It's The Most Wonderful Time

Elina gave us the most wonderful gift for Christmas.  She gave us two full nights of sleep.  I would like to give credit to the swing and the swaddle for soothing her and her sore gums all night.  Mason and I woke up on Christmas Eve feeling refreshed and cheerful.  A feeling neither of us had felt in a very long time.  On Christmas day, we had to get up a little earlier so we could make it to all of our events on time and still have a Christmas morning at our house, so we woke up to the alarm and got a few things done around the house before Lina woke up.  Our Christmas morning was more than I could have even hoped for with a 4 month old.  While wrapping all of her presents, I asked myself several times why I was even bothering.  It's not like she would even be able to open them.  But I was wrong.  I would place her fingers on an edge of the paper, she would grab hold and tear the paper.  I'll admit in the morning, she really didn't quite get it.  But by our third stop, she knew she was tearing the paper and would get all excited about it.  Even some of the toys were oh so exciting.  Here are some of her favorites so far

A Bounce & Giggle Elephant, which also seems to be the fuss stopper from Aunt Sarah.  If she starts to fuss or cry, I just have to put this elephant in her lap and press on the trunk.  Almost immediately she stops crying and plays with the elephant.  An activity table, and a driver toy with working headlights and wipers from my sister seemed to be a big hit with both Lina and Miss O.  But perhaps she was most distracted by the V Tech Count and Learn School Bus from my parents.  After she opened it, and I set it aside to open the next present, she stopped tearing the paper, craned her neck and just stared at the bus.  My personal favorite... the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Jumperoo.  This has already provided us both with hours of entertainment.  But most important, it has given me a chance to do laundry, clean bottles, and put on make-up.  It's a miracle.

My Little Big Girl

She’s still little, only 4 months, but she thinks she is a big girl. She mastered rolling from her back to her stomach about three weeks ago. A week ago she freed her arms from her swaddle and rolled over to her stomach to sleep. Perhaps now that she can sleep on her stomach, she will start sleeping through the night again. Wouldn’t that be a lovely treat? And she tries with all her might to sit up. And if it wasn’t for that whole balance thing, I’m sure we would have that mastered as well.

We went to the doctor last Monday for her 4 month check-up. I mentioned that she was doing better on the new overly expensive formula, but spitting up more (and who can blame her, it tastes terrible). But since she doesn’t get very upset before she spits up, he didn’t think it was too big of a deal. But her waking up several thousand times a night just for a cuddle… something is up. Starting her on rice cereal might help her, but she doesn’t wake up hungry, so that isn’t the root of the problem. What is you ask? Oh, well, it turns out my 4 month old baby is teething. I had checked her gums a few weeks before when she started drooling, but I couldn’t feel anything. Her doctor looked and saw puffy gums, a sure sign of teeth getting ready to pop out. Now I think I can feel where they are coming in. Guess what, it isn’t the normal first two teeth. I mean, that would just be too normal for this girl. And I have no idea what I would do with a normal child.

Lina is finally taking an interest in books. Occasionally I could get her to look at a few pictures before, but mostly it wasn’t something that would hold her interest for long. In fact it made her mad because I was looking at the book and not her (I had to look so I could tell her was going on in the book). But last night, when we made it back from KC and she was craving some attention, we sat down and looked at a few of her new books. We read 4 books and had to touch each one. Two of the smaller ones which focused on patterns and textures, she actually held them in her lap and felt each of the pages. Since she has been into textures lately, these seemed to hold her attention for a long time. She didn’t even try to eat them, which lately is a major accomplishment.

Here are a few of the other books we purchased yesterday at Half Price Books:
Kisses – She liked the textures in this one two, especially the frog.
My Little Red Fire Truck – I’m especially excited about this one. While it may be a bit before she is old enough to really use it, I’m sure she will love it.
Telephone Book - I got this one because Pat the Bunny was one of my favorites. Lina probably liked the string on the phone the best.

Take 12,830

I have had so much to say, yet I haven’t been able to get the words from my brain in a way that would be interesting enough to share. I have had so many false starts it isn’t even funny. I’ll try a top ten list and see if that helps. Although I feel I should warn you, there is no top to this top ten list. It’s just a list of 10 random things I feel like sharing. So if you get bored by number 5, you should probably stop reading, it won’t get much better I’m sure.

10. Sleep. There isn’t much of it going on in our house. Unless your Mason and you can put your good ear into the pillow and not hear a dang thing. Elina has started crying every hour or so at night. I get up, go pick her up, and she is instantly asleep (usually). It’s pointless to wake up Mason for these moments, because it actually takes more energy to wake him up then it does for me to just get up. Plus, I would be awake the entire time he was up, so really what’s the point? Just don’t let me hear him say one word about him being tired.

