The Journey: A Little Time With Mike,
Kelly, and Ava
Sunday, May 13 – Wednesday, May 16,
2012
Sunday, May 13
Happy Mother’s Day!!!!!
+++++++
We arrived at
Mike and Kelly’s house around 3:30 this afternoon after the long drive from
Huntington, West Virginia. Our original
plan was to meet the kids in time to go to Cary Street and the Thai Diner Too
for one of our favorite Thai meals, and then Kelly would fly out to Birmingham
on a project for the company. But, Mike
found that the Thai place was closed on Sundays, so we all sat around and
visited for a couple of hours and got reacquainted (and took lots of pictures
of Ava, who has changed immeasurably since we saw her at Christmas).
When Kelly left for the airport, Mike
loaded us in his car and we went in search of someplace to eat. We thought the Mother’s Day crowd would have
dissipated by evening, but our first choice, Cracker Barrel, had a waiting list
of more than an hour. We checked out a
Mexican food restaurant, but it also had a line longer than we wanted. Mike’s back-up plan was O’Charley’s, a little
farther down the road from the house, but the wait was only 10 minutes, so that
was our choice. We were seated soon and
enjoyed a great meal as we continued to get caught up on each other’s lives.
Ava, of
course, delighted customers, the wait staff, and us with her chatter and
activities before and during the meal.
Once we were
back at the house, it was bath time for Ava and soon after, it was bed time for
the rest of us!
Monday, May 14
Once Mike
left for work this morning, we became Ava’s full-time daycare providers. Fortunately, she was very easy to take care
of. Ava wakes up around 6:30, gets up
and has breakfast, plays until around 9:00, and then takes a nap for about an
hour and a half. When she gets up again,
she gets her morning milk before getting dressed in a play outfit, plays a bit,
has lunch, plays some more, and around 1:00, she crawls up the stairs and goes
to bed for an afternoon nap. When she
gets up again around 2:30 or 3:00, she gets a bottle of whole milk, plays, has
supper, plays some more, takes a bath, and then goes to bed for the
night...it’s all a very simple process.
We found that Ava enjoys taking her
naps. All we had to do was say, “Ava,
it’s time to go to bed,” and she would stop whatever she was doing, crawl up
the stairs, and stand beside her bed until one of us picked her up and put her
in it. She’s the same about her bath, so
everything works very methodically and without fuss.
The one thing
we found that brought Ava to tears was my trumpet playing. I thought she might be fascinated by the horn
and sound, but after just a minute or so of playing, she made the most awful
face and began crying. I finally gave up
and went upstairs to practice, but Barbara said Ava still didn’t care for the
sound...guess there’s no accounting for some folks’ taste, huh! (And I really thought I was getting better at
my playing).
+++++++
Tuesday, May 15
Mike came
back to the house and then took Ava to a doctor appointment for a check-up and
to see about the nasty little cough she has been developing. When they got back, we took over the care and
Mike went back to work. Later, I went to
CVS to pick up a couple of prescriptions that Ava’s pediatrician had phoned
in. I was given two sacks and returned
to the house, but Barbara could find only one of the prescriptions, and it
wasn’t for the cough. Barbara called the
pharmacy and found that although they had said both prescriptions were ready,
one of them really wasn’t. So, I made
the trek back down the highway, got the prescription, and then returned to the
house to get Ava started on a regimen of something we all hoped would cure the
cough and clear up her runny nose.
Kelly
returned from Birmingham today and she and Mike arrived home at the same time,
just as we were returning Ava from our walk and her stroll.
Ava was, of
course, delighted that her mother was home and latched onto her to the
exclusion of the rest of us.
After awhile
things got back to normal and we all settled in for a delightful family dinner
and quality play time before it was time for Mike and Kelly to give Ava her
bath and put her to bed.
After the
full day we all had, it didn’t take long for the rest of us to follow Ava’s
example and head to our respective rooms for the night.
+++++++
Wednesday, May 16
Today was
much like the first two days of this week except that Ava had both Mike and
Kelly to see her when she woke up.
After Mike
and Kelly went to work, we took over the regular routine and had our usual good
time spoiling the heck out of Ava. So
much spoiling to do...so little time!!!
The first stop this evening was at the Thai Diner Too, our favorite place to eat when in Richmond. It isn’t very fancy, but it has a wide variety of dishes on the menu and we’ve never found a selection we didn’t like. Many folks who have lived in Thailand frequent Thai Diner Too because they say it is the most authentic Thai food in the area.
Following our
meal, we went for a stroll up and down Cary Street, another favorite place to
visit when we are in Richmond. It’s an
old street lined with many different shops, restaurants, and performance
venues. At almost any time of day one
can find street performers doing their thing.
We stopped at an ice cream shop and
then strolled down the street some more. While we were waiting for Mike and Kelly to
finish a visit with some folks they met in the ice cream shop, a couple of
well-dressed young men (one with a microphone and the other with a camera) came
up and asked if we’d mind being interviewed.
We said we’d be happy to talk to them.
The guy doing the interview asked what America meant to us. We talked about patriotism and freedoms that
we enjoy. Then, he asked what we do to
support patriotism. Well, that opened a
wide gate! We told him that we were on
our way to Washington, DC to participate in the celebration of the 150th
anniversary of Taps and that I would do Taps at Arlington National
Cemetery. He then threw us for a loop
when he asked, “So, do you consider yourself a pretty good tap dancer?” After a brief pause, I explained what we were
doing and then we left, bemoaning the current state of journalism and wondering
how some folks get (and hold) the jobs they have.
Mike, Kelly,
and Ava caught up with us soon afterward and we continued our stroll down Cary
Street until we finished our ice cream and decided it was time to get Ava home
and in bed for the night.
“If becoming a
grandparent was only a matter of choice, I should advise every one of you
straight away to become one. There is no
fun for old people like it!” –
Hannah Whithall Smith
From Mike and
Kelly’s home in Midlothian, Virginia,
Jim/Dad/Gramps
and Barbara/Mom/Grams
