The Cold Days of Winter December 19, 2007

The last week-and-a-half we’ve been battling a nasty cold at our house. Last monday night Fiona started getting super stuffed up and then the fun began. She was up ALL night long – thank god my mom was there at the house too since greg was still in Asia and I was feeling sick as well. Grandma stepped in and took fi from around 3a.m. on so that i could get some sleep. Poor little girl. She woke up with her eye totally glued shut so we took off for the pediatrician and got some eye drops. Luckily there was no ear infection. After about two days of it she finally decided that the snot-sucker isn’t as bad as she makes it out to be and will actually let us suck some snot from her nose (for a bit) we have a fancy-dancy battery powered snot sucker that you just hold up to her nose and push a button and it “vacuums” it out….amazing! I highly recommend it since the silly little blue ball they give you in the hospital is useless for anything other then a really fun toy!

For the most part Fiona is over her cold now…she still has a pretty snotty nose – which she LOVES to lick – but she can breathe through it now, which means she can finally suck her thumb, which means she can SLEEP, which means I CAN SLEEP.

She had been doing so good with sleep up until she got sick and then of course it all went out the window…which i know to expect but it’s scary because I wonder if it will come back to the way it was (last night was a GOOD night!) Saturday night she got up around 11p.m. and wouldn’t let us put her back down until almost 2. She would sleep in our arms but the minute she hit the mattress she started to cry again (and she immediately stands up) We let her cry for a while- because how do you know? How do you know if she still feels poopy or if she just got used to being held so much while she was sick- Greg is home now though and has jet lag so he got up with her and rocked her in the chair so i could sleep for a couple of hours then i nursed her and back to bed she went. (she will finally let him hold her and rock her which is really nice…and since it’s new to him he’s happy to do it in the middle of the night! =) Maybe she was just hungry? She hadn’t been eating a lot since she was sick and she can’t nurse too much from me anymore because i just don’t make enough milk…..

anyway…i think we’re getting past it…whew! and just in time for Christmas!!! Yeah.

Fiona’s First 5k December 9, 2007

This morning was the annual Jingle Bell Run in downtown Seattle. I’m not sure how many runners there were but I do know that it’s the biggest Jingle Bell Run in the country and I would bet there were thousands of people there. Fiona and I met my sister and my brother and a group of people from my brothers Fire Dept. to run the race. With the best intentions to be well organized we all arrived there at close to the same time…about 10 minutes before our wave started! We made it to the starting line before our wave left but not with enough time to even get pins for our numbers….crazy. Luckily my sis had extra. There are so many people at this event that it is hard to even run – there were times that i just gave up and walked and didn’t go any slower. It felt good to be out doing an event of some kind and even though I haven’t been running that much I felt pretty good and ran the whole time (the slow pace certainly helped!). Fiona did o.k. – I still am not great at timing all of the things that need to happen to keep little one happy…we left the house with everything we needed but i didn’t feed her (other then nursing) because it was too early. Of course half-way through the event she was tired of being in the stroller, overwhelmed by all the people, possibly cold, and I’m sure HUNGRY. She cried for the last 1.5 miles. Luckily I made her a waffle before we left and stuffed that in the bag and had a warm bottle ready for her too. She slugged down 6 ounces and half a waffle and was pretty happy from there out. Then we ran into Frosty the Snowman and that really made her happy. She loved everything about him…the furry white suit and the giant carrot…mmmmmmmm!

After the race Auntie Theresa and I stayed and took Fiona on her first carousel ride at Westlake. The pictures don’t show it but once we got going she really warmed up to it and had a great time. My sister and I had made fun of my mom all of our lives because even the carousel would make her sick – she sometimes couldn’t even bare to stand on the ground and watch us go around – we never understood. But today standing on the carousel trying to balance Fi and get pictures taken both my sister and I found ourselves totally dizzy and it took a bit for us to get our sea-legs =)  Oh the things we learn.

