Christmas 2.0, the Shawn Braces Visit, and My Problem Baby

Nonetheless, I will try and remember what I can.  I'm not one of those people that writes things down for later but maybe I should be! Oh, who am I kidding?  That's never going to happen.

New Year's Eve is when we typically do Christmas 2.0 which is Christmas with Ron and Elaine. Traditionally we do it in the evening although I'm not quite sure why.  Duncan is always off on that day anyway.  Because Shawn and Camille were going to be arriving in the early evening, we decided to switch things up by doing Christmas in the morning which I think worked out perfectly.  We got to Ron and Elaine's around 9:30, had a fantastic breakfast, and then opened gifts.  Aubree cracked me up though.  The night before when she was getting ready for bed she mentioned something that she wanted and then says "I'll just put it on my Christmas 2.0 list." I'm like, "Ah, Aubs, that's in the morning.  I'm pretty sure Grandma and Grandpa are done with their shopping." There were a bunch of things to open considering that Ron and Elaine had brought back gifts from the aunts, uncles, and cousins in Pennsylvania and also from Angie and Chuck.

Gift from Grandma and Grandpa

Opening stockings

We had plans to go to Allen and Tangie's for a New's Years little get together but first we were waiting on Shawn and Camille to arrive to join us over there.  They were coming from Chattanooga and made great time and got here in time to attend the festivities.  It was nice to be able to introduce them to our friends since they hear so much about them.  We didn't stay too late because the kids had to get to bed.  Also joining us back at the homestead were Eric and Jeff Badillo who were in the area visiting a sick uncle with their parents.  Their uncle didn't have enough room in his house so they stayed here with us.  Not sure how crazy they were about that idea once they learned we lived in Ocoee on the other side of the city compared to our old place in Winter Park.  Their uncle lives in Winter Springs which is right near Winter Park.  Sorry!  At any rate, we had a fun evening catching up on all the "gossip" as we've known Eric and Jeff since we were little kids (they live in California).

At Isidros

The guys playing Trivial Pursuit the next morning.

The reason Shawn and Camille were here is because Shawn had a booth at the General Youth Conference (GYC) being held at the Convention Center here in Orlando.  The booth was for the Northern New England Conference so Shawn and another guy from his church volunteered to oversee it.  There was an obvious perk to that plan!  The only downside was that Shawn was often at the GYC rather than spending time with us but I guess that's how it goes.  

Some things we did while they were here were go to the Orlando Science Center (I had some passes from renewing our membership), dinner at Sweet Tomatoes with Aunt Wanda and Aunt Shirley to celebrate Aunt Shirley's 80th birthday, trip to the mall playground, and most fun of all, Sea World! Ricky and I had been lamenting that it was too bad that they couldn't somehow get to Sea World but considering the ticket prices, we knew they weren't going to want to go (I definitely wouldn't!).  Well, low and behold, we find out that Sea World has come out with a special for the month of January.  All annual passholders can get a person in for free!  Couldn't have worked out any better.  We decided to go Sunday afternoon.  I waited until the last moment to get the tickets on-line (you have to register and print the tickets out before you go) just in case plans changed.  Big mistake.  Their website was absolutely horrendous in finding where and how to register. I think my blood pressure most have gone up about a hundred notches.  And, of course, it's not like you can just pick up the phone and just call them.  You have to go through their whole system and wait for an eternity so I didn't even try.  To top it all off, our printer was only printing the top part of the ticket and not the bottom.  Needless to say, things did not get off on the right foot.  Fortunately they did improve from there.  It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time.  The girls were so excited about taking Camden on the Shamu roller coaster and indeed, he did say in retrospect that it was his favorite thing about Florida.

Hurricane simulator.  Not sure where Calleigh's head is..

Sweet Tomatoes

Play Doh

Painting

The mall

Aubree, Calleigh, and Camden hung out in the bathtub for like an hour with their bathing suits on.

The weather is all over the place this time of year.  One day you're out in the yard playing in the sprinkler while the next you could be donning your jacket and a hat.

Building a gingerbread train.  Sure, this is the type of thing you usually do before Christmas but I couldn't resist the 75% off price at Walgreen's.

Doing the offering on Sabbath.  This time Aubree didn't have to go potty right beforehand.  Not sure why she wasn't happy.

