Nativity Fun



Hey!  Did you SEE this Camel???  It looks like a Monkey!  And BONUS - it has a saddle!

We live across the street from a Catholic Church.  They have this great Nativity Scene that they put out that includes some pretty large plastic figures and a wooden stable.  I took Carder over one afternoon, thinking he might enjoy it.

 

 

HE LOVED IT.

 

 

We have visited the Nativity Scene multiple times this year.  He can see it from our house and regularly requests to go over to visit it.  He talks to all of the animals and Mary and Joseph.  He rides the camels (which I am not sure if the church appreciates but oh well).  We pretty much have to tear him away from it.

 

They packed it away yesterday as we watched from our front window.  Carder kept asking where it was ("HoHoHo" with his hands held out to the side).  Now that I have explained that it is gone until next Christmas, he sadly looks out the window and says "HoHoHo Bye-Bye".

 

Pretty Darn Cute

Christmas 2012

Derek had to work on Christmas Eve, but I was lucky enough to be off. 

Carder and I spent our morning playing and getting dressed.  We headed out to catch a 10am 25 cent showing of Polar Express at a theatre downtown.  This was Carder's first movie and I wasn't sure how well it would go.  He had a great time.  There were some carolers before the movie started (and he kept asking for more when they finished a song).  When the pre-movie stuff came on the screen, he got really excited.  And then the movie started.  When the little boy came on the screen in the bed, Carder said "Night Night" and the lady beside me giggled.  The train came on the screen and Carder said "Choo Choo" and he pointed and babbled throughout the movie.  Thank goodness it was a theatre filled with other kids chatting. 

You may remember Carder's first visit with Santa didn't go very well (you can see pictures of him here).  We kept reading books about Christmas and talking about Santa.  By Christmas Eve, he seemed to be quite a fan of Santa and was requesting Santa books at bedtime and pointing at every Santa he saw and saying "Ho Ho".  I think it might possibly be the cutest thing ever.  But not cute enough to attempt to go see Santa again, just in case.

Anyway, back to the movie.  When Santa came on the screen, all of the kids got very quite (it was the quitest the theatre was the entire movie).  Carder yells out "Ho Ho" very excitedly.  Adults all around me cracked up.  And just moments later, Carder fell fast asleep and missed the last 10 minutes of the movie.  It was definitely worth the 50 cents we paid.

After lunch and a nap, we spent our afternoone getting the groceries we would need for our Christmas Dinner and playing.  That evening, we had a quick dinner and loaded Carder into the car.  We slowly drove through several streets and let Carder look at all of the sparkling Christmas lights.  He really loved looking at the lights and babbled on and on about what he could see from the window of the car.  "Ho Ho" was repeated multiple times.  Looking at the lights was a big hit.

When we got home, we read the Christmas staple of "T'was the Night Before Christmas" and did our normal bedtime routine.

Carder gave us a wonderful Christmas gift - he slept until 9 am on Christmas morning.  We got up and gave Carder breakfast.  I started baking some Cinnamin Rolls for Derek and I.  And then we took Carder over to open his presents.  He was very interested in unwrapping the presents - as long as you let him play with whatever he opened until he was ready to move on.  He really didn't enjoy the "assembly required" portion of the presents, but he had a great time playing with his new gifts.

My family called mid-morning on FaceTime and watched Carder open his presents from them.

During his nap, Derek and I sorted through the toys and boxed up some that he no longer plays with.  We also set up his basketball goal in his play area downstairs. 

We spent the day doing things I had always dreamed about doing on Christmas Day - playing with our child and his Christmas loot - building towers with the cardboard blocks and knocking them down, driving cars over the floor, and playing basketball.

It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas as a family.  The only thing that I think I would change is that I would get dressed first.  I love spending Christmas morning lounging in my pajamas, but the look wasn't the greatest for the pictures.  :)

Christmas with the In Laws

Late Saturday morning, Carder seemed to be feeling quite a bit better.  We loaded up the car and headed down state to my in-laws house for our Christmas celebration with them.

Carder ended up taking about a 20 minute nap on the way to their house and that was it.  He spent the afternoon playing with his Papaw (Great Grandpa), Grandparents, and Aunt Sarah.  He also spent quite a bit of time talking about and enjoying the ornaments on my MILs tree.*

Even though I anticipated a very cranky child, he did great with very few meltdowns.  By early evening, he was exhausted.  He ended up going to bed quite early.

On Sunday morning, we fed him breakfast and then everyone was excited to see him opening their gifts.  He got a push/ride toy from Papaw.  His gift from Aunt Sarah was some cars in a carrier, a Litt.le People Farm Stand, and a book.  Grandad and Grandma got him a Yo Gab.ba Gab.ba backpack on wheels, a smaller backpack, a sit-n-spin, and some other small toys.**

 

 

We had a wonderful time visiting with Derek's family.  After Christmas dinner on Sunday evening, we took a few family pictures and then loaded up the car and headed home.

