Sick Baby

Brendan was five months on Sunday, we spent the day with a sick baby! Scott and I have realized that God gave us a sick kid. It seems like he gets sick so easily, we are hoping this means that he will build a good immune system that will be able to fight off sickness later in life. It doesn't help though that Scott and I keep getting sick, I think this time Brendan caught my cold.

Sunday morning Brendan woke up early and we could tell me was not feeling well. Scott brought him into bed with us and he seemed to like the closeness and warmth of our bed. We decided that we should not take him to church to infect the others in the nursery, so Brendan and I stayed home while Scott went to church. Below is his attempt at a smile for me.

I got up and gave Brendan a bath hoping that would help calm him down and we spend the day mostly at home doing all we could to make Brendan comfortable. The bath did make him feel better, you can see him making faces at me while in the tub, finally my kid likes to take baths!After the bath we got dressed and then watched Baby Einstein for the first time. We got a sampler DVD from the hospital when he was born but had never watched it. The DVD is only 15 minutes long but Brendan seemed to like the bright colors and the movement (plus my kid will pretty much watch anything on TV). He was pretty clingy all day (all week really) wants to be held or at least have me sit on the floor next to him. I can tell he just didn't feel well!

Even now you can tell that he is not completely better, my cold is still hanging on and has been for almost two weeks now and you can hear the congestion in Brendan as he breaths and coughs. Marion, (our new day care lady) says that she doesn't mind a sick kid, she says she will just "doctor them up love" as long as they don't get too bad of a cough, then she will call me. Hopefully he does okay because this is a terrible week for me to be out at work!

More Memories

I have noticed that lot of the Christmas decorations in our house are mine or from my childhood, even most of the decorations on the tree are mine. So this year I really wanted to bring a focus on something of Scott's. We got his Santa ornament collection a couple years ago from him mom but we have never hung them. These ornaments are 17 Santa's from all over the world, made out of porcelain. I believe these Santa's were given to him by his late Grandma. Scott's Grandma was very special to him and he talks about her very fondly, so I know these ornaments are very special to him.

When we got the decorations, many were broken and Scott was very upset, he was ready to throw them all away. Instead, I found some super-glue and fixed what I could, most had a clean break and were not shattered so I could fix them, I then wrapped them all safely so they wouldn't get broken again and that is where they have stayed safe in a box - for two years now. This year I kept bringing up that we should hang them, being that they are so special to Scott. Scott declined this year saying that he didn't want them to get broken, so instead they stayed in the box.

Last weekend I decided to surprise Scott by hanging them on our garland above the window. I was very careful with each one and insured that they were securely on the hooks and hung securely on the garland. I think they look great, and it is nice to have something so special to Scott part of our Christmas decor!

Christmas Memories

One of the nice things about pulling out all the Christmas decorations after being in storage for 11 months is the memories that come with each decoration. Like the Gingerbread house my Grandmother got me that smells like gingerbread when the candle inside is lit. The Rocking horses that have been part of our Christmas decor since I was a little girl. The Rocking grandparents that used to rock in Scott's Grandma's house but now grace our living room. The teddy bears playing in the snow that my mother bought for me. New memories are added each year. In 2005 we were given a dated collector's plate to commemorate our first Christmas married. This year we added the Fisher Price Little People Christmas set with Santa & Mrs. Clause, I really wanted to get Brendan the Fisher Price Nativity set, but it was a little too much for us this year, perhaps next year.

Each decoration has a story for me, each one either reminds me of previous Christmas celebrations or help me to look toward developing new memories and new Christmas traditions. I enjoy this time because it is not just about me and how I want the house to look for Christmas, but it is about Family, and sharing the joy of the season together.

Deck the Halls

One of our favorite Holiday Traditions is decorating the house for Christmas. Since Scott and I are usually away for Christmas and Thanksgiving, we like to decorate early so we can experience the Christmas Cheer as long as possible. We start our Christmas decorating the weekend before Thanksgiving. It may seem a little early to some, but we love it! So this year we started decorating right away. We usually go out and purchase new decorations to add to our collection to make each year a little better than the last. This year money was a little tight so we were happy with what we had. We did buy a new stocking and stocking holder for Brendan and the "Little People" Santa & Mrs. Clause, other than that we spread what we had around the apartment.

