Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Oh What a Christmas...


Our first Christmas with Adelaide was wonderful. However, talk about not what you expected...you know those days when all the plans you've made are foiled by fate, this was that trip. I was schooled in the art of flexibility this past weekend.

We wanted to limit the amount of packing up our stuff and moving that we had to do, so we plannned to stay at only one house. But that all changed when my husband started puking on Christmas at 11pm. So, the day after Christmas, I packed up our stuff and Adelaide and I moved to my Mom and Dad's house.

Somehow, 15 people from his family got sick on Christmas after we got together with them on Christmas Eve. Luckily, I ended up only getting about as half as sick as the original group, but it is definitely hard to take care of a baby when you have to go to the bathroom every 1/2 hour or when you have to run up two flights of stairs to throw up. I had to hand over the baby duties to my Mom (except the feeding) for the night. It was a decidedly inconvenient time for all of us to be sick, because 1)it sucks to be sick with a baby, 2)Adelaide was being baptized on the 27th, 3) my birthday is on the 27th!

I made it through the night without anymore throwing up, but apparently Adelaide wanted to keep Grandma up until 4:30am. Despite the rough night, we all seemed to be getting ready on track to be on time to church, until I started dressing Adelaide. As soon as I took off her diaper, projectile poop! Yep, poop, and a lot of it, all over the front of me, good thing that I was wearing black!

To make a long story short, I got most of the poop off, we made it to church on time even with unplowed roads, Adelaide behaved wonderfully for her baptism, and we even kept our lunch reservation at the restaurant. Sadly, like me, Sean's Dad became a secondary casualty of the Christmas Eve virus, so he didn't make it the baptism. But, all in all, I would consider it a great first Christmas for Adelaide.

You should always expect a few hiccups in your plan, especially with a baby:) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Reflections on my NYR

I decided to grade myself on my New Year's Resolution (which was to write weekly on this blog to publicly acknowledge the things for which I need to be thankful). I guess if I measured by quantity of blog posts, I'd probably get a D. But, I'm not going to measure that way because I hate bad grades. Since this is my assignment, I'm allowed to grade however I want. Honestly, I wanted to do more blog posts, so I give myself a C in that area. But, the real point of this blog was to be more appreciative of the good things in my life. In that category, I get an A-. It doesn't require a written declaration to have gratitude, so I think it's fair to give myself a better grade in that area.

A long time ago, I became a "glass half-empty" person. Seeing things from the "half-empty" perspective can be tough on the psyche. I decided I needed to change and started writing the blog so that I could help myself and incorporate a little accountability into the project. Learning to see more things from the "half-full" perspective is a huge step to becoming a happier person. In the end, this is what I really want so that I can be a better me, a better wife, and most importantly, a better mom.