Their Season Is Over

Even though the playoffs start soon, the two teams we root for in this house are done. On Sunday, we had to put the boys in their jerseys for the last day of the regular season.

My family had sent them Bears outfits for Christmas and felt this was the perfect opportunity for them to wear them. Our other team, the Patriots, is out as well, even though they had an 11-5 season. Well, there is always next year. I hope everyone else’s teams are doing well and I wish them the best in the playoffs!

It's A Jolly Holiday

We had a good time together. We didn’t travel anywhere this year, which is unusual for us. Pretty much every year, in the almost 10 years since we have been married, we have traveled somewhere for holidays. Since Thing 1 was born, we tried to switch off, Thanksgiving with the in-laws, Christmas with my family and then the next year we would switch it around. This year, with Thing 2 being born, and having to travel to Illinois twice – once for a friend’s wedding and once for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary – there was no money to be had for traveling for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I didn’t mind it much but it bothered The Mr. I am used to staying home for holidays. When I was growing up, we always stayed home and if people wanted to come visit us, that was great but we weren’t going to travel anywhere. The Mr., on the other hand, is used to being around tons of family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I actually enjoyed being able to relax at home instead of spending time in a crowded airport, running from one gate to another, hoping to arrive at my destination on time.

Anyway, the boys seemed to enjoy themselves and even though we didn’t have tons of people around, it was still chaotic when it came to present opening time. Thing 2 had a great first Christmas. He particularly enjoyed the wrapping paper. Thing 1 got the one gift he was begging for all season, an umbrella, as well as many other gifts that were pretty much surrounding superheroes (Spiderman and The Hulk to be exact).
I hope everyone had a great holiday and that you get to relax before going back to your normal daily activities. Merry Christmas!!

Recovering

Thing 2 had surgery this morning due to being born with chordee. We were supposed to be scheduled for the 1st surgery of the day as he is so young but someone scheduled a baby who is 1 month younger, so we ended up with the second surgery spot. The Mr. woke Thing 2 up at 11pm so that he could have one last bottle before midnight. I was concerned that Thing 2 would be cranky and crying due to hunger this morning as he is used to eating at 6am every day. He ended up being fine. No crying whatsoever.

When we arrived at the hospital at 7:15 for an 8:50 surgery time, we found that the first child that was scheduled never showed up. All of the staff must have been quite upset about this as we heard about it from everyone, even the desk staff. I was also quite upset about it as I was originally promised the first surgery spot. I told them that they could have called us and we would have been in sooner. I even called the office yesterday to voice my upsettedness (is that even a word?) at being bumped to the second surgery spot!

Anyway, since the first appointment didn't come in, they were quicker to get Thing 2 into surgery. The Mr. even went back to the operating room as they were putting Thing 2 to sleep. About 1 hour after The Mr. arrived back to the waiting area, the doctor came to tell us that Thing 2 was out of surgery, everything went well, and one parent was allowed to go and see him. Again, I had The Mr. go back. I'm not very good with these things. I learned that when I went through this same surgery with Thing 1. I would have been a wreck and not much of a caring parent to Thing 2. I did go back in the recovery area about a 1/2 an hour after The Mr. did. Thing 2 was doing well. He was very gassy and grumpy but recovering nicely. By 10:15 we were on our way back home.

Thing 2 has been doing well at home. He slept away the morning but woke up to have some Tylenol, formula, and oatmeal and then played for a little while before going back down for another nap. He has also had quite a bit of apple juice. Normally, I wouldn't give him the apple juice but he needs to have the fluids and the apple juice will also give him sugar (& doesn't go bad within an hour!). Tomorrow he will probably be back on to his normal eating pattern.

There has been a lot of differences between this surgery for Thing 2 and the one we went through with Thing 1. The surgeries were slightly different but the atmosphere and the friendliness of the hospital staff was so much different. Thing 1 had his surgery at Hartford Hospital, which is a good hospital, but the atmosphere sucked. We were put into a waiting room with other parents whose children were having surgery and we were not allowed to leave the area for more than 15 minutes at a time. (And let me tell you, it took almost 15 minutes to find the cafeteria). This hospital was much more comfortable and welcoming. We could leave to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat and come back to the waiting room without having to check in and out with hospital staff. We were given a pager so that if the staff needed us they could page us back to the desk. The nurses were very friendly and helpful as were the doctor and anesthesiologist. We couldn't have asked for better care.

