My Boys

Fun with Dad! from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

The Day of Turkey

Thanksgiving this year was a hit! We had dinner at our house and we invited Ariel, Robert, Rachel and Scott. Chris R. even ended up coming because he got called back from his family vacation on a flight (that never happened). Sad circumstances, but it we were happy to have him!

Everyone arrived at 1pm to partake in appetizers and drinks. Ariel brought mimosas, which really hit the spot. The guys played ladder golf while I tackled the turkey. It ended up having to cook for an hour longer than I had planned.

For dinner I shook things up with a few of the dishes:

• Herb-injected turkey
• Garlic mashed potatoes and gravy
• Chipotle scalloped sweet potatoes
• Green bean casserole (made with fresh green beans, not mushy canned)
• Mac and cheese (just noticed this recipe is by Paula Deen = eesh)
• Butt rolls
• Stuffin Muffins
• Cranberry-orange relish (not a big fan of canned cranberry sauce)
• Spinach, cranberry and walnut salad

YUM DELICIOSO!

Rachel sipping a mimosa while I hand mashed the potatoes - deal with it Chris ;)

Travis and Chris enjoy ladder golf

Ariel, Rachel and Toby watching the game

Aiden was pleading with his eyes for someone to stop Daddy from feeding him more sweet potatoes (homemade!)

Scott is so photogenic.

After dinner we played the game Apples to Apples. We also downed a pot of coffee to counteract the effects of tryptophan. For dessert, Ariel and Robert brought homemade pumpkin and pecan pies and Rachel brought spice cakes. Ugh I was SO full!

I had such a great time with our friends and family. I am so thankful to have such great people in our lives. I hope your day was a great as ours!

Babies Holding Babies

Wow. It's been a long time since I've gone through my photos. I almost forgot to upload these pics I took when we had the BBQ a couple weeks ago. I never wrote about that. Hm. Anyhoo, We had a bunch of friends over for a cook out and when dusk arrived, the mosquitoes hit hard so we headed inside. Alexa was holding Aiden and Blair was being really fussy about it. She tried handing Aiden over to Chris, but he got fussy about that too. Finally, they just sat Aiden right on Blair's lap and that solved everything!

Blair LOVED it. I don't think Aiden really understood what was going on. LOL!

Old bike, old girl

My dad studied abroad for a year in London. He used this bike to drive around Europe and somewhere along the way met this young lady. This is all before he met my mother.

It's so weird to think that my parents had lives before us. Hell, before they even met each other. But then again, I think about Aiden and how much life we lived before he came into the picture. I guess the circle of life goes on.

My dad is contemplating buying a bike again. It makes me laugh a little, but I think it would be good for him. You only get to do this life thing once!

Viruses suck it

I know that I make my living working with a virus, but they still suck. Aiden has a low grade fever and has since yesterday. The daycare called me to say he had a fever of 105. !!! I freaked out, drove like a maniac to the daycare and straight to the doctor's office. When we got there, they checked his temperature and it was only 100.3. Doc said there is no way a fever could drop that fast, so there is a good chance his temp was actually 100.5 at daycare and that last zero got lost somewhere in the word transfer. Not a fun joke to play on Mom.

The doctor diagnosed Aiden with a viral throat infection. That means there is nothing we can do but wait it out. In the meantime, I am treating the symptoms (fever) and trying to ensure that he gets enough fluids.

Random funny fact I learned from the doctor: Aiden has hairy ear canals. She said it is fine, baby hair, but it is significant enough that she had trouble seeing his ear drums. LOL

Aiden has not slept through the night for a week now. This cold stuffs up his nose to the point that it wakes him up. I am exhausted. Actually, I think I am going back to sleep until Aiden gets up again. When he got up for the 7th time at about 5:15 this morning I checked his temp to find he still has his fever. I'm going to stay home with him today. If he is still sick tomorrow then Travis or Auntie Ariel will take care of him.

I'm sure this is the original meaning, but it is all new to me: I'm going to stay home and nurse my son back to health today.

Try to stay virus free!

Tags

Aiden is getting into the "tag phase". I think most people who have a young child know what I am talking about. It's kind of weird actually. He has a sudden intense facination with tags. You know, the little cloth strip on most stuffed animals and blankets on which the care instructions are printed. Whenever he notices a tag on a toy, he spends a good five minutes just playing with it. Then it usually ends up in his mouth. As do most things these days.

