So, I feel bad about not getting the cards the kids painted out to family, nor the new family photos we had taken right after New Years. I'll get to it, around March probably. Let's not forget Thanksgiving, which has also been absorbed by December, and neglected on this electronic memoir. Turkey day fun included dinner with our friends Clay, Staci, and Olivia Maney, several bottles of wine, and too much Rock Band. My mother in law dropped in on her return visit from Florida and started the avalanche of Ethan's birthday gifts with an awesome/hard to find/no long made Batmobile for his Superfriends action figures.
If I can get through it, the intent of this post is to skim over the highlights of December, though lacking the anal-retentive attention to detail that I feel it deserves. It is this need to detail which has prevented me from writing this post, or the individual posts I feel are deserved. So here goes, my attempt at a chronological recounting of December.
Ethan's birthday and mine are only three days apart. As such, his party weekend typically overlaps my birthday. Also, as such, we've found that it's impractical to have all the kids he wants to invite, and the family
This year, we had planned for family to come on Saturday the 12th, and to have his friends over Sunday the 13th. Batman banner hung, Raina came down with a fever the preceding Thursday night. She ran a fever from Thursday night through the weekend between 99 and 102 degrees, and puked a couple of times Friday night and Saturday. My kids, like me, rarely run fevers or vomit unless they're on their deathbed. Thinking that she had some viral funk, with her snotty little nose, I sat with her, day after day, waiting her for her recover.
Not knowing what was wrong with Raina, we opted to cancel the family gathering that included my niece and nephew, who've had their own share of illness, and didn't need what might be a stomach bug, or something else. Ted and Susan came up to shower Ethan and I with gifts, and the family, less Raina and I, went out to dinner. It easily goes down in history as one of my two most craptastic birthdays (not the visit from the in-laws, but the sitting under pitiful baby for endless hours)...let me tell you.
I spent part of my couch time Raina/birthday scrambling to figure out what to do about Ethan's friend party the next day (that is, when I wasn't streaming documentaries on Netflix. Sidebar: "Jesus Camp" is disturbing). We didn't have a big crowd coming, but thinking that Raina might be infectious, I didn't want to expose lots of other people's kids. After making a few calls, we opted to move the party to one of the local bowling alleys. You should have heard the response of EVERY SINGLE person I spoke to on the phone when I said, "I need to schedule a birthday party for tomorrow"...It was like, "Um, tomorrow?!"
To my utter surprise, throwing a birthday party together that didn't include being in my house, was not terribly stressful. The worst part was that Ben had to stay home with Raina, and missed Ethan's 5th birthday party. A great time was had by all, here's some photographic evidence:
Nearly everybody
Ethan and his buddy Jonah. They've really missed each other!
The next day was Monday. That morning, Raina's fever broke and she played, and laughed, and sang like her usual happy little self. I figured the virus had passed and didn't bother calling the doctor. Well, that was a mistake. Somewhere around 3 or 4 PM, my friend Staci called me to see if I was planning to go with her and her daughter to take the kids to the movies. That's when I realized that I'd been sitting on couch with a feverish baby for a couple of hours again, and ought to call the doc. They got Raina in with about an hour, just enough time to pack her up, let Staci (who saves my butt more often than I can count) take Ethan to her house, and get out the door.
All signs pointed to a urinary tract infection, and they had to draw some blood, and do the most horrible of all, catheterize my poor, miserable, baby girl. The tests were immediately positive for the UTI. They gave her a shot of antibiotics that night, and scheduled us to come back the next day (Ethan's actual birthday, and including another gifting by mommy and daddy). On a side note, it was about 7pm by the time we left. This willingness to stay late, and see kids on the weekends (Saturday and Sunday!) is one of the things I like most about my pediatricians' office. I leave my complaints for a future post.
It took Raina a few days on oral antibiotics to really perk up and start acting like herself. She was truly pitiful for a while, but finally regained her appetite and spunk.
The kids and traveled to Frankfort on Friday the 18th to take my mom out for a birthday lunch. I managed to do a little Christmas shopping, though still had several gifts outstanding at this point. We followed this journey up with a trip to Ethan's old school, VMS, for their holiday program, and so that Ethan could visit with his teachers and friends he'd been missing. This was particularly bittersweet because it was clear that Ethan didn't fully grasp that he isn't part of the school currently. He attended for one year, and we pulled him out when we decided that I would stay home with the kids. He hasn't attended there since they let out in May of '09, but he was still asking questions like, "Am I going to sing?" and "Is Cali going to give me a bell?" (as she handed out bells to the primary kids for Jingle Bells), and the one that brought me to tears, "Why isn't my picture on the wall?" (along with every other kid at the school). Nonetheless, it was lovely to visit with everyone, and I felt nothing but welcome. I swear, that place is like home, and it felt just like we'd never left.
That weekend was spent preparing for our dear friend Tim Goodwill and his family to blow through on their way to Atlanta. Tim's family consists of him, his wife Cindy, Nia (6), Hoyt (4), Liliana (3), Sanoma (20 months), and Cindy is expecting #5. Their visit was brief, but joyful. Last time we saw Tim and Cindy, they had only two year old Nia, and baby Hoyt. They have the greatest kids with an awesome group dynamic that sucked my kids right in! They were all nice enough to entertain themselves while the grown ups caught up a little. Here's some photos of the fun, including breakfast the next morning:
The fun was just getting started! Here's everybody but Hoyt on or near Ethan's bed.
Super cutie, Sanoma Ann. Better known by Raina as "Noma".
Yum breakfast. That's Sanoma, Liliana, Cindy, Tim, Nia, and Raina's messy little bed-head.
And the boys, Hoyt and Ethan at the little table.
Part II to come. Will throw in all the Christmas who ha, and leave you with our rocking New Year's Eve of home remodeling.
While reading, I kept thinking how proud Wilena would be of your writing--especially that you are chronicling information that future generations will be so grateful to have. I enjoyed sharing your month, although I would have enjoyed it more if Raina had not been sick. --Glenda
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