* Since we weren't sure how Carder would handle the tree, we only put our shatterproof balls on the tree this year.  He loved looking at all of the miscellaneous ornaments that she hung on her tree.  He also did very well with not pulling them off and trying to play with them - so much so that I completely regretted my decision to only hang the shatterproof ornaments.  Next year we will include the miscellaneous ornaments on our tree as well.

**  I have to admit - I had a bit of trouble with the gifts from the grandparents. There were some unwrapped gifts in a stocking and one of the gifts was listed as "From Santa". I didn't say anything to them because he is too young to read and it wasn't explained to him that these things were "From Santa" so it really wasn't worth starting an argument - this year.  I grew up that Santa visited our house on Christmas Eve - Santa didn't come to my grandparents homes to leave gifts for me there.  And if we don't put a stop to this before he is old enough to understand, we will later have to explain why Santa brings him gifts at one set of Grandparents and not the other.  And - let's be honest here, damn it - I am a greedy bitch.  We waited all of these years to become parents and "be" Santa, they already had their chance and shouldn't take away our fun...***  Derek and I had a discussion in the car that it was his responsibility to tell this to his parents.

***And if my MIL reads this - Derek was supposed to tell you and sorry you heard it here first.  But, please - no more gifts from Santa.  And that goes for the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.  You want to be responsible for leaving Lucky Charms from a Leprechaun on St. Patty's Day, fine by me.  But leave the biggies to us.

All I Want For Christmas Is a Healthy Child

Carder was sick at Christmas last year.  He was refusing fluids and we ended up having to take him to the ER for an IV of fluids.  Christmas plans had to be changed last minute.  It was a very stressful holiday.

Although I wasn't happy when we woke up on Monday morning (12/17/12) with a fever of 99.9, I wasn't overly concerned about it ruining Christmas.  After all, we had over a week until the big day.

Although he played happily that morning, by the afternoon his fever had shot up to 104 and I had a feeling it was going to be ugly.

My MIL came up to take care of him so I could go to work.  The next thing you know, it is Thursday.  He is still running a fever of 104.  A visit to the doctor yesterday ruled out Strep and he does not currently have an ear infection.  However, we were given a prescription for antibiotics to start just in case the fever had not broken by Saturday.

We were supposed to be leaving this morning to head down to the In-Laws for Christmas festivities there.  But, a winter storm yesterday and today has made the roads a bit tricky (my MIL left last night to go home only to turn around and come back because the roads were too bad).  Plus, Carder still had a fever.  Even though the Doctor said to start the antibiotic on Saturday, we moved it up to today as he wasn't better and we wanted to see if he would respond to the antibiotics before exposing Derek's 93 year old grandfather to whatever germs Carder was sharing.

Whether it is coincidence or whether it was actually the antibiotics, his fever is finally lower tonight.  I hope our sweet boy is feeling better by tomorrow and that he will be 100% himself by Christmas.  I would really hate for both his 1st and 2nd Christmases to be spent sick and miserable.

Christmas Photo Shoot 2012

In my mind's eye, I have a vision of what I want our Christmas Card picture to look like.  But I am too cheap to hire a photographer and for some reason I have the idea that I can do it myself with results that are just as amazing.

Since I wanted the picture to include the Christmas tree, I had to wait until it was up to take any pictures.  I usually have the tree up on Thanksgiving Day.  I originally thought I would put the tree up during his nap one day and letting him wake up to a sparkly surprise but I gave up and let him help decorate the tree.  It was much more challenging that way, but also much more fun.

So the tree decorating already had me behind schedule for picture taking.  Then, I tried to wait until Carder was in a great mood to schedule our Christmas Photo Shoot in the hopes that he would be cooperative.

The first day he was more interested in running around and taking the ornaments off of the tree.  I wasn't happy with the results I was getting, so I scrapped that attempt and decided to wait until later.  Then we were running out of time if I wanted to get the cards mailed before New Years.

So I tried again after naptime one day.

I thought perhaps a great picture of him hanging an ornament on the tree...He was so intent on hanging the ornaments on the tree (or setting them on the branches or taking them off the tree or throwing them down or banging them together) that I never quite got the shot I was looking for.

So then I thought I could get him to sit in front of the tree and hold an ornament.  I placed a padded cube in front of the tree.  The resulting picture was OK and more likey to not include the TV that is right beside the tree, but he had no interest in sitting still Surprised?  Yeah, me neither. 

So I thought "I know, I will bribe him with fruit and yogurt bites".  And then I moved on to chocolate advent candy from my parents.  In my mind, this worked out better than in actuality.  Most pictures his hand was going to his face.  Or he was trying to get off of the cube to get another piece of the bribery.  Or he was signing or saying "MORE".