It was still difficult to sit in the waiting room while my baby was in surgery but the atmosphere made it so much easier. I also knew my limits and didn't try to push myself to do something that would make me breakdown in tears. Occasionally I felt that maybe I wasn't being a good mother because I didn't sit with my child while he was drifting off to sleep before surgery or because I didn't go back to the recovery area first. I know, though, that I would have just gotten very emotional and wouldn't have been much help to my child. I am much better off when he has recovered a little (even if only a half an hour) and has calmed down. This way I can be the parent that he needs.

8 Months

Thing 2 is 8 months old today. This past month he has gained a tooth and another one is starting to come in as of today. Thing 2 has started rough housing with his older brother. While in his walker, he will run towards Thing 1 and then block him in somewhere. Thing 1 will start playing with him while Thing 2 starts pulling Thing 1's hair and trying to chew on him! I didn't realize that rough housing would start so early! I know I'm in trouble now! He has also started eating more types of foods, including pasta. He really enjoys eating the same foods that he sees mommy, daddy, and his big brother eat. Here's a picture taken last week of Thing 2 eating something new.

I didn't realize that he would start on pizza so young. He actually took bites off of the piece of pizza, chewed it up, and swallowed it. He enjoyed it so much that he kept coming back for more!

The Best Part Of My Day

Naptime.

Sitting with Santa

We took the boys for pizza with Santa at our church today. At first I thought we weren't even going to leave the house as Thing 1 was having some difficulties. He was very whiny and wasn't listening, even when we told him to put his coat on. We did decide to continue with our plan to have pizza with Santa, which I think in the end was a good decision. They had lots of craft projects for the kids to do while waiting for the pizza and Santa to arrive. Thing 1 did 3 craft projects while we were there and actually completed one all on his own. He was polite and cooperative the entire time we were there. The only thing he wasn't too sure about was Santa (which required me to sit in on the picture).

Oh, and Thing 2 was much more interested in the lights on the tree next to him than in the guy in the red suit.

**We also noticed after we sat back down at one of the craft tables, that Thing 2 had a handful of Santa's beard in his hand!

Finally

We have had some difficult couple of weeks with Thing 2. He has been teething for what seems like months. Each day recently he has gotten crankier and crankier. He is normally a sweet, laid back boy, but trying to get those teeth to come in really has him in a bad mood. He has been crying and whining a lot. Nothing seemed to make it better. It had even been disrupting his sleep.

Well, yesterday when I picked him up from daycare, one of his teachers informed me that a tooth was finally starting to emerge. I looked in his mouth and found that a tooth has cut through the gums. It has not come up enough to really see it or even feel it but he does have a split in the bottom gums. I am excited that he is finally getting teeth. I am hoping that it will make him less cranky and more like himself!

Thanksgiving To Christmas In One Weekend

We had a pretty quiet Thanksgiving. We didn't travel anywhere or see any extended family. We did get to spend a lot of time together, just the 4 of us. It was nice. There is so much hustle and bustle of a regular week, that we don't get to stop and actually spend time together. The Mr. arrived home from his business trip on Wednesday evening on schedule, which was a huge relief for me. I was afraid he would be stuck in Utah and I would be taking care of 2 kids by myself on Thanksgiving! On Thanksgiving morning, The Mr. took care of getting the kids breakfast and allowed me to sleep in (which means I was up around 7:30am. It's amazing how the meaning of sleeping in changes once kids are around to wake you up!). Thing 1 'helped' The Mr. with the turkey.

As the turkey was cooking and The Mr. prepared the sides, we watched various holiday movies together. I think we actually watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving a couple of times.

Thing 2 was able to eat certain Thanksgiving foods for his first Thanksgiving. I think he had more fun playing in the food than actually eating it. We had to give him a bath afterwards as he had mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce in his hair.

Our afternoon was pretty relaxing. Both boys took a nap, which was wonderful. The Mr. and I cleaned up the dishes and then just relaxed. The evening was pretty uneventful. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred. It was just really nice to spend some quality time together.

Friday we did go to Target in the morning to do a little shopping but mostly stayed away from the crowded shopping centers.

Saturday was the day we spent putting up our Christmas tree. Thing 1 really enjoyed helping and was very excited to put all the ornaments on the tree. He wanted to put all of the ornaments on the same few branches so we had to keep reminding him to spread them out all over the tree. Thing 2 slept through the decorating but really seemed to enjoy the lights when he woke up.