NYE

You may remember last year, the kids stayed up to watch the ball drop. They were determined to do it again this year.  I rented Disney Dance Party wii from the Redbox for them to dance the night away.  After Nathan got home from work, Seth realized we didn't have any decorations, so I found a printable banner online to decorate the family room:

Nathan had no interest in staying up until midnight, so we set up an air mattress for the kids downstairs. 
At 9, they were still going strong on the wii.
At 10, ditto.
At 10:45 I made a video of Amelia singing along to "Call Me Maybe" on one of the New Year's Specials. 
I took this picture at 11:05:

They didn't make it.  I stayed up until midnight and roused them enough that they could see the ball drop.  They think they stayed up until midnight.  Maybe next year.

more preschool fun

Amelia's preschool has a website, where the teachers have a calendar and keep us updated with what is going on each week.  Our teachers take lots of pictures.  Here are some I found on the website:

 

Santa's workshop

"wearing a mask in class"

glass blocks

another party

Once Amelia opened up her heart to her classmates, she made friends faster than you can bat your eyelashes.  All the kids (boys and girls) love Amelia.  All the moms love her.  The teachers even say there is something that sets her apart (probably her vocabulary) from the rest of her class (more on her teachers in another post).  Anyways, the Saturday after Christmas Amelia was invited to her third birthday party for a classmate, this time at Chuck E Cheese.  She and her friends had a blast:

poor fella

Seth ran a fever all through Christmas Day, and there was not an OTC cough medicine that would give him any relief.  I told him I had zero-tolerance for fever on the 26th (day six of antibiotics).  He was fever-free...until 8pm.  So on the morning of the 27th, I went through the rigamarole of calling the triage line, and then the on-call nurse...I was about to just go ahead and take my chances and schedule an appointment, when the on-call nurse called me back and had us an appointment within the hour.  Luckily, we got an appointment with the same doctor who had seen Seth the week before.  He was not happy about the fever and cough, and found a left ear infection to boot.  He suggested an aggressive line of treatment, and we ended up doing four of the five things.  Step one, a CBC.  Seth is old enough now that he needed a venipuncture in the arm for a vial of blood.  I had no time to prep him for it before the technician was in the room to draw it.  It did not go over well.  I had to let her go through all the steps on me (except the stick, which I would have let her do if she wanted to, I'm not needle-phobic).  Then I had to sit on the table with Seth in my lap, my legs wrapped around his and me holding his right arm while trying to calm him down.  I had barely gotten him settled down from that and read him literally two sentences in a book when the nurse walked in to give a shot of antibiotics in the toosh.  He wasn't having it.  It took some tough love and the threat of a trip to the hospital for IV antibiotics to get him to cooperate.  And did I mention Amelia was with us, and she was oh-so curious as to what was going on?  We read a few more pages and the doctor came back in to say Seth's white count was okay, so he thought we were dealing with walking pneumonia and not lobular pneumonia.  We left with a prescription for yet another antibiotic and promised to come back on Monday for a chest x-ray if Seth still had a fever. 

I would love to say the meds kicked in right away and Seth was instantly better, but it was Sunday before he was finally fever-free.  Friday night the doctor called to check on him.  I'm sticking with him.  He and his staff were awesome working with Seth, and didn't blink an eye at my tough love approach with Seth. (I'm such a mean mommy sometimes!)

We did hit the cheap theater Friday afternoon and saw "Frankenweenie" with our neighbors, and then Sunday night Nathan and I saw "Les Mis" when Amelia's teacher's daughter baby-sat for us, but otherwise the kids had a very quiet break. 

More soon!  I'm a month behind!

Pops' pictures

My parents and Bryan spent Christmas day with us.  I didn't take any pictures, but my dad did!  Here I am, opening presents at lightning speed:

 Seth's new telescope:

 Uncle B has lots of "ants" on his face these days:

We Skyped with all the Mayses, the Johnstons, the Sheltons, and the Beerys throughout the course of the day:

 Seth trying out his new bike.  He went up and down the street once and called it a day.

