Holiday Time again...

Well, we survived Thanksgiving. Barely. Miss Sunshine decided that Thanksgiving Day would be a good time to have an ear infection! Thankfully I still had some ear drops from her tube surgery, so we were able to get through the day with those and call the doctor on Friday. They called in a prescription for her and I am happy to report she is well on the mend. We ate entirely too much food on Thanksgiving and still have one more meal, with Daddy Mac's family, to hit today! Guess the diet starts tomorrow first thing!

The Elf on the Shelf has also made it's appearance in our home - he showed up Thanksgiving morning. Our elf's name is "Tree" (Monster Boy likes simplicity, I guess. The fish's names were Fish and Shark, so this isn't horribly unusual). Monster Boy is fascinated by this. I think a part of him doesn't really believe the elf is real, but the rest of him wants to believe so badly that it's overriding any reservations he may have.

I braved the masses on Black Friday and was rewarded for it! Our WalMart still had all of the items we wanted, even though we didn't make it there until nearly 9:00 am. Target still had all of the items on our lists too, and we went there after WalMart. Of course, we didn't want any of the big ticket items at Target, which I think helped our cause. The only thing I wanted that I was unable to get was the Superyard XT that Babies 'R Us had on sale. They were sold out here in town. I wound up ordering it off the WalMart website instead - it was only $10 more than the BRU advertised sale price, and had free shipping, so it worked out okay. We want it to keep Miss Sunshine out of the Christmas tree. We have all of our non-breakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree already, and she's already pulled at least three of them off. It's going to be a fun holiday season here!

Giving thanks...

Daddy Mac has Monster Boy out running errands with him, and Miss Sunshine is down for her afternoon nap, so I am sitting here and reflecting on all the many things I have to give thanks for this year. As many twists and turns as we have hit this year, I feel so blessed for everything we have been through. It has made us stronger as a couple, stronger as a family, and stronger as individuals.

This year, I am thankful for the blessing of my children. I am thankful every day when I look at their beautiful, precious faces.

I am thankful that my son is so very intelligent. Even on days that he is frustrating me, I have a great appreciation for how smart he can be.

I am thankful that my daughter is so loving. Even on days when all I want to do is be able to put her down without her screaming, having her hug and hold on to me makes me feel so good.

I am thankful that my children are healthy. Even with the other issues we face with Miss Sunshine's cleft and all that entails, my children are healthy, they are happy, and they are loved. What more can you ask for?

I am thankful for my husband. Most especially, I am thankful for how lucky I am to have found him. He is truly one in a million. He is so supportive, so loving. He is a wonderful husband and an even better father. He would give his life for all of us, and knowing that is a relief to me at night. When you are a single mother, you worry about the men you consider bringing in to your child's life, and whether or not they will treat your child the way they deserve to be treated. I never have to worry about that with him. I thank God daily for bringing him in to my life, and for letting him love me the way that I love him.

I am thankful for my wonderfully supportive extended family. They have been there for me through the good times and the very bad times, always with love and understanding.

I am thankful for all the trials and tribulations God has seen fit to give me in my life, because they have made me a better person. I wouldn't change a single thing, because these experiences have made me who I am today.

And mostly, I am thankful for the chance to BE thankful for all of this.

What are you thankful for this year?

Nerves.

It hit me the other day that we have only a month and a half until Miss Sunshine's palate repair. She is not on a cup yet - she is totally attached to the bottle. I don't know what we are going to do about that. I'm going to really start pushing the sippy so I can maybe get to work on the regular cup they want her on before her surgery. They did tell us not to worry too much about it, we can always syringe feed her if necessary, but I would like to at least try. Especially since I like to have the kids off the bottle by 1 anyways. I guess we will see what happens. I am getting kind of nervous about the surgery now as well. I know it's necessary, and that everything will be fine, but there are still risks. And let's be honest - any time you have to think about your child going through something like this, it's bound to be upsetting. I just hope that I don't fall completely apart while I am alone at the hospital with her the night before. I already know I won't sleep - my mind will probably be racing non-stop, and Daddy Mac won't be there to keep me sane since only one parent can stay. I don't know how late they will let him be there, but he will certainly be there until the last possible second, I am sure. I wish I had a way to be better prepared for all of this. I can only hope that this will be the only surgery she needs and that she won't develop a fistula or any other complications.

I love giveaways!

Okay, again, with the cloth diapering! I have become a cloth diapering ADDICT! I need help!

