Our Busy Holiday Vacation

We're back in Virginia now after a 10-day-trip to Louisiana for Christmas. When I look back at all we did in that time, I still can't believe we made it. Here's a summary of our itinerary:

12/24- flew out of Virginia in the afternoon to arrive in New Orleans for around 7 PM-- but plane was delayed, United customer service was terrible as always, L&D missed their afternoon nap and did not respond to Benadryl-- it was a disastrous flight, to say the least. We finally arrived around 9 PM, had to wait for rental car and finally got to Pops' (my dad) and Maw Maw Deb's (his wife) house around 10:30 PM. Cousin William was excited to see us and even picked out cute stuffed Santa and Snowman dolls for L&D. Babies took a little while to adjust, but went to sleep fairly easily.

12/25- We woke up and found that Santa left lots of goodies-- mostly Elmo toys and other goodies; modified cute Christmas clothing I packed since it was 76 degrees and humid-- no tights, but still cute-- got dressed and picked up Nana (my mom) to head over to New Orleans to Darrell's Aunt Maureen's for Christmas dinner with the Tardiffs-- had lots of fun and got to see everyone, except for Paw Paw, who was in the hospital for pneumonia- boo hoo; got back to the northshore late that evening and crashed

12/26- The Hileys (my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephews) arrived late Christmas night and were at Nana's. We went over there and had po-boys for lunch. YUMMM. Got to meet Tim's girlfriend, Christie, who we fell in love with instantly. Back to Pops (my dad) and Maw Maw Deb's (where we were staying) late that evening and crashed again.

12/27- Went to visit Chickie (my dad's aunt) at her home with her daughter Elizabeth. Hileys met us there with Tim and Christie. All the kids just about tore her house apart, but they enjoyed our company (we think)! Left from there to go to my aunt Janey's house for dinner with all the family including my uncle Bobby and Aunt Nita. Had another delicious dinner and babies actually napped there for quite some time (they are really tired from all the excitement). Got back to Pops' later that night, visited with him and Maw Maw Deb and cousin William for a while, then crash.

12/28- Woke up and brought L&D over to Nana's house while Darrell and I enjoyed an afternoon out at the Saints game. Too bad we lost, though. But we went with Darrell's brother (Todd), his wife (Krista), and their son (Clay). Got stuck in the parking garage for quite a while, drove through Wendy's for dinner, and drove across the causeway (24 miles) back to the Northshore in the rain. Got to Nana's and visited, but somehow my stomach was really really hurting, so I even passed up king cake. Must have been the turkey dog and nachos at the Superdome-- ughhhh. Rounded up L&D and went back to Pops' to visit and crash again.

12/29- Woke up and visited with Pops since he was off work. Babies were out-of-sorts a bit (wonder why), so they slept late and napped shortly after. Went to lunch with Pops in downtown Covington. Looked for a parking spot forever, finally found one, wrestled with the stroller since United broke it on the flight down there, got it open, loaded everyone up, walked a few blocks in the gorgeous 70+ degree weather, but there was a 25 minute wait. No way. Walked another block, but that restaurant was closed. Went back to the car, loaded back up and drove to Acme Oyster House. L&D had fried shrimp and gobbled it all up. Discovered that Libby loves fries, too. Went back to Pops' for a nap, then had brisket for dinner with Maw Maw Deb, Pops, Cristy, and Cousin William. Delish. Tried to fix Pops' computer-- ended up on phone with Charter for a while, discovered we needed a part, so Darrell and Pops headed to Office Depot and back. Installed it easily, but no dice. Can't get on to Google's site for some reason, but able to get on most others. Email is inconsistent. I'm puzzled.