9. It seems like there is less time with the holiday season this year. Our Christmas tree isn’t even up yet, and our 3 outside decorations are still in their boxes. And honestly, I don’t know when I will have time to do any of it. But the presents need somewhere to go. Stashed under the coffee table just doesn’t have the same feeling.

8. I’m pretty sure more than 90% of my Christmas shopping is done. I do need to get some new colors of duct tape so I can start making my bows.

7. There was talk of another cube decorating contest, but no one has even attempted to decorate. Only two cubes have a little bit done. My theory, how can I decorate my cube, but not my house?

6. I just gave away my blood and received two cookies and an orange juice in return. I usually like to wait until the afternoon to give blood, because it makes me a little ditzy.

7. Lina goes back to the doctor on Monday. I’m assuming that he will tell me to start feeding her rice so that she can start sleeping through the night again. I miss those days.

4. Proof of loss of blood to my brain… there are two #7’s in my top ten list.

3. During my donation, I mentioned how Miss O wanted a green present for Christmas, so the nurse gave me a green bandage. I’m supposed to tell Miss O about it, but it just doesn’t seem that exciting.

2. I’m afraid that out of all the gifts that Santa is bringing for Lina, the little blanket teether I gave her the other night might just be her favorite. Guess I should have saved that one.

1. I had great plans to work out and get some necessities from Target today, but since I gave blood and can’t work out, I might as well go home and take a nap. Or wrap presents. Whatever.

Chili Cook-off

Every year I enter the dessert contest for the Chili Cook-off here at work. Every year I focus on taste more the appearance, and the desserts are judged without being tasted. Every year I loose. This year, I focused only on appearance and not so much on taste. And I have to tell you, the outcome was phenomenal. I was even impressed. Although I can’t take all the credit, my sister had to help me quite a bit with the execution since I had a screaming child on my hands.


This year though, they actually tasted the desserts. Let’s face it, taste wise, my cupcakes tasted just like chocolate cupcakes. There was nothing special done to the flavor. The special was in the decorating. But even with average tasting cupcakes, I ask you one thing. How did this not win??

Baby Face

So I'm doing some mad rush photo taking for Snapfish's Buy 1 book get 2 Free deal, which of course ends today.  I had to rush to get the studio set up, give Elina a bath and pick out her outfits.  It didn't help that poor Elina was way over tired and wanted nothing to do with me changing her clothes, messing with her posture and flashing bright lights into her eyes.  In the end, I was able to capture a few goodies.  I can't seem to take my eyes off of this particular gem...

Now how can you not love that face?

Rough Week

It really has been a rough week. My second week back at work and I’ve been hit with nothing but issues. Sadly they aren’t even my issues, they have been escalated to me. Which I guess it’s nice that my customers think I’m higher up instead of equal to my coworkers. But still. I’ve been spending so much time working on these issues that my own work has been stacking up. Of course it doesn’t help that Mason, Elina and I are all sick, or that I came home yesterday to poop on the kitchen floor. Not cool Charlie, not cool. The last couple of nights I’ve woken up at 3:30am to blow my nose so I can breathe again. Mason snores through the night regardless of my jabbing and Elina has become good friends with the aspirator bulb. She’s the only baby I know who thinks it’s funny most of the time.

This morning after my shower, I snuggled Elina while Mason was making her bottle. She stopped crying, curled up to me and started to drift back to sleep as I rested my cheek on her head. If I moved my head away from her, she squirmed until I put it back. For that little moment, standing in her dark room with a ratty towel on my head, all was right with the world. The stuffy nose was forgotten. The issues at work didn’t exist. It was just the two of us. Nothing else mattered.

Monday

Today isn’t just any Monday, it’s the Monday that I haven’t been looking forward too at all. It’s the day that I am once again sitting in my cubicle. Did I miss it? Nope. I’m sure there are some things that I missed, like being able to talk to some of my coworkers on a daily basis. Having time to write and read blogs. Actually being productive on a computer, like creating the annual Christmas Shopping List spreadsheet. (It helps me make sure I don’t forget anyone and it helps me see how much I can expect to spend and how much I actually spend. I’ve spent $25 so far, but that isn’t counting what I have bought for Elina. But she would have gotten those items anyway, even without the approaching holiday). Well, that was a long tangent.


Anyway… I got to the office to discover 89 missed calls, 22 voicemails around 800 emails (I forgot to write down the exact number before I started attacking them with the delete button) and access to exactly NONE of my programs. Sounds like a fun morning, doesn’t it? But here I am stuck in the cube with a random tiny Christmas tree and my giant monitor. Which by the way, I had a dream about the other night. I dreamt that I came to work and my monitor was missing. I was very confused as to why it would be missing, but that was it. Great story, huh?

Now that I’m back at work, I really miss my gallbladder. Bathroom runs just aren’t the same when you don’t have a gallbladder or a magazine. I’m also wondering how long this particular symptom is going to last. The doctor said a few weeks, I’m hoping he didn’t really mean the rest of my life!