mauter.com

This Christmas is a shaping up to be a little different for us.  We were planning to be gone most of the week after Christmas visiting various family.

However, Ellie has had a high fever since Thursday 12/22 at 5pm.  We visited the doctor Friday morning and discovered that she had a moderate ear infection in one ear.  Then, the worst hit later that morning.  We’re still in the midst of it, although there were a few hours this morning when I thought the worst was over and our little girl came back.  Otherwise, she’s sluggish, puny and pretty dog gone pitiful.

So, I pray your Christmas is healthy and happy.

Samantha went to her Nana and Papa’s house last week.  She spent 4 nights/5 days away.  It was sure quiet around here.  I was glad for the break, but so glad to have her back.  I thought I would get so much done during that week, but Ellie decided not to cooperate.  She has decided that 4 o’clock (both AM and PM) are her trying times.  Oh well.

We didn’t have any plans last Saturday morning, so I asked Sam what she wanted to do.   She wanted to go to the zoo.  Since we’re members, but haven’t been since before Ellie was born, I thought it was a great idea!

Samantha took a nap that afternoon, and continued to take a nap all this week!  Yay!  I think it was because her room wasn’t so bright and hot.  The weather earlier this week was dark and damp, so it must have been easier to sleep.  Today broke the streak though.  I think 6 days was a great run!

In the midst of that though, I got a stomach bug.  Ew.  I was out of commission for about 24 hours.  Brian did a great job keeping the girls away from me in the midst of his busy work week.  Thanks!

We haven’t been doing a lot around here lately.  We’re doing our best to get sick and stay sick.  :(  Ellie is even fighting her first cold!  She has a nasty sounding cough, so I hope it’s not croup.  The rest of us (including Sam) don’t sound croupy, so I hope it’s just normal drainage.  But, we are definitely a goop factory around here.  Everyone is ooey goey.

Some good news though: we got a contract on our house last week!  It’s contingent on the sale of the buyer’s house (and she has a contract contingent on the sale of her buyer’s house).  So, I’m not holding my breath for a closing date, but we’re moving in the right direction.  We lost the contract on the house that we wanted to buy.  However, to make a long story short, it’s now back on the market again.  It’s still my favorite house, but we are currently looking into others to see what else is on the market.  Brian found one that he likes better.  My gut says No on that one.

We are becoming a coffee drinking household.  Brian started drinking coffee a while back in order to cut out sugary sodas.  He still drinks a soda about half the time.  After my maternity leave, I started drinking caffeine because Ellie was not sleeping through the night yet.  I really try not to drink it because it’s so horrible for you.  At any rate, I got started on Diet Dr. Pepper, but now drink coffee at home on the weekends.  Ellie is still not sleeping through the night, but I’d sure love to cut my caffeine habit.  I had a headache by 8:55AM one morning because I hadn’t had my drink yet.  Too much dependence for me!!!

I finally got a ticket out to Denver!  I’ve been watching ticket prices for a year now.  Whenever I find a good deal (which isn’t often) I can’t go for one reason or another (like Labor & Delivery!).  However, a deal came up this past week and I decided enough was enough and I booked a flight for February.  I’m excited.  And nervous because Ellie will have to come with me.  Merry Christmas to me!  See you soon Lizzie and Guillaume!

Happy Halloween!

I think Samantha has fully recovered from the croup.  We have one more day of antibiotic, but her cough is mostly gone.  She is still very thirsty, which I noticed started when she was sick.  Or maybe it was just my asking if she wanted water every few hours when she had to take medicine (she learned the word “ew” which I still don’t know how that happened).

Last weekend on a whim, I bought some Hello Kitty panties at Target.  I had a few extra minutes, and I knew we’d need them one day.  To my surprise, she really likes them.  She wants to wear them.  So, we had LOTS of cleaning up last weekend.  We stayed mostly in the bathroom, so it wasn’t horrible, but we went through 4 pairs in 1 hour.  I guess it’s all that water…  I know she just wants to wear them because they’re new and different, but she hasn’t put it together what happens when she doesn’t wear a diaper.  I know she’ll understand soon enough.  Speaking of such:  she’s in her crib right now (supposedly sleeping) saying “change diaper change diaper.”  I’ll have to check that out.

We showed the house twice this week and once last week!

I made the Buttercup Bag a few weekends ago, as introduced to me by Lettie.  It’s too small for me though.  I chose a fabric that was a bit thick so it wouldn’t be too flimsy, but it’s still pretty flimsy.  It’s a red houndstooth, so how cool is that?  It was fun to make.

I’m still in the market for a new diaper bag.  However, I have seen several diaper clutches recently.  I think I’ll try to make one.  I definitely have the diaper clutch itch.  And on top of that, I’ve started baby #2′s stocking.  That’s right.  I’m seriously not motivated though.  I thought by starting it in January, I’d have a full year to complete it.  Although that’s true, it doesn’t mean that I have any desire to sit down and work on it for a year (even though I know that is what it’s going to take).  I worked on Samantha’s a lot during the last Olympics, so I thought this would be a good time.  However, I think I had put most of the effort into it already, so I was in the final stretch and was actually pushing to get it finished.  I pulled out my work-on-it-bag so I could store all my stuff without it being all over the living room.  A cross-stitch work-in-progress was in there (forgive the foreign language, I couldn’t find it anywhere else).  I knew it was there, but I hadn’t looked at it in a couple of years.  I was surprised at actually how far I’d gotten on it!  I thought about picking it back up too, but again, no motivation.  I had stored it in the hoop, so now it’s all creased, but I think it should be ok.

So, that’s what’s new.  No pictures.  I think I took some on my phone this week, but haven’t transferred them to the computer yet.  Sorry.  Gotta go get Squirt up since she has decided not to take a nap today.  Fun.

Finally, Happy Birthday, Alex!

That’s what Sam is.  Poor thing.  She’s still sick, and now it’s worse than ever.  Combine that with an intolerance of medicines, and we have a severely pitiful little girl.  She got two shots today, so hopefully she will begin to feel better and we can go back to regular medicine soon.

Today, the doctor determined that she has lost the tube in her right ear, so we’ll have to be careful about that one.