Christmas morn

Every year we are prepared to be woken up early by the kids; every year they surprise us by not getting up with the chickens on Christmas morning.  We waited patiently for the kids to get up.  Seth woke up first, and was alarmed when he found nothing in front of the fireplace.  That's because Santa left everything by the tree this year:

It just struck me that this is the first you've seen of our "fancy room".  I need to recover the piano bench, and then the room will be show-ready. 

My BFF, Stephanie, gave Seth the coolest present.  Her daughter goes to daycare with the author of these books, and not only did he autograph the books for Seth, those watercolors are custom!

 Toy Story Mania for Wii, just like the ride at Hollywood Studios:

As you may recall, Amelia made one of these in her 2's class.  We are probably the only people in the world who have two of these of the same child!  (Did I ever tell y'all that her 2's teacher used to teach at this preschool 14 years ago?)

Father Tim

I just finished In the Company of Others, the most recent Jan Karon book.  I am glad to hear the third book in the Father Tim series is in the works.  I am sad that there is not another one waiting on my bookshelf.  Although this is a work of fiction, Father Tim's wife, Cynthia, said it best of page 340 of this book:  "I'm going to miss all the dead people we're reading about...They seem so very alive." In Winston, I sometimes heard, "He/she's good people." (Yes, bad English, but it describes someone who's good to the core.)  The Mitford characters are good people, and I have laughed at their calamities, been counseled by lessons within, and cried at their passing.  I read so much, I rarely get as emotionally involved as I have in these books (of course, there have been 12 of them...) I impatiently await the publication of the last book, whenever it may be!

the good doctor

I just saw on FB last night that a doctor I used to work with has retired.  I won't say working with him was always sunshine and lollipops, although I didn't have as many run-ins with him as some of my coworkers did. I won his respect by standing up to him when I was right while pregnant with Seth (pregnancy used to be the only time I would have to work to hold my tongue, now it seems like it's a weekly struggle!), and humored him when I didn't let his senior resident try to butter me up to diffuse the situation.  He also has grandchildren about the ages of my kids, and I hear he is a really good man out in the community.  He gave me free medical advice on Seth's belly button, and saved me several copays by just looking at Seth's belly button any time we happened to bump into him.  He was the only doctor this spring to check in on me, when it was obvious this impending move was weighing on me.  A good doctor, who I will forgive of his occasional outbursts.

In a unit that size, people come, and people go...I hope that some small hole needed to be filled after I left.  But there are big shoes to be filled with the good doctor's retirement, and I pray they find a replacement that suits the children's hospital quickly.

McAdenville Lights

For YEARS, like since 1997, Nathan has said he should take me to the lights at McAdenville any time we have driven to Kings Mountain during the month of December.  On the 23rd, he decided it was time to go.  Probably not the best idea to go on the weekend before Christmas.  I think it is about a 35 minute drive from our house, and with a quick stop at McD's for dinner, it took us about five hours.  The kids watched two DVDs in the car just waiting to get to the lights.  But once we got there, Amelia perched right here, and didn't get down until the end:

 A lot of people walk the route, and we will do that next time, but that wasn't an option for us because Seth was too sick.  The businesses and houses along the route even have photo ops along the way.  Next time I will bring my good camera.  These pictures are all from my phone.

Seth stuck his head out of the sunroof long enough to see what all the fuss was about, but he quickly sat back down in his seat.  Amelia greeted all the walkers with a spirited "Merry Christmas" and actually cried when she realized we had reached the end of the route.

Colette loves Amelia.

How do I know?  She tolerates this:

in case you didn't notice...

