The Holidays

So Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful this year. Why? Because we didn't go anywhere.

That's right; I got to have Thanksgiving at MY house. I didn't even get in the car that day. No need... nowhere to go!

Can you tell how giddy that made me?

We started the morning with a nice, long walk around our neighborhood, just Harry, Ellie (in stroller), and me. It was 65 degrees out! On Thanksgiving! The sun was shining, the foliage was in its prime, and there weren't really any cars on the road to boot (which is kind of fantastical and magical seeing as we live on one of the busiest streets in our city). In a word, it was... perfect.

Ellie took her nap around noon, and I started cooking around 1pm. I decided to just do a turkey breast seeing as it was only going to be 4 people.

Harry, Ellie, Alicia... you may be asking yourself, "Who's the 4th?"

My mother-in-law joined us for this festive occasion. And I don't lace that with any amount of sarcasm or rolling of the eyes, I swear.

It was actually NICE having her with us. She was actually PLEASANT. She had a great time playing with the baby, she didn't tell us we were wrong about... well... anything and everything like she usually does, she didn't pout, and she didn't pee in her pants. I was happily amazed.

So anyway, I started cooking at 1pm, and I was done by 3:45pm. Not too shabby.

We had turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, candied yams, mixed vegetables, homemade applesauce, cranberry sauce, and crescent rolls (a Thanksgiving staple in my family). For dessert I made Dirt (cut up devil's food cake with coffee poured over it, chocolate pudding, pieces of Heath candy bar, and whipped cream). It was all delicious!

We watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (the second time already this season), played with Ellie, and had an all-around good time.

And best of all, it was quiet. No screaming, no fighting, no hurt feelings. A first in my family's holiday repertoire.

Since Thanksgiving went so smoothly, we've decided to do the same Christmas afternoon. We always spend so much time house hopping during the holidays, and I'm kind of sick of it.

I've come to realize how important it is for Harry to bring his mom home for the holidays. It's taken me some time to see the error of my ways, always pushing her aside simply because I didn't like her. It's really not fair, to Harry OR to her. She deserves to see us, to spend time with Ellie, to simply not be in that nursing home for a few hours.

So we'll do Christmas Eve upstairs at my sisters and Christmas Breakfast at my mom's, as usual, but we're also going to settle in at our home for once and just enjoy the silence. This way we still get to see everyone, but we get what we want too.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work.

It's all about Ellie

So we had a very nice long weekend, complete with a trip to see Santa yesterday.

Ellie actually liked Santa. Go figure. I was waiting for the wailing, and instead, we were pleasantly surprised with a smile from our little one. We got a great shot, too. It's on my profile (friends only, sorry).

She did a couple of really cute things this weekend, too, amidst the temper tantrums. Yeah, temper tantrums from a 1 year old. She's starting early. Luckily, they only last a minute or two.

The first cute thing happened at the grocery store on Saturday. We were walking up an aisle when we heard one of the courtesy phones ring. I looked over at Ellie to see her picking up an imaginary phone, bring it up to her ear, and go, "Yeah... [pause]... yeah... [pause]... yeah". She does this at home with her phone, mimicking Mommy while she's on the phone. This was the first time she completely "pretended" to be talking. It was just so cute.

Cute thing #2 happened last night. She was talking VERY loudly, so I put my finger up to my mouth and said, "Shhhhh". She mimicked this with the loudest "Shhhhh" ever. And she laughed the entire time she did it. She had me cracking up and rolling on the floor with that one. I asked Teri if she does it at daycare, and she told me she (Teri) does it to the dog but that Ellie hasn't mimicked it. So it's a new thing.

Other than that, I just really enjoyed being with my girl these last 4 days. She's just so much fun to be around.

We've also learned that she tries to get away with a lot more when the both of us are there. It's just something about both Mommy and Daddy being there that brings out the lil' devil in my child. Hmmmmm.