Now that's a happy face!  These two really love each other.  They could be twins if their birthdays were five days closer and, you know, they had the same parents.

Aubs was thrilled to have him in her Sabbath School class.

The Bergherms came over for supper on Saturday night.

The ropes course

Watching a show with Uncle Ricky

This is blurry but I love this shot of these two.  This is at the Shamu show.  We were just about to leave and a I guess they were both tired, hence the binkies.

They left for home (some of them reluctantly) on Monday morning and it was back to regular life for us. But not before Calleigh, Aubree, and Brady shed some tears on their departure.  Calleigh squeaked out amongst her tears that "I wish we could move to Bangor and all live together." It all sounded nice until I checked my phone for the forecast and saw temperatures that only contained one number.  I'm good!

My cutie pie 4-month old

Later Monday morning it was off to the pediatrician for Colby's four month appointment, albeit a few weeks late due to the holidays.  I was curious to see all of his stats because he seems so huge to me with his chunky legs and all.  Funny how your perspective is tainted by the smaller babies that came before him because despite the chunkiness, he's only in the 50th percentile.  He is, by far, the largest four month baby I've had. Most importantly, though, he's in great health.  

                              Weight                                Height                                    Head

Calleigh                 Don't have (10th)                  Don't have                                Don't have

Aubree                 13 lbs, 0 oz (40th)                 25 (75th)                                  90th

Brady                   12 lbs, 10 oz (10th)               23 3/4 (10 - 25th)                    16.0 (10th)

Colby                   15 lbs, 13 oz (50th)               25 1/2 (75th)                            16.75 (50th)

I don't remember much else that happened last week for Tuesday - Friday.  Could be because I started sleep training with Colby and I was in a sleepy stupor.  Not completely unlike a drunken stupor I suppose although I suppose with a drunken stupor you're at least happy.  I decided that I needed to "lay down the law" as far as the sleeping at night.  Due to being on vacation and having people in the guest room (which is across from his bedroom), my hands have been tied because I didn't want him to be crying and keeping people up.  So basically he's carried on as he's carried on for the last at least six or seven weeks which is that around 2:00 am, give or take, he'll wake up and end in bed with me where he eats somewhat at his leisure for the remainder of the night.  Definitely NOT the ideal.  Definitely not something I'm accustomed to with a baby this age as my other three were most certainly sleeping through the night at this juncture.  Oh, to have one of those type of babies.  

It's really not gone that well, to be honest.  The first night or two it wasn't too bad.  He woke up a couple of times, cried out, and I'd go across the hall from my bed in the guest room and put his binky back in.  Back to sleep he would go.  Well, Friday night was the worst.  I went to bed at 11:15.  At 12:30, Brady woke up and cried for his binky and then at 1:20, Colby woke up and cried for his.  Thereafter, Colby was literally up every hour after that.  He would go back to sleep pretty quickly each time so at least he wasn't crying for minutes or hours or anything but seriously, how much quality sleep does one get when one is awakened that often?  We had guests over the weekend so we backtracked a little but we've been back at it the last two nights and it's seriously gotten worse.  He's been breaking out of his swaddle so I sewed some socks into them as had been recommended by some friends who it worked for.  No luck.  He broke out of that too (I may have done it wrong for all I know).  So tonight I decided to lose the swaddle all together and move on to the sleep sack.  And, here it is 11:07 and he's been awake crying for the last ten minutes.  Ahhhh!  This kid is killing me.  If I had him somewhere else in the birth order there's a chance I wouldn't have four children!! Next time you see me you may not recognize me because of the puffy bags under my eyes and my sullen expression (although if it's after this Sunday, it could also be because the Patriots lost to the Broncos.  That's for you, Allen!).  I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to improve this situation including, but not limited to, purchasing some of those fancy Beats by Dre headphones I saw everywhere at Christmas, a nighttime nanny, and sending him to military school.

Friday night, before that worst night of sleep, we had some friends over for dinner.  Ron and Sherrie (sp?) Pelton were in town because Ron was running in the Disney Marathon. They were staying at one of Duncan's colleagues/friends at work, Terry Owen, whose home we had been at for Sabbath lunch a few months ago so we thought it would be a nice time to reciprocate and have them come to our place which they did.  A nice time was had by all.

