I sang to my baby last night.

It was nice. Since we didn't get to go to Christmas Eve service, I sang him the Christmas story in hymns, as best I could (the order was a bit off, oh well!). And then we sang the unicorn song from Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends.

And it was everything I had hoped it would be.

ok, I'll admit.

It was a pretty superb Christmas. (say it again Lucas...Su. Perb.)

Except for the burrito being sick, of course. It has now been a grand total of 4 times he has thrown up in the past 3 days, and the night is still young. It's just a baby cold, but he can't get the mucus out, so he ends up coughing so much that he vomits. Not cool, especially when I'd just spent an insane amount of time getting him to take half the dropper of baby tylenol without spitting it out (we now have orange burp cloths), and when I'm trying to keep the current pair of jeans on for at least three hours.

here's the burrito in his new Abominable jacket:

and here is my Christmas present from burrito: (I know, cell phone pic, sucks, but our cameras are currently still at the in-laws) It's a necklace with a foot charm (I love me some baby feets), with Ben's name and birthdate and his birthstone, a sapphire.

I also got: a remote car starter, a new lens for my camera (which means super close pics of the burrito now, which will drive my husband bonkers - at least it won't all be dogs and food this time!), a new work outfit, lots of gift cards, some clothes for the burrito, a new kitchen tool, lots of Burt's Bees stuff, and chocolate, of course. : ) It was an absolutely fantastic Christmas, and it was so nice to be able to do it as a family this year. Last year sucked big time. This year, almost perfect. It feels nice to be...somewhat normal.

The Baby Cold.

Dislike.

Burrito started a little while ago with a stuffy nose, and yesterday it escalated into a full-on runny nose, complete with coughing. Such coughing, in fact, that he actually vomited twice yesterday morning. Thankfully, not on ma's work clothes. He seemed fine after he got all the mucous (and some milk) out, so we took him to daycare.

The coughing? May have gotten a little worse. I was supposed to go to a meeting last night but elected to stay home so I could nurse him as much as he wanted, which was A Lot. Lot. He coughed when he was upset pretty much, so we tried to keep him as calm and content as possible.

He woke up at 330am, after hubs and I went down to see the eclipse (looked like a big orange moon with dark parts and light parts, folks), probably because he heard us talking. Nursed, coughed a little more, was tormented by the nasal aspirator boogie-sucker, coughed a bit more, then went back to sleep with his pac.

Woke again at 640, which is when hubs rolled over to ask me when I was getting up. I'm thinking he stirs when he hears his voice, because I've talked to him before and nada. So we nursed then as well, and handed off to daddy for burping while I got a shower. Apparently he enjoyed that, because he spit up all over daddy, lol. Attacked him with the boogie-sucker a few more times, then packed him up for daycare.

I let them know that his cold was a little worse, and that he liked being upright so that his mucous wouldn't clog him up and make him cough. I also told them where his boogie-sucker was in his bag so they could attack him as well. She informed me that there were respiratory things and ear infections going around, so be sure to watch for signs of that too. Greeaaaaat. I feel so bad for the kid. I was sick last week, so I can't help thinking this has something to do with his cold. I'm drinking my oj and popping my PNVs, so hopefully keeping myself "well" will help him too. Because I can't stand baby coughs!

this past week's happenings

We had a wonderful weekend. I actually had a fabulous weekend, a better one than I've had in a while. Here's some stuff we did this past week/weekend:

- dressed the burrito in some fabulous outfits; I'll have to get a better pic of him in his fantastic new (well, old really) hat and mittens. It's the best thing ever, baby hats.

- accomplished the Christmas pics!

- hubs started my car every. single. day. so the burrito and I would have a warm car. and cause it's buttasscold in PA. suck.

- burrito found the toys on his swing tray yesterday! had no idea what to do with them, but they moved. and he's still trying to figure out what that thing making them move was.

