Christmas- Part 2

Okay, so here's a more detailed Christmas week post.

Thursday morning I noticed Wren was feeling really hot after breakfast.  Like really hot.  I took her temp and she was at 102.7 degrees.  Pretty warm.  I called the pediatrician's office, and the doctor told us to alternate giving her acetaminophen and ibuprofen to bring her fever down and to call in the morning if her fever was still pretty high.  Friday morning she was still running a fever, so we took her in to see the doctor mainly because we were leaving to go back to Minnesota and Wisconsin the next day.  We didn't want to take any chances.  Turns out she had an ear infection!  Poor baby.  She really wasn't acting like she was in any pain at all, but the doctor prescribed us Amoxicillin.  I really, really, really didn't want to put her on  antibiotics.  At all.  My reasons?  Antibiotic-resistant bacteria.... antibiotics also kill off GOOD bacteria along with the bad... we would be putting Wren at an increased risk of picking up other illnesses... oh, and ear infections take care of themselves  within a few days with or without antibiotics.  So yeah, Chris talked me into it mainly because we were leaving the next day and it would be horrible to be so far away from home if things did (in the absolute worst case scenario) get any worse.  If we were going to be home for the holidays, I would have held off on filling the prescription.  But we weren't and I didn't.  Ah.  So many hard decisions to make as a parent.  She did end up looking and feeling better after just a couple of days (was is the antibiotics, or merely just the passing of time?....) BUT she does seem to have a reaction to the Amoxicillin.  She has a pink dotty rash all over her body... tummy, face, feet.... and a wicked looking diaper rash.  Poor girl.  I have been pushing her to eat yogurt every day, and I picked up a bottle of probiotics for her to take every afternoon.  I'm hoping things clear up soon.... and that we have no more ear infections in the future!  :)

Okay, so.... that was Thursday and Friday.  Friday night was Christmas with Chris's family... and lots of last minute packing for leaving the next morning.  Saturday (Christmas Eve), we left our house around 10:00am to go to my dad's house.  We only had to make two stops along the way (one to eat lunch, and one to get gas and let Wren stretch her baby legs).  We arrived in Baraboo around dinner time... 6pm, maybe?  We had dinner at my dad's and hung out a bit before heading to our hotel for the night.  Wren did great sleeping at the hotel!  We brought her pack and play and set it up outside of the bathroom door with the fan on.  Not a peep out of her the whole night.  We actually were awake before her the next morning even... both Chris and I really having to pee but didn't want to unnecessarily wake the baby!  Anyway, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then headed into Baraboo to go to Christmas morning mass.  We got there a little too early and ended up using up all of our "keep-Wren-occupied-tactics" too quickly.  She didn't make it more than a few minutes into mass.  I don't think she was feeling 100% well yet, and she was ready for a nap.  So, Chris stayed for a bit while I took Wren to the back of the church for a change of scenery.  About halfway through mass, while holding a squirmy, fussy, sick baby, I started to shoot laser beams with my eyes at the back of Chris's head.  Luckily, three years of marriage have honed Chris's laser beam sensors, and he immediately turned around, saw the look on my face, and bee-lined it to the back of the church.  So yeah, we left... but here are some pics of us on Christmas day!


Chris picked out Wren's pretty Christmas dress!

\
My Christmas cutie

Mommy and Wren!

All 3 of us!
I unfortunately had already changed out of the dress I wore that morning.

After a nap, before heading over to Grandpa and Grandma B's house!

Playing with her sock monkey on the bed

Oh my gosh, she makes me laugh!

After heading back to the hotel for a bit so Wren could nap, we went over to Dad and Barb's to spend the day.  Graham and Melissa had just gotten into town, Lee got in the night before, and Joe was able to make an appearance for a bit, too!  We had lunch, opened presents, and watched Wren play.  

Opening presents!

Wren got a personalized Radio Flyer Wagon from Grandpa and Grandma!
Notice the Wisconsin "W"?  Hahaha....

Family shot
(Love the senior pics peeking through on the mantle)

Wren enjoying Christmas lunch

Even being sick, she never lost her appetite!

So glad Wren got to spend time with her "Wisconsin Grandparents" :)
Christmas Post Part 3 tomorrow....

Christmas- Part 1

Our Christmas celebration started off on the 23rd with Chris's family. 

Poor Wren had an ear infection and was looking pretty pathetic. 

I made sock monkeys for Macy and Wren for Christmas this year.

Despite the amateur sewing, I think they turned out pretty cute! :)

Messy Fun

I can't even remember what this meal was... but Wren really enjoyed it.

The dog did, too.

I've been a bad blogger lately.  

Sorry.

Life just seems to get in the way :) 

Cutest thing I've ever seen. 

Squirrel Watching

Wren likes looking out the back doors into our backyard.
On this particular day, the backyard entertainment was provided by a couple of lively squirrels.

"What, Moooooom?"

Wren has fine-tuned her squirrel watching skills under the tutelage of the best squirrel watcher/chaser (but never squirrel-catcher) around. 

Two buds just hangin' out watchin' squirrels all day long.

Those darn squirrels.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Yay for Christmastime!  I have always loved the holidays, but I think they are even more exciting since starting a family.  I can't wait until Wren is old enough to know what the holidays are all about.  This year, she surprisingly shows little interest in the Christmas tree.  I was afraid she was going to pull ornaments and lights off, eat the fallen needles, play in the tree water.... but no, she really doesn't care.  I did snap a quick photo of her admiring an ornament.  I think she pulled it off and played with it for about 2 seconds, threw it to the side, and crawled off to play somewhere else...



