December Daily 16-19

Uh oh, I got way behind! We've been so, SO busy! Aeson ended up finally getting better by Friday. Thursday was the cookie exchange I was participating in, so I had lots of baking to do Wednesday night. One of my friends stopped by to get the cookies I made (monster cookies) and she also took Westen with, so he could play with his "best friend" at the friend's house they were meeting at. It was a nice day with just Aeson here, but I think he gets bored without other kids around (his brother especially) and he still wasn't acting back to his usual self that day. We got all sorts of cookies brought back to us.. lemon drop sugar cookies, peanut butter chocolate pinwheels, cream de mint squares, double chocolate cranberry cookies, and cherry snowballs. I also made up a couple of containers of the same goodies I'd made Westen's teacher for the couple of friends I meet with weekly.

Friday was Westen's Advent program at school. He had lots of family there! Grandma Martha, Grandpa Dave, Grandpa Jim, Grandma Christy, Uncle Eddie, cousin Bentley, Great-Grandma Jalane, cousin Kasey, and the 3 of us of course! It was really cute and afterwards they had cookies in the gym and Santa came to visit. Westen loved running around with his classmates! Aeson tried to too. :)

Saturday, we had Uncle Eddie's college graduation in the morning and then went to lunch with everyone. I had both kids by myself, since Eric had to work, and it actually wasn't too bad. Aeson was really well behaved at the graduation and ended up falling asleep toward the end of it. Westen went with Grandpa Jim afterwards to get a happy meal but then met us at Aurelio's. He had a blast playing in the kids room, and Aeson was even well-behaved in his highchair-- which is a rarity! We came home for naps and then had cousin Addy's first birthday party. We had a good time there too. Doesn't seem possible she could be a year old already! We had soup and cake and she got lots of girly gifts. We only have one other child in the family that's female and that's on my side. I didn't realize how used to boy things I am! We got Addy a cute pink outfit, a musical vacuum, and a wooden peg/hammer set. We have one of the peg sets at our house & she's always loved it.

Today, we spent most of the day cleaning house, wrapping presents, and finishing up shopping. We finally picked up the boys' big gift. Our cable isn't working on one tv (HATE Comcast!), so we ended up giving Westen one of his gifts early.. It's all four Home Alone's on dvd. :) He was pretty excited. Aeson actually went to bed early tonight on Daddy, so I've had some free time! I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away... I'm going to be sad when it's over! But.. then we'll have a birthday party to plan!

December Daily 13, 14, & 15: Baking & Illness

I don't know if I can even remember the past few days! I'm so sleep deprived! Aeson's sleep has continued to be HORRIBLE, actually getting worse each night. The antibiotic he was on caused a horrible diaper rash, and he was in so much pain I ended up calling the doctor last night. She said not to give him his nightly dose (thank GOODNESS) & to bring him in in the morning. Thankfully, I had my sister to come over to watch the daycare kids this morning so I could take him. His fever has pretty much been between 101 & 103, but last night it even got up to 104.1. Yikes. We'd tried everything too.. giving him probiotics in the cup, all sorts of ointments and creams on his butt, warm baths like they said (even THAT hurt), elevating his head, etc, etc. Anyway, his ears were clear this morning, so we're not even sure he had an ear infection. :-/ He looked good overall, but she was concerned about the ongoing fever & it not getting better.. So she sent us over for a CBC & blood culture. I was so nervous & hated going by myself! :( Thankfully once again, we got the same girl we got last time and she is awesome. They did have to actually take his blood from a vein, rather than a finger stick like usual. It took them a while to find one, but once they did, they got it the first stick & got plenty of blood. I hate that he's had to go through so much so young! The doctor called this afternoon & the bloodwork looked good so far. She's pretty sure it's a viral infection, but she just doesn't know what it is.

Aeson did say "doctor" and "uh oh" for the first time today. He's picking up words like crazy. Some of the others I forgot the other day were... Batman, backpack, brother, nose, kiss, ball, and I'm sure there's still others. He copies all the animal noises & knows what all ours are. He signs everything I know now.. hungry, all done, milk, bath, please, thank you, more. I need to learn help and again. We've been watching The Sing Off on tv & he immediately starts dancing to the music. It is too cute! I need to get it on video. :)

I forgot to write that on Sunday we cleaned out ALL our toys! We threw away sooo much and put two totes of toys downstairs.

I can't remember Monday at all. Tuesday, I did a bunch of baking for Westen's teachers. We gave them a container full of goodies & Westen made them each a card. He drew a spider on one and a turtle dove on the other. I wish I'd taken pictures now, because the drawings were so good. I did a bunch more baking tonight. There's a cookie exchange tomorrow.. I'm going to have to miss it now since Acey's contagious, but one of my friends is going to stop by to get mine. I also made each of those friends a container of goodies tonight. I made the monster cookies, of course, turtles, peanut butter fudge, and almond bark pretzels. I've eaten way too many sweets the past couple days!

December Daily: 10,11,&12 Busy Weekend!

We've been so busy this weekend I haven't had time to write each night! So let's see how much I can remember...

On Friday, Westen took his last angel gift to school and received his last one, which was a giant colored picture of Spiderman. It was gorgeous weather out.. almost 50 degrees! We went to Quincy that night and went to the Avenue of Lights. We let Aeson ride around it on Daddy's lap & he was actually much more interested than we thought he'd be. I think the tunnels of lights made him a little nervous, though! Westen loved the dinosaurs and everything really. It was pretty cool!

