Hangin' by a thread...

I am SO tired. Since February 7th I have not gotten more than 3 CONSECUTIVE hours of sleep a night. Lucy had the croup and Ruby had a nasty cold. Lucy has gotten better but she still wakes up and screams/yells/fusses at least 3 times a night.

When I took Ruby and Lucy to the dr. on the 9th he said that Ruby would be over it in a few days...well, I guess she took that as a challenge.

She hasn't been sleeping well since she got sick (naps or night time)...Wednesday night was a doozy though. She woke up at 1am and I could tell by the fussing coming from the monitor that she was really awake. I went in and tried to comfort her without picking her up but she had other ideas about that!

So I held her and snuggled her up against me and sat in the rocker...FOR AN HOUR! She would have her eyes closed and I would be just about to get up and lay her back down then her eyes would pop open. She would start crying if I attempted to lay her back down so I kept holding her. After an hour she decided she didn't even want to be in her room anymore. So I brought her downstairs, changed her diaper, gave her some water, and tried to snuggle in the chair with her. Uh-uh...no way...she was in the mood to play!

She was FINALLY tired enough at 3:30 for me to rock her...but she wasn't going back to sleep that easily. I thought she was asleep at 3:45 so I took her upstairs and put her in her crib. Just as I put her down her eyes flew open. I tried to walk out thinking she'd go right back to sleep. Well, let's just say I should have had "STUPID" written across my face if I thought that. She started an all out scream fest (that the other three kids AND my husband surprisingly slept through!!!...I actually think John was faking it because he didn't want to get involved ;p) I got her calmed down and back downstairs and we rocked, and rocked, and rocked some more.

I zombie walked her back to her crib at 4:30. She stayed asleep. I wish my other kids had ;p Max had somehow snuck into my bed with John so I went down to the couch. About 10 minutes later Lucy was fussing, then Abby, then Lucy. At that point I gave up and decided to just have a cup of coffee by myself and enjoy the 30 minutes before I had to get Max and Abby up for school. Ha! On my way to the kitchen Abby comes creeping down the stairs. It was a looooooonnnnnnggggggg Thursday.

Thursday night? Hmmmm...let's just say, "Lather.Rinse.Repeat." This time our story took place between the hours of 1:30-4am.

Once Ruby threw up this morning my plans to take her to the dr. in the afternoon changed quickly. They worked us in and by golly my sweet baby has a right ear that was on it's way to becoming infected AND a sinus infection. I'm SO GLAD I got her in this morning because it gave us enough time to get 2 doses of antibiotic in her before bedtime. The dr. assures me that we will see a definite improvement before the end of the weekend. I am holding him to it dang it!

So, what's hangin' by a thread?

My sanity.

Teeth

Abby's tooth drama has continued. The poor kid ended up needing 2 teeth repaired (back molars chipped), what we thought would be a simple filling in another bottom molar which actually ended up being a "minor" root canal...(I know, how can a root canal be minor"), the spacer put back in that had to be removed a few months ago, AND one of her front top teeth pulled because it was dead!

She had 2 fillings in the tooth but they were in the sides of the tooth and couldn't be seen because they are so crowded in there. Apparently one of the fillings had come out and the tooth went kaput!

So to recap...since October of 2009 she has had...

8 fillings

3 root canals

2 teeth pulled

3 spacers (the one she had put back in right before Christmas actually broke! Her dentist said he'd never seen a kid break a spacer in that spot before in over 12 years of dentistry...yes, Abby strives to be unique!)

Yes, I take her for regular cleanings/checkups...

Yes, her dentist told us at her first checkup that we should definitely expect to be paying for braces in the future...

Yes, she brushes everyday AND flosses AND we use a special toothpaste.

Yes, she is my child and has inherited my bad teeth...

Yes, I am my father's child and got them from him ;p MY dentist even says that (he's my parent's dentist too!)

I had to have 2 root canals and 2 crowns last year. My second root canal was in a tooth that was an anchor for my bridge. The tooth was so damaged that the bridge came off a few weeks later (on it's own). After some tricky and very clever work by my awesome dentist I didn't have to lose the tooth and now have a crown!

My parents already paid for braces for me...YEARS ago! I guess this is payback time :)

I just realized..February is Dental Health Month...

GO GET YOUR TEETH CLEANED PEOPLE!!!!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas was wonderful as always!

On Christmas Eve we went to the Children's Service at John's church. Basically it was an abbreviated service where we sang a lot of Christmas Carols.

When we got home we started getting dinner ready because my mom and dad were coming over for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. This year I was going to go all out and then my mom suggested just getting some BBQ. Of course once I mentioned that to John he agreed wholeheartedly. So he had picked up some BBQ for us and I made some sides. Although the meal itself would have done perfectly well on paper plates I insisted that we were going to use the good china!

We enjoyed our meal and the kids, already wound up, got into their Christmas pj's and we went online to the NORAD website to see if we could track Santa. They got so excited and so once my parents left we had to try to calm the kids down enough to go to bed!

Sticking to my own tradition, I made some hot chocolate, turned on "A Christmas Story" and wrapped some presents. Once I was done I headed off to bed so Santa would come.

Christmas morning the kids woke up and I got out my new Flip video camera (an early present from John) and we came downstairs. The kids were so excited to see that Santa had brought them Pillow Pets for Christmas!

They opened their stockings first and laughed about the fact that Santa had once again left them new underwear in their stockings!!! Even daddy!

Abby had only asked for clothes, shoes, and jewelry for Christmas...yes, she's only 5! When I asked her if she wanted any toys she said she thought we had enough so she didn't need anymore...WOW!