12/30- Paw Paw is STILL in the hospital (long story there) and is due to get out today. Supposed to go to Todd and Krista's house for presents with them at noon, but pushed it back to wait for him to get home. He's been feeling better for days, but doctors are out on vacation and don't find it urgent to discharge him. Go to Nana's to visit Hileys before they leave town. See Uncle Jeff (my brother) for 1st time! Decide we're hungry, so go to Vazquez's Restaurant for more po-boys with everyone. On the way there, get a call from my mom's ex-husband, Paul, who wants to join us for a visit. A little awkward, but nice to see him. Eat lunch and head over to Bogue Falaya Park to play. Had fun on the swings and walking along the river. I forget just how beautiful the moss and cypress trees are in Louisiana. What a sight. Try to take a family photo, but no dice. Leave there and head to Todd and Krista's for presents. Visit with everyone, play with mountains of toys, and L&D get really overstimulated (probably b/c missed PM nap, too). Major meltdowns ensue at around 7 PM and we have to leave before dinner. Head to Nana's for a little while to see Uncle Jeff since he is working the rest of our trip. Babies get 2nd wind after a little Elmo DVD in the car. Visit a while, meet Jeff's girlfriend, Debby, spend time with Tim and Christie and the Hileys. Nana is out to dinner with friends. Go to Pops' around 9'ish and visit a little while, then crash.




12/31- Pops, Maw Maw Deb, Cristy, and William head to Disney World, so we are left alone at his house. Nice to wake up whenever we want and do whatever we want. Babies take a really long AM nap, which is lovely. I try to fix Dad's computer again and after 2 1/2 hours on the phone, no dice. But at least we get his email up again. We pack up all of our things and head over to Nana's for the rest of our trip. We go to my best friend Darnell's house and let the babies play with her daughgter, Josie. A fun time! Darrell leaves with the babies and meets Todd and his dad at Nana's to watch the LSU game. I get to enjoy dinner with Darnell and her husband Mike and we decide to have sushi-- a wonderful treat since Darrell doesn't eat sushi. YUM. Darrell comes back after the game and we shoot and watch fireworks with an Abita beer in their driveway. I forget how the people there put on major displays since most fireworks are illegal in Virginia. Amazing! Head to Nana's at 1:00 AM to crash.


1/1- Wake up and we decide to have everyone over to Nana's for a New Year's meal. Nana and I head to the store for groceries, but have to head to another store since this one is out of cabbage. Run over there and get the cabbage, head to Nana's and she does her magic by preparing a huge meal in just a few short hours. Babies take a bath in Nana's whirpool tub. Libby loves the jets, but Drew isn't too sure. Darnell, Mike, Josie, Todd, Katelyn, Clay, Maw Maw, Paw Paw all come over to visit. Aunt Maura (my dad's cousin) calls and she and her daughter Mary come over as everyone is leaving at around 6'ish. We clean up a little, then get in the car to go see Tim and Christie's new apartment. It is really nice and I am on constant watch as L&D do their best to take apart their tree and fool with their breakables! We head home, clean up some more, get packed, pack up a giant box of our presents to be shipped back to Virginia, and crash again.

1/2- wake up, get packed completely, get the babies bathed, us showered, and load up the car. Say goodbyes to Nana and head to the airport. Much better flight this time as both fall asleep shortly after take-off (and more Benadryl and tons of animal crackers). Darrell and I get to listen to the in-flight TV-- it's great! Much better customer service this time except for the flight attendant who joked that "Mommy doesn't have a handle on that yet" when I was trying to operate the stroller they broke on the way down there. I have restraint from wanting to punch her in the face. But we head to baggage claim and Thor (our lovely next-door-neighbor) is there to pick us up in the van. I've never been so happy to walk into my own house. But it's really cold in Virginia and we left the heat off the entire 10 days. It is 50 degrees in our house! We blast on the heat, but it takes a while to warm up. We put on a onesie and thick fleece PJ's on L&D and they crash and sleep alll night long. They are so happy to be home, too. They sleep til 8:00, talk a little while, then fall back to sleep (as do we) until ELEVEN o'clock this morning. WOW. It really is good to be back home!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Card Photos

After 700 takes, this one came out pretty good. Luckily we took it last weekend before sickness entered our home!