This "tag phase" is so prominent that toy makers have actually started manufacturing toys and blankets with a gazillion tags sewn into the seams. Aiden got a stuffed car toy in the mail from my cousin that is covered in tags. He mostly gets annoyed with it at the moment, I think because it is too large for him to manipulate for now. He'll grow into it, I'm sure.

This weekend was fun and, as always, too quick. Travis went with a friend of ours to his mom's house four hours away to help do some work around her house. He left EARLY Saturday and got back Sunday just before lunch. They may have worked hard, but I think they played harder. ;)

I didn't do a whole lot of playing while they were gone. Aiden and I ran some errands, and I spent a full day doing laundry and cleaning house in preparation of the holidays. It's been a long time since I've cleaned the whole house, top to bottom. It always makes me feel so good when I can go home and not have any chores to do. Although, that never lasts long. There are always bottles stacking up in the sink (Playtex drop-ins help cut back on that a little) and cat poo building up in the litter box. So fun.

Tonight is grocery night. I was hoping to buy the food for Thanksgiving this weekend, but I didn't have time. Instead I'm going three days before Turkey Day. I hope there's food left at the store!! I've got my fingers crossed that this year won't be as tough as last year. Everyone is bringing some food this year, so that should mean I don't have to buy as much. Last year I had so much food that I had to use TWO grocery carts. Now that was tricky.

Peas Please

Aiden has now been eating peas every evening for the past couple days and he seems to like them. With each jar of new food, it takes him a day or two before he opens his mouth to accept the food willingly. The first day is full of food shivers which can be seen at about the 1:02 mark in this video. They make me laugh. I'm looking forward to feeding Aiden sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. I never knew how much joy I would get out of feeding a baby.

Aiden's sleep patterns have been pretty messed up lately. Ever since the time change, he has been getting up "an hour early". Sometimes an hour and a half early. I put those quotes there because he is still getting up at the same time as he used to, but now with the time change it works out to be an hour early. And it's horrible. When he wakes up, he's fine. He just lays in his bed and jabbers away. I have been torn on what to do. Let him sit there and babble and hope that he will eventually learn to put himself back to sleep? Or go in to swaddle him when I know he will fall immediately back to sleep?

Everyone I've talked to says that if we put him to bed earlier, he should sleep later. I guess the phrase here is "sleep begets sleep". The problem is that I can't put him to sleep earlier without him missing a feeding. Usually when I feed Aiden, I breastfeed and then supplement with up to 4 ounces of formula. Lately, he has been refusing the bottle frequently. Aiden takes a nap from 6 to 7:30 every night. We get him up to feed and then he goes back down by 8:30. I've decided that tonight I am going to only breastfeed him (takes less time) and I am going to do it back in his bedroom with only the night lights on. Hopefully that will keep his waking to a minimum and will go right back to sleep.

I hope this makes a difference in when he wakes up. I am EXHAUSTED. His jabber keeps me awake in the morning. And even on the nights when it's Travis' turn to get up with him, I am the one who is alerted by Aiden's talk or crying. Then I have to wake up Travis to go take care of him. I'm thankful that I don't have to get out of bed, but I am awake nonetheless.

Oh ya - Wednesday night Aiden woke up at 1:30am. He was back to sleep before I even finished reswaddling him, but I worry this might be a sign of what's to come. I am fairly confident that it is due to the severe cold he is fighting. His nose seems to get almost entirely plugged up. That makes him really mad. The logistics of nursing with a fully plugged nose do not add up. I'm wondering if that might be why he hasn't been eating very well lately either.

Ugh, there is so much to worry about with a kid!!

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NEW MOON IS IN THEATERS TODAY!! NEW MOON IS IN THEATERS TODAY!! In case you've been living under a rock. Seriously, there is no excuse to not know this. All the husbands of my friends may not particularly want to see this film, but they know it comes out today.

As entertaining as it would be to see all the kiddos in character costumes, I have opted to wait until next weekend to go. I know I could never get to the theater early enough to get a decent seat. Every movie I've seen opening weekend, I spent sitting in the front row staring up the nostril of each actor.

The bummer about not seeing New Moon today is that I will probably see some of the trailers that divulge more of the movie than I am ready to see. I just may have to avoid the TV today...