A Not So Merry Christmas...

So as much as I love Christmas and as excited as I was for Lucy's Very First Christmas it turns out that she wasn't in pain from teething over Christmas but from a raging ear infection (possibly brought on by her giant front teeth that have now emerged in all of their glory). Poor baby was absolutely miserable Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We took her to a new, local Pediatric Urgent Care on Saturday to fell like the WORST.MOTHER.EVER when it is not, in fact, those giant chompers but instead a terrible ear infection. First Christmas + First Ear Infection = Sad Baby. I will say though that the Pediatric Urgent Care was amazing. We were literally in and out in 15 minutes as opposed to the hours that we would have spent in a regular urgent care. If you're in the Portland area I would keep this place in mind if you have a sick child over the weekend or on a holiday, they are truly amazing!

So now that her antibiotics and ear drops have kicked in Miss Lucy is feeling much better I am enjoying my second week off from work immensely. Honestly, if only I could get paid to stay home with her. It would be a dream. However, that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Rob is going back to school to finish his bachelor's degree starting in January so it looks like I'll be the primary breadwinner for, well, a couple years at least (he's contemplating law school, so I'm seeing us living on canned beans for at least a couple of years). I'm glad for him that he is going to get his degree, I'm just sad for me because over the last couple months I feel like I'm helplessly watching Lucy's babyhood slipping away at a rapid pace. It is just so sad. I truly do feel like I'm missing out on so much. I'm thankful for a steady job, but it breaks my heart that it means less time with my family.

Anyways, enough whining for today... I want to share some pictures of our Christmas Day. It wasn't the best one, because Lucy really felt terrible, but we still had a nice morning of exchanging gifts with my mom and had a really lovely dinner made by Rob. He even did all the (millions of) dishes so my sad baby could snuggle with me on the couch after dinner. He's a saint I swear!

Our Christmas Day 2009:




The table all set for Christmas breakfast,







She's an old pro at this pony riding business,


Lou the cocker, enjoying the excitement,




We may not have gone crazy with gifts but Lucy's Nan Nan (my mom) and Nonnie and Pop (Rob's Parents) went NUTS! This is probably half of her "loot",


Rob with this puzzle stocking stuffer thing I got him, that literally took him two minutes to figure out. Why is he so damn smart?




My mom, "Nan Nan", all excited about the albums I made her of all my childhood pictures that she's kept in a box for the last 29 years,









The Christmas Dinner Table,


So that's it! Hope everyone out there had a wonderful Christmas, please share if you feel like it. I love hearing about Christmas, even when it is over. More to come later this week since I'm OFF WORK, yahoo!

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
Our troubles will be out of sight."
-Judy Garland

"All I Want For Christmas Is...

...my two front teeth," says Lucy. Although, to be fair, I'm sure she doesn't actually want these teeth. Last week I couldn't figure out why she was so fussy at night and then, whilst she was laying on the bed screaming her tiny head off I say them. Her two top front teeth popping through. Poor thing get her bottom two and then 4 months later the top two show up.

She must have her daddy's big teeth because let me tell you, these ones are doozies. They are BIG. I feel so bad for her because she is obviously really uncomfortable. Hyland's Teething Tablets help somewhat, but the gel form of Hylands really seems to do the trick with these latest teeth. Last week I did break down and gave her a little Baby Motrin on the doctor's "ok" at night because she just couldn't sleep. She took that Baby Motrin and was out like a light, so although I was hesitant it at least made her comfortable enough to get some sleep. I'll only use it when absolutely necessary though, like last night when she was running a fever, and will stick to the Hylands otherwise.

So, Lucy is getting her two front teeth for Christmas. Along with some other less important stuff too. We didn't go nuts with buying her presents because honestly, she's just a baby. She has a ton of toys and is always more interested in things like the empty tissue box or cereal container, which are currently her two favorite toys. What can I say, the girl is easy to please and apparently doesn't have expensive taste. So she is getting mainly stocking stuffer type things for Christmas-- a couple sippy cups (with straws which she is currently obsessed with), some spoons, several books and for her "big" gift:

The Lamaze Octotunes Toy
Oh man, this thing is so cute and each of its legs plays a different tone so you can actually "play" music on it. On the tag it even shows you how to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I love it! I might enjoy it more than Lucy as I'm anticipating she is going to go nuts about the boxes and wrapping paper and will completely ignore the toy.