A Big Sigh of Relief

That's because I finished every Cayenne Paper Christmas order, my online graduate course (got an A, too!), wrapped and shipped our gifts to LA, and mailed our own Christmas cards I made. It really does feel nice-- but wierd since I am so busy during the month of December. Before I know it, Christmas is here and I haven't even made my own cards yet. But this year, hopefully friends and family will get theirs in time for the holiday.

I was home today with the babies again because they are still sick. Drew woke up warm again (100.9) and was feeling LOUSY. Still coughing, sneezing, nose running, little appetite, lots of grouchiness, and wanting to cuddle (that's the only good part). But it's so hard to share and wait your turn when you're sick. And Drew just wanted to follow or be held by me all day. Libby is still coughing with a yucky nose, but is eating more, so I think she's on the rebound. I'm just hoping and praying this makes its way out of here before we travel to LA by plane on Christmas Eve. Ten bucks says Darrell and I get it when we leave, though. YIKES!

Sick AGAIN

I'm home today with 2 sick babies. They woke up with croupy coughs on Tuesday, had runny noses yesterday, and are burning up with fever today. Darrell was able to stay home with them Tues and Wed and today it's my turn. They are so miserable with this coughing, sneezing, and RUNNY noses (I never knew one could run so much). They had a little breakfast with some Motrin, watched our animated Santa dance a few times, and then Libby started asking for her nu-nu, which means she's tired. I put them down a little while ago, but they've been talking and throwing things out the crib the entire time. Perhaps the Motrin is kicking in! ;)

Sesame Street LIVE

This weekend was a lot of fun. We got up and went to see Elmo (and Cookie, and Oscar, and Big Bird, and Ernie...) at Sesame Street Live. We got there a bit early and it got to be a little tough waiting for 30 minutes for the show to start. Especially b/c that's right during morning naptime. We looked at the souvenir stand and luckily L&D are too young to beg. But the show was great and they were so excited. They were dancing in our laps and kept calling all the characters' names out. We were surprised that they knew ALL of them, even Abby Cadabby (we still don't know how since they only watch Elmo on Sesame Street). Libby fell asleep in the car (a rarity) and both napped for a long time once we got home.

When they woke up, we decided to go out for burgers for dinner and they chowed down since they slept so long. On the way home, we decided to stop at the local park where they put on a huge "Festival of Lights". We waited in traffic for over 30 minutes, but it was well worth the wait. I didn't take any photos, but my local blogger buddy and MoM, Peggy, posted some from her trip HERE (thanks, Peggy)! ;)

New Hat and Mittens

I can already tell that Libby is going to be a girly-girl wanting lots of accessories and other frilly things. That's because she loves to wear any and every hat possible as well as point out hats on others. This winter, we got them both new hats and mittens and tried them out the other day. Unfortunately, the photo we took of them wearing them was of 2 toddlers crying dressed in hats and mittens. How terrible of us to torture them that way! But a few nights later, Libby realized how much she liked them and didn't want to take them off, even when drinking milk (okay, now we KNOW she likes them if she'll do that).

Trimming the Tree-- Toddler Style

I'm sure this is illegal in a few states, but luckily no injuries to report (well, not due to this incident)! I'm amazed that these lights actually still worked after this. I love this video b/c you can see Libby having so much fun. She gets like this only every so often and immediately shuts it off when I bring out the camera. You'll notice she does bring it down a few notches once she notices me filming. Stinker!