The Story of Stuff December 6, 2007

The movie is too big to post on here…but I can’t recommend enough to follow this link and check it out. I found this very hard to watch – but it’s something we all should hear.

http://www.storyofstuff.com

Ho! Ho! Ho! December 6, 2007

Fiona’s first visit with Santa. It was so much fun! We left the house and on the way there realized a.) she needed a nap b.) her diaper probably needed to be changed and c.) she was probably getting hungry. I thought to myself this was not the way to start out our first trip to see santa. We went to Redmond Town Center and it was great. It was early enough in the season that there was only one family in front of  us in line. Fiona saw santa and was totally at ease. She “walked” right up to him and was awed by his beautiful shiny buttons. She posed like a pro! Guess she knows when to be naughty and nice!

New Things December 6, 2007

Just in the last week Fiona has really been getting close to walking on her own. She wants to walk all over the house with us holding on – but she barely holds on…in fact most of the time she’s walking by herself just touching our hands. Once she figures this out she’s going to be off and running….look out kitty cats! She’s also upgraded her babbling to something that sounds like a tape being rewound. She does this while moving her finger over her lips (like motorboat) and it really sounds crazy. She is so smart and loves to go around the house pointing at all the things that she knows. Also, true to form, it seems like she really has already dropped her 2nd nap. This seems so early! But for the last couple of weeks she’s been going down pretty consistently around 11:30 or noon and several times now she has napped for 3 or more hours! Don’t get me wrong – I AM NOT COMPLAINING =0 – but of course, after that, there’s no way she’s taking a 2nd nap. Even if she takes a shorter nap, like 1.5 or 2 hours it’s hard to get her to take a 2nd one. **The only thing that is a bummer about this is that most babes her age are still two nappers – so all of the activities for this age group happen around noon….when the toddlers are napping but between the babies naps…i’m having trouble finding some social activities that meet her schedule =) small complaint I know!

First Thanksgiving December 6, 2007

Oh i know, it’s already December…but Fiona’s first Thanksgiving was a fabulous success. We are very fortunate to have both of our families so close and even more fortunate that they get along so well. This year Greg’s parents hosted Thanksgiving but my whole family was invited so we were all together for the day. Fiona had a wonderful time and was very surprised to see everyone together in one place. She completely embraced the holiday for it’s “truest” meaning and chowed down on everything in site. She ate so many potatoes I thought she would burst, followed up with some small bites of pumpkin pie…and if that wasn’t enough we had to hid the chex-party-mix from her because she would manage her way to it no matter where we put it!

The next day was our annual “cookie Friday” at my mom’s house in Enumclaw. We gather there every friday after thanksgiving and make 100’s and 100’s of Christmas cookies. This year my friend Tami from work made it to the party and she let the Martha Stuart side of her fly! Grandma was excited to share this tradition with Fi and Fiona entertained us all!

Cat Puke December 6, 2007

Greg is in Asia again and for some reason every single time he goes A. we have a crazy storm here and B. the cats puke all over the place all the time. I hate it. It makes me want to hurl like you wouldn’t believe and it’s the last thing I need to have to do when it’s all I can do to hold down the fort as it is!

So Long Sista…. December 6, 2007

I’ll try and break this all up, it’s been so long since I’ve posted. Things are busy, busy…tis the season and all. Let’s start with a bitter-sweet good bye to a friend of mine, the Medela Pump-n-Style….so long sista. I pumped for a good solid three months at work. I started out easily pumping 2 to 3 bottles a day but by the time Fiona was 9 months I was doing everything I could just to get one – and it just kept dwindling from there. First it threw me a bit. I’ve never been absolutely ga-ga about breastfeeding and certainly not pumping but it didn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t necessarily choose when to begin the weening. It only make sense now that she’s eating three meals a day and snacking on whatever she can mooch off whoever is eating anything in between….and i’m at work all day…that my milk supply would dwindle. It all seems fine now. Fiona still nurses at night and in the morning (though i could probably cut the a.m. one out too) and on occasion when i’m home with her, but she happily takes the bottle anywhere and anytime. My original goal was to make it to one year…I guess I made it pretty close and will still probably be nursing at night with her even then.