Obligatory Christmas Photo
It has been one year since we took a photo as a family. Where that year went, I couldn’t tell you, but I think it’s wrapped up over there in the archives. Feel free to go back and do some reading if you’d like. I’m guessing the highlights would’ve included purchasing our first house, Ronke visiting in March, visiting family and friends on the east coast (especially seeing Allison’s incredible new work), one broken arm and an upcoming baby, but I never got around to writing the Christmas update letter, or sending Christmas cards or doing much of anything but survive. It was a busy holiday season and I have never been so happy to have the days behind me. The actual Christmas celebration was actually quite relaxing but the build up to get there and all of the hype ahead of time has officially demanded nearly every shred of my sanity. The rest of it will be stolen by some new toys Gideon received. Nothing says we’ve all lost our minds like not having a volume button when 80s video game music is involved! New years resolution for 2009: to not break my child’s toys or run shrieking from the house. Hey, I like to dream big.
Right before he attempted to jump out of our arms...
Lend Him Your Ear
Aren’t we supposed to avoid ear infections when there are tubes in there? Hmm. Not so much. The iodine colored goo flowing out of his ear was the first real clue we had. In spite of the seven days of antibiotics now, the thick nasty goo has changed to evergreen muck. There’s nothing quite as awesome as your kid batting at his ears for a week and not making much progress against the bacteria festering in his head. Time to call the doctor again.
On the upside of life, some wonderful friends of ours handed down three cool trucks to Gideon. We wrapped them up along with a few other things that they’d handed down to us and called it Christmas. Gideon is in LOVE with the trucks and books. He’s over the moon for trucks so when he got a fourth one yesterday from Jud’s parents we weren’t surprised when he didn’t want to put it down. Thanks for all the great gifts grandparents, relatives and friends! He is beyond joy.
Computer from Aunt Ronke
He calls them Elba and Chuchi
Wednesday, For Real?
On Sunday night I made Jud promise me that I would make two phone calls the next day. It is now late Wednesday afternoon and the phone calls were attempted (Rebecca will love the excuse for the second one — it’s long distance and my cell phone? MIA. Also, dead battery, so finding it will be a delightful challenge. But, hey! What else is new).
Monday morning dawned crisp (and I mean that with every freezing beat of my heart) and bright. I grabbed a quick shower while I waited for Gideon to get up. And waited. And waited. He slept in and of course this was the day I needed to get a head start on shopping at Sams Club with someone else there to aide me in purchasing and here he is, lazily sleeping in. I am not complaining, just proving that joys of life are often wrapped in some kind of bitter paper. He finally woke up, stunk up his room and then ate a waffle. My shopping partner had arrived about the time he started making little noises in his room, so the timing wasn’t too off. We shielded him from the subzero temperatures with heavily thermal clothing, coat, gloves, hat and a blanket thrown over his head. My face burned in the wind as we made our way to the door. I tried to remember that people live in places north of here, but I couldn’t remember what could possess them do such a thing.
Shopping lasted late into the morning as we hit up another store where Gideon ate his weight in samples and I got dizzy from low blood sugar and dehydration. Thankfully they have a little deli there where I gobbled a piece of pizza to stave off the coma. Over to my parents house then to drop off the food and feed Gideon lunch. We stayed over there that night as I was preparing food late into the evening, with my mom’s help, for the party we were throwing the next day. Here’s the menu we’d prepared:
Appetizers: Crab dip, Spinach dip, Summer Sausage & Cheese Platter – all served with crackers
Salad: Greens, Cabbage, Carrots, French Fried Onions and dressings
Main Course: Coca-cola Ham, Rosemary Potatoes and Onions, Cranberries, Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin and Dinner Rolls (courtesy of Pillsbury, from the frozen section. Hey, I’m no good with yeast)
Dessert: Brownie Heath Trifle and Cream Puffs with a blackberry/raspberry reduction
So you know, just keeping it simple, and choosing dishes that we’re mainly just prep and bake kept things from getting too nutso in the kitchen day of. Or, at least, that’s how we planned it to be. A little after 10 pm, having assembled the trifle and boiled the cauliflower, Gideon woke up coughing. The kind of coughing that sounds like you are dying. The kind of coughing that I was sure was whooping cough. You know, that super contagious childhood disease that requires everyone in the family to take antibiotics and pretty much quarantine yourselves. Yes, that one. Excellent. And nerve wracking. We packed him up and bundled him up and drove to the ER.
