Christmas In The Cities

We knew traveling to the Cities was going to be a holiday adventure.  We had a lot of places to visit and people to see, but we had a plan to fit it all in.  It began with driving to Shakopee Thursday afternoon… that was the plan at least, but it got pushed back to that evening.  We stayed in a hotel (Bill’s parents had a free voucher that needed to be used) & then just had to Busha’s when we were ready in the morning.

She had a packed house! And with two little kids running around, things really heated up.  We did our traditional Christmas Eve Polish dinner (the Wigilia) a little different this year & divided up the dishes so Busha could spend more time out of the kitchen.  I was in charge of the rice pudding and ended up screwing that up because I bought the wrong rice for a crock pot recipe.  The fix: some time on the stove.  But we ended up making our own concoction anyways… with some Coffemate gingerbread creamer for flavor! It did the trick!

“Super” Busha & Dzia Dzia, as we now call them for the kids, got Alexis & Noah fuzzy blankets, which they loved instantly… among other gifts!  Noah went around & stole presents from others.  Cute of course.

 

Then, I can’t get over the fact that Busha opened up her cupboard & lid drawer for him to play in the kitchen the next morning.  I remember doing the very same thing when I was little!

 

After breakfast on Christmas morning, we headed to Dad & Maria’s to spend the day with them.  They had new trinkets for the kids to play with… but the Russian nesting dolls were a hit as usual!

After dinner, we headed over to Uncle Charlie & Auntie Nancy’s house (which is actually my Grandmother’s old house where my Dad grew up).  He has a cheesebread & spaghetti sauce feed with his recipes from the old pizza shop.  You just can’t get enough of it!  Alexis and Tatum got to play together some (for only the 2nd time, I think) & people who hadn’t even met Noah yet got to see him too. 

 

Noah played on the stairs that used to lead upstairs, which is where Brent & I used to stay when we visited Dad.  Ah, the memories!

 

After jumping on the couch with Tatum and Gavin, we took a “quick” jaunt from North Minneapolis to Saint Paul to say hello to the Thesenvitz clan.  I have to admit, I did a horrible job taking photos all weekend so they’ve very limited.  But we did have a great time seeing everyone, even if it was only for a short time.

And when the night was over, we headed back to Dad & Maria’s for the night.  The kids slept really well, though Noah woke up with matter in his eyes. He had been a bit cranky all weekend, but I kind of wrote it off to us all not being back to normal from the sickness earlier in the week.  The kids got in some final cuddles, rang the bell a few more times and we were off & on the road.

Bill took Noah into acute care once we got home to get some drops for his eye and it turned out he didn’t have an eye infection, he had an ear infection.  I felt horrible!  Who knows how long he had it and whether that’s what was making him so cranky.  It was the same with both him & Alexis: they don’t get fevers when they have ear infections.  How’s a mom to know… before the mucus starts coming out their eyes!  Poor boy!

Our Home’s First Christmas

Santa came early to our house. We put in a call to the big man so we could keep the chaos of opening gifts at home.

He brought the kids new toothbrushes & toothpaste, coloring books and toys in their stockings. Noah got Chuck The Truck cars & Alexis got new crayons for the bath tub.

We had hoped to hit the road for the Cities around nap time, but we didn’t realize the toys would be such a hit. We had to take just about everything out of boxes, install batteries, even connect some of them to the computer. Alexis got a Tag Junior reader, which we didn’t realize needs the books uploaded to it in order to use it. And Noah’s puppy pal, Scout, needed to be connected to the internet to get his content. Each toy now says the kids’ names! We hoped it would give them something to do on the 3.5 hour drive.

Merry Christmas!

Sick Bay

It’s the Monday before Christmas and Alexis woke up not feeling so well. She threw up all over her pillow while sleeping but said she was coughing when she did it. The same thing had happened Saturday morning, but it was the only time she did it, so I had decided it was cough-induced and wasn’t too worried. Since it happened a second time, I decided to keep her home. Then about 2 hours into the morning, Noah did it too. So I figured we were looking at a bug of some sort.

The next morning, my suspicions were confirmed. I woke up around 3:30 AM when Alexis wandered into our room saying she had to go potty. She did her thing, went back to bed and then I got sick. I grabbed my pillow and a blanket and headed for the couch, hoping to not get Bill sick.

7 AM came around and Bill wandered down the stairs. He was sick too. We both called into work and called my mom to come pick up the kids & take them to day care (they were both back to themselves the night before, running circles around us!) . Talk about feeling worthless when you’re so sick you can’t take care of your kids. We seriously sat on the couch all day & didn’t move.

We still weren’t feeling up to “life” the next morning, but work was calling for me… I had to go in because other people were sick now. Oy ve! It really went around the newsroom! But I also took Alexis in to the doctor real quick. She had been having problems with her bowel movements for the past couple months and the illness didn’t help AT ALL! The doctor (not our usual one) decided she was probably getting too much fiber, but ran some tests to make sure she didn’t have an infection. They all came back negative, but that didn’t exactly offer any answers either.

Leesch Christmas

We changed things up a bit this year for the Leesch Christmas and had it at our new house… our first Christmas! It was also a week early. I made dinner, we ate and opened presents afterward. Noah was quickly interested in everything piled up under the tree!

The kids got spoiled. But I’m still impressed with how much Alexis loves getting clothes for gifts. I don’t think I’ve seen her do the “throw the clothes over the shoulder” thing once yet! While I see that as a good thing, it could also backfire on me when she’s 15 and asking for money every week to go shopping. hehehe

I was also pretty happy with how our gifts turned out for Cole & Ethan. I made them each fleece blankets with their favorite football teams’ logos. I had made one for Bill a few years back and he LOVED it! We pull it out all the time & I hope the boys do the same!

Noah & Alexis also got sleds from Grandpa and Grandma, which they quickly figured out worked well on the carpet and kitchen floor. So Bill took each for a couple spins around the island. We’re going to have fun with these this winter! It just needs to warm up a little so we can get outside!

14 Months & Still <20 lbs!

We’ve really been working hard to get Noah’s weight up. We’ve been going to get his weight checked every month and every month he gets a little closer to 20 lbs. At the 14 month mark, he was still 19 lbs 6 oz. So, still just more than half a pound from where we’re trying to get him. That means we still can’t turn around his car seat and things are getting a little tight. His carrier car seat is getting really heavy for me to lug around!

So we decided, this month, to switch him to whole milk from his concentrated formula. There are many reasons why, but after doing the math, I found the milk had more calories. It doesn’t have the other vitamins & nutrients he was getting in the formula, but I’m pretty sure we can get him those things through his food. Since Alexis can’t have milk, we tend to eat pretty healthy: meat, vegetables, fruit.

Not to mention the specialized formula he was on is very expensive: $42+/can in the store but $12/can after insurance. But he went through a can every 2-3 days. That really adds up considering he’s now drinking a gallon of milk every week.

His body is taking to the milk really well; no skin or bowel problems. But we’ll see how it goes!