A very nice holiday

Yesterday was fantastic. Quiet, cozy, and stress-free. I think I could get used to this.

There were no family arguments, no telling Dad or my sister to stop swearing in front of the baby or forcing them to smoke outside after several protest by them, none of the crap my mom pulls, nothing. It was bliss.

I started cooking around 1pm and finished about 3:45pm. Not to bad. And it wasn't constant, either. I got to relax quite a bit yesterday afternoon. And everything came out perfect.

AND my MIL was actually tolerable yesterday. She was having one of her very good days. It was actually NICE having her there. She was interacting with Ellie all afternoon, and she wasn't doing her usual, "you're wrong" thing (according to my MIL, everyone is wrong about everything).

Harry said it was the best Thanksgiving he's ever had. I'm thinking along the same lines. I think we might be doing this from now on. Either that, or we'll start vacationing during this week. That would be nice, too.

We got it all done.

You read that right. We got ALL our Christmas shopping done yesterday.

Jealous?

Heh heh.

Now I can breathe a sigh of relief.

We managed to get some really nice stuff for everyone, even with the $1000 we just had to fork over for new tires for BOTH our cars and oil changes and such. Yeah, $1000 I hadn't budgeted for this month. Merry Christmas.

That money was supposed to go into our savings. I hate when stuff like that happens. I'm trying to build up enough savings for 10% down on a house. That $1000 would have really helped.

Not much I can do now. And I won't let it ruin the holidays. Stuff happens; you deal with it. Period.

So Christmas gifts. We got my mom a really nice painting for her house down in Florida. We got my dad this awesome zippered cardigan from LL Bean. I love this thing; I want it for myself. We got Harry's mom a cool pair of blue leather mocassin slippers. That's all she ever wants for the holidays. Hopefully these'll last a year. We got my youngest niece an Evanescence CD and the first season of Monk on DVD (she loves the show). We got two of my older sister's daughters new MP3 players, and we got my oldest niece a Tori Amos autobiography and a kickin' red fleece hoodie (which I want, too).

Harry's getting a new trailer hitch for both Christmas and his birthday, which is on New Year's Eve. He needs it for his dumb boat:) I also got him a rod holder for same dumb boat. That'll be from Ellie.

As for Little Miss Ellie, we got her a beautiful nap mat from HomeSlice's store, a xylophone, MegaBloks in a wagon, some clothes, a snowsuit, and the biggie... a kitchen center. There's one at daycare, and she loves it. She could open and close the cupboards on that thing all day. LOL.

So that's pretty much it. We don't do sister gifts, but I am giving them each a digital copy of our favorite Christmas record from when we were kids. They'll be thrilled. I'll give it to them sooner rather than later so they can listen to it the whole month of December.

I feel so free!

US-day today

Harry and I will be starting our day dining on fluffy pancakes at Chips, a local pancake house that has the best pancakes in CT. Mmmmmm. We're gonna do some Christmas shopping and maybe see a movie, too. AND we're gonna have lunch at Applebees because I have a nifty little gift card I received from Discover Card as my cash back bonus.

I'm so excited about our US-day. Yay!

US-day today

Harry and I will be starting our day dining on fluffy pancakes at Chips, a local pancake house that has the best pancakes in CT. Mmmmmm. We're gonna do some Christmas shopping and maybe see a movie, too. AND we're gonna have lunch at Applebees because I have a nifty little gift card I received from Discover Card as my cash back bonus.

I'm so excited about our US-day. Yay!

Thanking my lucky stars

So, Ellie had a cold last week. No biggie. Just a runny nose and sneezing mostly. She got through it in a few days.

Then a rather nasty cough reared its ugly head last Friday evening. Woke her up out of her sleep. And I heard her calling for me. First time that's ever happened. It brought me to tears.

She suffered all last weekend with this terrible cough. I did as the doc suggested during the last cold with cough and gave her the Triaminic strips and Benadryl. It didn't really seem to help. That damn cough was nasty.