I counted up my stash the other day, and holy crap, I have a lot of diapers. I have 21 gDiapers (I love my g's!) and 3 BumGenius All-in-Ones. I haven't actually gotten to try out the BumGenius yet - I just got them in the mail yesterday and am washing and prepping them as I type. We will try them out tomorrow. I am liking the look of them though - and they seem like they will be super easy, and a good candidate for my nighttime diapers!

Anyways, so I belong to many, many blogs about cloth diapering now - and some of them are doing some great giveaways.

This is a current giveaway that is just TOO good to pass up - you should go check it out! http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/2009/11/bum-flipn-genius-super-fluff-friday-56.html

Cloth Diapering

Okay, so I am pretty sure I have mentioned before that I now Cloth Diaper Little Miss Sunshine. I use the gDiapers - and I must say, I love cloth diapering! I never thought it would be something that I would really like, but it was a good, economical way to go, so I went there.

There are a lot of essentials you need for cloth diapering - along with the diapers, that is. One thing I highly recommend is a wetbag to store those dirty diapers in, whether in your home or out and about. Wetbags help reduce smell from icky diapers, as well as keeping any other items they may come in contact with nice and clean.

To this end, I'd like to direct your attention to another blog I follow on a regular basis - because they are having a wetbag giveaway! http://bordersbohobaby.blogspot.com - go check it out!

Stuffy noses and other such fun...

Phew. It's been a while. Seems like we make one step forward only to take two back. So in the last six weeks, we have spent four of them with at least one day of each week caring for one sick child or the other. I visited our doctors office every other week in that period of time. I would be happy to report that our last visit was for Miss Sunshine's nine month check up and that we are now illness free, except that Miss Sunshine decided to come down with a cold after our last doctor's visit! We are down to a stuffy, runny, icky nose at this point, but still...

Here is a run down of the last two months in our household:
Week One : Miss Sunshine runs a high fever. After a visit to the doctor, we determine, courtesy of the tell-tale rash, that she has roseola.
Week Two: Monster Boy runs a fever for one day. Then has a cough and hoarse voice for the rest of the week.
Week Three: Monster Boy runs a high fever for six days. On day three we visit the doctor, who votes for a sinus infection. I am more convinced it was flu, but probably not H1N1 as there was no respiratory involvement.
Week Four: We manage to amazingly stay illness free, unless you want to count the migraine with nausea that Mommy had on Thursday causing Daddy Mac to come home from work early.
Week Five: Miss Sunshine has her well-child check - weighs in at a whopping 13lbs 12 oz. 26 inches long. Weight has become a real concern now. After some discussion with the doctor, we decide to start adding formula to her breast milk bottles to try and increase her calorie intake. We also introduce Oatmeal to her diet - which is a HUGE hit. We discover that thicker foods seem to work better for her and she is much more likely to eat them. The doctor says not to overly worry about her weight as he feels it is cleft related, however we do need to do something to try to stop her backwards slide on the curve. Mommy stresses out over Miss Sunshine's weight and begins researching options, but refusing to stop pumping. We increase food intake, maintain bottle intake with the increased calories, and keep our fingers crossed it will make a difference soon!
Week Six: Miss Sunshine wakes up Monday morning with a low grade fever and stuffy, runny nose. Call the doctor just to make sure we don't need to be concerned, they say probably a cold and to keep an eye out - if fever still present after 24 hours, bring her in. Fever goes away, nose gets worse before getting better. Mommy sends Daddy Mac out to buy a new humidifier and vapor bath, since Monday and Tuesday night Mommy got roughly 4 hours of sleep total. Humidifier seems to make a difference, and Miss Sunshine is back to sleeping through the night. Still has a stuffy, snotty nose, but not nearly as bad as it was. Keeping our fingers crossed that everyone is now on the mend!

Teeny Tiny...

So Little Miss Sunshine had her 9 month check up today - a week late, but never the less, it is done. She weighed in at 13lbs 12 oz. I was not very happy about that. After some discussion, we have determined that the best option at this point is to increase the caloric intake she is getting from the bottles by adding formula to the breast milk to increase the number of calories. Hopefully this will help her gain. Up until now, she's been maintaining a curve - granted, she hasn't really been on a curve, but creating her own, but maintaining a curve. So the doctor hasn't been overly worried about her weight gain. However, this check, she actually dropped down instead of maintaining, so he has some concern. Not enough to make us bring her back in for a weight check - he feels that it is primarily related to her cleft and that until she has the palate repair we won't see a huge difference. Hopefully increasing the calories in her bottles will help until that point.