One night last week, Jim, Kathleen, Drew, Matt, Josie, and Macy came over for pizza.  We tried to get some pictures of the girls wearing Santa hats.  It wasn't a super successful photo shoot.... oh well....

I think Wren is wondering what in the heck Macy is wearing on her head

Group shot

Haha, this cracks me up.

Happy Holidays! :)

Uncle Graham's Visit

Graham came to visit us last weekend!  He flew in from Atlanta on Friday night... Wren and I went to pick him up from the airport and we ordered pizza and watched a movie.  Saturday was the Big 10 Championship football game.  Chris, Graham, and I went downtown to check out the spread.  It looked pretty neat.  Graham stayed downtown and went to the game with some of his buddies that came down from Madison to watch Wisconsin play.  Chris and I went home.  It's funny how life changes.  At one point we were standing around a bunch of crazy college kids slamming beers, taking shots, shaving "W's" into the back of each other's heads.... and I'm just thinking to myself, "Oh man, my kid is going to be awake waaaaay too early in the morning.... I have to go home."  Apparently this is called "growing up" or something like that.  Haha, anyway, I'm glad that Graham got to go to the game, and Wisconsin won!  Woohoo!  We spent the rest of the weekend just hanging out.  Graham made us some yummy stuffed meatballs on Sunday... we watched football and played with Wren until we had to take Graham back to the airport Sunday afternoon.  It was so nice to see him!


The Beebletron and her Uncle Graham

Reading books together

I think Graham was really getting into this story

Wren making a list (with Uncle Graham's help) to send to Aunt Sorcha

Going for a walk

Graham, being the engineer that he is, constructed a scale model of his latest project out of Wren's blocks.
Wren, being the Godzilla baby that she is, hulk smashed it in typical Godzilla baby fashion.

Having fun with her uncle!

Just hangin'

Haha this makes me laugh... Graham peekin'

So glad Graham came up to visit!  Looking forward to seeing him again (and the rest of the Minnesota/Wisconsin family) in just a couple of weeks!

8 Months!

I think the trick to taking these month-to-month pics is to have a prop for Wren to hold.
She looooooved the candy cane.  She actually got it open a bit on the bottom, so she had a wonderful time chewing away on all the sugary goodness inside.  I think my baby may have a sweet tooth already.
Ah, well... I guess it was inevitable with the combination of Chris's genes and my genes anyway....
we are some serious sugar addicts over here.

Okay, anyway... here's my 8 month old!

2 teeth on the top!

I attempted to take a picture with the Santa hat on.

Wren definitely was not a fan...

My beautiful baby!

Oh, Wren... at 8 months she is on the go.  All the time.  Crawling everywhere.  Trying to get into everything.  The cat food.  And the water bowl.  And the plants.  And now her latest obsession is the toilet.  Ewww.  She loves pulling herself up on the toilet.  Not only is she pulling herself up to standing all the time, but she is beginning to let go and stand for a few seconds unassisted.  She's getting pretty good at it!  I think we need to get her some sort of push around walker for her.  It's crazy to think she will be walking soon!  Let's see... Wren is also quite the eater.  She eats anything and everything we give her.  The other day she had pomegranate seeds, lemon orzo, and brussel sprouts for lunch.  Brussel sprouts!  I was well into my 20's before I could stomach brussel sprouts.  Crazy.  She has quite the appetite, too.  This morning for breakfast she ate 2/3 of a banana, 1/4 of a pumpkin waffle, yogurt with flax seed, and then nursed before nap!  She's just a growin' girl!     

Baking with Grandma T

Grandma T came over to babysit for a bit...

and she brought homemade banana crackers!

Someone really wanted to help...

Can't wait until she can be my little helper in the kitchen.

She already has her own set of measuring spoons!  :)

Play Date

Wren and I had a play date last week with some of the moms (and their beautiful baby girls) from our breastfeeding support group.  It's so much fun getting together with them all!


Wren and her buddy Sara just standin' around.

Sad little chicky.

The girls all together!

Some of the girls showing off their skillzzzz...
Clapping, standing, not looking at the camera.

All of us!

So, so, so much fun hanging out with these ladies!  Looking forward to the next play date! 

Dull's Tree Farm

We got our Christmas tree from Dull's Tree Farm the day after Thanksgiving this year.  The earliest we have ever gotten one!  I love having it up in the house.  It smells so good... even if it still isn't decorated yet.  Chris and I have gone to Dull's Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas tree 5 years in a row now.  We love it there, and I hope it's a tradition we can continue.  Wren was pretty excited about it all....


It was kinda windy, but it was still a warm and sunny day!  
Not a super Christmasy feel, but ideal weather when taking a 7 month old out to cut down a tree.

Our tree is in there somewhere.  We always get a Canaan fir.  It was a little more difficult choosing the "perfect tree" this year because it was opening day at the tree farm... we had the first pick of this year's trees!  Usually we go a little bit later in the Christmas season, so the trees are more picked over.  This year it was hard to decide which perfect tree was the tree for us!  

Searching for our tree.

Found it!  Chris cutting it down.

This place is soooooo cute!

I'm sad we didn't get a picture of of the 3 of us... I will have to take one after we finally get the tree decorated.  Hopefully soon!  We decided to rearrange the living room a bit after we brought the tree in the house, so the living room and the dining room are in complete disarray right now...  I'm not joking.  It totally looks like our house has been ransacked.  I really don't want to add all the Christmas stuff to the mess just yet.  I'm hoping to get the house back together tomorrow, and then Christmas decorations are going up!