Well it's been an interesting week. I was not feeling well the week before we left and went to the doctor to get some meds so that I could be on the mends by the time we got to Texas. Unfortunately, I wasn't better, but worse by the time we got there. Slept most of the time I was in Texas and was in tears Thanksgiving afternoon because I felt so bad and couldn't enjoy all my family as much as I wanted to. My cousin's wife, Karen, had an unfilled Z-pac prescription that she filled for me and I started taking that Friday. By Friday evening I was feeling a lot better and was even able to stay up a little late to play cards with everyone (big family tradition on my mom's side). But by Friday evening Mark was hit hard with the same thing. His ears never popped after our flight home on Sunday causing a double-ear infection and his sinus infection was so severe they gave him a steroid shot to help jump start his antibiotics. I think tonight is the first night our whole family is energetic enough to enjoy an evening together. It has been quite the holiday, but despite all of that Hamilton has miraculously stayed healthy!!
We did have a great time with family and friends while we were in town. I got to catch up with some friends over lunch and we got to share some great laughs with my parents and Katie (Hamilton usually be the center or cause of most of them). I am so thankful for Hamilton and the pure joy he has brought to my entire family - the light that shines from his eyes is just contagious!
As a general update I'm working furiously on our stockings - I'm almost done with Mark's and Hamilton's, but haven't started mine yet. Still have high hopes that Santa will be able to fill them on Christmas Eve. We have adopted a new family rule: No more than 3 nightly commitments in a week (including weekend daytime). We were finding ourselves 'overbooking' ourselves and running our family time out the window. It has been nice to really put better boundaries on our time together. Work is great! I'm still loving my new position. I'm project lead on an on-line assimilation project. We are hoping we can move some of what we do at our GroupLink events to an on-line format. I have a lot of meetings starting up this week to start ideation, brainstorming, and to get some traction on implementation. Hamilton is talking a little more these days and is really starting to express his own opinions. Will answer our questions (usually with a "Noooo" - he sorta sings it) to questions such as, "Would you like some jello?" or "Can you give mommy a kiss?" It's pretty cute. He has recently become obsessed with trains (aka: 'choo-choo') and watching Thomas the Train. He still loves his cars, but currently they are a close second. He loves to read. If he wakes up early from his naps I can go in turn on his light dimly and put about 10 books in his crib and he'll sit there another hour and read to himself. (He usually is down from about 1:00 to 4:00 so I'll do this if he is up at 2:30/3:00 so that he has his full quiet time). Overall...well he's just precious!!
On to what you all care about anyway...pictures.
We did our gift exchange with my aunt Mary Jane and this bow was on his present. He loved it and put it on his head and just walked around. Of course he started realizing everyone was getting a kick out of it and every time it fell off he put it back on. It was too funny!!
I don't even remember taking this picture with Dad, but I thought it turned out great considering how I was feeling!
Mom always playing with the kiddos...she loves it and is truly a grandmother at heart. It fuels her soul and she loves getting down and just pretending and playing. Here Kristina was the choo-choo track and Hamilton was the soundtrack saying 'choo-choo' it was pretty cute!
And in the airport about to leave...our plane was delayed about 90 min. which means that we weren't going to land until 10:30 p.m. It made for a late night, but Hamilton did great on both plane rides. Aunt "Katee" is one of Hamilton's favorite people!!
Glad you are all starting to feel better!
Posted by: Angie | December 01, 2008 at 10:51 PM