All the kids at daycare were just getting over it, so I knew how bad it was. Two of them ended up with croup. I was dreading she's get there too.

Luckily she didn't. It went from a mean, deep, hacking cough to a regular cold, phlegmy cough on Monday. I thought she'd get better in a few days.

Wednesday, Teri noticed she was wheezing a bit. Not good. Yesterday morning, when I went to give her her cough medicine at daycare, I decided she NEEDED to see the doctor. Sure, there was no fever or loss of appetite through this whole thing, but the wheezing was definitely prominent yesterday morning. And luckily Teri works at the doctor's office, so they squeezed us in pretty quickly.

Luckily, there was no fluid in her lungs. The wheezing was simply her breathing through the phlegm in her throat.

BUT her ear infection from last months seems to have never really gone away. It's inflamed again, so she's on an antibiotic for that. The nurse practitioner who saw her also told me to STOP the cough medicine and Benadryl. So we had 2 doctors previous who said to use them, and now a nurse practitioner from the same office who told us not to. A little confusing, but I decided to give it a try.

After we left the doctor's office, we went to Target to get her prescription filled, and voila! Nothing like a little shopping to cure a little girl's illness. Stepping into the store was like magic. Her cough stopped, and she actually started smiling again. Ellie definitely takes after Mommy.

She's doing loads better today. We stopped cough meds and Benadryl, like I said, and went with the saline nose drops and vVc's baby rub instead. I also made a decision to not give her milk because I know how it makes MY cough so much worse when I'm sick. She drank juice all yesterday, and I noticed the difference right away. We'll do juice again today and then maybe start back on milk tomorrow. She'll get plenty of cheese and yogurt for calcium in the meantime.

I'm just so glad she's feeling better. I was so worried yesterday. So worried I even prayed, which I don't really do on a regular basis.

A day for me... maybe not.

So yesterday, I kept the promise to myself I made last month to take another me-day. I told Harry Tuesday night that I was gonna call in sick for Wednesday and just kinda veg at the house. I was all excited to catch up on some ER and maybe do a little shopping, too.

So, I call in yesterday morning, bring Ellie to daycare, come back home and shower, grab a cup of joe, and log on to MM to write my daily journal. At 9:30am, I hear a key being inserted into the door lock. What the hell?

Harry decided to take 1/2 a personal day.

Instead of being excited for the chance to spend some time with the hubby, I was a little bummed. I mean, I took the day off for ME. I had even told him I scheduled a day off next week for US cuz he has the whole week off. I made it clear that yesterday was a ME-day. He's got his own me-day coming up on Monday when he's going to the casino to blow some of our money.

So of course, I feel immediately guilty for not wanting to spend time with him, but at the same time, I feel like I'm ready to cry because he ruined my day. God, I feel guilty even writing that, but it was exactly how I felt.

He saw how bummed I was and said he'd get lost for the day if I wanted. That made me feel even more guilty. He said he'd just go fishing or something, which is what he ended up doing.

So I still got the majority of the day to myself, but the guilt of wanting it kind of hung over me all day. It kinda wasn't worth using my sick day.

I guess next time I have to make it perfectly clear that a me-day really just involves... well... ME and ME alone.

Another first

Ellie took her first 2 steps on Wednesday! It was amazing. And we both got to witness it. She was sitting in between the two of us on the floor, stood up, and took two steps to Harry. We couldn't believe it.

Yesterday, Harry set up the video camera in the corner and got about 6 minutes worth of footage of her walking. And when I came home, she took like 6 steps to me, grabbed me by the shirt, and walked me to her room.

She's gonna be arunnin' in no time flat.

One for the books...

Guess who took her first TWO unassisted steps last night? Yay! And what's even better... both Harry and I were there to witness it.

Our little girl's growing up!

Ellie's One-Year Checkup

So the doc says Ellie is doing very well. She weighs in at 21.5 lbs (60th %ile) and measures 30.5 in (80th %ile). She's gained almost 2 lbs and grown over 2 inches since August. Amazing.

