The Big Faker

After having the flu over Christmas I have been incredibly paranoid that Aaron and/or Gabbie would come down with it too. My mom called on Sunday with the news that she was sick, and I figured that any minute now either the husband or the baby would start up with symptoms.

Yesterday just before I went into a meeting, I got the call. Aaron was on his way to get Gabbie, who had just thrown up her lunch at day care. (As an aside, my favorite ever euphemism for throwing up is "rainbow burp".) All throughout my meeting and on my drive home I envisioned a long night full of messes to clean up, and a baby who would be miserable. I told my boss I wouldn't be in today since Gabbie had to stay home for at least 24 hours after the "incident". I was steeled for one of the very longest nights of my life thus far.

I got home to a smiley baby playing on the floor with her dad, who remained smiley all evening long, ate a big dinner, and fell asleep quickly, right at bed time. Today she's still doing great, although she does seem to be sleeping more than normal. We've been joking all morning that she just wanted an extra day home with us, and that's exactly what she got.

Here are some pictures of The Big Faker over Christmas:

Thrilled with all her loot. And she absolutely loves that dinosaur!

With Grandma, and trying out her new bow. We did eventually get it to look less dorky.

Blocks are tasty.

Playing with my newest toy

Guess where I'm blogging from tonight!

From my new iMac is where. Aaron totally surprised me with this on Saturday; a belated Christmas present that totally made up for the stomach flu (that wasn't his fault in the first place, but still). It was sitting in the middle of our living room when we came home from my parents house. When we were leaving last Wednesday, he had to run back upstairs because he "forgot" his glasses, wallet, and phone. Sneaky, sneaky.

At least now the new printer totally makes more sense.

It's Monday night and we just hooked this up. I got Aaron an X Box, and he has yet to hook that up. He says we need to get the new TV first. Apparently new HD electronics need a new flat panel TV. I'm not going to say no, because we've been watching the same 19 inch CRT that I bought 3 months into our relationship, and that started nearly 8 years ago. Plus, when we turn it off it makes a *pop* that wakes up Gabbie, and that totally justifies the need for a new TV in my book. Apparently Christmas '08 was the "electronics" Christmas. Add in the million toys that Gabbie received and we made out like bandits, something that is unusual for us. We usually just buy each other stocking stuffers.

Next stop: iTunes to use the gift card he got me. I totally missed all of the clues he gave me to let me know this computer was coming. I'm so obtuse!

Merry Christmas!

This belated holiday message brought to you courtesy of the stomach flu and possibly the croup.

Edited to add: I'm obviously not completely recovered yet, or otherwise I wouldn't have posted the same picture two posts in a row. Time for another recovery nap!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Between Blogger being blocked on the internet at work, and our internet at home being down all week, I haven't had to post, and all this during a time when there are actually things to post about. Things like:

The Pacifier Incident

Gabbie gets a pacifier at home, mostly during naps and at night, but we don't send it with her to daycare. This hasn't been a problem at all, and then we don't have to worry about keeping track of pacifiers in two locations. however, this week on Monday there was a pacifier incident at daycare. Gabbie, who has been irritable (I think she's teething) apparently rolled over to another child, stole their pacifier, and then through an absolute fit for about five minutes when the teacher took it away from her. Luckily they thought it was hilarious (and we agree), so now they're trying to keep her separated from kids who are using their pacifier as much as possible. 

Hey, I'm just thankful she hasn't gotten kicked out yet. I was kicked out of daycare when I was a toddler. Twice.

Four Whole Years

Yesterday was our four year wedding anniversary. We've made it four years, and even though our relationship is much different now that Gabbie's around, it's as strong as ever and I couldn't be happier. We didn't really do presents this year (although, Aaron did get me flowers - for the first time in years) but I did thank Aaron, multiple times, for marrying me, and for giving me the best gift anyone has ever given me - our baby. (Sorry for the absolute sappiness of that statement. It even made me a little sick.) He agreed that we haven't ever done anything better than her.

Four years ago:

 

And now:

 

The Search is On. Most nights.

We give Gabbie a pacifier at night to help her self soothe back to sleep when she wakes up. It works most of the time, but every once in the while she drops it out of the crib. This wouldn't be a big deal, but she typically drops it down the side next to the wall, and the crib is so wide that I can't reach it when that happens. We have a back up always ready next to the bed, but we always check for original pacifier before giving that to her, because if she drops both of them we're screwed. We would be able to tell when she drops it out of the crib versus if it just fell out of her mouth, but the humidifier makes a sound that is almost the exact same sound the pacifier makes as it hits the wall. This may not seem like a big deal, but in the middle of the night when we're half awake and can't see it gets incredibly frustrating. Not to mention that we typically wake her up more while searching for the lost pacifier. We'll be phasing this out in the next couple of months, so we only have to do the mid-night search for a little while longer.

