Wait…who told you I was going to post once a week? Who?
It was me, you say? And you
believed me? Well now, there’s your
problem. Never trust my ability to
accurately predict my future actions.
ESPECIALLY if those future actions will depend on any sort of time
management. I have no concept of time…except
when I’m in the shower. Thanks to the
lovely, new, battery-operated, water-resistant, shower clock radio that my
husband got me for Christmas, I now know EXACTLY how long it takes for me to
use up every last drop of hot water in the house. And I can do it all while listening to NPR!
So…time has passed.
And, predictably, things have happened.
Sammy’s first Thanksgiving was a success. He looked adorable in overalls, ate real
turkey/mashed potatoes/various other traditional Thanksgiving dishes, and
played with his cousins. All I had to do
for Thanksgiving was show up with my family and bring a broccoli casserole and
some guacamole (which I made from the first crop of avocados that my grandpa’s avocado
tree – in Florida – produced). It was
the very best kind of holiday…good conversation with family, delicious food,
and (since I wasn’t hosting) no need to
spend hours cooking and/or doing major detail cleaning of my house. It was so relaxing.
Then, about a week later, Sammy got a fever, followed by a
rash that started on his head and face and eventually made its way all down his
body. So, that wasn’t at all relaxing. And it only got worse from there. December was a whirlwind of doctor visits
(thankfully Sammy’s fever and rash were nothing serious, but it did take 2
doctor visits to confirm that), decorating the house for Christmas, Christmas
shopping, parties, baking (I must be crazy), cooking, gift wrapping, and
cleaning…in addition to the day-to-day activities that already have me just
barely hanging onto my sanity. But I was
managing. I had already decided to take
Monday and Tuesday, the 22nd and 23rd of December, off of
work so that I could clean and prepare the house for the guests that we were
expecting on Christmas Day. I was
feeling pretty confident that those two days would be all I would need to get
everything done without going crazy. And
then I took the 26th off of work, too, so that I could spend a nice
day relaxing after the excitement of a having a house full of people the day
before.
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Here's the nice Christmas photo we took of Sammy...
after Thanksgiving and after the rash, but before... |
But…on the 20th of December, Sammy came down with
a fever again. When it didn’t get any
better, I took him back to the doctor on the 22nd, and the doctor
confirmed that Sammy had the flu…poor kid.
Later that night I found out the hard way that Sammy, like his mama, is
not able to stomach Tamiflu, so I cleaned up the vomit (twice) and we soldiered
on sans meds. Monday night was a living
nightmare and I felt so bad for my little guy.
He did eventually get some sleep, although, most of it was only when I
was holding him, so I didn’t get much rest at all. Tuesday was a little better, but he still
cried almost every time I tried to set him down…and sometimes even when I was
carrying him. So, as you might imagine,
very little cleaning and preparing for Christmas happened early that week.
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| Evidence of Tamiflu intolerance. |
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| Tuesday morning. Ugh. |
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| He looks happy...but he wasn't. |
By Christmas Eve he was doing somewhat better…Still a bit on
the cranky side, but his appetite had returned and I was able to set him down
with some toys for short periods without
him starting to cry as soon as I walked into another room. We did enjoy some nice time with our family
on Christmas Eve…Christmas Eve brunch with my parents and (some of) my
siblings, and Christmas dinner with Hansen’s grandparents, (some) siblings, and
(some) extended family.
And somehow, Christmas Day went smoothly, too. I’m sure it’s mostly thanks to all the help I
had from Hansen with the cooking and the cleaning. We had 10 of Hansen’s family members over for
dinner, plus Hansen, Sammy and myself.
That is pretty much the maximum number of people that will fit into our
dining area. I was surprised that we all
fit as well as we did in our little house.
There were no arguments, dinner was good, and there were more than 2
kinds of dessert, so we called it a success.
After most of the guests had left for the night, we finished off the day
by playing a highly inappropriate game of Cards Against Humanity with a few of Hansen’s siblings. It was nice to end the day with some good,
hard laughs.
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| Particularly nice tree this year! |
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| Added a stocking for Sammy this year! |
On Friday, after Christmas, my mom asked me how I had
enjoyed my time off and I just looked at her and said, “What time off?” I love Christmas…and I totally think that it’s
worth the effort to carry on family traditions…but man, am I exhausted! I don’t know how my own mother has carried on
all the traditions (many more than I do) that she has championed in our family
for so long…with not one, but three children…and working full time for at least
the last 14 years. It amazes me. And it’s definitely something to aspire to!
On Monday, the 29th, I was almost headed back to
work when I got a call from my mom (who was going to watch Sammy for me that
day) telling me that she thought she might have strep throat, but that she was
still willing to watch Sam. Well, since
he still hadn’t fully recovered from the flu, and I didn’t want to take the
chance of exposing him to more illness, I ended up working from home so that my
mom could stay home and rest. I’m so
glad I did, because after over a week of sickness and crankiness, Sammy finally
recovered his sunny disposition on Monday.
His little smiles make me temporarily forget the fact that I’m so tired I
can barely function. And not only did he
smile at me, but he crawled for the very first time! Prior to getting sick, he had been very close
to crawling for a few weeks. He’d been
getting up on his hands and knees and rocking…even started pushing himself
backwards. But on Monday afternoon, he
finally put it all together and mastered forward motion. Of course, he went straight for the Christmas
tree and started grabbing at ornaments.
Soooo, now it’s time to take the tree down. Never a dull moment. At least we made it through Christmas.
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| Sammy is all smiles again! Faith is tolerating his attention. |
And now, here I am…at the very end of a great
year.
It has been one of the most exciting and challenging years of my entire life.
A year that I
will never forget or regret.
A year that
changed my life in the very best way…forever.
And I am so grateful!
Tired…but
definitely grateful.
I’m excited to see
what 2015 has in store for me and my family…and hope it holds good things for
you, too!
See you next year!
Happy New Year, everyone!
