I could go on and on about how sorry I am for not posting and how terrible a friend I am for not keeping up with my buddies’ blogs. I’m working on a schedule for myself that keeps me sane.
Here’s a quick visual reward for sticking with us during the lull.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a great time, although it wasn’t entirely restful.
We did the two families on Turkey Day, then drove up to my parents’ house on the shore Friday morning for the weekend.
We’ve been looking for a TV for Shmoo’s playroom and have been surprised to find that no one sells cheap boxy TVs anymore. Everything is HDTV, flat screen, LCD, etc. This might work better since putting it on the wall will give Shmoo more play area. However, we’ve been very shrewd about finding the best possible price for a 26-32 inch tv.
A quick background of my Christmas shopping outlook….
I worked retail pretty much all of my high school and college career. After college, I spent one holiday season managing the Holiday Shoppe at Blooming.dale’s in West.chester County, NY. Between the holiday music, the dancing Santa that played all day, the cheeriness of the customers (or lack thereof) and the abundance of scents and noises, I strongly dislike holiday shopping. I have zero patience for it. Zero.
My wife had her heart set on a tv at Tar.get that was a Black Friday special. We’ve never done Black Friday shopping before. She got up at the ass crack of dawn and went to fight for this tv set. Now, I know my wife is sometimes easily overwhelmed and not pushy enough for this, but I was supportive and let her go.
Needless to say, she was the only one at Tar.get at 6 am that didn’t get one. Every other person had one, two, three in their carts. My wife wandered around aimlessly and came home 90 minutes and 2 stores later with nothing. Don’t think we’ll be doing that again.
I must admit, however, that I am actually getting into this Christmas season. The wife is usually the reserved one when it comes to buying things but she’s excited too and we are pretty much done with the Shmoo’s presents and this kid is going to be set! One of the reasons we need a TV that goes on the wall is so we can set up the coolest Black.n.Decker tool bench – complete with a new tool set.
The rest of the weekend was nice since we spent time with my family. However, the Shmoo was super, super beasty.
He whiney and wanted to be held (which NEVER happens). We got up early Sunday morning to get him to the pediatrician and woke up to a mix between freezing rain and sleet. After a 2 hour white knuckled drive, we made it to the doctor to find out that he has his very first ear infection. Poor kid. We felt terrible that we didn’t get him in sooner, but he didn’t show any other signs.
We did get home early enough to take out some decorations. We pretty much just got the tree up. And we made a basic error. If you see from this video, we put some of the breakable balls on the toddler-reachable area of the tree. It didn’t occur to us that he would be interested in trying to eat them. There was momentarily panic as he tried to bite into one but due to our quick responses, no harm was inflicted. Don’t we feel dumb.
He’s recovering fine as of this morning, but we’ve not entered into another issue with him that is a sleeping problem. He’s back to not going to sleep until 10:30 pm or so and won’t go down in this crib. When we put him in there after he falls asleep, he wakes up at 3 am begging to come into bed with us. We need to put a stop to this soon.
As for me, my mother is trying to talk me into going to a doctor, but I think I am nearing the “clearing up” phase of whatever the heck I have. It’s been like the awful cough/no sleep/achy bones/runny nose/dry head/creepy crud for about 3 weeks. Ugh.
As I work on getting myself back to blogland, be patient with me as I catch up with everyone. I’ve missed my blog buddies and can’t wait to hear about everyone’s holiday season so far.
Last, but not least. To add to my fun time/work time scheduling overload, I just got the best early Christmas present ever! My brother is too consumed with his X.box and Play.station 3 and all of his other toys that he never uses his Wii. Guess who he is lending his Wii too!?!? OMG! This thing is way too much fun. I’ve only played it once and am not sure when I can play (especially with the Shmoo around) but I’m going to have to make more time for this!
Priorities, priorities.
meg said,
December 2, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Your BAAAAACCCKKK! I have missed your blogging!
That video is adorable! I was watching it while also listening to christmas music on itunes so it even added an extra “cuteness” to a VERY CUTE video.
Hope you are shmoo are feeling better!
KJandtheKids said,
December 2, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Well hello there.
Glad to hear things are crazy and as good as ever
We haven’t put decorations on the tree for that very reason. (do they make plastic bulbs?)
Good luck finding the TV.
Have fun with your Wii.
Stacey said,
December 2, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Glad to hear all is well and it’s nice to see Andrew.
Black Friday is scary and sooo not worth it, I think. We have Boxing Day here (nothing like Black Friday) and I didn’t like that.
We bought an okay tv from Be.st Bu.y that was fairly cheap. It has a DVD on the side of it and is a wall mount. I just don’t like the remote control. I think it’s an Insigma or something like that. Not too expensive and good enough.
merr said,
December 2, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Way cute picture! He is getting so big! I am very shocked that he just barely got his first ear infection. That is pretty dang good. Cam had at least 6 before he was a year old.
Cam was about the age of Schmoo when he actually bit into a glass ball ornament like an apple. He had cuts all in his mouth and I felt horrible. Needledd to say I won’t put glass balls on the tree any more!
Olive said,
December 2, 2008 at 9:12 pm
That video is totally cute! I’m glad you had a good (if hectic) t-giving.
Michelle said,
December 3, 2008 at 12:08 am
I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw that there was a fresh entry on your blog! WOW! >:) Just kidding. I know how busy you’ve all been. Apparently Jen’s setting everything up slowly on Facebook so that Addie can hook up with Andrew later in life??? Too funny. So glad you had a great holiday and we’re really glad to hear that everyone’s on the mend. Take care and we hope to talk to you soon
Sonya said,
December 3, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Great to read your update!!!
Poor dude and his ear infection. I hope it clears up soon! I hope you feel better soon too!
Erin said,
December 4, 2008 at 4:27 am
I hear ya on the Christmas shopping/black Friday thing. I used to work retail too.
CUTE video of the Schmoo putting the ornaments on the tree. I’ll have to try that with Teo when we put ours up. He’ll love it.
ajs4ever said,
December 4, 2008 at 4:32 am
I cannot believe how big he looks! He has changed so much- absolutely gorgeous:)
Carrie said,
December 7, 2008 at 2:09 am
love the photos and videos you post. such a friggin cute baby, how can you stand it?
ELLIE said,
December 7, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Schmoo looks great–getting big so fast!!!
Do not worry about not being around – real life takes priority – so glad that all is well – the video is just too cute – that is great that he can do those fine motor skills – he is sharp…..
Those are videos that speak volumes – so precious!
I hope things settle down a bit more for you – take care and hugs to all
-Ellie
Lisa P said,
December 7, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I think lots of people are bad bloggers these days. I’ve been short on time and I’ve noticed many on my blogroll have decent posting gaps. It actually makes me feel better to know I’m not alone.
Tree looks great. I can’t say it looks all that tasty though. Schmoo must see the world through different eyes.
Feel better.
sassyfemme said,
December 9, 2008 at 2:56 am
That child just gets cuter as time goes by.
I hardly have time for blogging any more, grad school takes up all of my time.