Inside he refused to wear the mask, even after Jud put one on himself to show him how awesome they are (which is to say, totally awesome). He wanted none of that. He would, however, like to play with all of the disease ridden toys in the waiting room, especially the wire ones with the little beads that you know have not been this side of sanitary in years and now your kid is going to only add to the live specimen). Things were mercifully slow there and we were next. Right inside the door and we are next! Who could ask for more?
They took his vitals and he started coughing. The nurse heard it and immediately diagnosed him with croup. She was incredibly reassuring and very sweet about it not being pertussis. My nerves dialed down about a billion (nothing like planning a meal for 16 people and then telling them the day of that no one is going to be eating that food due to infectious disease). They gave him a breathing treatment and a steroid and told us that cold air is the very best thing for coup. I had no idea, but look! It is freezing here. Freezing! Beyond cold! We have plenty of cold air. Hurray! It’s just viral so there’s no meds or anything and he will be fine and all of that. We will stop pumping heated air into his room at night and keep his cool mist humidifier pumping on high instead of low. He’s a snotty, coughing mess today, but he’s a total trooper in spite of his stuffy head.
The meal went fine last night. The food was good, I thought. The game Jud had us play, fun. And the best part is that it is one more holiday event crossed off of my to-do list. I know Christmas is supposed to be all carols and laughter and misty-eyed wonder but this year, as with the last Christmas of pregnancy, I am just feeling overwhelmed by the scheduling of it all. At least I have the presents to the east coast in the mail and UPS tracking numbers to make sure they get there. And, soon it will be Christmas day….
Read MoreTuesdays with Daddy
Every Tuesday at 11:15, I pack up Gideon and drive out to Jud’s work where we wait for him in the parking lot. He’s usually very prompt, but I am often early (see military upbringing and file under half crazy) so we read stories about counting and letters and animals while we wait. On our way out there, I typically stop off at the bread store to buy a loaf for seventy cents. Gideon is always given a hard roll for free from the ladies who work there. That roll is so much like the brotchen of my past that I always sneak a bite. Thankfully the bread does wonders to keep him content while we wait and I am never so thankful for carbs as on Tuesdays at 11:40ish.
Today we are not stopping by the bread store since I picked up a loaf at Aldi yesterday. The meteorologists around here had been making all sorts of noise about an impending snow storm that was supposed to hit this morning and I’d really thought that we might be skipping lunch with dad today. Of course, the roads are dry and the grass is still visible and none of the outside Christmas lights will look better under a blanket of snow tonight. Instead, we’ll brave the crazy wind and 23 degree high temperature and head out west for lunch without the brotchen.
In the meantime, we’ll be singing our ABCs like this [Gideon currently only sings A, B, C …L, M, N, O, P and then follows it up with some odd clicking noises, but I totally go for it].
Read MoreMedia for You
There are new videos up here of Gideon.
And the flickr account was updated too.
I know, it’s like I’m on top of it or something.
Good thing you cannot see the room in which I am typing this. You might mistakenly believe that there was a horrible struggle involving at least three people (if you counted the shoes that are scattered about, including the one that is on the coffee table), one of whom thought that the valuables we’re stashed at the bottom of the toy basket as it’s contents have been dumped out and then rifled through with haste.
I knew this would be a tough week since the past one was so great. Gideon loves to have your attention. In fact, he loves your undivided attention and with everyone off of work last week, he had lots of captive audience members to entertain. That translated into one of the best weeks of his life. This week, I have still had to use the bathroom and clean up the dishes from lunch and dress myself and all of these things have left him without an immediate companion to amuse or tackle.
To express his dislike of the situation, he makes this whiny screechy crying noise that is like acid in my mouth. I’ve been putting him in his crib until he calms down (which can take a very long time) because calling the gypsies still seems a little rash. Once he’s calmed down, he is all loves and hugs and plays so nicely again for a few hours, or until I have to answer the phone. I’m just hoping that the new baby will be more of the companion for him to entertain and less of the distraction over which to melt down. We shall see.
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