She's right on target where motor skills are concerned, and above average in the cognitive area. She understands most everything said to her, even to a degree where she can respond and act, if need be. Example: 2 nights ago, she was playing with her socks and decided to hide one of them, unbeknownst to me. About 1/2 an hour later, I was cleaning up and only had the one sock. So I playfully asked Ellie, "Where's your other sock?" Not only did she remember she took it and hid it, but she remembered WHERE she hid it and proceeded to go get it and hand it to me. I was speechless.

She's talking and singing and dancing, which the doc was also impressed with. As she's shakin' it and singing for the doc, the doc says, "You must have listened to a lot of music while she was in-utero." Yes, yes I did. Music is important to me, so I wanted to get a head start with the babe. Looks like it worked.

She got her second polio shot (I believe we're done with that one now), the chicken pox vaccination, and her first of 2 flu shots (our office likes to break up the vax into 2, one month apart). She got through it like a trooper. She didn't even cry for the first one. That's my girl.

What’s new with Ellie?

Well, she celebrated her first Halloween for starters. She went as Wonder Woman. Yeah, she rocks.

And she turned 1 last Thursday. Holy crap! A whole year gone by. Crazy.

I threw her a big birthday breakfast bash Thursday morning at daycare. The kids had a great time. We noshed on bagels with cream cheese, doughnuts, homemade pumpkin bread, fruit salad, hot chocolate, and homemade banana cupcakes. It was a blast.

We had her family party on Saturday during a freakin’ hurricane warning. She had a fantastic time. She loved all the attention. And she didn’t even get scared of my dad like she normally does. She was all smiles.

She did well with the time change, too. We’d been preparing her a couple weeks prior, slowly moving her bed time a little later each day. In turn, she started waking up later. She’s good to go now. And I don’t have to get up at 5am like I was dreading.

She’s also not only completely transitioned to milk but to sippy cups as well. She said goodbye to the bottle for good this weekend. All these changes, and she just rolls with it. I love it.

She’s fighting off yet another cold. This kid is gonna have a kick-ass immune system when she gets older.

She’s going to her one-year exam tomorrow. She’s gotta get some shots – NOT happy about that. Never happy about that. I think after that we’re good until 18 months. We’re both sick of the docs office, no offense to the actual wonderful doctors there. They’ve been terrific.

That wraps up this week. I’m sure I’ll have lots more to write about in the coming ones.

Note: Semd me an email if you'd like to see some new pics of my girl. I'm not posting them for public viewing anymore, but I'd be happy to share with friends:)

We survived the hurricane!

It wasn't even that bad. We've had worse thunderstorms here in CT. A tiny bit of rain and some wind ain't gonna slow us down. We've had winters with 108 inches of snow!

The party was great, and Ellie's got a TON of clothes. My mom did it again and bought not one but TWO dresses for Christmas. I know I should appreciate it, but she's gone out and bought the outfits for EVERY SINGLE DRESS-UP HOLIDAY since Ellie was born. When do WE get to pick these cute items out, ya know? One of them's going back cuz it looks like a freakin' Christmas present. No thank you. My girl doesn't do frilly. She doesn't dig crinoline.

She was in such a good mood all day, and she loved all the attention. Everyone was so loud; I thought she was gonna freak. She just rolled with it.

Harry's working all weekend, a new thing for us. He gets double time today. That should be some good Christmas cash.

We ordered the gifts for the nieces last night, so that's out of the way. I want to get all the shopping done before Thanksgiving. I'm actually starting late this year. Last year, we started back in May!

Ellie did well with the time change early this morning. I did prep her by moving her bed time later and later the passed couple of weeks. I think it actually worked, knock on wood. If her coughing hadn't woken her up this morning, I'm sure she would have slept even later. One of the kids at daycare started preschool in September and has proceeded to not only get sick over and over again but give Ellie every single illness he's caught to boot. That's where the cold in Sept. and the pink eye in Oct. came from. I think I heard his mom say he might have broncitis now. GREEEEEAAAAAAT. We're going to the docs on Tuesday for Ellie's one-year-check-up, so the doc can take a listen to her lungs to make sure she's OK. I don't hear any fluid myself, so that's a good sign.

