We have a climber.

Amelia is definitely a climber. Yesterday, she managed to figure out how to stand in the seat of the cart at Target. This isn't good.

Yesterday morning, I was putting away some Christmas gifts, and when I passed by the kitchen, this is what I saw:




Some exciting times are ahead, people.

If you pray...

...keep this little one in your prayers.

I do not know this woman or this family personally. I have found her blog through other blogs (oh, the blogosphere is just a neverending maze). She has a baby--maybe a little over a month old--who is basically a living miracle. You can read the whole story on her blog if you are interested, but basically when this baby was in the womb, the doctors diagnosed him with a severe heart problem and didn't think he would live to be born. Long story short, he was born perfectly healthy, a miracle in a time when I think we desperately crave miracles.

Now, this baby is fighting for his life because of extremely severe RSV. The doctors are saying things like "he must turn the corner tonight," and he has stopped breathing several times. (Edited to add: my original post said he was on a ventilator, but I was wrong about that. It is a very real possibility, however.)

As a mother, I can't imagine the emotions I would be feeling right now. I usually don't even post things like this. I've been in churches before where prayer requests were often thinly veiled gossip reports, so I'm always wary of coming across that way...but I couldn't shake the feeling that I should post this.

Please pray that this little one once again defines the meaning of "miracle."

And while you are at it, pray for Jen's friend and her family, too. They need a little peace in a very dark time.

Peace to you all.

Christmas, Parts 1 and 2

I've always thought that maybe the Jews had something going with celebrating for 8 days during the holiday season. (I'm being very sincere with that statement. I hope it didn't come across as disrespectful or making light of Hanukkah.) After all, there is so much buildup to Christmas, and then the day is over and done in the blink of an eye.

Well, this year, we actually did the whole "Christmas morning" thing three days in a row. I kind of liked it, but I don't think I can do more than three days.

Christmas, Part 1
For the first time EVER, we did the official Christmas morning thing at our house with just the three of us. (We've had Christmas before at our house, but usually with my parents.) Amelia slept until a little after 8:00, primarily because she had a Christmas Eve meltdown from 11 to 1 the night before. (That's a long story that isn't really that interesting. Short version: She woke up at 11:00 and cried, wailed, flailed, and kicked her legs until 1 or so. Lots of fun. Santa almost decided not to stop.)

Anyway, it took us over an hour to open gifts because Amelia liked to open one and then play with it to her satisfaction before moving on to the next gift.

We started with the good ol' corn popper:


After walking around with that for about 20 minutes, she moved on to the next gift, really her "big" gift, Elmo Live:
This expression means "I'm now done with Elmo Live. Next gift, please."
And this went on for a while. We had a rather lazy morning, just enjoying Amelia playing with her toys. After lunch, we went ahead and headed to Florida. (Our original plan had been to go to Florida the day after Christmas.) Here's the down side to traveling Christmas Day: no eating establishments are open except for Waffle House. Our Christmas evening meal was a Waffle House breakfast. Not that there's anything wrong with that, right?

Christmas, Part 2
Friday morning, we did the whole gift opening thing with my family. Do you think the WNBA has a future star on their hands? (That is a totally obnoxious mom thing to say, isn't it?)
With all the toys available to Amelia at Nana and Papa's house, guess what Amelia enjoyed playing with the most? Potatoes. Potatoes, people. Amelia had loads of fun taking all the potatoes out of Nana's basket and passing them to everyone. Then she'd put them back in the basket and do it all over again. Oh, the money everyone could have saved if they had known that her heart's desire this Christmas was really just some potatoes.



That evening, we had a delicious meal prepared by my mom: ham, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, the works. My dad even made a fabulous sweet potato pie!

Christmas, Part 3
At this point, Christmas morning was feeling a little like Groundhog Day, but we were still having fun. On Saturday, we did the Christmas morning thing with Darryl's family.

Here's Madison, our niece, dressed like Hannah Montana. She can sing "The Best of Both Worlds" with the best of 'em.
I wish I could post pics of my other niece and my nephew, but the clearest pics I have of them are of them holding gifts with their full names on them, and I don't want to put that info on my blog.

Anyway, that evening, Darryl fixed a wonderful prime rib, and his Uncle George, Aunt Miriam, and cousins Camille and Malorie came over. We only get to see them about once a year, if that, so it was a special treat to get to visit with them.

Here are Malorie and Camille. Malorie is making her way up the journalism career ladder by working as a fact checker at a political magazine (and the name of it escapes me at the moment). I thought it was super cool that she got to attend both the Democratic and Republican Conventions for her job. And Camille, on the right, is an amazing ballerina who just danced the part of Clara in The Nutcracker a few weeks ago.

And here's Amelia with her Uncle George:
Don't judge me for the pacifier. We sort of regressed in the pacifier use for this trip. We just wanted a peaceful Christmas, and if a pacifier was going to help with that, then so be it.