O' Christmas Tree

We went on a little trip today to visit Santa at Cox Farms and then buy our Christmas tree. It is so cold here this weekend and we got our first dusting tonight. It was about 34 degrees this afternoon, so we bundled up L&D in several layers. They could hardly move in those big coats! We stopped to see Santa and they didn't mind sitting on his lap at all. But it's still hard to get them both to look at the camera. Even though they're bundled up, I prefer this with no line and just down the road over a hellish day at the mall anyday! We looked at the trees there, but too expensive. Then drove down to another nursery, but the trees were also really expensive. So we left and went to Lowe's. To be honest, out of all the trees we've ever gotten, we have had the best luck with ones from Lowe's. I realize they must have been cut in October, but for some reason, we've lucked out here. Plus paying only $34.99 instead of $75 and up is a good thing. L&D were so cold here and so I tried to pacify them with tons of snacks. Their poor little faces got chapped. Getting home to a warm crib for a nap couldn't come fast enough. After a nice long nap, we had dinner and then just let them loose to look at the Christmas decorations I've put out already. They love them all and already say "Santa", "Snowman", "Ho Ho", and "Candy Cane". Libby loved dancing and Drew just wanted to chew on a candy cane since Santa gave him his 1st one today. Here are some photos:

In Memorium

Cleo 1994-2008

The Sick House

So this week has been interesting, to say the least. As you all know, Drew has been sick with Roseola but is pretty much back to his old self today. He ate well, played a lot, smiled all day (I'm so happy for that) and just has the rash on his legs now. I'm so glad he is feeling better because he was miserable.

Meanwhile, I'm having that dry tickle in the throat every-so-often cough. Don't you hate that? I really think it's from the heater. That reminds me-- need to get the humidifier out tonight. So, I have a nice deep voice, but feel pretty much okay.

What I'm feeling bad about is the fact that our cat, Cleo, has been really sick. She stopped eating, drinking, and taking her medicine (for feline hyperthyroidism) Tuesday. By Thursday she wasn't looking so good. I brought her to the vet on Friday and we found out she has fatty liver disease. It is common in older cats and caused by not eating. The liver builds up with fatty whatever and can't handle it. She was basically in liver failure. She was jaundiced, too (how can they tell she's yellow when she has black fur??) and dehydrated. Basically she was going down fast. We are not the type of family that wants to prolong the inevitable, especially when she is basically starving to death. The vet mentioned a feeding tube, and I stopped her at that. I would never put Cleo through the surgery to have it put into place and then let her live like that. They gave her fluids and tons of medicines and she was so worn out from SCREAMING like I've never heard before. Poor thing. Ever since last night, she's looked even worse. She's now vomiting and drooling b/c she is so nauseous from the liver disease. The vet said that sometimes with appetite stimulants cats can bounce back from this. But her gall bladder is full of fluid and it doesn't appear to be in the cards for her. So Darrell and I have officially tried the appetite stimulant for 1 day and we had to FIGHT her to get that pill down her throat. It was awful. But still refusing to eat or drink anything-- even tuna. We gave her subcutaneous fluid injection, too. So, basically, I'm calling the vet in the morning to see about putting her out of this pain and misery. I've had so many wonderful years with her-- I had her before I even met Darrell. She ran away once, came back, and has been through so many apartments and moves that I wonder how she's made it this long! I don't think she really "likes" Libby and Drew, even though she sometimes tolerates them pulling on her. But she doesn't look too enthused. It was really hard for her to adjust once they were born and I do feel bad about that. But interestingly enough, she has been hiding under their cribs all day long. Hopefully she's trying to make her peace with them!

Thankful for a Rash

Happy Thanksgiving!! This year we stayed home and cooked our own meal. I got some good healthy/low-cal recipes online and almost completely fooled Darrell into eating cauliflower as mashed potatoes. I was so close in succeeding. But he just had to walk into the kitchen when the cauliflower was boiling and asked what it was. I am so very proud of him b/c he actually took some and ate it. It really does fool you since it really tastes like regular mashed potatoes. I actually put 2 small red potatoes in with it to help with my disguise.

Being home and cooking for only us was really nice (and a lot of work), but I have to admit that I was in my PJ's most of the day in the kitchen. What could be better? We dressed Libby in her orange pumpkin dress and tights and she looked adorable in her new black Mary Janes. But we didn't take any photos since Darrell and I were still in our PJ's!