Sabbath it was on to church, where as the morning progressed, I started feeling worse and worse.  I finally decided that we needed to get home because my stomach was feeling pretty queasy.  I hadn't eaten any breakfast and I didn't eat any lunch.  During my much needed nap, I started to feel really cold and that's when I got scared that I was coming down with something.  I jumped into the tub to warm up and soon after I threw up.  I haven't been sick to my stomach (other than pregnancy) since 2004 when I had the horrible flu for a week and I was petrified it was going to turn into that.  Or worse, I was going to give something to Colby or the other kids.  Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry were down in Avon Park bringing Terry's mom back to Florida but came to our house Sabbath afternoon for the next two nights.  Ron, Elaine, Ricky and Ana also came over because we were all watching the Patriots playoff game against the Colts.  I had been SO looking forward to the evening and this illness struck.  I did watch the game but I visited the bathroom a few more times and I was not feeling comfortable whatsoever.  No fever though.  Just chills and a bad stomach.  Uncle Terry suggested I take some of my Zofran which I gladly did and then I started praying, pleading that I would be well in the morning.  And I was.  What a blessing!  I wouldn't put it in the category of a "blessing" but we were thankful that the Patriots beat the Colts 43-22 to move on to the AFC Championship game against Denver.  My stomach will be queasy for different reasons this time!

Go Patriots!!  Duncan dressed all the kids in their Pats gear and took them to First Watch on Sunday with Terry, Toni, and his parents so I could sleep in.  What a guy!

Camille's brother, Garrett, his wife Jenny, and son Thatcher (almost two) came by to watch the 49'ers/Panthers game.  They came in from Chattanooga for Garrett to run the Disney Marathon.  They stayed elsewhere but stopped by to say hello and see the game since they are big Niners fans.  Jenny is having a baby girl in April.

Aunt Lori, Uncle Charlie, Kelly, and Caleb arrived on Sunday afternoon as well to spend the week at Bonnet Creek Resort with Uncle Charlie's parents.  We tried to get a picture of the group of kids but it was hard.

Some quotes from the kids...

Last week I looked out the upstairs window and saw three cop cars parked in front of our house and the neighbor's house.  The cops were talking to our neighbor.  I didn't see any sense of urgency on their part but I was a little worried that there might be a safety issue or something (the backyard is fenced but still..) But I was also wondering if it was possibly a domestic situation.  When the cops were leaving, I asked one if I should be worried and he said "No." So I told the kids (since they kept asking what had happened) that there wasn't anything to be worried about and that maybe they had gotten into a little disagreement next door or something.  Fast forward a couple of days and our Friday night guests are leaving..
Calleigh: (running outside to tell them goodbye): "THAT'S THE HOUSE WHERE THEY HAD THE FIGHT!!"

Aunt Toni and Aubree are upstairs talking on Sabbath afternoon:
Aunt Toni:"So your mom isn't feeling too good.  I hope she'll be okay.
Aubree: "She'll survive."
Full disclosure, I had said those words to Aubree not too long ago but Aunt Toni was a little taken aback to hear them!

Calleigh went on a bike ride with Allen and Braelyn and Allen overhears this:
Calleigh: "Braelyn, I wish my mom was married to your dad so that we could be sisters and share iPods."

No mention on whether she also wished that her dad and Braelyn's mom were married.

Brady does something to Aubree causing Aubree to cry.
Me:"Brady, tell Aubree you're sorry."
Brady:"I can't."
Me:"Why not?"
Brady:"My tongue is hurting."

I was reading a book to Brady and suddenly Calleigh and Aubree run into the room.  I could tell there had been some kind of incident.
Calleigh: (with such indignation and disbelief):"Aubree!  Why did you hit me back?  Why did you hit me back???"

I should think that answer would be fairly obvious.

Since Calleigh now rides the two wheeler, her old bike was much too small.  Duncan surprised her with this bike a couple of nights ago.  It even has gears so she's pretty excited!

Calleigh's talking about her new bicycle.
Calleigh:"Mom, now you need a new bike...(thinking to herself)...Do you KNOW how to ride a 2-wheeler?"

A couple more pictures...

Last bike ride on her old bike.  She loves to go riding with Braelyn.

And then there's this guy.  Looks like the balance bike is finally fitting him.

We go over the date every day at school and on January 8 I mentioned my grandfather would have been 96 years old if he were still alive.  Calleigh responded that we should have ice cream.  So we did in Pampa's honor!