I took the 23rd and 24th off. I had to burn some extra vacation time anyway, so I did a little cooking. I made potato leek soup, chocolate lava cakes, and an assortment of appetizers. On the 24th I added making up all the beds for our overnight guests (mom and dad in Timothy's room, the Roberge girls in Jocelyn's room, Mandy & Jeff in Jesse's room, Morgan in Morgan's room, the rest of my kids in with me and Josh, and Elisabeth & family on 2 airbeds in my office). By the time everyone got here I was pretty tired! But a little wine and I caught a second wind.
Elisabeth & family arrived first. The gift for my parents' 40th anniversary was only halfway done so she came early to finish it. Rob distracted the kids and made up the office while I grabbed a bath and Josh ran out and got eggs and Elisabeth finished the gift. Mandy & family were here by the time I was dressed. My parents were actually last to arrive, a rare event! We took the annual picture right away and sat down for soup. The rest of the food was spread throughout the evening, as were the games. Mom brought Jeopardy for the kids and the Nearly Newlywed Game for the adults (then we played an altered version for mom and dad where the gift was their prize). We also had Christmas Bingo by Auntie Elisabeth and I hosted the Price is Right (Ruby won for the 2nd year in a row!). This year to find their pajamas, the kids all had to gather puzzle pieces from upstairs, then assemble the puzzle which was a picture of where the PJs were. All the pjs fit (I'm never sure with Morgan!) - yay. The kids actually went to bed better than in past years, and then the adults played the Match Game and then opened adult gifts. Then we did the stockings for the kids and went to bed ourselves.
I had a cold so was first up, or maybe Elisabeth was, close call. Sage was the first child to join us, then others filtered in gradually. I had to go wake Jocelyn! We all did the tree and then Elisabeth & family had to skeedattle to NH for another round. The rest of us had taco dip that we hadn't gotten to the night before and this egg dish that Josh makes. By noon everyone else had gone as well and we were happy and tired in a houseful of new toys.
The kids were spoiled as usual with too many toys to list. Jesse's favorites were 3 new hockey sticks, all of which he took to bed with him and cuddled them in his sleep. Jocelyn seems particularly excited about her Sleeping Beauty Barbie, although she is also enjoying the Splat game that we hooked up in her room where you color on the TV using a remote paintbrush, and she also spent today in her new princess dress. Morgan likes the pajamas the best I think - last night after a bath I told him to go get some pants and he came back looking like baby Huey in a way too small set of pajamas. I figured they had a bad shrinking in the dryer, but then upon further inspection, they were Ruby's! He must have grabbed them out of the laundry I had thrown from Jocelyn's room into the hallway). Timothy and Josh got a PS3, so of course that is their favorite, though I have been enjoying it as well because you can use it to watch movies on demand from netflix. Pretty cool! I got a 17" digital picture frame which I had aspired to mounting in the hallway this past weekend but didn't get motivated to do, so will re-assert myself this coming weekend.
Saturday we managed to shovel out enough of the kitchen to have it mildly presentable for a visit with Dara and Jon and their 2 girls. We asked them to just not look at the rest of the house, which still looked like a toy factory exploded. They all helped us eat up leftovers.
Monday afternoon I took Timothy to the orthodontist. He's almost lost all the teeth he needs to use to get braces, and the ones that are left are loose. So they took xrays and molds and pictures and I go back at the end of January to meet with the orthodontist about the plan. Apparently the first step will be palate expanders because he has such a small mouth, and that step may happen as soon as February (assuming our check clears).
Tuesday there were cable workers out working on the neighbor's cable line in between our houses up front. Suddenly we lost cable, which means we also lost phone and internet. 20 min later the workers drove away. Hey! Josh called the cable company and they said whoops, they'd get someone out there. At almost 5 he called again, and the cable company said they'd have to send someone in the morning. Wednesday morning turned into Wednesday almost noon by the time the guy showed up. After 20 minutes he drove away - we still had no cable/internet/phone. He called from his truck driving away and said that they had cut our cable line when they were out, and maintenance (a subcontractor) would have to be called, which would take 3 or 4 days. 3 or 4 days?!?! NOT ok! We had barely survived 24 hours, 3 or 4 days and we'd all kill each other.
So Josh called the cable company again and spoke to someone fairly useless who said if the guy had told us 3 or 4 days, it would probably be 3 or 4 days. He asked to speak with a supervisor and handed the phone to me. After a while on hold I spoke with Chris and explained to him that if we had to be without TV for even the rest of the day, it was going to be ugly. Chris managed to get the maintenance crew on the phone and put us next on the list. They were there about 15 minutes later and 20 minutes later we had our cable back. They had in fact clipped our cable line and so had to put a temp line in for us, but that's what they had been doing for our neighbors so they just spliced us into theirs. They'll be back in the spring to bury it. Chris had warned me we might need an exposed cable running through the lawn and I told him he could string as many wires as he wanted all over the house as long as we had cable.
Wednesday morning while Josh was waiting for the cable guy, I took Jesse for his 3 year doctor's appt. He was very disappointed to learn that all the toys had been removed from the waiting room (I assume to decrease chance of spreading H1N1). The nurses called us in (one was in training from what I could tell) and Jesse did so well. He stood still on the scale, stood under the measuring thing at which point I told him to stand up nice and tall and he got up on his tiptoes, haha, and even sat still and had his blood pressure taken! He's 31lbs and 39.5 inches, which means his weight has climbed further up the percentiles and he's around the 40th percentile! His height has climbed as well - close to the 90th percentile! Then we went to the room to wait for the doctor, and all the toys and books were gone from that room as well - so the nurses gave Jesse some crayons and he stood on a stool and colored on the paper that covered the exam table.
Eventually the doctor came in and asked Jesse how it was going, Jesse said good. We got to answer yes to all the questions (does he speak in full sentences, can he draw circles and lines, does he put S on the end of words that are plural, does he assist in dressing himself, is he using the potty). Jesse sat still while the doctor examined him, saying AHHH as requested. He was the perfect patient and such a little grown up person! Then, of course, came time for the shots. He was due one that there had been a shortage of at his 15 month appt, plus the chicken pox (which I happen to think is silly to do at age 1 so wait until age 3, which my doctor is fine with), so 2 shots. I explained to Jesse that there would be a pinch in his arm and then it would be over, but he was clearly unprepared. He sat so nicely while the nurse prepped his arm, but the look on his face when that shot went in was just heartbreaking. I was sitting next to him holding his hand. After the split second of shock he started crying and buried his head in my side. And then we had to do it again! He didn't fight it, didn't move at all as I switched sides to hug him from the other side. This time he knew what would happen and he still sat still, but he cried and kept his head buried in my side.
He calmed down after not too long and we got our coats on and went to the car. On the way to the car:
Jesse: "Mommy?"
me: "Yes?"
Jesse: "I don't like shots."
We went to Target to pick up a few things and of course picked up something for him for what a good patient he was. He picked a big truck that had little hot wheel type cars in it.
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