Catch-up

So it's been 3+ weeks since I posted... funny how life happens.  I was stressing about how exactly to update, then I decided I'm just going to jump in and do it without regards to formatting.  I didn't figure you'd mind.

-Ira's school had an adorable Christmas program on 12-12-12.  It was titled "In A Galilee Far, Far Away."  It was so cute and you could tell how VERY hard all the kids had worked on it.  I teared up during the program thinking about how grateful I am that Ira gets to go to a Catholic School where he can learn and sing about the true meaning of Christmas.

-Thursday before Christmas Break, Pope Paul VI Institute called to schedule my surgery date.  I am so ecstatic to finally have a date in my head to look forward to!

-Got an early Christmas present from Andy - a Deluxe Lightscoop for my camera.  Here is a great example of before and after the Lightscoop.  I'm totally thrilled with it.  These pictures were taken seconds apart from each other.  Not the greatest picture (artistically or technically) but a good example of the Lightscoop's capabilities:

-Spent the weekend before Christmas celebrating with 3 different family groups.  It was good to see everyone and we (the kids and us) were spoiled immensely by good food, good company, and thoughtful presents.  Got some AWESOME pictures with the lightscoop!

-Christmas "Break" was scarcely a break (other than from routines) because Ira (& Ruby eventually) was SICK with the Flu.  He looked over at me as 4:00 Christmas Eve Mass was ending and asked "Why is it so ccccccold in here?!"  At which point I knew he had a fever.  We missed Christmas at my parents' the next day which was one of the most difficult things I've ever subjected myself to (and I've had morning sickness and delivered 2 babies.)  Because essentially after the kids opened their presents, Christmas celebrating was "over" for us.  No second Christmas Mass, no presents and meals and games with family... just us. in our jammies. all day.  I'd like to say I was a champ about it, but I moped around a lot of the day and cried a lot too.

-We thought Ira's fever was gone (it was for almost a day) and went ahead with plans to host my friends from High School whom we got re-connected with after my 10 year reunion.  Ira & Ruby went to Andy's parents and we had a wonderful time talking, eating, and playing games with some of my closest friends from High School. I am so happy for these re-kindled friendships!

-Ira was NOT all better.  When we picked him up from Andy's folks' he felt warm and sure enough, had a fever.  We took him to my doctor's Immediate Care clinic (a WONDERFUL resource) where they diagnosed him with the Flu.  At that point, it was past the time that Tamiflu would work, so we were told to push fluids and rest.  His fever got up to 103.6 that night before finally breaking.  He slept that entire day and night and acted like he felt better.  His fever never did come back, although he still seems to be physically drained from the sickness.

-We did get to host my family on Saturday for Christmas.  Everyone came and boy was it nice to see them!  I finally got to give my mom the calendar that I'd spent dozens of hours working that included this little gem at the end (thanks to my sibs for going along with my crazy idea!):

-Ruby came down with a fever Sunday night.  Knowing that the only place she could've gotten it from was Ira, I took her to Immediate Care on Monday morning so that maybe she could get started on Tamiflu.  Her swab came back negative, but they did an RV Panel that had to culture for 48 hours and said if it came back by Wednesday, they would still give her the Tamiflu.  Her fever broke Monday night, but now she has the cruddiest sounding cough and runny nose.  They called today to say that the panel came back positive for "Flu B."  Push the fluids and rest.  Blurgh...

-Andy and I spent a lot of time playing "The Farming Game."  It's part Monopoly, part Stock Market game and a LOT of fun.  In fact, I like it better than Monopoly (this coming from a person with Christmas ornaments and books about Monopoly.)  We played one game with my sister and brother-in-law and then two games by ourselves.  It has yet to get old.

-Finished my hormone series for Dr. Hilgers.  Eleven blood draws later, I'm still alive and curious about what all that blood work is going to say about me.

-Andy and I "partied hard" New Years Eve playing The Farming Game, writing birthdays on the calendar for 2013, doing double shots of Tequila at Midnight, and staying up until 2:30 in the morning talking and writing up goals for the year.  Neither of us are really "resolution" type people, but it was a good opportunity to re-align our priorities with our values and make sure we're working towards them.

-Spent New Years day cleaning out closets and cabinets, getting rid of junk and rearranging the remaining items.  It was a nice start to the New Year.

-Pulled Ira's other top front tooth out.  It was like "pulling teeth" replete with Andy holding him and me pulling.  It had to come out, that's all I have to say.

-Spent the last day of Christmas Vacation going to lunch and eating sushi, then going to the mall and letting the kids do the "Bungee Bungee" and play Glo-Golf.  It was enjoyable to actually spend some time together doing something fun.

I am filled with hope for 2013.  Blessings to you and yours this year!

Journal: November 25

Outside my window: Hmm... this isn't very exciting when one blogs from the basement with no windows at night.  The weather was nice today though, sunny and upper 40s to mid 50s I'd guess.

Clothing myself in: Black yoga pants, red long-sleeved running shirt, black NYC hoodie.

Around the house: Not much exciting, Ira was home on Thanksgiving Break all last week, so mainly I just tried to keep everyone alive and make sure that the kiddos picked up their toys each night.  I did rake the mountain of leaves off of the patio (the wind likes to leave them there for me) and put away some hoses outside.  That's something, right?

