Farewell 2007

What a crazy year this was. I'm not usually one to get all retrospective at New Year's, I'm more of a "look forward" kind of gal, but I am throwing caution to the wind this year.

Jack turned 1, I lost my job, I got pregnant, we started SnarkyBabies, Josh started a new project in Michigan, I got morning sickness, I stayed sick for the like the whole entire summer, I had a preventative cerclage placed, Josh was off the project in Michigan, we went to France, I was in the hospital with the flu and then it was the holidays. Look at that, 2007 summed up in less than 75 words.

As we get ready to usher in 2008, however, I find myself pretty excited. When people ask if I am excited about the baby coming, I usually reply, "No. I am terrified."

But truth be told, there is a little glimmer of excitement in there too. I can't wait to push her out and have her here and see Jack's face when he meets her. I think things will be all right, after a little adjustment period, and I am confident I will be able to handle motherhood squared.

So goodbye 2007, hello 2008!

Merry Christmas

I know it's only two days late, but Merry Christmas to everyone! Jack enjoyed the holidays in Peoria, Chicago and Milwaukee and hauled home an insane amount of loot.


Mom, I know it's Christmas but I haven't even had my coffee yet.

Hope you all had a delightful Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Ho ho NO!

We saw Tanta last week (that's Santa to all you non-Jack speakers) and, well, I will just let these pictures speak for themselves.


Daddy, that is so fake. That is not a real tree. I am not an idiot.


Oh boy, this is great! They have singing bears!


Pay no attention to the sign directing children not to sit on the exhibit.


Since when do elves wear sequined hats? I guess since Marshall Fields switched to Macy's. Lame.


Well howdy Santa. I have heard lots about you.


NO! What the hell is this? Get me outta here. I am turning to jelly and slithering out of his arms, that should work.


I'll just be over here, keeping my distance.


Check out this stuffed dog, Santa. I will show it to you.


What the hell is this? I said NO. Get away Mommy. You suck.


I don't want any presents. Leave me alone!

Double your pleasure

The doctor found not a single, but a double ear infection in Jack this morning. You could have knocked me over with that diagnosis. He wasn't pulling on his ears, he wasn't screaming in the middle of the night.

He woke at 8:45 this morning -- a sure tipoff he is ill -- and I am pretty sure it is the sickest I have ever seen this poor little boy. He was lethargic and coughed all night and his nose was running a disgusting amount and he just looked sick. Poor kid was up every hour during the night and I just felt so bad for him.

Thankfully we got in this morning and we were on our merry way with prescriptions for a once-a-day antibiotic and ear drops in no time at all. As an aside, how awesome is a one-dose-per-day medicine? No remembering the doses, no waking a sleeping child, no coercing them to swallow several times per day. I think all medication should henceforth be dispensed in this manner.

Anyway.

Doc says Jack should be back to normal in 48 hours and I am thrilled it's something non-communicable to the pregnant Mommy. Although I am sure I will find a way to catch an ear infection.

Fever update

Here we are in hour 60 of the Great Fever of 2007, and Jack's temperature was a solid 101 degrees before bedtime. That was down from a rousing high of 103.5 this afternoon. During the middle of the night, one of the 25 times he woke up crying, he was so hot to the touch I didn't even take his temperature because I didn't want to know what it was.

So there you have it.

My pediatrician wants to see kids who run a fever of 100.4 or higher for 72 hours, so methinks we'll be in the waiting room tomorrow afternoon. I don't know if there's anything they can do for him, but I really don't want to take a chance either. That's what co-pays are for!

The coughing continues unabated and his nose is running like a faucet and he was crabbier than all get out for most of the day. That's my favorite part. The whining and the shorter-than-normal attention span.

Again, I thank the God of The Sickies that this is happening now and not, oh, say, Monday afternoon. But could we please just have one week -- one measly week -- where someone in this three-person family is not sick? Apparently, too much to ask.

You give me fever

I was going to post about our visit to Santa last Friday or perhaps about being 34 weeks pregnant and hitting a wall and just wanting to sleep all day in one position so I don't have to actually turn over in bed or bend down.

Oh but then Jack came down with a fever and a cough and of course, there's no material like a sick child to just increase that readership.

Yesterday when I left for tea with my friends (I know! Tea! At The Drake, like I am all fancy-pants!) he was napping and fine. When Josh and Jack picked me up from tea, Jack sounded like he might be a little sick, that or he smoked a pack of Marbs and washed it down with some Jim Beam. Hard to tell.

We are visiting in Peoria this week and by the time we got here, it was 9:45 p.m. and my child was still awake. Awake with an odd little cough. Not anything major, but it sounded like what the doctor likes to call a "productive" cough, with a little phlegm in there.

Seriously, if you want to remove this blog from your favorites right now, I would not blame you. Who blogs about phlegm? Not to mention the posts that should be coming right up in the ensuing weeks about mucus plugs and placentas.

This morning, after a brief wakeup around 6 o'ungodlyclock, he slept in until 9:30 a.m.! I would chalk it up to the late bedtime, but I have to attribute it to the sickies now. Because shortly before lunch, I took his temperature and it was up to 100.5 and he seemed not himself.

Of course this did not stop me from taking him out to get new shoes. In my bad-Mommy defense, he has a blister on his big toe and the shoe situation has reached a critical stage. We also stopped at Panera, but he did eat soup, so I am chalking that one up to health benefits.

Before bathtime tonight, he was a whopping 102.5 and we dosed him with the Motrin again and put him to bed with a vaporizer, where he proceded to fall immediately asleep. Again, NOT NORMAL was flashing in neon lights on the door to the bedoom.

So we wait out the sickies and I give a silent thanks for this not being next Monday. Because I hear Santa passes by the chimneys that are marked "quarantine."

What's on your iPod

This afternoon, I drove to AND from the grocery store, singing along to Raffi. When I pulled into the driveway, it dawned on me that my child was not in the car and I could have listened to normal music.