Conclusion
We're now back home, and it feels good to be home. We really enjoyed spending time with both families, and we have lots of memories that I can't wait to scrapbook. :)

I must confess that now I'm going to go to bed and continue reading Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series. My 5th period girls said it was "awesome," and so far, it has been quite enjoyable. You know, in that teenagery-vampire-love kind of way. Again, don't judge me.

Nights of Lights

Tonight we went to the Magical Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier. There's not a whole lot to report on it. We drove around and looked at lights. We got out at Santa's Workshop (or Village or whatever it's called) and we walked around with Amelia, who got really excited just looking at and listening to all the carnival rides there.

Oh, we ate at IHOP on our way there and we were by FAR the youngest people in the restaurant. Our pancakes were yummy, though.

Here's a pic of the three of us, obviously. Darryl has an angel watching over him, and my wallet-purse-thing seriously doesn't match my outfit. And Amelia looks thoroughly bored.

And here's Amelia, totally fed up with our need to photograph everything:
Maybe now you can see why getting a Christmas photo was not an easy task.

No Christmas Cards :(

Unfortunately, we never got our act together in time to send out a Christmas card this year. (So if you've sent us one, but didn't get one from us in return, it isn't because we are dissing you or anything. We simply don't have one.)

It isn't like we didn't try. We made several attempts to get a good picture of Amelia for the card. One lesson we've learned is this is NOT a task to put off to the last minute. Another lesson we've learned is that it is impossible to get a one-year-old--excuse me, an ACTIVE one-year-old--to stand still. Or sit still. Or just be still.

Here was our most promising photo:
I actually thought we had a winner with that one. Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of cropping and tweaking with iPhoto for it to look focused. When we had it developed, Amelia's teeth looked black. Not good.

So between the unsuccessful attempts at getting a photo, Christmas shopping, grading papers, feeling bad with a sinus infection...I just decided I had to let the Christmas card go.

For those of you who read my blog, please know that I do wish you a very Merry Christmas. For those of you who have sent me cards, I've loved looking at all your great photos and/or reading your holiday greetings.

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas! (Imagine the photo above on a cute Christmas card.)

Amelia Meets Santa

We finally took Amelia to see Santa today. While she didn't freak out and cry, you can tell from the pics that she wasn't quite sure what to think. Darryl took these with his camera. The "official" pic we bought from Santa's Workshop looks more like the second one. I like this first pic, though.

I'm still here...and I "heart" doc in a box

I haven't posted this week because this is what this week has consisted of: two daycare parties, lots of grading, the assembling of daycare teacher presents, some baking, a haircut, a couple of lunches with friends, and a sinus infection. I hope to post something of some substance tomorrow.

And speaking of my sinus infection, can I just tell you how much I now love the idea of a "doc in a box"? I have felt really bad the past couple of days, but I didn't really have time--or make time--to go to the doctor. Today, I was fed up. I was tired of feeling crummy, especially when I have some Christmas fun planned for the week. So I went to the Minute Clinic at CVS, was in and out in 15 minutes, and left with a prescription for some antibiotics and some cough medicine. Awesome.

I'm going to leave you now to take that medicine and have a good night's sleep in hopes of feeling much better tomorrow.

She may be my girl, after all

Amelia takes after Darryl in so many ways that I've often wondered if she inherited ANY of my traits. Until yesterday.

What two things brought the biggest smile to Amelia's face yesterday?

Shoe shopping and M&Ms.

Yes!


(Okay, now back to grading essays.)

I'm climbing out from under my pile of essays...

...just for a couple of minutes. I'm so glad it is the weekend, even if I'm going to be grading for a good portion of it.

This past week seemed like the longest so far of the school year. I'm not sure why. I keep telling myself that this time next week, I will be a free woman for two weeks. I can't wait.

Task Number One for tomorrow is to get a Christmas pic of Amelia for Christmas cards. I'm going to be "that" person whose cards arrive the day after Christmas. I just know it. Amelia and I are also eating lunch with my friend Casi, and then it is going to be grade, grade, grade the rest of the weekend.

Wow. This post was really pointless.

Stuff from this week

I realize it has been a week since I wrote last. The end of the semester is always crazy. Here are a few things that have been going on:

--I have a stack of grading up to my eyeballs, practically. I'm slowly making my way through it. I have resolved myself to the fact that not everything is going to get graded, though. Yes, major assignments will be, like essays, major tests, and such, but some of the less significant assignments that students have apparently forgotten about...well, I confess they may never make it to the grade book. (If you are a teacher and read this, assure me that this is okay!)

--I got a phone this week that has a keyboard. This excites me more than it should. I love to text.

--I am reading the second book in the Twilight series, New Moon. It is very hard for me to put down to focus on, you know, grading...but I've been pretty good about limiting my reading to right before bedtime. I've already decided that when I finish it, I cannot buy the next one until Christmas break.

--We had big plans to go to a Christmas parade and to see Santa yesterday, but those plans went in the garbage after The Worst Diaper of 2008. In public. In a hoity-toity children's boutique. I ran out of wipes. I'll spare any more details.

--I have gotten a good bit graded this weekend, and I plan to do more.

--How late can you take a Christmas photo and get it mailed out? We have yet to do that.

Anyway...