In other news, she loves carrots but it took her a little while to get used to them, and she made a big mess in the process:

They were even on the back of her head. She got a bath immediately after this picture was taken.

She also looks adorable in tie-dye:

It's a family sickness

Last Thursday Gabbie came down with a heinous cold, and was out of day care until Tuesday of this week. As much as it's hard to see my baby sick, it's also hard to deal with my baby when she's sick because she is DIFFICULT. Thursday and Friday nights she refused to sleep in her crib for even a minute. She still is having a hard time nursing and taking a bottle because of her stuffy nose.

It got somewhat easier to deal with the crabby, sick baby when she started sleeping through the night in her own bed. Then she did what is possibly the cutest thing she's ever done. I know she's not referring to me specifically, but she has been saying "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" continuously since Tuesday night.

I think she's starting to feel better. She seems to have boundless energy since yesterday morning, and has been a smiling, laughing fool. Just in time for both Aaron and I to come down with her crud.

Baby's First Christmas Program

Last night Gabbie's daycare had its annual Christmas Program, and it was, in a word, adorable! The kids sang three very cute songs, made gingerbread houses, listened to stories, and visited with Santa. Of course, this was the perfect opportunity to get Gabbie into her Christmas dress: 

We had lots of fun getting to know the other parents. We don't typically get a chance to talk much a drop off or pick up, so it was nice to get a chance to just sit and chat. Gabbie had a lot of fun just watching the pandemonium of over a hundred people in a small cafeteria. During the song portion of the program, they had the babies up front with the other kids, and Gabbie was in a bouncy chair with her feet in her mouth the entire time. While wearing a dress. She's such a little lady!

Holiday Preparations

In my mind, today is the official kick-off to the holiday season. It's starting with a bang due to door decorating at work (we all decorate our office doors - I use the same decorations every year because I'm "green" (read: lazy)) and the Christmas Program at Gabbie's daycare. Apparently even the babies are participating in the show. Don't worry. There will be pictures.

Saturday I'm throwing a holiday party of my very own, and so I want to have the apartment all decorated before then. It's a good thing Aaron and I have Friday off of work (to shuffle Gabbie around to different doctors' appointments), so we can use any extra time we have that day to put the tree and lights up.

Side note: does anyone know how to baby proof a Christmas tree? We're already planning on leaving the bottom few branches empty, but how about keeping it from being able to tip over? Advice? Anyone?

After that there are a couple of work parties, baking, shopping, more baking, and then the actual holiday. I've decided this year will be a retro Christmas for me. That means I'm baking the cookies my mom used to make when I was growing up, instead of trying out new recipes like usual. It means I'm using the old decorations my mom sent down to me. It also means that I'm making as many of my gifts as possible, just like I used to when I was a kid. Hopefully the construction will be a little better though. I think having a little one around is making me nostalgic for how Christmas was when I was a kid. I hope we can make it as much fun as our parents did for us.

The only new thing I'm trying this year is making caramels from scratch. I have to be me, I guess, and to not try to master one new recipe would not be me at all.

Catch Up

Man alive, have I been busy! Between work, home, holidays and a birthday I just realized that I haven't posted in a week. Glad I wasn't too wound up in NaBloPoMo! So, to catch up here are some handy bullets:

• Gabbie is: sitting up unsupported, creeping/army crawling (kind of, only with one arm and the opposite leg and with many breaks to look at where she has gotten to so far, but I'm sure she'll catch up soon because she always does a new trick on one side for about a week before she masters it on the other side), eating sweet potatoes and pears (so far), laughing a whole lot, and just seemingly growing in front of my very eyes. I know it's cliche but sometimes I want to put a brick on her head so she'll stop growing so darn fast.
• I am: another year older (here's to the last year of my twenties!), wearing a new sweater and a new pair of shoes, able to add another "cooked Thanksgiving dinner" notch to my belt (both figuratively and somewhat literally - it was a good BIG dinner), and currently plotting out my Christmas shopping/crafting/baking. Watch for it to be detailed here on this site, because there's going to be a lot of it.
• Aaron is: not impressed by sports games on the Wii, adding unrealistic gifts to his Christmas list daily (last night: I think I'd like a Lexus with a big bow. Just like in those commercials. Me: Yeah. Right. Go to bed and keep dreaming.), and is able to add "baked an amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie" notch to his belt (also fairly figuratively and literally. He baked this for me in place of a birthday cake. Best idea ever!) (please to note: I LOVE BAKERELLA!). He's also the best husband ever, who, for my birthday bought me: 1) the new crockpot I've been wanting, 2) a black cardigan I've been wanting, 3) dinner at my favorite restaurant, and 4) a few other sweaters that he insisted I try on and then heaped on the praise about how good they looked. How great is he?!?
• This coming weekend I am throwing a cookie exchange party and I can't wait! I'm baking rugelach. There's also a cookie exchange at the daycare holiday party this Wednesday, and I'm making Oreo Truffles. I'm so excited the holiday baking season is here!