Christmas Eve

I figured I'd do a little at a time and eventually manage to get everything on here. Zach's asleep right now, still not any better but he did eat part of a donut this morning. Alright, onto Christmas Eve...

Of course Santa brings the bulk of the presents in our house but on Christmas Eve I have the kids open something that I've gotten and/or made for them. I started doing this a few years ago for two reasons: 1) I don't want Santa to get all the credit for the presents and 2) I don't want what I give them to get lost among all the presents on Christmas morning. I would actually like to give them their presents earlier in the day but for some reason that never works out, it always ends up after their pajamas are on, before bed time.

So here's Zach opening his present. He got an I Spy bag that I made for him and since I figured he probably wouldn't quite grasp the concept quickly I didn't want him to feel cheated and I also got him a bag of "Cars". So he ended up with 2 presents.

Megan got a "Restaurant/Grocery Store" kit. She loves these kinds of things, Kristin has gotten several over the past few years (doctor's kit, vet kit, teacher kit...) and Megan wanted some kind of kit this year too. I racked my brain trying to think of something different that wouldn't cost me a fortune to put together. I finally came up with this idea and included pretend food, plastic plates and cups, a menu I made up for "Megano's Diner", a tray, an apron, a cash register, well, you get the idea.


Kristin sort of knew what she would get, a "Business Kit." She mentioned that idea last January and I thought, well that one's easy. All I had to do was wait for back to school sales, plus I had a year to put everything together. In her kit she has a briefcase, a bunch of different types of forms, different notepads, an actual phone that has different lines (to put someone on hold!), bins to put forms in, petty cash money and a bunch of other stuff.

Lauren's tough. I'm not sure she would appreciate anything homemade, at least not during her teen years. She did when she was younger and I'm sure once she gets older she'll go back to appreciating those things. So for her I bought a little white Christmas tree and decorated it with simple decorations. I hung what presents I could from the tree and the rest I wrapped and place them beneath. Some of the things I hung from the tree were: a necklace and sunglasses from one of her favorite stores, a 3 pack of itunes gift cards, socks, candy, nail polish and makeup. Underneath I think I had more makeup, gum, stuff for her hair and a bank that said "Shoe Fund" on the front with a little bit of money inside. Since she was little and learned to walk she has always loved shoes so when I stumbled across that bank I just had to get it. It's so her.

After the presents I had to take one last picture, one with all of them in their Christmas pajamas. I do that every year, buy them matching (at least for the girls) pajamas for them to wear to bed Christmas Eve. I think it might be the last year for Lauren to match since she's more into a woman's size than a kids size. I got lucky this year finding her an XL that fit, don't think I'll be so lucky next year though.

Off they went to bed and then Santa came sometime in the night and left their presents. To be continued...

What a day!

I wasn't even going to get on the computer today, let alone do a blog entry. But I'm in desperate need of a break so I'm going to do this blog entry and then maybe surf the internet awhile, play some games, whatever. I guess I'm glad I got up semi early this morning as I did get one major thing done this morning before I almost ended up having a nervous breakdown. Just kidding, not really a nervous breakdown, just very, very frustrated.

It all started when Zach came downstairs. Now I had gone in his room to get him but he didn't want to get out of his crib. He would lay down and just smile. I tried 3 times and then told him that I had a list a mile long to do today and that he could just stay in his bed and I'd get him later. Then downstairs I went. Pretty soon Kristin came up from the basement (Kristin and Megan were up before me) and went to get Zach up. When he came downstairs he started this nasty coughing and I thought, oh no, he's got croup again. I waited awhile and listened to him but his voice was just hoarse and scratchy so I figured I'd better get him into the doctor's office today.

Now for the next child. Kristin started with a cough yesterday and it sure wasn't sounding any better so since I made the decision to take Zach in I figured I might as well take Kristin too. With her having asthma I didn't want to take any chances, especially with Christmas tomorrow.

But it gets better! Megan has had an on again/off again cough for the past few weeks. It never sounded too bad and her peak flow numbers were very good (yes, she has asthma too) so I never took her in. Well... since I was taking the other two why not take her too? Sounds logical, one trip for all 3.

So I call at 9:15 and get a 10:15 appointment. I walked into their waiting room and they were so packed full of kids waiting that I knew this was going to take awhile. Once we did get seen, around 11:00, I was very thankful that I did take them after all. Kristin has bronchitis and the beginnings of an ear infection. She hasn't had an ear infection since she was a baby and then she only had a few. Megan has mild bronchitis and a full blown ear infection. I don't think she has ever had an ear infection in her life. And poor Zach sounded so bad in the doctor's office, very hoarse. He definitely had croup with a flat looking eardrum which she said could be the beginning of an ear infection. So, all 3 kids are on antibiotics, 2 are on prednisolone (sp?), and all 3 are on nebulizer treatments with Kristin doing the most at 4 times a day. I made a joke about how our one nebulizer will be going all day long so the doctor asked me if I wanted 2 more. Uh, yeah, makes my life so much easier. So I walk out of the office with 2 more nebulizers, the newer kinds that I like so much better. The one we have is so old and big, it's from when Kristin was a baby. So that was like an early Christmas present for me. I can have all 3 kids sitting down doing a nebulizer at the same time. Woohoo!