Max was NOT excited at all about the clothes he received and Lucy was just as thrilled with hers as Abby was.

For breakfast I made maple pecan sticky buns and they were gone within 10 minutes of coming out of the oven!

We hung out for awhile, cleaned up the mess, put together and played with some toys, then we got ready to go up to my parents house.

Abby with her stocking stuff...lip gloss and underpants were a hit!

John helping Lucy with her stocking and Ruby enjoying the treats Santa left her!

Max and his pillow pet! I don't know what was wrong with my camera that made his face so bright!

Once we got to my mom and dad's we hung out until my sister Shea and her family arrived and then my sister Mallory and her boyfriend. Once everyone was under one roof we had a big dinner! Every year since Molly and Abby were born, my mom has bought the kids matching Christmas p.j.'s and has taken a picture of the grand kids for her Christmas card. Through the years the number of grands has grown (Shea and I both have 4 kids) and she and my dad have gotten into the picture as well...complete with Christmas p.j.'s in coordinating colors :)

This year they decided they wanted the WHOLE family in the picture and we had to wear p.j.'s too. John, and my brother in law John and Mallory's boyfriend Dustin were very vocal in their lack of enthusiasm for the p.j.'s. I guess it was my mom saying they wouldn't get their presents if they didn't cooperate that finally changed their minds ;)

Once the pictures were taken it was time to find a spot on the floor and open presents. With 8 kids and 8 adults it was C.R.A.Z.Y. !!!!! I'm always so nervous that with that much paper flying around that some one's gift is going to get lost in the trash pile!

We had a great time and the kids were exhausted by the time we got the van loaded up and got them home. It has become tradition that the kids and I head back over to my parents' house the day after Christmas so the cousins can have a full day of play time. Jack and Max go off together, Abby and Molly go their way, and this was the first year that Lucy and Sophie and Macy actually played together. I like to joke that Lucy is the luckiest cousin. She has 2 of them that are her age so if one doesn't want to play anymore she still has another one to play with :) Poor Ruby doesn't have a cousin her age but I'm sure with all the older girls that she will be mother henned more than she can handle :)

So that was Christmas 2010. At least I posted about it before Valentine's Day ;P

Happy Belated Birthday Ruby!

"Happy 1st Birthday to ME!!!"

Ruby celebrating turning 1 :)

I am so incredibly late in posting this but I can't NOT do it. Ruby turned a year old on December 13th. Where did the year go? We had her party on Sunday the 12th. It was us, my parents, my sisters, nieces and nephew, and our good friend Ms. Jackie with her little man Henry. We were decorated for Christmas but we had a ladybug theme. I made Ladybug cupcakes for the party and we just had some of Ruby's favorite snacks to eat...goldfish crackers, pretzels, and cookies.

Ruby and Henry really hit it off! Playing a game of catch.

"I'm not eating that Nana...You eat it"

This was after I had to take her out of her high chair because she started screaming at her cupcake and didn't want it...AT ALL!

Ladybug cupcakes

Waiting to open presents...

We had a great time and just can't believe my last baby isn't a baby anymore!

Ruby had her 1 year checkup on her actual birthday.

She weighed in at 17 pounds 2 ounces (3rd percentile)

She measured 28 1/2 inches (25th percentile)

and her head circumference was in the 60th percentile.

I just figure she going to be a tiny genius when she grows up!

As of today (February 4th) at the ripe old age of 13 (almost 14) months Ruby can...

~ say "Mama", "Daddy", "Hi", "Bye-Bye", "Baby", "bath", "Nana", "Papa", "Tai (our cat)", and "Mimi"

~she almost says "Max" and does more than her share of jabbering :)

~she likes to pretend she has a "bad cough" - Nana taught her that one :)

~ She just started crawling within the past month (she had been dragging her body across the floor) and is pulling up to her feet on everything now. Doesn't act like she wants to walk yet though which is new for us because the other three walked on or before their first birthday.

~ Ruby LOVES to open the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet and pull all the papers out and fling them round the office.

~ Ruby has figured out how to play Peek-a-boo! She puts her little hands over her eyes and when I say, "Where's Ruby" she will pull her hands away and say "Boo".

~she has 5 teeth now. She's had the two on the bottom since about 11 months and the top front teeth (as well as one next to the front teeth) broke through a few days ago.

~Ruby loves to eat goldfish crackers (Nana always has those on hand!), pretzels, Ritz crackers, she is very good at eating triscuits...I think the rough texture feels good on her gums :) I'm watching hr like a hawk when she eats one though. She had her last bottle on Monday, December 20th. She is enjoying organic whole milk out of her sippy cups. She also enjoys throwing said cups on the floor when she is done with them!

~ Ruby is in her last box of size 4 diapers...moving on up to 5's now :)

~ She is still wearing a lot of 12 month sized clothes but the 12-18 month size is fitting better now.

~ She is still rear facing in the car because she hasn't hit the 20lb. mark yet.

~She went through a spurt (this past month) where she wouldn't go to sleep on her own at night and I would have to hold her and rock her until she fell asleep. Normally I wouldn't do that (and didn't with the other two girls...we learned our lesson with Max) but I thought about it one night and figured that this is my last baby. I will not have this again and I am going to savor every moment. She went through the phase for about 2-3 weeks and the past couple of nights has put herself to sleep again.

Ruby is such a joy and although she was a complete surprise, I couldn't imagine my life or our family without her. Looking forward to what her second year brings...