Monster Boy did good at the doctor's office today, right up until the point that he pushed Miss Sunshine while she was sitting on the exam room floor (the doctor wanted to see her sit unsupported, which she did, and then went for her bottle in the diaper bag and Monster Boy was trying to stop her) and caused her to hit her head on the hard floor. She was fine, but still. I don't know what his deal was. And he kept interrupting me while I was talking to the doctor, which was seriously starting to make me angry. Once we left, though, he was fine. I think from now on I will try to find someone to watch him during her doctor's appointments.

On a side note - I bought this foam 3D puzzle type thing for Monster Boy to put together - it's a farm. I thought it looked like fun and something he would enjoy doing with me. This thing SUCKS! Do NOT, I repeat, do not, purchase these. They are horrible to put together because they do not come with directions, the pieces don't actually fit together, and once you do manage to get them wedged together, they don't stay together. This thing has been a nightmare for the last two days in our household - especially since Monster Boy really wants to put it together and play with it, which in turn causes it to fall apart again. It is a vicious cycle... Anyways, that's my PSA for the month!

Whoops!

Ha. I just realized that I got distracted by a phone call from my sister, and didn't include the video of Miss Sunshine with the walking toy like I had intended! So here it is for you!

Tired

Okay, I am cracking up right now. I'm watching my college team play our rivalry game, and the announcer seriously just said "Shankopotamus". Hahahahaha.

Now on to the real updates. It has been a long week here in the Mac household. Monster Boy is fully recovered from whatever plague struck him down last week. However, his attitude is in need of some serious adjustments. He MAY have gotten a tad bit spoiled while he was sick.... which MAY be my fault, although I'm not actually admitting to anything!

Little Miss Sunshine has been Little Miss Adventure this week. She has learned how to crawl up the stairs! And very nearly took a header DOWN them the other day after Monster Boy failed to close the baby gate when he went down to the basement. Yikes. Luckily, I caught her before she made it to the steps, but she was in the process of going through the gate when I grabbed her. Phew. She is FAST now at the crawling, and just in to everything. I busted out Monster Boy's little Walk and Ride toy for her to hold on to. She will actually walk with it! She is growing up so fast. I know that as soon as she realizes that she really CAN stand on her own she will be off and running. We are going to have an early walker on our hands. Right now if you get her to stand up and then let go of her hands, she sits herself back down. She doesn't fall, she actually sits. It's a completely controlled movement. Once she figures out she doesn't have to do that, we are in trouble. I'm betting we will be seeing our first steps right around Thanksgiving time. And that she'll be fully walking by Christmas.

With all of this adventure coupled with the usual household maintenance, and taking care of sick children on and off for the last three weeks, I am extremely exhausted. I was hoping to maybe catch up on some sleep this weekend, but doesn't look like that will be happening. Maybe next week sometime...

Video Clips.

Okay, so I finally figured out how to move the video clips from my cell phone to my computer in a format that I can upload - aren't you proud of me? And rather than take the time to go back and find the appropriate blogs to attach the videos to, I decided I'd just stick them all in one for you - so that way you can watch them, because I know you want to!

So here they are in order:

Miss Sunshine's first time actually crawling!

Now proficient at crawling, she's decided to throw a straight leg in there from time to time:

Here is her "Mama" -

And finally, another video of her giving the Gloworm kisses...

Whew.

We finally made it through whatever the heck it was that Monster Boy had. I'm fairly confident that it was swine flu, even though we weren't able to confirm that diagnosis.

His fever went away Friday morning and so far has not returned, thank goodness. He was so miserable all week. He's pretty much back to himself, just with an added nap :) He's still tiring rather easily, so he's been taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoons. And he's still a little more emotional than normal - due mostly to the tiredness I believe. Tomorrow is going to be long, what with him going back to school. I will attempt to get him to take a nap when he comes home, but I don't know if that will happen. We may just have to make bedtime early for the week to help get his strength back.

So far the rest of us seem to have dodged whatever it is he had - which I credit to my obsessive hand-washing, Clorox-wiping, Lysol-spraying ways over the last week! I even made Daddy Mac go buy a new mattress pad for Monster Boy's bed, along with new pillows for his bed and ours and new pillow covers for his pillows. I wanted to make sure that bug was LONG gone. I washed all his bedding in hot water to make sure it was good and killed off too.

Monster Boy made a very cute Spiderman for Halloween, even though we didn't go trick or treating. We let him dress up and took him to my grandmother's so he could get his present from her and a little bit of candy, but I didn't want to risk exposing him to anything with his immune system a bit down. Little Miss Sunshine was ADORABLE in her Halloween costume - I've GOT to figure out how the heck to get those pictures up on here LOL. I'm working on it, I promise. In the meantime, here is some video for you of her giving her new gloworm kisses!