Here's Avi!!!

We bonded!!!!

What a great weekend it was! Alison, Michael and Avi arrived Friday evening and stayed until this afternoon. Avi was somewhat clingy to his parents, but he warmed up quickly. He is SUCH a good baby. I couldn't believe that he has 6 teeth now, eats like there is no tomorrow, loves to bounce up and down even when he it totally exhausted, and when he IS exhausted he hardly fusses at all. On Sunday we had a party with friends and family over to see the kids. Everyone fell in love with Avi immediately, and he seemed to be enjoying himself as well. He even had fun playing with the 4 dogs (until last month, two of them, Orange and Blue, were his "brothers."). My mother, of course, was so thrilled to have her first great grandchild here, as well as her first grandchild, Alison... here we are, 4 generations...Gerry seemed to have the most fun. He adores Alison, Michael and Avi. He even made a slip of the tongue (open mouth, insert foot?). His brother and sister-in-law were here. They are wonderful people and Gerry has always been very close to them. They were exclaiming over Avi when Gerry said, "I have 12 nieces and nephews and 8 great-nieces and nephews, and they are all terrific but Avi is the most beautiful of all!" I know he wasn't out to be a braggart or to hurt anyone's feelings, it's just that Avi is so very special to him.
On Monday Alison and Michael and I took Avi to Miami (about an hour's ride from where I live) to get his passport (Michael might have the chance to go to France on business so they need to be prepared to go with him). We got there a little after 10 AM and didn't get out until 5 PM, but Alison lucked out and was able to renew hers while we were there. It was a LONG, LONG day, and even though Avi only got 30 minutes of sleep while in his ERGO carrier on me, he was so good. Of course, once we put him into his carseat for the long ride home, he was so tired and frustrated he cried almost the entire time. Once home, though, he had his bath, smiled big and waved goodnight to us all.

Today I gave Avi his breakfast, and then we wanted to take him to the beach after his first nap and before they left for the airport. Well, yesterday knocked him out so much that he took a 3 hour nap. As soon as he woke Alison got him dressed and we all went to lunch at Boston's, across from the beach. We got there in the knick of time, for it POURED buckets of rain. Luckily, this is Florida in the summer and the rain usually is gone within 30 minutes (which it was). We had a nice lunch (in spite of us being in RED SOX territory - though Alison had her talisman...her Yankee hat). After Avi ate his lunch Alison gave him a dill pickle...he LOVED it! After lunch it had stopped raining and cooled down a bit, so we went across to the beach for about 10 minutes, to introduce Avi to the ocean and of course, take lots of pictures. He enjoyed it, although at first he seemed puzzled by the feel of the sand receding from under his feet at the water's edge. It's too bad we didn't have more time to really take him into the water....they'll just have to come back for more. I wish it were possible for us to move up to Atlanta, which is Alison's biggest wish right now. I love where I live in S. FL but would love to be closer to them. I still have 6 more years to teach here, and it's best for us to stay here for Gerry to be close to his friends while he is going through this health crisis. So, when we can, we'll make the move. For now, we will see them (and the other kids) as often as we can.

As for Gerry....we are supposed to hear this week as to if/when he will go to Houston for the clinical trial that he hopes to participate in. The clinical research nurse told me they would have final results of lab work by the end of July. Well....that was today, so tomorrow I will call and hope to have some answers. We decided that if we have to spend a month or so in Houston, I will have to take a leave of absence from work and we'll drive there...4 dogs and all! OY!