he asked if Ava could go to the other side of the gym to see the cheerleaders before the game started. I said sure (assuming I would take her) then he asked, "will she walk over with me"? I figured why not give it a try and the two of them walked hand in hand over to the cheerleaders who passed her around like a little doll and then she was introduced to the new love her life - the college mascot "Swoop". Swoop is now spoken about daily in the house and is our screen saver.

When they came back to to our seats, Ava spent the rest of the game angling for his attention, eating the food of the other people around us, and dancing each time the music came on during time outs - she got a lot of attention that night. I thought it was cool and was thrilled that Ava had been more open to moving among my friends at the game and was not staying as attached to my hip as she had at earlier games...

Back to the "new friend" story. So anyway, as we were walking to our cars on the way out of the board meeting he asked if I wanted to grab dinner before the hockey game - I said sure why not. We had a great dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant - he had paid enough attention to me previously to know that I like hockey and that Ava was Vietnamese, so I might want to try this restaurant. I could not believe what a great time I had and he paid - was it a date? Over the next few weeks it became clear to me that we could become "more than friends" - so I have a little skip in my step when I think of him :).

On a very sad note - my Dad Phil Gott (step dad - but he is my dad in all sense of the word) passed away on February 27th at 61 years of age - http://celebrate.dailyherald.com/Syracuse/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=124816258 . He married my mom when I was 8. I am the oldest of 6. The timing and method of his death was his decision - so it has been very hard for us to come to terms with. My family, friends and the new people I have met in Oneonta have all been wonderful! Thank you so much for your support.

So - yes February was a very strange month for me - stress and success at work, trying to decide if it is o.k. to feel good about the feelings I am having for a "new friend" in my life, and loosing my Dad unexpectedly. Thank God for Ava, my mom, brothers and sister, and my friends!

Toilet Soup and Potty Mouth

Toilet Soup and Potty Mouth - there appears to be a theme

After our stomach bug last week Ava became very familiar with the workings of a toilet. So much so, tonight when mommy was cooking dinner in the kitchen, Ava decided to go around the corner and make some soup - in the bathroom....

Ava's recipe:
1 bowl of cat food
1 role of toilet paper
A couple of feminine products
2 wooden blocks
1 hand towel
1 red hair ribbon
and to top it off our add your "Swiper" beanie baby
Directions: Pull your stool up to the toilet, open the toilet lid, add ingredients, stir with your hand, then your princess wand, and end with a flush. After you flush, jump up and down in the water on the floor until your clothes are wet enough for mommy to notice. After mommy walks in the bathroom and reacts say "oh shit" and then let her figure out which action to respond to...

So - my friend Catherine wrote about Bella's version of Toilet Bowl Soup about a year ago. The girls are the same age. I could consider myself lucky that this did not happen until now. I laughed quite hard at her expense when I read her account of the incident and thought she would get a chuckle out of my experience as well - what comes around goes around.

The potty mouth... During the move, Ava picked up the word "shit" in context. I tried really hard to believe she was saying "sit" the first few times I heard it, but in one morning I heard it three times and it was in the moments that one might say "oh shit" - things rolling off a table "sit?", when she could not get her foot in her shoe, and when she dropped something - no real reason for "sit" at those moments. So I went into day care and asked what to do - they said to ignore it and not bring attention to it. So that is what I have done. She still pulls "oh shit" out occasionally and I do my absolute best not to respond (as advised) - but in this moment all I could do was laugh hysterically and cry... Note to self - Ava is not allowed to hang out in the bathroom when Mom is not in there also. Just so you know - I rarely swear So, I am not sure I can take credit for teaching her about the context of "oh shit"... but at least she is using it in context.

She has also found another new hobby in this house. Slamming doors... I am not sure why she has picked this up, but she thinks it is the funniest thing in the world. In general, I can live with it - the time when it gets tricky is when I do not realize she just shut one of our animals in a space they are not interested in staying in for a few hours. Of late, I feel much better about the door slamming thing, because I saw the kids on "John and Kate plus Eight" the other night getting in trouble for slamming doors - if they are doing it, it must be normal. Right?

Questions for the moms...
How do your reward for potty training? And do you do something different for sitting on the potty vs. going on the potty?

Happy Lunar New Year - Tet

Ava in her Tet outfit from Vietnam (The Tet photo shoot in her new room)

To celebrate Tet we went to a Vietnamese Restaurant with friends. Ava wore her Tet outfit to day care and to dinner. At day care we did a coloring exercise with the kids in her room, then went to the doctors office for a follow up check and she is a healthy girl. YEAH!

January 26th represented the first day of the most important holiday celebrated in Vietnam - Tet. A celebration of the Lunar New Year - To the Vietnamese Têt Nguyên Đán is the Ultimate Holiday. There is nothing like it in the West. Besides the beginning of a new year, Tet also marks the beginning of Spring and everybody's birthday. The actual Tet holiday is three days, though most people tend to take seven or more days off. It is a time for family reunions, exchanging gifts, best wishes, correcting one's faults, forgiving others, paying debts; in short, to start the new year with a clean slate. Literally, Tet Nguyen Dan means the first morning of the first day of the new period. Officially, it marks the beginning of a new year on the lunar calendar. In reality, it is a friendly, festive, family holiday. Painstaking care is given to starting the year out right, since it is believed the first day and the first week of the new year will determine the fortunes or misfortunes for the rest of the year. Links with more information about Tet:

http://www.geocities.com/nha1975/12congiap.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt

http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/1198 - the Vietnamese Zodiac meanings

People often assume that Tet and The Chinese New Year celebrations/calendars are the exactly same and they are not - sometime the new year starts a day off (although rarely) and sometimes different animals are used (although similar). For example this year in Vietnam this is the year of the Water Buffalo in China it is the year of the Ox.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just a few more pictures...