Ringing in the New Year...

with a click (of the mouse button).

We all stayed in and watched movies. Will and Cole are both sicky-pooh so nobody wanted to come over and catch the flu. Bummer right? They are actually in bed right now, so I decided to get me some computer time!

I was driving home today and I was thinking about Cole's birth. Will and I talk about it often and it's so nice to look back on it. I remember feeling that the world had stopped, and in that moment, in those first few days, how nobody and nothing else mattered. I was complete.

I pray for a baby brother or sister for Cole and I forget how truly blessed we are to have this little man in our lives. Perhaps, I should spend less time praying for another little miracle and some time thanking Him for the blessings I already have...

These are some of my New Years Resolutions:
to be grateful more often
to want less
to have something to offer emotionally (help here Sissy)
to cook meals for my family regularly
to be super duper awesome at designing and all things digital
to balance the checkbook (do not laugh Will and all his coworkers-Ken...Tony-I am serious!)
to be more attentive to my son and husband (spend less time on the computer)

It is midnight as I write this line! I would not have known had the fireworks not started blasting off. Will and Cole are asleep already. I wish Cole could see the fireworks :(

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!!

Bittersweet: Part 2

So I get there for Christmas lunch and Cole actually tells me "night night" and asks for "rocky" which means to be rocked. So I rock him and he knocks out. I take him into Mimi's room and I lay him down and attempt to leave. He stirs so I decide to just skip lunch and lay with my baby boy and I notice he feels warm. I kinda dismiss it and a little later I check him again and he's getting warmer. We check his temperature with those underarm thermometers that take forever and we can't get an accurate reading because he's fussing now. I think at one point it reads 104.7 and we head home.

At home we check it with our thermal thermometer and it's just above 103, not good. So we give him Tylenol (you know it0the generic stuff), we try to put wet towels on him and then we get him in a tepid bath to bring his temperature down. He kicks and screams and cries out to us, meanwhile, Will and I and Gloria are all trying to appease him, dancing and singing, and jumping around like fools. This pretty much goes on for days, even today he had a fever. Went to see Dr. Johnson the day after Christmas and Cole had no strep or flu so we are just trying to stay on top of the fever with Tylenol and Motrin and some Ceron for the cough and congestion. It's when he sleeps that the fevers get out of hand. We finally figured that we have to be waking him every four hours to give him some meds because otherwise the fever gets out of control.

Despite all this heartache, I do have to say that Cole is taking his medicine very well. He freaks when he sees the dropper but when we put it into the little tsp vials we tell him it's juicy and he drinks it right up. He even asks for more! I have to thank Tammy for this genius idea. Goodness how it works. Now it's not foolproof. You can take a child to juice but you can't make him drink always. Sometimes he's so out of sorts with the fever that he just looks at it like the thought of lifting his little arm to take it is exhausting. His whole body is in pain, he whimpers and wants only to be held. My poor baby!

So just as I thought things were pretty bad at home with Cole sick, Will gets sick too. Cole is being very needy right now, and with reason, I'm pretty exhausted. I have Gloria's help but Cole wants his mommy right now so it's 24/7 Cole. Then Will gets sick and I'm all focused on Cole. I dismiss it for a cold, a 24 hour bug, it can't be that bad. That was on Sunday. He went to see the Dr. last night and guess what? Will has the freakin flu! I guess my sister was right when she said I had nothing to offer emotionally. I was too wrapped up in Cole and myself that I completely overlooked Will. So I went out last night at 11:30 into South McAllen to fill Will's prescription. I felt sooo bad. Did you know that Lee's Pharmacy is open until midnight, 7 days a week? How wonderful is that? I was in and out in 9 minutes!

Pray for the boys tonight: they have been under the weather for days!

Bittersweet

Cole has been under the weather since Christmas day. We went over to Mimi's house in the morning to exchange and open gifts. Cole was excited but drove us crazy after every single gift we opened he demanded "open it". He looked a little sad but then again we did refuse to open all his gifts. We still have some in the trunk of the car that are unwrapped but it seems it was just too much for him to handle. Actually, maybe it was too much for us to handle...Nothing made him happy:
Not even money:

I went home to take a nap and Will and Cole stayed at Mimi's to wait for Uncle's Mark and Darrin to get in from Houston. Will texts me asking me to bring some extra clothes for Cole because he was burning up in his jammies. I know, I know, I forgot to leave his diaper bag in my haste to get to sleep land.

