Thanksgiving/Christmas Time Is Here (alternate title: The Easy Holiday and Baby's First Flu)

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 22^nd and 23^rd 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 26^th 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.

Here's the nice Christmas photo we took of Sammy...
after Thanksgiving and after the rash, but before...

But…on the 20^th 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 22^nd, 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.

Evidence of Tamiflu intolerance.

Tuesday morning.  Ugh.

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. 

Particularly nice tree this year!

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 29^th, 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.

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!

I shall call it: Saturday Morning (for lack of a better title)

So...it's 5 AM.  And I've been up since 2:45.  Oh...and it's Saturday.  My parents would never recognize me.  Back when I was still living at home (I mean their home.  I live at home now, too, but it's my home...just wanted to clarify), I used to sleep through my alarm on a regular basis.  I don't mean that I would shut it off and then, consequently, oversleep...I mean I would literally sleep while the alarm went off next to me for who knows how long.  Sometimes the only thing that would wake me up would be my dad angrily shouting out my name from my parents' bedroom (next to mine), telling me to shut off the alarm.  So, I would shut it off and then go back to sleep.  Alarms have no real meaning to me.  I do not become alarmed.

I almost slept through a college dormitory fire alarm once.  Those things are designed to wake a completely drunk person up from a sound sleep.  For the record, I was not drunk.  I woke up because, in addition to the screeching alarm, my RA was calling out to me and pounding on the door, and my roommate was also trying to rouse me.  I asked if I could just stay in bed.  My roommate laughed (she was always very amused by me...even when I wasn't trying to be funny).  My RA told me no...that it wasn't a drill.  I was pretty sure I didn't care.  I think I would have stayed if they had let me.

Historically, I've had really poor judgement when I've just been woken up.  When my alarm went off, I wouldn't think, "Just five more minutes," and then hit the snooze button once or twice.  No.  I wouldn't think anything but, "Sound.  Make stop. [randomly push buttons on evil sound making device next to me]  Good.  I sleep now."  People have asked me, "Have you tried putting your alarm clock on the other side of the room so that you have to get up to turn it off?"  My response to them was that 1) doing so would only benefit me if the alarm actually woke me up in the first place (and the odds on that aren't great), and 2) yes...I've tried that...and it doesn't help.  I just get up, turn it off, and go back to bed...because, as I mentioned, I have really poor judgement when I've just been woken up.

Anyway...all this to say...I find it truly amazing that I've been able, for the most part, to keep up with my husband's new schedule these last few weeks.  Call it proof that God still works miracles and answers prayer.  Or maybe it's a result of being a lighter sleeper now that I'm a mother and have grown accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night to feed my son.  We'll see if it lasts.  I really hope it does, as the early morning hours that I put in doing stuff for work before Sammy wakes up really make my work from home days so much more manageable.  And so do afternoon naps...which, unfortunately, aren't always a given...but are oh-so-cute when they do happen.

Sammy fell asleep while nursing, so instead of putting him down (which I knew would wake him up), I just let him sleep on my lap while I worked.  Adorable!...even if my opinion IS biased!

Hansen is my hero, though.  I've been waking up with him and helping him get his lunch/breakfast together, but he actually gets up, gets showered and dressed, leaves the house, and physically works all day.  This week he will have put in 40 hours (in spite of the holiday on Monday) and about 20 hours of overtime.  Then there's me...patting myself on the back for waking up and sitting at a computer for a mere 40 hours per week.  He wins...hands down.  What a guy!

Well...the sun is about to rise, so I should probably get up and start doing something with my Saturday morning so that when Hansen gets home from work there might be some hope for a few hours of family fun.  I'm not sure what that will entail, since "fun" is a relative term based on our energy level at any given moment.  Maybe we will go to an apple orchard.  Or maybe we will take naps.