Christmas Day

Mason was happy and had no fever when he woke up Christmas morning. I knew he was going to be tired from not getting great sleep the last couple of days due to the fever. But there would be windows of happy, play time to be had now that the fever was gone. I kept giving him Advil just in case his ear was still bothering him.

I put him in his Christmas pajamas and gave him a bottle to fuel his play tank. As we headed down the stairs, I think he knew something was different, special about the morning. We were so happy he felt better I may have been a little over the top with the whole Santa came thing. His little eyes were wide in amazement at all the gifts Santa brought him. He kept looking around the tree then looking back at me. I think he would have been excited to play with a rock after two days of doing nothing but crying and sleeping.

 We let him play with his Santa gifts then put him down for a nap. Our day pretty much went play, fuss, eat, nap, repeat. Oh, and of course "A Christmas Story" on repeat on TV. We didn't open his gifts from our family until that evening. He was too cute ripping the paper off the boxes. He liked using his mouth and had to taste test each wrapping paper. I was scared he would be more interested in the boxes so I made sure all Santa's and our gifts were without the box; however, he did really well with playing with the toy and not the box for the gifts from our family.

He went to sleep fairly early that evening. Doug and I made nuggets and tots for dinner and drug our tired behinds to bed. The next day I was dying to get out of the house (over 2 days of not leaving) so Mason and I went to Target and WalMart. It was not crazy like I thought it would be and we had a lot of fun strolling around the store. I think he was happy to see faces other than mine and Doug's. Ha! That night Ryan and Shannon came over to celebrate Christmas with us. Since Mason was so tired from his big day of shopping, we opened gifts first then put him to bed. For dinner I made a chicken and a vegetable casserole. After they left Doug and I had a little but of energy so we finally opened our gifts to each other.

Our Christmas was hectic and completely not the way we expected or wanted to spend it, but that is our life. It wouldn't be us if it went smoothly. I hope we rolled with it as much as we could. No one was killed, went to jail or the hospital, or went missing. So I call that a success. We may have been exhausted but we still made some great memories. Now, lets just hope next year goes a tiny bit smoother. :)

Christmas Eve

Here it was, Christmas Eve. I had a sick baby, an exhausted Mommy & Daddy, and very little Christmas cheer. The day we had been counting down to was here and I felt like it snuck up on me. We barely had time to sit down and enjoy our beautiful Christmas trees or even watch a good Christmas movie. I did play the IHeart Christmas station while Mason and I played for the entire month of December. And now it was all about to be over.

Our first goal for Christmas Eve was to keep Mason happy and feeling good. He slept most of the day so that gave us plenty of time to prep for Christmas day. I dusted the living room, moved furniture to make room for Santa's toys, and swept the floor. Our living room isn't the biggest so I knew some rearranging was required for Mason to be able to play with all his new toys. I decided to keep the living room like that through my parents visit so they could see ALL his toys and play with him by the Christmas tree.

Mason had a few Christmas outfits to wear. I put him in a new one about every other hour as he was going through clothes due to sweat, drool, and spit up. We did LOTS of laundry over the Christmas break. :( For church, I had planned to put him in his cute outfit he wore for the Christmas card pictures but opted for something a little more comfy since he was not feeling well.

Christmas Eve service was pretty much a fiasco. We ran out the door at 10 til 5, thinking we were late. Half way there I double checked the service time and we were half an hour early for the 5:30 service. :) So we went to Royal Farms and got some chicken. Ha! When we finally did make it to church, we realized we left the diaper bag at home. No big deal if Mason wasn't sick but I didn't want to chance it. We had no Advil, burp cloths, diapers, wipes, or anything else. So Doug missed half of the service driving back to the house to get the bag. :(

Once we got home I got in the kitchen. I made potato soup for our Christmas Eve dinner, sausage balls for Christmas day breakfast, and chocolate chip cookies for Santa. I was tired but determined to make the best out of the first Christmas Eve as a family of 4. Unfortunately, Mason's temperature hit 102 so he spent most of the evening screaming. I was sad we didn't get to open up his Christmas Eve gift (pajamas and book), put him in his new Christmas pajamas, and read the Christmas Story to him.