We're gonna hit the stores this morning; me and my girl love to shop. Talk to everyone later:)

Hurricane Noel

Leave it to me to be the only one NOT to know we're getting hit with the remnants of a hurricane today. Where the hell have I been?

We're expecting winds around 60mph (possibly up to 80mph) and rain. It's no where near the intensity of Hurricane Gloria, which hit us in the 80s and brought down trees everywhere, including one in our back yard.

The grocery store was INSANE this morning. I haven't seen the lines that long in awhile. Luckily we scored a new lane opening up when we were ready to check out. Woo hoo. I think the baby charmed them into opening the lane just for her.

She's napping right now, getting the rest she needs for the excitement that will follow her awakening. Ellie loves a good party. Especially one just for her.

I guess we'll remember Hurricane Noel like we do Gloria because of the importance of the day itself. We'll be able to tell Ellie Noel hit on her first birthday party.

The Rest of Ellie's 1st Birthday Day

So she scored some really cool stuff from the kids at daycare: a plastic guitar that plays some cute riffs when the buttons are pushed, a cutsie cutsie homemade fleece dress with kitties on it (can't wait for her to wear it!), some bows for her hair, and a stuffed Minnie Mouse. Teri, her daycare provider, bought her a kickin' aqua blue velour sweatsuit, a longsleeve onesie that says "It's all about Me, Me, ME!" with purple pants to go with, and a funny little plastic bunny that talks and plays music. Most parents moan and groan about these noisy toys, but I absolutely love them. They teach her ABCs and 123s and she really gets her groove on to all the music. Makes a Momma proud.

When she got home from daycare, I was waitin' at the door with her gifts from us. She was VERY excited to see Mommy already home since I usually don't walk in the door till 5:15pm. And she was just as excited to see the gift bag. She got some wooden blocks (the girl loves building stuff) and a big wooden cube to shoot different shaped pegs through. And another Pillow Person. She got some clothes, too, which she could really care less about. And her new arm chair she got last week was also part of the B-day gifts, but there was no way to hide that sucker so she got it upon purchase. We tried not to go too overboard; a few toys goes a long way with our girl.

My niece joined us for Birthday dinner (baked ziti w/ turkey meatballs - YUM) and Birthday cupcakes. We got video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to Miss Ellie AGAIN (it's her new favorite song) and video of her licking the whipped cream off her birthday cupcake.

We went straight from the high chair to the bath; Ellie had sauce and crumbs EVERYWHERE! We played with her new toys for awhile, and then my little girl decided she was DONE for the night nearly an hour before she's usually been going to bed. Guess it was a really full day!

She slept for 12 hours last night. That's one tired baby.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. I'm so lucky to have her in my life. I teared up yesterday morning when I got her out of her crib; I couldn't help it. I was telling her happy birthday and how much I love her, and I was just overwelmed with emotion. This little person is the most amazing thing I've even done, ya know? I'm so lucky.

Ellie's Big Birthday Breakfast Bash

Ellie turned one-year-old today! Yeah, officially, it's not until 9:02pm, but she'll be fast asleep by then.

We started off the day with a birthday breakfast at daycare. I brought doughnuts, homemade pumpkin bread, mini bagels with cream cheese, and tropical fruit cocktail for the kiddies to feast on. And feast they did! Dude, those kids can eat! And talk!

And for dessert... banana cupcakes with whipped cream frosting and no sugar added hot chocolate (I was trying to keep the sugar to a minimum so the kids weren't bouncing off the walls for poor Teri after I left).

Ellie had her first cupcake, and we let her go at it with both hands. She was one happy baby.

More to come...