Instead of buying Lucy a ton of toys this Christmas that she won't really care about either way, we decided to purchase extra gifts for my work's Giving Tree for the downtown Portland Women and Children's shelter. It made me feel really good that we were buying presents for children in need, children that weren't going to whine over not getting the latest electronic toy or a flat screen TV. You should have seen some of the Letters to Santa from our company Christmas Party, "Dear Santa, I don't believe in you anymore because you didn't bring me my Blu-Ray Player and Flat Screen last year that I asked for." Ugh. How sad, right?

For the Giving Tree one little 13 year old girl just wanted a purple umbrella, that was it. When I found the perfect, metallic purple umbrella for her I almost teared up because I knew she would truly love it. I could just imagine this little girl opening up the umbrella, the one thing she wanted for Christmas and being so thrilled and then that other child opening up his or her mountain of expensive gifts and being dissatisfied. It really made me feel good spending our extra money on the Giving Tree this Christmas and not starting Lucy out on a tradition of spending tons and tons of money just for the hell of it. I think one or two carefully selected gifts are so much more meaningful than a mountain of expensive stuff.

I'm excited for tomorrow. I love Christmas and we've really scaled back this year. We didn't buy a lot of gifts for each other but are just planning on spending the day at home (for the first time!) and will be doing the following: enjoying some amazingly good food prepared by Rob, listening to the last 24 hours of Christmas music on the radio, reading the Christmas Story to Lucy and then vegging out on the couch watching out favorite Christmas movies when Lucy goes down for her nap. How perfect, right?

What are your plans for tomorrow dear readers? Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

"He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree. "
-Roy L. Smith

Christmas Fun In Pictures...

I love Christmastime. So much. Which is why I've taken a little break from blogging over the past couple of weeks. Work is so busy so that when I'm not working (which is rare) I'm enjoying my little family, staring at our beautiful tree, watching the candles flicker on the windowsills, taking in all of the season... and loving every bit of it.

However, since I don't want you all to forget about me (I'm almost off work for two weeks and then I'll post like a mad thing!). Here's a peek of our Christmas season so far in pictures:

"The best Christmas of all is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in one another."
-Unknown

Quick post ...

... to let you know I'm still alive. Busy. Busy.Busy. but alive. Work is always insane around the holidays -- why is this? WHY? As the one and only thing I want to do is snuggle on the couch with Rob and Lucy while looking at the twinkling Christmas lights, listening to carols and sipping hot cider. So since I'm taking TWO GLORIOUS, WONDERFUL, AMAZING, FABULOUS WHOLE WEEKS OFF starting 12/19 until 1/4 I've got so much to do at work it isn't even funny! And, I just MAY be planning on doing a post every day during that time that I'm off work. Just maybe... or I could just be saying that so you'll stay with me during this time when I have absolutely no time to post whatsoever. You'll never know! Until 12/19 that is!

But, let me just leave you with something I am absolutely obsessed with lately. This blog here called The Sweeterie. Oh man ladies (and maybe gentlemen?), every time I click on it my heart does little flip flops because it is so full of THE BEAUTIFUL. I can't stand it. Sometimes it makes me want to cry it is just that lovely. I can't believe the talent of some people, these two ladies in particular are so shockingly gifted at photography and writing that I am just green with jealousy. I just love it. The Guardian Angle one from today? Hit home so hard that it makes me tear up just thinking about it.

Love love love love.

"A big part of being a guardian angle is the waiting..."

-T.ruffle Girls @ The Sweeterie

Lucy Watch 2008 Continues...

No Lucy yet! Christmas was wonderful, I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas Eve and Christmas day as I did. On Christmas Eve Rob cooked a absolutely beautiful dinner for my mom and myself. To start we had cheese fondue with foccacia and cauliflower. For the main course we feasted on roast duck with a pomegranate gastrique (like a clear sauce for those as non-culinary as myself, I just had to ask him again what it was called...I could just call it delicious I suppose), twice baked potatoes (my favorite, I had five...YES I did say 5! Three for me, two for Lucy, blame her the little piggie), sauteed spinach and individual then truffle cakes with pomegranate whipped cream for dessert. Um, can you say AMAZING? So good. I swear when Rob cooks it is like eating out at a 5 star restaurant, in my own home!

