Month: January 2012

Last night Jessica and I went out to dinner and a movie while Ava stayed home with Grandma and the dogs. We had dinner at Mama Mia, which is a nice little Italian restaurant near our house in Pacific Beach. The place has a great ambiance and the food is amazing, plus all the employees are totally Italian… straight off the boat. The night before we also went out to a nice Italian dinner, this time with Amy, Jessica’s cousin Lauren, her husband John, and their baby girl Malena, who is 10 months old. We had a great time at dinner up in Encinitas, then went to Dave and Buster’s to meet up with a few of my friends from work and play games. I owned the Dance Dance Revolution that night!

Anyway, back to last night, after dinner at Mama Mia, we headed up to La Jolla for the movie. We were early and ended up driving around checking out the eastern parts of La Jolla where it turns into Miramar and Mira Mesa. We’re going to be looking for a home to rent around there so it was nice to check it out a bit. We ended up seeing ‘The Grey’ with Liam Neeson, who is one of our favorite actors. It was a good movie that kept us on the edge of our seats throughout, and even slightly uncomfortable at times. Not exactly the feel good movie of the year, but entertaining none the less.

Today Jessica is getting her first wisdom tooth out. It’s something that is far overdue and I’m glad she is finally taking care of it. The plan is to get the one that is impacted out today, then get the other three out once my dental coverage kicks in a couple months from now. We’re hoping to go for a drive later today and look for houses for rent. Should be a nice weekend.

Today Ava celebrated her 2 month birthday by having a photo shoot at a studio nearby. She was escorted by Jessica and Grandma Amy and apparently was the most well behaved baby anyone could have imagined. Sounds like a far cry from her first photo shoot in the hospital the day after she was born. The photos turned out so well that the studio asked Jessica if they could post her picture in their shop. She even signed a waiver. I’ll get those pics on here asap. Happy 2 month birthday to our darling baby girl.

This picture was taken by Jessica at home tonight

Tomorrow is my first day at work under my new title of "Senior Production Developer" at ScrollMotion, Inc.. I’ve been in negotiations with them for a couple weeks and was pleased when they responded to my final requests and gave me the title I was hoping for. This will surely mean more responsibility but I’m fine with that.

Amy has been with us for a few days now and all is well. Ava had a great night last night and was able to sleep for 7 consecutive hours. Hopefully she’s starting to figure out the difference between night and day. I’m back in school but they started me off with only one class and it’s quite easy, which is why I haven’t bothered to mention it on here yet.

I had a meeting with a company called Kirei USA last week about doing some web development work for them. My friend Leigh Anne, who I worked with at The Tractor Room, works there and contacted me a couple weeks ago about possibly doing some freelance work for them. The meeting went well and I’m hoping to get some work out of it. I’m also hoping to get started on a project for my uncle Jim and his business partner Dan very soon. These types of projects will be more difficult once my school work increases so I’m eager to get started on them asap.

That’s about all for now. Jessica is getting ready to go back to work in a couple weeks and Ava is getting bigger every day. She smiles regularly now and nothing brings me more joy than to see her happy little face.

Last night we returned home from Vegas after having a great weekend. We made a point to stop at the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign to take Ava’s picture on the way out of town. Sunday night turned out to be a bummer. I had purchased tickets on craigslist that day for Tiko and I to go to the Tool concert and the tickets turned out to be fake. We paid $70 a piece and didn’t even get to see the show. Fortunately we’ve both seen them before, but it was still really lame. Definitely won’t be buying tickets on craigslist anymore.

Other than that, the weekend was great. It was Ava’s first trip to Vegas, and to my mom’s house. Obviously grandma was thrilled to have her baby girl there, especially on Saturday night when Jessica and I went out to the Zappo’s Masquerade with our good friends Brian, Tiko and Tina. That was the first time that both of us have been away from Ava, so it was hard to leave her, but it was nice to get out and have fun with friends. None of us had ever been to a masquerade before and it was really fun.

Today Grandma Amy arrived in San Diego and will be staying with us for two weeks. Jessica is getting her wisdom teeth removed so it will be so helpful to have Amy here with Ava while I’m at work and Jessica is recovering. Ava is lucky enough to get to spend time with both of our mom’s back to back. Should be a fun couple of weeks.

Since my office is close on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we decided it was time to take Ava on her first trip to Vegas to see Grandma! This is the last three day weekend I’ll have for several months so we wanted to take advantage of it. It looks like we’ll be going with Brian to the Zappos holiday party on Satruday night, then having friend’s over to Mom’s house on Sunday to watch the NFL playoffs. Should be a great weekend!

Just wanted to post a few of Jessica’s daily photos of Ava. Plenty more coming soon!

Today our little Ava turns 6 weeks old and I have been fortunate enough to spend the day at home with her. I pulled an all–nighter at the office last night to get our Nike updates out on time and was able to take today off to sleep in and relax at home. Nice way to start the weekend!

It’s hard to believe that Ava is already 6 weeks old. This is a major developmental point for a baby; they usually start showing more of a personality at this age, and also tend to cry the most/loudest. Yay. She is smiling more and more every day and is growing fast. It seems like she is constantly wearing a new outfit that she just grew into.

Jessica started a project on Jan 1st of taking a photo of Ava every day of the year. This will be a fun way to document her growth. I’ll start posting some of her photos asap. Starting up with school on Sunday. I’ve never heard of a school that holds classes on a Sunday but it’s all online so I guess it doesn’t really matter. Definitely looking forward to getting the ball rolling.

Rick and Chris are flying home to Iowa tomorrow morning and we’re so glad we were able to spend New Year with them. Seeing Rick with his first grandchild was great; Ava has him wrapped wrapped around her little finger just like she has me. Hopefully it won’t be long before we’re able to visit with them again. I think Ava might help with that.

One more week of "free time" before getting back to school. Very excited though. It won’t be long before we’re getting ready to move either. We’ve just about outgrown our little house in Pacific Beach and are looking forward to moving north. Ideally we’ll end up somewhere in the Encinitas area in the next few months.

All is quite well with Ava these days. She’s pushing 9 pounds now and is showing so many amazing new signs of growth and response. She’s beginning to form a personality and graces us with a smile from time to time. I have a feeling that between watching her grow, working, studying, and spending time with Jessica, these next few years are really going to fly by. I almost wish we could press pause to take it all in.