Meanwhile, Cole has grown to like the gift Aunt Wanda gave him. It's a rockin' (as in awesome!) horse that neighs and has a brush and everything. Cole was a little freaked out about it at first but he quickly saw the joy in it:
Thank you thank you so much Aunt Wanda! I do also want to say that a few days before Christmas Will had set up the horse so Cole could open it up on Christmas and immediately ride it. We were so thrilled with the horse and knew that Cole would love it and we were so thankful that Aunt Wanda had thought of Cole at Christmas. She and Uncle Bob were in our thoughts. That evening, we found out that Uncle Bob had passed away. So the story about the horse is bittersweet. Even more the reason to treasure it.

I had intended to keep going with the blog but I am kinda sad now and I'll try to continue it tomorrow. Really, so much more to update but Uncle Bob deserves a whole post to himself.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Keeping today's post short-it's Christmas and we want to spend it with family visiting! So Merry Christmas ya'll!!!!!!

Checking it Twice

I wanted to get an early start this morning but I knew last night that since it was cold, I would want to sleep in with Cole. So that was the plan. Well, it would have happened anyway and I know better so I planned to sleep in in advance. So this morning Will keeps coming in and out of the room and I am thinking, "you do realize that he's going to wake up?" I would have said it but I didn't want to wake him up. I was afraid to move even. Then Will asks me if I have seen his wallet and at this point I can tell that he's just a tad frazzled. No, the constant coming in and out didn't tip me off...

So I wonder to myself if he would be upset if I showed my concern from under the covers. He comes in again and looks in the same spot, for the third time. I better get up. So I get up and I look and he looks, and Gloria looks, and even Cole looks. No wallet. As Will is walking out Gloria reminds me that Will had taken his wallet out to buy me a pickle at Wal Mart. He was on his way there anyway but I was hoping to narrow his search. I tell him as he's driving off and he says that's probably when I lost it. Oh poop! It's my fault! So I run inside and call Wal Mart-because I want to save the day. They look and they don't find it. Will calls me and says he didn't find it either. Now we're all anxiously awaiting his arrivcal at work/the bank to see if the cards had been used. Then Will calls me and and says he found it. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! It was in his shirt pocket the whole time! But hey, I got up early afterall.

WordPress Blog

I am trying a new blog service, WordPress. Many businesses use them so I decided to give it a try with my designing stuff, Chic Farm Designs. I am very happy with Blogger but just a tad curious what all the WordPress hype is all about. Until I decide on a blog service "definitivamente" (I can't think of the translation), check it out!

Click here or copy and paste http://chicfarm.wordpress.com into your web browser to be directed to Chic Farm blog.

What the hey?

One more week until Christmas break and then after that it's only 2 more weeks until my last day of work. Excited but days like today kinda put the fear in me. Cole was great this morning but he was a little terror this evening. He keeps getting on top of the dining table because there used to be Christmas ornaments (balls) up there. After a week of this I finally had had enough so I moved them into the laundry room. I know what you're thinking, why aren't they in storage or on the tree? The reason is because Cole gets them off the tree so it looks hideous now. All the ornaments from the bottom half have been removed and there are some on the top. I don't even want to take a picture of it but I probably should so he will always remember.
Anyway, back to the point:
So now on the table were Cole's Christmas gifts and now he's been getting up there to get those. I know, were not very bright! So I got smart and decided to wrap gifts in the living room as my mom was there distracting Cole. Did I mention he loves wrapping paper? So he comes into the living room and sees the paper and as I look away he grabs it. What is it with the freaking wrapping papper?
So we get mad at him for that and put him in time out, he cries. Then my mom leaves, he cries. Then he wants milk but he keeps tilting his sippy cup upside down and it starts dripping. We can't find the leak and after about 5 times of dripping milk on the couch, we decide to take it away from him. He cries. So we have movie time and Cole starts getting restless, pointing to and naming my glasses, ears, eyes, no (nose) face, etc....We threaten him with putiting him the crib. He says, "moo-y time" (translation: movie time) very matter of factly, like it's his right! So we think it's cute and don't really want to battle him crying so we let him stay up a little longer. He keeps messing around, asking for milk and his "vrooms" and finally I say to him, "kiss daddy and mommy". So he does and I take him to his room and put him in his crib. Nothing. I tell him goodnight and give him a kiss and tell him I am going to turn the fan on. Nothing. I turn the fan on, walk out, and close the door. Nothing. I walk away, sit down, and we continue watching the movie. 30 minutes later, still nothing. He's out without a battle. What the hey just happened?