Then I thought "perhaps we will get a great picture with Santa" and you KNOW how that worked out.  And then "DING", time was up.

This was the picture we settled on.  You can see the chocolatey bribe in his hand.  And I think he looks pretty cute.

I did end up getting on of the shots I was looking for during the Christmas festivities.  It just didn't make it on the card.  But now I think I know how to make it happen for next year.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Carder and I made some salt dough ornaments of his hand print for family members for Christmas.  (Thank you Pinterest).  With the leftover dough, we used a cookie cutter to cut out stars.

When I showed him the baked and hardened result the next day, he tried to eat it.  So, I thought perhaps we should try to make some Christmas Sugar Cookies. 

This was going to be Carder's first time making cookies and I wanted to make it special.  At first, I was all "I am going to make the dough from scratch and be super mom".  And then we were in the grocery store and buying a couple more cookie cutters and I was all "I am super tired and store bought dough would be so much easier and tastes just as good as home made anyway" so I bought a couple of rolls of dough.  And then bought some extra sprinkles to make up for it.

To my surprise and delight, Derek even decided to get in on the act (which would be why there are any pictures of the event..because everyone knows that dough and sprinkles and toddlers on counter tops and cameras don't mix).

Carder loved to shake on the sprinkles but didn't quite understand the concept of shaking it with the holes pointed down., so he covered the counter with green, red, and blue sugar. 

The finished product turned out great and we all enjoyed some freshly baked sugar cookies and a glass of milk.  I hope to make baking cookies as a family a part of Christmas traditions for years to come.

First Visit with Santa

Last year, Carder was too young to understand Santa.  He spent a good bit of time in December very sick (including Christmas Day).  Plus, it was our first Christmas in our new city and I completely dropped the ball on getting him to see Santa.

I knew I wanted to have him see Santa this year.   He still has quite a bit of stranger anxiety.  Perhaps it would have been a better idea to try a "breakfast" with Santa type of deal to give him plenty of time to see him from afar (and stare him down while he accessed the situation).  I didn't know how to approach it the best to be able to get him to sit on Santa's lap and get a good picture.

Our first attempt to see Santa was at the Christmas tree lighting downtown on 12/7/12.   Even though we got there early, it was super crowded.  (And people are A-holes.  If you want to see Santa up close and personal, get there early to reserve a spot.  Don't push your way up front and shove in front of other people with kids who got there earlier and then proceed to put your 6 year old on your shoulders blocking the view of my 18 month old.  But I digress...)  The line to see Santa was super long and it was already pushing bedtime as it was.  We skipped on Santa for that night.

 

Before I knew it, it was the middle of December.  While there were several options still available, we decided that we would try the local Santa Shack to see how it went.  Unfortunately, Carder decided to boycott his nap today and was quite cranky* as we made our way downtown.  I wasn't sure to expect. 

 

Thankfully, there was no line to wait in.  Santa was a very nice (but very young) man with an obviously fake beard that probably looked pretty scary to a toddler with stranger anxiety.  He clung to me for dear life.

 

After the inital screams of "NOOOOO" as he got closer to Santa, he finally calmed down a little bit.  I decided to squat down to get a picture of Carder in my arms where Santa would actually be in the picture (because that Santa shack is REALLY small).

As you can clearly see, Carder was not happy with that, either.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with getting any closer to that strange man in the red suit with the fake beard.

 

In the end, Carder accepted his Candy Cane and gave Santa "5".  Sometimes you take the best you can get.  We determined that we would forgo any other attempts to see Santa this year as this seemed to be enough torture for one holiday season.

 

*  He had also begun coughing a little bit.  It turned out that he was at the beginning of a very nasty cold/virus and probably wasn't feeling too well today.

Christmas 2011

For years, I have dreamed about our first Christmas with a baby.  There were so many things that I was looking forward to - the first Christmas card we would send with our little bundle of joy plastered on the front, the look of excitement in the baby's eyes as he/she looked at the sparkling lights on the Christmas tree, hanging the "Baby's First Christmas" Ornaments, the excitement of Christmas morning...I was so excited that after years of hoping, we would finally be getting to experience our first Christmas as a family.

As Christmas neared, things were looking great.  We had a photo shoot for our Christmas card where I got lots of wonderful pictures (I think I took about 150!).  You may notice that in the background of the pictures on the tree, there is a snowflake ornament.  Yes, I planned it this way.  Since I couldn't pick a favorite to use on the card, we used a collage of several of them.  The card turned out wonderfully and I got them mailed out on time.  Here are a few for your enjoyment:

Around the time that I printed the Christmas cards, I realized that there was actually 1 week less before Christmas than I thought there was.  YIKES!!!  So, I had to ramp things up a notch to get everything ready.