But it wasn't the best day ever since poor Drew is still suffering from a nasty virus. He started running fever Monday morning and has been MISERABLE ever since. I think he's cried more these past few days than he has in his entire life. It's no fun watching your baby like this. Mostly he's been laying around or sleeping or just trying to figure out what he wants. He finally ate a graham cracker and a vanilla cookie over the span of about 2 hours this afternoon. But, luckily, he's been drinking lots of milk, so he is getting some sort of nutrition. The doctor yesterday said that it was most likely just Roseola and to expect a rash in a few days. OR if not, it may be a urinary tract infection. Oh no! But thankfully on Thanksgiving Day, the fever ended and the rash appeared. I've never been so happy to see a rash on my baby before because it just means that the virus is on its way out the door. Remember when Libby had this earlier? She must have had a milder form of it or something b/c she had a slight fever one day and the rash the next. And she acted normally the whole time (which is usually fussy and irritable-- he he he). I am hopeful that my little Drewsie is back to his sweet and happy little self in the next day or two.

Juice boxes are better than Tylenol any day

Today I got a call at work that Drew had a fever. When I got to the sitter, he looked miserable. I towed him and Libby home for the day. He went to sleep for 3 hours and after a dose of Tylenol, was feeling better. We had dinner later on and I decided to let both of them have a juice box for the first time. Libby drank hers immediately with no spillage (that would be wasting good juice, she says). Drew, however, chose to have a little fun with his. I didn't care at all because it was the one and only time he smiled much less laughed like this all day long. I wonder how much juice he really got into his little body, though. Take a look...

We're Getting Ready for the Holidays!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elmo Rocks!

Libby and Drew just LOVE Elmo and Cookie Monster. They go crazy and dance when the "Elmo's World" music plays on the tv or in the car. They walk around saying, "Ehmo" all the time (so cute)! Plus they have a soft plush Elmo, Sesame Street pop-up toy with Elmo, Tickle Me Elmo, and Tickle Me Cookie Monster. Luckily I found all of these at a children's consignment shop (at different times) for CHEAP. I got the Tickle Me Cookie Monster for $4.99 and I think it retails for $30-something dollars. It works great after a deep disinfectant!

So, I heard that Sesame Street Live was coming to town as they do every year (who knew?) and this year's show is called "Elmo's Green Thumb". Darrell and I debated on whether or not they were too young for this. I wish they were 1 year older b/c then they'd really love it. But if we wait, it might not work b/c a)they may hate Elmo by then, and b)it most likely won't be an all Elmo show. So we got the tickets for $18 each, which was pretty good since I was expecting them to be a lot higher. It's at the arena close by, so we don't have to truck it down to DC. We're going on a weekend and the show is in the morning, which works out well. We'll definitely have to post some photos of the show once we go in mid-December!

Colds, Nu-Nu's, and Trains

What's with Fridays?? Yup, we have 2 sick babies again this Friday! Last night they did not sleep at ALL, so we were all tired this morning. But they didn't seem to be feeling bad and had no symptoms. They went to daycare with no problem, but when I picked them up... both had runny noses and Drew was hoarse. They have been running like faucets and went to bed a little early. We set up the humidifier and Vapor-Plug-In, but poor Libby keeps tossing and turning--- most likely because she has to spit out her nu-nu (pacifier) since she can't breathe thru her nose. :(

Speaking of the nu-nu... we're so proud of Libby because she's down to using it only while sleeping at night. She just started taking naps at daycare without it, so that is GREAT. I was going to try and wean her off this weekend, but since she's sick, we'll wait. But she knows that it must stay in her crib and not come out. This is such great progress since she used to need it all day long. I want to get rid of it before her 2nd birthday (since that's what we SLP's recommend), so we're on the right track...