Decorating for Christmas is hectic at first (not only because we have a 4 month old around), we start with a deep clean of the entire house before setting out the decorations, we then take room by room setting up the decor together. Not a room is missed! Every year we have "discussion" (argument) about how we want the house to be decorated, I tend to lean more towards the elegant, matching Christmas, (white lights, themed tree, hallmark, nativity scenes, candles and order), while Scott enjoys more of the "family" style Christmas, (colored lights, cheap glass balls, snow-globes, Santa's, snowmen, and the fake silver garland). This year, I think we have finally reached a compromise, sure we had a discussions about why we don't have snow-globes in the house, but overall, we have come together in our decorating style. (I must admit, he has given in to my decorating style more than I have to his, you will notice we still don't have snow globes or that silver garland that we once did.)

Below are the pictures of our decorated Christmas house, here is a tour of our little but wonderful apartment!

*****Our living room is set up differently this year than it has been in the past, we usually like our nativity set to sit in front of the window, but our set up this year didn't allow for it. The garland hangs above the window, the tree in the center of the room, you probably can't tell, but both the tree and the garland are decorated with colored lights for my husband. My favorite part is the bookshelf full of Christmas nick-knacks that have stories of their own. One of Scott's favorite are the candy dishes set about the room that he insists on keeping full!*****
*****On the other side of the Living room is our little sitting area. More garland hangs above our Kitchen area, the stockings are hung with our initials and the Santa from Scott's grandparents stands in the corner.*****

*****Our Kitchen doesn't have as many decorations, we have a set of Christmas dishes with 4 place settings, my Grandmother bought me a beautiful set of Christmas dishes with 8 settings but we haven't pulled it out yet. There is a small Christmas Tree in the corner with glass decorations that were a wedding gift from Scott's Grandma & Poppy.*****

*****The Bathroom is actually my favorite room to decorate, as funny as that sounds. You can't get the full effect of the decorations because it is so small to take a picture. But you can sort of see the red shower curtain with Christmas balls hanging and the Green & Red towels (I know the color is a little off). I decorated it like this for the first time last year and I love how it looks!*****

*****This is the first year we have put decorations in the spare room, but being that it is now Brendan's room, Scott thought he should have decorations too, we have the lights above his window which Brendan loves to stare at, and a tiny Christmas tree in the corner by his crib (not pictured)*****

*****Our bedroom is pretty much decorated by the bedspread my Grandmother gave me last year, I really think it does enough for the room, and the cradle that is no longer being used has stuffed reindeer that I have had since I was little (some how, I also have my sister's reindeer)*****

*****Finally, our Christmas Tree, it's little and fake (Scott is allergic to real Christmas Trees) but it is just perfect for our apartment. Maybe one day when we have a house we can get a nice big tree to fill the room but for now, our little 6 foot tree is perfect for our little family! *****

Thanks for joining me on the tour of our apartment as I was able to show off all our hard work and Christmas decorations!!

Housework

Keeping up on housework after you have a baby can be a challenge. Scott and I try every Saturday morning to do a complete sweep of the house really cleaning everything so that it doesn't get overwhelming and one of us isn't doing more work than the other. It takes longer now than it used to with a baby around. We find little ways to include Brendan in our cleaning, his favorite is doing laundry!

Traditions

I was realizing last night that this is Scott's and my 4th Christmas married. In that time we have developed Christmas Traditions that we hope to keep as we now extend our family. I was thinking about all of Christmas Traditions and thought that I would share them as we continue with them this year. Tradition has always been big in my family, growing up in a family of six, we had a variety of Traditions at Christmas time. Scott and I are now at the point where we are taking the traditions from each of our family and combine them together while also adding traditions of our own. Christmas is our favorite time of year and it is a great opportunity to really enjoy your family, that is our goal as we develop family traditions together.

Still no Silent Night.......

I am not sure what is going on. Brendan was doing really well; sleeping about 7-8 hours in the night, eating at every 3 - 4 hours in the day and was doing really well. Starting on about Thursday, it seems as though we have gone backwards! He cries in hunger every 3 hours on the dot if not sooner, even in the night. He wakes up to eat every 3 hours, he hasn't done this since he was 5 weeks old. Scott and I are at a loss of what to do, we are exhausted and overwhelmed. Is there anything we can do to fix this problem?

It's a good thing he is so cute during the day!