...Amelia didn't attend Seth's stuff with me.  She told me she didn't want to go, and I decided if she didn't want to be there, I didn't want her there either.  So I dropped her off at Hannah's, and Parry decided to spoil the girls with real manicures on her lunch break.  Amelia had a blast, and Parry kept texting me "Amelia-isms".  The girls had lunch out at Qdoba before returning to Hannah's house.  No wonder she didn't want to hang out with me!

holiday party

Seth's teacher wanted to have centers at the class party.  On my friend pinterest, I found a second grade party that had all the elements she wanted.  So I did what I do best, I copied it, adding my own little touches.  At the Christmas center, they made popsicle stick trees.  At the Hannakuh center, they played the dreidel game.  At the New Years center, they wrote resolutions.  At the food center, they decorated and ate sugar cookies.  At the Kwanzaa center, they played mancala.  The kids already knew how to play the games because they had done them during their Christmas around the world unit.  It was chaotic, maybe a little too chaotic for some parents, but I did the best I could given what I was given to work with.  

A lot of kids left with their parents when the party was over.  A few had to stay an extra hour to wait for their buses.  Seth and I hightailed it out of there after I had cleaned up the classroom.  Hello, break!

Seussical

The second grade performed songs from Seussical on the last day of school.  There were brightly colored paintings on either side of the stage:

I was able to zoom in and get a decent picture of Seth...he was in the second to the back row!

 Can you find him?

 There are *8* second grade classes this year.  Those kids sang their little hearts out!  It was so cute!



Seth was sick

I woke up Wednesday morning and made Seth a doctor appointment.  The flu had been running rampant in areas around us, and I knew we were about out of the Tamiflu window.  On the bright side, I really liked the pediatrician we saw.  I was not impressed with the practice when I took Amelia in October, and was considering switching.  He gave me the 4-1-1 about the local NICUs and was fantastic with Seth.  His official diagnosis was "some sort of viral crud", because Seth was flu negative.  He sent us home with a prescription for Seth's go-to antibiotic if the fever didn't improve.  It didn't.  He spent most of his winter break somewhere between 99.5-102.5.  He did have a 36 hour span post-appointment that he didn't have a fever, so I sent him to school for the last day.  By 8 that night, his fever was back.  He spent most of his break watching movies, playing board games, and listening to me read.  His cough was so bad he couldn't read to me.  Here is a pic Amelia took of him one day:

 

I almost took him to the doctor on Christmas Eve...but then he started feeling better.  Here we are doing a check up before bedtime:

...to be continued...

cookie exchange

I went to my first-ever cookie exchange on the 18th.  Seth was sick, so we couldn't go to his Boy Scout holiday meeting, but it meant we didn't have to shuffle our evening so much.  I was supposed to bring eight dozen cookies to the exchange, as well as three dozen to Seth's school the next day for the teachers.  I made a quadruple batch of gingersnaps, because they are my never-fail recipe, which I baked while Seth chilled out on the couch.  

Later in the week, I made the m&m pretzels, peppermint bark (since Amelia is now an expert), and salted caramel chocolate pretzels (thank you Elise for giving me the recipe to that crack), but that was the extent of my baking this year.  (Except for two pies on Christmas Eve).

A friend of a friend (who in truth is quickly becoming a friend by her own right) hosted the exchange, and was sweet enough to invite me.  I probably wouldn't have been brave enough to go alone, but Jessica went, and she helped me mingle.  It was a lot of fun to spend the evening out with a big group of ladies, and I came home with lots and lots of different goodies!

Amelia's mice

Amelia wanted to make candy cane mice for her classmates and the neighbors again this year.  This year we stuck to red and white, except we had to use yellow for the last two.  We still have a big bag of felt and we already had the eyes, so all we needed were a couple boxes of candy canes!

those with the same last name

We then caravanned the winding back roads to go to the extended family party.  We were a little leery about meeting at a gun club, but it was really just a small reception hall.  At night you'd never know what it really was, were it not for a few trophies lying around:

 Ah, here you can see the deer in all its holiday splendor.  We tried to take a picture of the magnificent seven (I told you Brian didn't take that mask off all night!)

The boys found a magnetic dart board, and entertained themselves in the kitchen while the grown ups socialized:

two in one day!