Ho! Ho!

Even big boys beleive in Santa! Here we have Santa 1 and Santa 2:

Oh my, what a whirlwind of a weekend! It was so much fun! You wouldn't believe the beautiful questions the littles asked the Santas. Some questions and requests:

Is it cold in the North Pole?

What do you feed the reindeer? (Santa replied "Candy, of course!")

One little boy told Santa that all he wanted for Christmas was to have a happy Christmas. Santa asked him if he wanted anything else and he said, "just a happy Christmas". Melted our hearts.

Some of the greatest pictures were of the parents trying to get their kids to smile for the camera. They were pulling tricks out of their hats left and right. It was so cute to see so much enthusiasm.

Now I have to say Thank You Thank You to my Santas, Will and Blaine. Dad didn't have to be Santa at all because these super troopers did it all. Dad was happy about that:)

Especially a big thank you to Drs. Blaine and Jana Hendrick! They worked almost 15 hours this weekend and all volunteer. We tried to slip some money in their pockets but it ended back up in mine. What we would have done without you? Santa Blaine even had a tough time because he was Santa during the Tea with Santa and those little girls are demanding! They started dancing and they wanted funky or techno music. The beat was too slow with the Christmas songs. Santa Blaine had to dance and he was awesome. A natural Santa, so jolly and friendly. Thanks guys, we owe you big: looks like we'll be laying some tile in your house here soon!Clare Bear, a good friend of my sister's, also helped out all day Saturday and Sunday. She was the photographer and sharp on her toes. She kept me grounded during the crazy times, and there were some when the line was backing up and all I had to do was look at her all calm and collected and it soothed me. Thank you Clare and John Paul (for giving up your mommy for the weekend).

Santa Will was excited about the ladies wanting to take pictures with him. He assured me that he was Santa and as his duty, he had to let them sit on their lap. I agreed and some pretty hot chicks got to take pictures with Santa Will. Can you guess if she was naughty or nice?Then of course we got some family pictures of is. Cole was not at all scared of Santa. That was probably because Santa's suit was laying all over the house the last two days. He would walk by it and say, "Ho Ho" with a deep voice. He refuses to call him Santa, just "Ho Ho".

Cole with Santa Daddy:


Cole with Santa Blaine:

Blast

We had a blast today! More pics to come!

Guess what?

It's been a busy week at work and at home. I have Dias Festivos starting for me tomorrow and it has been so relaxing this time around. I am actually enjoying it. Last year was crazy because we were out of town until the day of and there was a lot of last minute scrambling.

I didn't go to work today nor will I go tomorrow trying to help out Junior League with the event. I also have some news that I have been waiting for weeks to announce. No it's not that:(

My last day of work will be January 16. I had originally planned on not returning after the holidays but the semester ends for us in the new year so I decided to stay until then. I had to wait to say anything because I had to tell the school first and I needed to make sure they would release me from my contract.

I will be staying home with Cole. I'll continue to do the etiquette consulting and the designing part time from home.

Oh even better news: my mom is retiring December 19! I am sooo excited for her, and me! That woman has worked herself to the core, she needs a break. Just when I thought she could relax, she decided to get a job doing taxes during tax season. That woman just does not rest! I am amazed by her energy. We are excited to maybe get to travel a bit. I just can't believe my mom is going to retire and be home. Now she has more time for me:) I can't wait!

What else, what else? Oh I got this amazing photo printer. It prints out all sizes of photos borderless! It also prints onto CDs and DVDs but I haven't figured out how.

Cole is using two and three words together now. I was rocking him the other night and Yaya was in the bathroom and she moved something and it made a noise. Cole looked up at me and said, "Yaya doing". He wanted to know what Yaya was doing.