Wunder!

Poor, neglected baby blog. I feel bad that I can't keep up with it that much. Maybe you knew this - or maybe you didn't, but for a while there I was working 3 jobs. Not so much out of necessity, but more out of my sense of obligation and fear. I hate quitting jobs. One I tried to quit a long time ago but they talked me into working just weekends. The other one I just wanted to keep my foot in the door so I kept working there one day a week. For around 7 months I was working well over 50 hours a week. It was really hard. I quit one job, but kept the weekend job, so I was working 7 days a week. I would bring Ava to work with me during the week, and on the weekends I would work in the late afternoon/evenings. I finally cut it down to one normal, weekday job. It will be nice to have actual weekends to spend with my family.
But enough about me. Ava has been doing good, but she's teething so she's been a bit cranky. One thing about Ava - she has a short fuse. Even when she was an infant, she could go from perfectly content to screaming mad in a second. She is still that way. I am always trying different ways of dealing with it to help her control it a bit. So far, I haven't had much luck. I am hoping that her starting pre-school next month will help. Speaking of pre-school, I received my welcome packet in the mail and this thing is huge. There is a bunch of stuff they want us to supply, we have to attend a parent orientation, we are required to volunteer at the school a certain amount of hours each year. All of these things are good, it just makes me feel like she's starting real school, rather than just part-time pre-school. I am curious to see how her and Max are going to handle it. They will be in the same class, and I wonder if they will gravitate towards each other, or if Max will go off with the boys and Ava will go with the girls.
Tonight we had a thunder storm, and Ava was starting to get scared of the thunder. At first she is intrigued by it, and she kept repeating "wunder!" each time she heard it. But some of it was pretty loud, and it was the kind that after the initial bang would rumble for a good 10 - 15 seconds. Our windows were rattling. She didn't like it so much then, but she did good. She went to bed without a fuss.
It is SO hot here in FL. People think that FL is so great because it doesn't snow so they think you can be outside year round. However, the heat in the summer is so bad that you don't want to be outside. When I walk out the door in the morning, it is already in the high 80's and very humid. When you walk outside at 10pm, it is still in the high 80's and extremely humid. During the day Ava gets pink being outside for 10 minutes. Any longer and her face gets very flushed and she sweats like crazy. You sweat just standing still, in the shade. I take her for a bike ride every evening around 7:30pm, and it is hot and I sweat. It is not enjoyable. Luckily the lovebugs are gone and the wildfires are over so we are no longer covered in smoke and bugs. I love Florida.