The night I made the previously mentioned hand warmers, my dad sent me a text asking for a picture of just Nathan and I.  Well, given the way our last year has been, we had not taken any.  So we had Nathan's mom remedy that for us.  Here we are in from of the Johnston's Christmas tree:

And later that night, at the Mayse party...Nathan's mom cropped out most of the deer behind us, but he had on a Santa hat, a big bow around his neck, and what I'm assuming was a bottle of Crown in a red velvet pouch!

Please bear with me as I get caught up on the blog...we bought a new desktop before Christmas, and it is quirky, plus it has Windows 8...I'm slowly learning...

Book List 2012

 

• Sea Glass by Anita Shreve
• Swapping Lives by Jane Green
• A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery
• Fifty Shades Darker by EL James
• Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
• Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
• Positive Discipline by Jane Nelsen
• Wicked by Gregory Maguire
• Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
• Keepsake by Kristina Riggle
• Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
• Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
• Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
• Ruthless by Sara Shepard
• Swimming Lessons by Mary Alice Monroe
• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon
• The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
• The Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy
• Belle Weather: Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Scattered Hissy Fits
• A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve
• Bloom by Kelle Hampton
• Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
• Nanny Returns by McLaughlin & Kraus
• Dewey the Library Cat by Vicki Myron
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• Friendship Bread by Darien Gee
• One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
• Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig
• Light from Heaven by Jan Karon
• Under the Boardwalk by Carly Phillips
• Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun and Profit

At the beginning of the year, I joined Goodreads' reading challenge and set a goal of reading 50 books in 2012.  I can't find where they are doing an official challenge for 2013, but if you're a reader, you should check out the website.  It allows you to rate what you've read, and gives you suggestions of other things you may like.  You can also track what your friends are reading, so find us both on there if you like!  Anyways, if you took the time to count the list above, I only read 37 books this year, which is two books less than the year Amelia was born.  Part of that is because it took me almost two months to read The Nanny Returns.  Nathan had just started working in Charlotte, and I found I could get a ton done after the kids went to bed, and then I relied on TV to settle me in, and I fell asleep almost every night to after-midnight reruns of Friends every night.  True story. 

However, if you add the books I have read to Seth this year at bedtime...I have read 54 books this year, tying the highest count since I started keeping this list.  I don't think that's cheating, because it was me reading, not him, and honestly I had only read one of these before:

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum
• Ralph S. Mouse by Beverly Cleary
• Disney's Peter Pan
• Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
• The Story of Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
• Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl
• Brave
• Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
• The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
• The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
• The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

And add several hundred if you count all the books I have read to Amelia, or the books Seth has read to me for required reading...but those are all read-in-one-sitting type books, and too numerous to count...

Nathan has been reading faster than me lately; he gets uninterrupted reading time on the bus to and from work.  Perhaps I'll start a column for him in 2013. We recently signed up for a Barnes & Noble rewards card and have almost gotten our money back on it. 

So, best book of the year?  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  The WELCA circle I was loosely associated with at our old church was reading it for their September book club.  I knew I wouldn't be there, but the book sounded interesting.  I brought it along with us on our Disney trip, along with a couple fluff books in case it was too heavy for vacation.  That book was fascinating.  I highly recommend it, especially if you're even the tiniest bit of a biology buff. 

TV is terrible these days, read more books in 2013!

early Christmas in Hickory

On the 15th, we headed to Hickory to celebrate Christmas a little early with the rest of the Mayse crew.  Here are some of the best snapshots of the day:

 

James is on the verge of walking.  I was trying to entice him with a stuffed reindeer:



You can't really see what's in her hands, but that's the only Barbie in the house!

Everyone should have Will around when they are opening presents.  His enthusiasm is contagious!

Seth got two hit presents that day, a puffer vest (which he's wearing, you just can't see it), and an Angry Birds Star Wars shirt!

My new scarf! 

This one is out of order, but I'm too lazy to move it...here are the kids lined up, not in age order, but more than ready to go!

Brian, I mean Spiderman...we rarely saw his face the rest of the day!

Here is Amelia, sitting under the trampoline while the big boys jumped on it, snuggling with Addie...