So then we go to drop off the fifty million prescriptions they have at the pharmacy, the one closest to our house. They have everything except the antibiotic for Megan and Kristin and they weren't getting anymore in today. So the pharmacist calls over to another pharmacy to see if they have it and they do have some but only enough to fill one of the prescriptions. So... I ended up leaving the bulk of the prescriptions at the first pharmacy (I love them by the way, I'm in there so much they know me and the kids by name!) I head to the second pharmacy which is actually past the doctor's office where we just were. Of course it's Christmas Eve and parking is a nightmare but when I finally did drop the prescription off they told me it would be about a 20 minute wait. So the kids and I roam around the store and ended up looking at the card section for a good 10 minutes. The girls liked opening the musical ones and showing Zach. Which was fine by me because by this point I'm so annoyed with everything I pretty much didn't care what they did. Zach was getting fussy in the cart, Megan was non-stop talking, about everything, and Kristin was nitpicking with Megan. Of course after 20 minutes the medicine still wasn't ready we had to wait another 10 minutes before we could get out of there.

But I'm still not done because now I have to stop at the first pharmacy again to pick up the rest of the medicines. Of course it was all ready for me so that was quick. It was just a pain because by now Zach is tired and hungry and wanted no part with all the getting in and out of his carseat. Then he didn't want to sit in the cart either. Ahhh! I couldn't wait to get home.

So even though I'm extremely glad I took the kids to the doctor today I really wish the whole thing hadn't taken 3 hours! I fed them lunch when we got home and when Zach took a nap I mopped the kitchen floor. Then that was it for me for a little while, break time! Everything else can either wait or just simply not get done. At the moment I think it's going to be the latter, I just want to enjoy the rest of the day with as little stress as possible (and maybe a glass or two of wine!) Sorry this was nothing but a ramble but I do feel less frustrated now. :)

I hope everyone that reads this has a very Merry Christmas!

Children's Choir

Today the girls were scheduled to sing in church again. Of course when we woke up this morning there was a coat of ice on everything. It had sleeted overnight and was still sleeting while we were eating breakfast. Luckily Paul drove us all to church because I'm a big chicken when it comes to bad weather. Thank you Paul! So the girls sang and of course I have a clip of it. Kristin sang a duet with Joan and Megan had a solo. Unfortunately for Megan you can barely hear her on the video.

 

 

Ghostie our ghost

This is a Halloween decoration that my mom gave the kids a few years ago. He's battery operated and responds to sounds by moving his arms and saying one of 3 different phrases. The girls have always liked him. I hadn't put out many decorations this year until the other night when I was in the basement and spotted him in the corner. I thought, wow, Zach would love this, and brought it upstairs. Boy was I wrong, he was scared to death of it! I think he was okay until it moved and talked and now he won't go anywhere near the foyer where Ghostie's standing. Here's a short video I took of him:

That's about all I could get of him, he is truly afraid of him and I don't want him to have a phobia of ghosts. Halloween time from now on would be torture for him. :)

I know Ghostie is a stupid name but until the kids come up with something better Ghostie it is.

Bubbles

There is always something going on in the evenings at our house. Since Lauren's soccer practice was cancelled for Friday evening due to Labor Day weekend her coach decided to have a scrimmage game tonight to make up for it. Paul had a softball game so all the kids had to go with me to watch Lauren's game. Well, they don't actually watch, I take plenty of things for them to do. At the last minute before leaving the house I grabbed a bottle of bubbles, I'm so glad I did! Zach entertained himself for a long time.

He's so funny with his things anymore. He knew those bubbles were his and no one was getting them.

If you listen carefully you can hear him say "bubble" close to the end. That's Megan talking and chasing the bubbles.

Talking gibberish

Anyone that knows Zachary knows that he doesn't talk yet. Actually, I should say that he doesn't say any words that we can understand! He sure does "talk" in his own little language. We came back from shopping this morning and he climbed up to the table and found a magazine. Well he started flipping through it just telling me about everything he saw. By the time I realized I should finally get some of it on tape he was pretty much done. But there is some of his gibberish on it.

I'm realizing that most of what I write about is Zachary! Of course that's because he's with me all the time and the girls are in school. Hopefully I'll expand more on the other kids this summer when they're home more.