- he found his feet on Tuesday. lolz

- had a wonderful counseling session this weekend.

- went to see a Christmas skit at church.

- that's all I can think of right now, more to come later!

Countdown to Cmas: 5 days.

Content.

Yesterday morning, the burrito decided to get up hella early for a Sunday. Since he and I were so stuffy and coughy and congested (oh my), there was no way I was heading to church, so after the morning feed, I laid him on my chest and we took a little snooze. Hubs was up and doing some things around the house, and came back in to turn on the iPod iHome thingy. We enjoyed our Christmas music for a little bit, and when hubs had a break he came in and laid down next to us. Silent Night started playing, and we stared at the burrito, sleeping peacefully.

That's what Christmas is all about.

Christmas pics! & a Meltdown story.

We went to a local pic place to get some ordinary, generic Christmas pics done at Hubs' request - he had an Austin Powers sharks w/ frickin laser beams moment last week; "all I want is a regular Christmas photo card like everyone else!" so I scheduled an appointment.

We timed everything perfectly, he'd be fed, burped, clean, and we'd put his reindeer shirt on at the picture place. It was working out great, except for having to wait when we got there. Which, of course, solicited a grunt from hubs - "they make you get an appointment, but they make you wait?" I held in my toldyousos.

By the time we got up and ready, we got a couple good shots in and then burrito started to fuss. Ok, maybe he's just gassy, or peed and might need a diaper soon. Continued with the shots. He was fine on his belly, fine sitting with us, but then they got out this present box, and we tried to put him in that...his immediate reaction was "ohHELLno" followed by a little light screaming. Off to the restroom for a diaper change.

Got in the women's room, was bouncing him around to calm him down before I laid him on the cold, cold plastic changing thing - all of a sudden, he starts letting out cries the likes of which I have NEVER heard before. I held him up and turned him around to see if he was bleeding from anywhere, maybe I'd scratched him with my ring (a constant and unfounded fear of mine), maybe he hit a body part on something, maybe his foot was stuck in a strap; nope, nothing. I tried bouncing even harder, patting and rubbing the back to elicit some burps, whatever normally works - no dice. It was literally screaming.bloody.murder. Finally I just decided to go on with the show and laid him down on the changing station.

It was a poo-splosion of epic magnitude. So epic, in fact, that it went up the front of his diaper (not the back), soaked through the onesie, and onto the jeans and back of his nice reindeer shirt. Ok, so apparently he REALLY doesn't like being dirty. Poor kid. Once I got him out of the onesie and diaper and got him wiped up, he went back to his normal happy baby self. When we got out of the bathroom (I put him back in his shirt and jeans for the sake of the pictures), hubs said "was that him screaming? the photo lady said it was, but I said no, he never screams like that, he's happy." Yup, that's your kid with that set of pipes. I told him how I was on the verge of tears and holding him up and looking for blood because I didn't know what was wrong.

After that, the night was pretty much over - anytime we tried to pose burrito, he just wasn't having it. So we had her save the pics on their computer and went back last night to finish them. They titled the folder "meltdown."

Here are some of the finished product:




So cute.

feet!

I'm 99% sure that burrito discovered his feet yesterday. I sat him up on the couch where two of the pillows meet (so he wouldn't roll to the sides), and he looked down and suddenly caught his foot moving. He proceeded to stare at them intently for the next 10 seconds, after which he promptly pitched forward in an effort to "move in for a closer look."

Then, this morning, as I was in the kitchen filling my water bottle/shoving tylenol in my coat pockets (damn you, winter!) I put him in his bouncy chair, which by the way is the dog's favorite place for burrito because he can lick all appendages and not just the feet...and when I looked back over again, he was tilted down as if trying to grab his feet.

When I have my wits about me again, I'll have to remember to get a picture of this. Now that I'm back at work and it's dark at night (again, damn you winter!), there isn't much time to get a decent picture, and flash is my enemy. Gar.