Speaking of tracks... we bought a great train table in excellent used condition from a neighbor for $40! I wondered if this was a good deal, but when I found out that the Thomas and Brio train cars are like $20, I knew it was. It came with 2 big storage drawers underneath, tons of tracks, a Thomas car, and some other train cars. L&D are too young for it now, but I think it will make a great present later on. I looked online to get a picture of it and I think this is it here. It costs $250!! I love a good deal!!

Target is good for vocabulary, budgets, and karma...

Today was special because I got to spend some more one-on-one time with Drewsie. He has been the worst crab for the past week. Mostly he's been testing the limits, but he's starting to hit, too. Oh no! So, to avoid more frustration for him during playtime, I decided to take him with me to Target.

It was so easy to load him in the cart (since Target's carts don't have double seats, so I rarely take both babies there by myself). Just as we were all buckled into the shopping cart seat cover, I noticed 2 boxes at the bottom of the cart. Someone had put it in the cart corral outside and forgot their 2 boxes of lighted Christmas garland. I pictured myself running around in the minivan and getting all the way home only to find I left something in the cart. It COULD happen! So, like the Good Samaritans we are, I brought it inside to the service desk. They must have a lot of unfriendly people at that Target b/c the clerk acted like I was turning in a one-million-dollar bill (which I'm sure exist) and thanked me like 100 times. Hey-- my parents raised me right-- not to mention the garland had multi-colored lights and I'm more of a plain white-light-garland fan!

I tried not to go toward the Xmas or Halloween sale sections, but just couldn't stay away, especially when I saw the 90% off sign on Halloween!! Well, there was nothing left but some bags of candy corn (and not the good plain kind-- the weird chocolate and other flavored kind-eeww)and a few dog costumes and ugly costumes. There was a woman in one of those wheelchair carts who was taking almost all of them (and I mean like 50 of them). I wondered why and then realized how smart she was. She'll probably sell those on ebay next year for a nice profit. I did that with L&D's costumes from last year and got $10 for each one. Best part is I only paid about $15 for each one. Not bad! Back to Target...I rummaged through some costumes and found a cute pumpkin one size 3T-4T mixed in with the dog costumes. Here's the best part-- it was $1.29!!!!! So, in a couple of years, you will most likely see some pumpkin costume photos on this blog.

I was so amazed to hear just how much Drew's language is exploding lately. He pointed to so many things and named things on high shelves that I never would have seen. His favorites were: pumpkin, cheese, milk, neyyyy (horse), fish (Goldfish crackers), Elmo, Cookie (as in monster), ball, ball, ball, ball, ball, and ball. And there were balls everywhere-- ornaments, bouncing balls, ball lights, even the ball vacuum by Dyson! He found every spherical shape in that place! He loves to point out pumpkins, so I decided it was time to move on to Christmas vocabulary. We looked at Santas and snowmen. He loved the big giant light-up ones the best. I'm just hoping those won't make it to our lawn some day...

We stayed on target (no pun intended) and got out of there to head home. And the funny thing about karma... it came back to me for turning in the garland...I realized when we got home that the cashier only charged me for 1 of those big storage tubs instead of 2. Woo hoo-- that saved us $5.49! ;) Don't worry, Target... I'm sure I'll be back to spend that and then some.

Homemade Play-Dough

Last week I made homemade Play-Dough with my students for Halloween. I had enough supplies left over, so I decided to make a batch for L&D. They were a little skeptical at first, but eventually squeezed, patted, and poked it with forks. It lasted about 5 minutes and they only tried to put it in their mouths about 10 times.




For those of you wanting the recipe (it's pretty easy)... here it is. This makes a HUGE batch, so I half it and even 1/4'd it with good results:

2 c. flour
1 c. salt
4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tbs. vegetable oil
2 c. water
food coloring
pumpkin spices (optional)

Spray the sides and bottom of a medium saucepan with non-stick spray. Before turning fire on, add all ingredients to the pot and stir well. Cook over medium heat until it pulls away from the pan. Transfer it to wax paper on the counter and let cool. Knead and work it a little to help it get to the perfect consistency. Store in airtight container. Have fun!