Our plan for Christmases in the future is to spend Christmas morning in our own home so that Carder can open his presents and will know that Santa will know just where to find him.  However, since he wouldn't remember this Christmas, I told Derek that we could go to his parents home to spend the holiday with them, his sister, and his grandfather.  So, we were going to open our presents at home on Christmas Eve morning and then would head down south a couple of hours to his parents home.

But, in keeping with the spirit of this year, nothing went according to plan.

About 2 weeks before Christmas, Carder caught another cold.  This, in itself, wasn't a problem.  He was a bit miserable but wasn't running a fever and seemed to be in fairly good spirits.  Derek caught the cold and had sinus issues and a sore throat for a few days.  I caught the cold and had a sore throat and a terrible cough.  But we were prepared to power through it.

On December 23, Carder took a turn for the worse and spiked a fever.  He gagged during a coughing fit and threw up.  I wasn't too concerned with the fever until it reached over 102 and then he threw up again - this time without the coughing.  Since the Pediatrician's office was already closed for the Holiday, I was told to take him to Urgent Care.  At Urgent Care, they checked his O2 levels and were concerned that it wasn't over 94%.  So, an X-ray ruled out pneumonia and a breathing treatment was given in an effort to increase his O2 level.  When it didn't work, they decided to send us to the ER.  I was pretty concerned at this point.

At the ER, his O2 stats were fine (which let me breathe a sigh of relief), but they were concerned that his fever wasn't responding.  An hour after giving the meds, it had risen to almost 103.  So, they gave him an IV and administered fluids and drew blood and got a nasal swab to rule out any really nasty viruses.  Everything checked out fine, so they gave us instructions for Tylenol and Motrin dosing for fever reduction (which is apparently higher than that for pain relief).  Almost 7 hours after the ordeal began, we returned home.  And Carder slept between us for the next several nights - this gave Derek and I both some peace of mind.

So, it was quickly decided that we wouldn't be heading to Derek's parents.  They decided to come to our house.  We have a 3 bedroom home (meaning we only have 1 extra bed) and we had enough company coming that we needed 3 sleeping spaces.  They arrived on Christmas Eve with all of the fixings for Christmas dinner and lots of presents and love for little Carder.  Carder helped us open some of his gifts and was generally the cutest little boy in the world - just with really tired eyes and the tendency to cry and cling to Mommy.

Here are a few pictures of Christmas.

They stayed less than 24 hours and it was nice to have his family there for Christmas, but I swear the place was like National Lampoons Christmas Vacation - down to the huge dog (Sarah has a Great Dane/Black Lab mix) that our little Murfy was bound and determined to out-bark.  So, as nice as it was to see them arrive, it was nice to have the house quiet again as well.  And Carder - even though he felt terrible and kept a fever pretty much the whole time - was a trouper through it all.  Although he ate like absolute shit (I was really concerned that we would have to take him back to the hospital for another IV of fluids.)

By the Monday after Christmas, Carder was still running a fever of over 102, so we took him back to his Ped's office.  By now, he has acquired 2 nasty ears - one that is irritated and the other that is "really angry".  I am not sure if you would consider this a double ear infection, but he is now on an antibiotic and has to follow up with the Ped again on the 16th.

Carder's fever seems to be gone now and he seems to finally be on the mend.  I am so glad that my little man is starting to feel better.

As if this wasn't enough Holiday drama, Christmas evening I gained some new symptoms.  I began running a fever and began to have stomach issues.  Within 24 hours, the worst had passed but I still felt pretty rough through Tuesday evening.  And by Tuesday - Derek had the stomach bug.

As if this saga wasn't long enough, my cold symptoms that had eased up have now returned with a vengeance.  I have a terrible dry, barky cough and I am so tired of being sick...

I am hoping for a healthy New Year...

Merry Christmas to All

I hope that all of you have a safe and happy holiday!  To those of you celebrating Christmas with the child you have always wanted, enjoy seeing the lights from the Christmas tree in your child's eyes and the wonder of the holiday season.  To those of you still waiting for your miracles to arrive, don't give up hope.  Keep asking Santa for what you want.  Some day, some way, you will eventually get your wish.

And to those of you who are finally expecting your own miracles - so many Christmases, I have wished for the same thing that all of you have - a baby.  It seems that, as long as all continues to progress normally, we will be getting our Christmas Wish.  I don't know about you, but I am going to enjoy this Christmas - one where I know that there is a great chance that my stocking will soon be filled with all I ever wished for.

We are supposed to be heading north to visit with my family today.  Snow that has blown in my hamper our ability to cross the mountain that separates us from my parents to spend Christmas with them.  I hope we are able to make it to spend this last Christmas in Georgia with them.

I haven't forgotten to update you all on our first OB visit on Wednesday - between the holidays and the things we need to do to prepare to move out of state, I haven't had a chance to post.  I will try to get to it later today.  I will tell you all that there was nothing but good news.