Ruby: Keeps talking about giving her binkies to the binky fairy.  It's not really a big deal either way to me when she gets rid of them, but it would be nice to not have to worry about always having one.  I told her maybe we'd try to leave them for the fairy tomorrow night.  I'll let you know how that goes...  She is doing really well with the whole "Quiet Time" thing in the afternoon.  More days than not she ends up asleep.  How long I let her stay asleep depends on how "well rested" she is.  She has also been asking to wear underwear to QT and to bed at night.  So far, we've just let her wear underwear at QT (her night-time diapers are still very wet most mornings) and she's done really well keeping them dry even while asleep.  Sigh.  My baby is growing up.  Cute Rubyism: We pray for a baby pretty much every night.  Well tonight when we were praying, Ruby told me that I could have one of her babies (dolls).  She can be such a sweetie!

Ira: Finally lost his top right tooth.  It had gotten to the point where he wouldn't even wiggle it because he was afraid it would just fall out.  On Thanksgiving day, he was chewing on a piece of candy corn when lo and behold he says, "my tooth is out!"  Pretty sweet way to loose a tooth!  He got to shoot a gun for the first time this weekend (under very close supervision, of course.)  I think he thought that was pretty cool.  He's progressing well in piano lessons (although we haven't been very diligent about doing a lesson every week.)  He's really motivated now though, because his Christmas Book is on the staff, and he has a few pages to go before he'll be playing comfortably across the staff.

In the kitchen: I'm really excited about the meals that I have planned for this week.  Tomorrow is Andy's birthday so we're making some special food to celebrate.  Gyros with Tzatziki and Greek salads; Monica's Mexican Chili; Chicken Palava with Rice; Pico de Tuna with some modifications (shredded carrots, rice, black beans, lime juice).  Mostly new recipes, which is always exciting!

Hobbies: Took some family pictures for my siblings and took our traditional big family picture on Thanksgiving.  I'm thrilled with how they turned out.  Made (with the kids) a present for my niece who turns 3 this week.

Bringing me joy: You know, sometimes in the midst of all this fertility/miscarriage/hormone-wackiness, it is very difficult for me to find joy.  The last couple of weeks whenever I get to this part of my journal, I've had to seriously grab for straws.  Some days, I just don't see much joy in my life at all.  And I know that sounds like a pessimistic and unappreciative attitude, but I am telling you, when I'm in that mental place, it just seems like everything goes wrong.  I am finding that exercising helps considerably, and I've also found that compartmentalizing the "going to PPVI Institute" hopes into a space where I don't let my mind wander often has helped as well.

That being said, this week was actually pretty good.  Things that brought me joy:  2 mile runs several times this week; Ruby wearing her big purple coat; playing Monopoly with Ira; praying with my nephew and niece, my kids sitting at "the big kid" table for Thanksgiving dinner, talking with my siblings and parents over a wonderful meal, a raise, going on a family date, talking politics with my hubby's family, playing peek-a-boo with an adorable 10 month old.

Thinking about: Celebrating my hubby's birthday tomorrow - he'll be 30!  Eeek!  That sounds so OLD when I type it!  Being kind even when I know my hormones want me to be grouchy and mean.

Pictures to share:

Look at that gap-toothed smile!  He's getting so big!

Ruby (in the YMCA jersey I mentioned last week) driving her baby around the house.

Sure do love these people!

Two Less

We have two less of something around here.  Nope, it's not our kids.  We plan on keeping them for awhile yet.

Ira "lost" his first two teeth on Thursday - 10/6/11.  I put lost in quotes because it was more like "yanked out after much wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Ira had noticed right around when school started that his two bottom front teeth were loose.  Not loose loose, but loose nonetheless.  Some time after that, he noticed that his two adult teeth were coming in behind the still-there baby teeth.  On the rare occasion that he would let me wiggle them, they didn't seem that incredibly loose to me - not loose enough to pull at least.

Well, we had dentist appointments on Thursday and the dentist told me that we really need to get those teeth out because the adult teeth are supposed to come in under not behind the baby teeth.  They come in behind when the baby teeth get loose and don't get pulled in time.  (Boy did I ever feel like the mother of the year...)  So he said we need to get them pulled asap.

Not being one to have to be told things twice, I set after pulling them when we got back to my parents' to pick up Ruby.  When (after 10 minutes of the wailing/gnashing bit) Ira finally let me put my fingers in his mouth, it took about 4 seconds to push the bottom left one forward and out.  Well, you can guess that the second one wasn't going to be that "easy."  It took him about 40 minutes of fighting tooth and nail (he he he I so punny) to let me even come near his mouth again.  I only got close to it when my dad finally stepped in and helped hold Ira so that he couldn't really move.  Again, once I finally got my fingers in his mouth, it took like 4 seconds to push the right bottom tooth forward and out.

It was quite the ordeal, and he's not real keen on the whole thing even still.  He didn't want to show/tell anyone at school on Friday (but accidentally his teacher saw when he smiled once.)  He wasn't happy that the tooth fairy didn't bring him "a 10 pound box of trains."  And he wasn't real thrilled with the idea of me taking a picture.  Luckily, he relented and I was able to capture this gem.  You can hardly tell he's missing teeth because the adult ones are already so big!  And for the record, those baby teeth came in almost exactly 5 years from when they came out. (10/2/06[R] and 10/8/06[L])  To sum up the whole experience: "It was like pulling teeth." Literally.