After dinner we went to the Christmas Concert we attend every year on Christmas Eve. I was so afraid I would be in the hospital and miss it, and my mom was convinced that I should stay home and rest, but I assured her I was fine and off we went. It really "makes" Christmas Eve. It is a lovely concert with an extremely talented Portland pianist and an array of other artists. It is truly amazing. If you are a Portlander I cannot emphasize enough that you go to a Michael Allen Harrison concert, and try and make it to the Christmas at the Old Church concert next year, it is truly fabulous and makes my Christmas season every year all the more special.

Christmas morning was wonderful with yet again a culinary masterpiece by Rob for breakfast. He made his own lox this year and we had lox and bagels, poached eggs on spinach and bacon with toast. Yum! My mom came over again to join us and we opened presents. I got a ton of lovely things, and we even stuck to our budget this year which was really nice. My favorite is a silver bangle bracelet from Rob and Lucy with a quote on it that I will use as my end quote for this entry. To finish out the day wee had dinner at my mother's (again more delicious food!) and then went home and enjoyed a quiet Christmas night together in front of the fire.

As far as I know I haven't been having any more contractions, but honestly I don't know what they feel like if I am! I'm having a lot of stomach and back pain, but I'm just not sure. They hurt, that is for sure, but I don't want to get my hopes up that Miss Lucy is on her way so I keep thinking that it is just pain and not contraction pain. We'll see what the doctor's office says on Tuesday at my appointment. Although, my doctor is now officially out of town and I my appointment is with her colleague who I had a bad experience with last year, (see entry Doctor Debbie Downer), we'll see if she behaves herself this time! We'll also see if I've gained any weight from all the wonderful food I've had lately. I was down a pound last week so I think my highest weight was offically 34 lbs, which isn't bad at all if I do say so myself. My goal was to keep it under 40 and I did it. Whoo hoo!

39 week picture to come since I had Rob take it tonight but have to download it onto my other computer and then transfer onto this computer...and I'm just too lazy to make the trip upstairs!

Think easy labor thoughts for me!!!! We are so anxious and so excited for Lucy's arrival!!

"A mother holds her children's hand for a short while but their hearts forever"

-Quote from Rob and Lucy's Christmas present to me

Lucy Watch 2008...

No Miss Lucy yet! I was all excited last week with my continued progress only to visit the doctor today to find...nada. Same as last week. 1 1/2 dilated. BOO. I was so ready for her to come this week. We're just dying to meet her! I've done a ton of walking, I'm not working (which is such a relief) and Rob and I have been doing lots of, er, extra curricular activities...every day. Lucky dog!

On the up side at least now my chances of spending Christmas in the hospital are slim to none. That is a plus because I just love Christmas. We're just hoping she comes soon because we are so excited and anxious for her grand arrival.

Rob's bet was yesterday, Monday the 22nd, and he spent all day talking to my stomach telling her to come out. Pleading really, he hates to lose a bet. My bet was this Friday, so I guess there is a chance that I could still win. However, it really bummed me out to schedule my induction with my doctor today for January 14th, in case she really does decide to hold out in there the doctor wanted to be all ready to go. I don't know if I can stand the suspense that long. Come on Lucy!

So not much to report here. I'm feeling better than I have in well over a month. Relaxing at home, sleeping in, being pampered like I am really does a 9 month pregnant girl some good! Rob cooks me everything, cleans the house, drives me everywhere (due to the 14 inches of SNOW out there)... I'm pretty much waited on hand and foot. I was so stressed at work that this just feels so wonderful, so at least if Lucy came in the next couple weeks it would be to a completely relaxed person rather than one all stressed out and overworked. I think this will also make such a difference in my delivery. If I had gone into labor last week with the stress of work and everything, I just don't think I would have the strength that I'm storing up now!

Once the Christmas craziness is over I'll keep the updates more frequent because... I don't have anything else to do. Whoo hoo!

"The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part."

-Tom Petty