Saturday, we made Christmas (sugar) cookies. We made all sorts of different shapes, put green icing on them, and decorated some. We finally, finally, finally got two more stockings and now have all four up! Westen hadn't wanted to choose one when Eric and I did, so we just chose ours & decided to wait on theirs. We never found any better that we liked and this time when we went, Westen really liked one of them- thank goodness! We watched the first Narnia that night, which we'd never seen before. I thought it was pretty good, but it was too long for us! We all fell asleep before it was over.

We had a pretty rough night last night and ended up taking Aeson in today to see the doctor. He has lots of fluid in both ears and was prescribed an antibiotic. :( I'm just thankful we got the antibiotic started today.. I think the infection's been a long time coming. He's had some congestion for weeks now and has been pretty fussy most of the week and holding his ear in the morning.. and then last night brought the fever.

Aeson wore his new Patriots shirt for the football game today, and we watched it with my sister and her family. Tonight, we made monster cookies. Holy cow, I didn't realize the recipe made SO much! We'll have dough for a year! We froze a whole bunch of it, rolled the ones up for the cookie exchange later this week, and baked some.

Now it's late, and we need to get to bed!

December Daily 9: Playdough

Timmy found a good hiding spot today.. He was up on one of our wall hangings. Our house is not that big, and I feel like we're running out of spots for him already! We're going to have to get more creative! We had a play date this morning with my friends Sasha & Courtney and their kids. The house was completely full of boys (6 of them!), with the exception of Addy, so it was pretty crazy! It was nice being with old friends! Sasha had a cookie idea for the cookie exchange I'm participating in next week, so I can't wait to try them! They're called Monster Cookies, and they sound so good! (But HORRIBLE for you!) I got some more Christmas shopping done this evening. I was able to get Westen finished, because he went with Grandma Sandy again. I think now all I have to do is gift certificates and stocking stuffers! We all made gingerbread playdough tonight. We made double, so Westen could have some and still have some for his angel tomorrow.

Aeson's learning so much these days.. He knows how to smell, and he knows where his eyes and hair are now. The words that he can say (that I can understand) include... yeah, no, all done, oh my, dada and mama of course, cracker, cookie, hat, hot, thank you, kitty, ni night, and Addy. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of them! I've been meaning to write them down as I heard them and keep forgetting. He's known where his nose and tongue are for a long time. He's just growing up too fast!

December Daily 8: Laid back

Today was a pretty laid back day here. Timmy was found in the spice rack. We got the gingerbread puzzle ready for Westen to take to school. He got an ornament with his name on it for his gift today. Christmas presents came in the mail. I had some yummy peppermint mocha creamer in my coffee. Oh, and we got lots of Christmas cards in the mail today! I wish it was like this all year round. It's such a nice time of the year. Westen brought home a homemade invitation for the advent program and he (of course!) drew a bat in it! He's been writing in block letters too for some reason. Aeson's saying several two word phrases now. Today's new one was "all done" (while signing). I actually got all excited about it but then realized he's been saying "oh my" and "thank you" too.. I don't know why I hadn't realized it before! Our poor Christmas tree is in shambles. The bottom half of the lights are out (probably from Aeson messing with it...) and all of the ornaments have been moved up to the top half (from the babies messing with them). I'm not even going to ATTEMPT putting gifts under it this year! Not until Christmas Eve anyway. :)

December Daily 7: Gingerbread

Mr. Timmy was sitting on top of our cupboards this morning. Westen actually found him right away this morning. As soon as he stirs, Westen gets RIGHT up and says "Dad, will you help me find that little guy?" The first couple days I think it was actually causing him to get less sleep because he got up earlier than usual! Our day today was all about gingerbread. We made the dough this morning. I'd never made it and I was a little worried because it seemed kind of dry, but after letting it sit for a few hours, it was perfect. We rolled it out and cut different shapes. Westen didn't want to do only gingerbread men. We made a puzzle out of the dough too, for Westen's advent gift tomorrow. We shaped the dough into a rectangle, then cut it after it was cooked into different puzzle pieces, then put it all back together and decorated it with icing. Westen wanted to make a snowman on there, so we did.. Then I thought to make clouds and Westen thought to make snow on the bottom and snow falling! He's so creative. Earlier today, he woke Aeson up from his nap accidentally and as Aeson was very, very tired, I told Westen I wasn't very happy that he woke him up... So he went in his bedroom and came out a little later with a butterfly he had made for me. He told me he made it because he didn't want me to not be happy! :) He's so sweet. Poor Aeson's been exhausted all day! Anyway, we decorated our cookies tonight and tried to make a gingerbread house, but nobody ever told me how hard that was! I haven't made one since I was a kid, and this one was a total failure! At least everything else turned out! Tonight, we've been watching Home Alone 2. Westen thinks it is hilarious! It's so strange to have your kids watching movies you watched as a kid!

December Daily 6: Snowglobes

Timmy made it into the bathroom today. Eric said that was creepy lol! We finished our snowglobes this morning, and Westen loved them. Saint Nicholas visited him at school and he came home with a cute little snowman he'd gotten for a gift. He said his angel LOVED his snowglobe and said "Oh thank you so much, Westen!" :) Westen drew lots of pictures today, as he always does.. but he drew one of a beautiful Christmas tree. Tonight, we had our last music class. It is SO cold out here! ...not below zero yet, though!