Setting up for Santa was easy since Mason was sick. He didn't care that toys were gathering around the tree and fell asleep early in the evening. We had everything set up by 10 pm except the red wagon my Aunt Sandra got him. We didn't think much of it... wheels, handle, body... couldn't be that hard to put those few pieces together. Yeah, we were wrong. After a bunch of banging, arguing over exactly what the "picture" directions were trying to tell us to do, and THREE hours later we were done. It may not be exactly right but so far no wheels have fallen off.

I was asleep around 1:30 am and up at 2:30 with Mason. We gave him a bottle and more meds and thankfully he fell back to sleep shortly after 3. I prayed he would feel better in the morning so we could enjoy our Christmas day. At 6:30 am he woke up. When I walked in his room he was standing up in his crib, grinning from ear to ear! It was a Christmas miracle! At some point his fever finally broke and he was feeling much better.

Sick Auburn

As most of you read on Facebook, Auburn ate some antimicrobial bead things that go down in a humidifier to keep it clean. We do not know how much she ate but it was enough to make her sick. And since we didn't know when she ate them we didn't know exactly when to take her to the vet. She probably should have gone earlier than when we took her but we got her there quick enough. After a couple of days in the puppy hospital on fluids to flush out her kidneys, her blood and urine tests improved and she was able to come home. And after two weeks her tests came back normal so she had no major damage for the toxins. Unfortunately, her skin allergies came back when we went to her 2 week checkup. So the vet spot buzzed her so they could clean her scabs/sores. Now she looks homeless and mangy. We get to go back in 2 weeks for another follow up to check her skin. Fun!

Laying on the couch before we took her to the vet

All smiles to see us when we visited

Mason was so happy to see her

Patches the dog...

Christmas videos

Sick on Christmas

When you are a parent, there is one phone call you dread the most... the daycare/school. As soon as you see that number on your caller ID, your heart drops to your stomach. So when I was sitting at work, the day before Christmas Eve, and I see the daycare's number on my phone, my heart dropped. Mason had been fussy the past couple of nights but I thought he was teething. I thought he was a bit warm the night before but did not take his temperature because he didn't seem to be sick. So when the daycare called and said he had a fever and we had to come get him, I knew what was causing the fever and fussiness. Those darn ears of his are going to be the death of me. They are silent but deadly. Unlike most kids who get a cold or something first which causes the ear infection, he just goes straight to the ear pain. Thankfully his pediatrician was able to get him in that evening so we could confirm the ear infection and get him on some antibiotics. He was quite pitiful and was not a happy camper. It was very stressful for us with Auburn being sick, then him, trying to get everything ready his first Christmas, and getting the house ready for my parents to visit. But we survived and thankfully he was feeling much better on Christmas morning. We kept giving him Ibuprofen to ensure the fever did not come back and to help him not hurt so he could play with his new toys. He slept most of the day so we waited to open up his presents from us until the next day when he was feeling a bit better. The doctor was happy it was not a double ear infection like the previous two times; however, we are on a fast track to an ENT doctor. Especially since he is getting the ear infection first. The next big life event is his first birthday in April. I predict another ear infection before then and another one on the big day... Just our luck...

Santa came to visit daycare

Mason got a visit from Santa at daycare. He still wasn't 100% sure about him. But we were able to get one good one. The daycare workers were surprised how serious he was. They were like, " Here comes our smiley baby. We will get great smile pictures from him." Yeah we had to work our tales off to get 1. Thankfully 1 is all you need!

Christmas Card Picture Outtakes

We are lucky to know a very talented photographer; however, with a dog, baby, and Navy game we got plenty of outtakes. As much as I love the good family shots we got (everyone looking at the camera and at least semi smiling), the ones in between are too good not to share.


Mason was ready for pictures, Auburn was ready to get the hell out of there!

Auburn looks at people walking by, Mason looks at Auburn...

And this is the reason why she will not get within reaching distance of him...

"You want me to do what in this box?"

Trying to get Mason to wake up and smile

"Squirrel!"

"I am not to sure about this, Mom."

Yeah, maybe not. 

Ready to hit the road