Last week we met with our younger son's (YS) ENT and it is official: he will be having his adenoids and tonsils removed. Apparently his adenoids are gigantic. The ENT kept on going back to the x-rays and commenting on it. It is also likely that he has sleep apnea. Blech! The surgery is scheduled for January 9th.
To say that I'm nervous about this surgery would be an understatement. Yes, I know that this is a standard surgery. There's nothing unusual about it, and thankfully it's nowhere near as serious as something like open heart surgery. Yet at the same time it involves anesthesia, and of greater concern, it involves pain. If I could switch places with him, I would do it in a heartbeat. We were told that on a scale of one to ten for pain with one being minimal pain, this ranks at an eight. The recovery time is ten days, and in the doctor's words it's "hell".
Right now we're trying to prepare for the day-to-day tasks that will need to continue during his recovery by calling in all the help we can get. As short a time as ten days is may be, it is a long time for a child to be in pain. I wouldn't want to drag YS in the car with me to bring OS back and forth to preschool, even were we not advised not to do so. Six days (thanks to weekends) would also be a long time for OS to miss out on preschool. My playgroup and moms group are being terrific about it. My MIL didn't even miss a beat when asked before agreeing that she would stay with us to help during the surgery and recovery.
Yet at the same time I still feel panicked about it. YS is just such a happy-go-lucky kid, and I feel terrible that he will be going through it. When we were playing together this evening, he was just so enthused to be with me. I kept thinking, "You have no idea that I signed the papers for the pain you will be experincing in a couple weeks." I know, I know! This surgery will make him better. His doctors are hoping that not only will he begin to gain weight after the surgery, but that he will have a big growth spurt as well; apparently enlarged adenoids can stunt growth. He is small for his age. What can I say except that I have a huge dose of mommy guilt right now.
Right after I had my older son (OS) I saw a Dr. Phil show in which either he or one of his guests stated that when you have children, it is like someone took your heart and placed it in your child. All you can do is watch. I have felt like this a few times as a parent. This is one of those times.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Ten days of a child's pain elicits far lengthier parental guilt.
Good luck with the surgery and recovery. I know what you mean about taking your heart and putting it outside of yourself. Something I only knew intellectually before I had kids, but now would do almost anything for them to not be in pain.
Hopefully it'll all be over soon, and he will be back and better than ever.
Just an anecdote, but this may be encouraging: one of my colleague's son had this surgery when he was a child, and it "cured everything." His speech clarity improved greatly, he stopped wetting the bed at night, slept better, concentration improved, so on and so forth. He's now a 6'6" high school student with good grades. ;)
I can relate a little, as I felt anxious when Jack had eye surgery however, the recovery from that is hours not days. My heart goes out to you and YS... It will be hard but worth it and he's young, he won't remember!
Any amount of pain for our children is too much pain for us to handle. There isn't a mother out there that doesn't understand the agony YOU'RE about to go through.
Hope he heals quickly and makes you shake your head over your concern...
Aw poor kid. My heart goes out to you guys, that would be so hard and stressful. Good luck with everything and hope the recovery is speedy! I'm sure he'll be feeling so much better once he's all healed.
I know just how you feel -- it was so hard when my daughter had surgery this summer (appendectomy). All we could do was focus on the fact that the pain was temporary. Good luck to all of you.
I had my adnoids removed and tubes in my ears when I was about 6 I believe. My mom said the difference was incredible. If it makes you feel ANY better for the long run, I do not remember now (at 34) being in any pain, so that was apparently quickly forgotten.
The one thing I DO remember, was being scared about being in the hospital. My mom bought me a pop-up book about hospitals and a kid who had to go to the hospital for something. That made me feel a lot better because I could point to things in the book that scared me and my mom and the doctor could talk to me about them. So that helped.
Many more hugs to you. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers! And I hope he will feel all the benefits as soon as possible and forget all the pain!
When Alex generously allowed me to guest post on her blog, she apparently felt that a one-word contribution was inadequate. I am therefore providing further explanation as to what would cause me to want to shout Yippee to the world in turquoise.
I will therefore provide that explanation in two parts. First, I am reprinting a post (with minor modification) that Alex wrote for New England Mamas immediately before the last Superbowl. (Yeah, I guess reprinting a post by Alex in a guest post by me on her blog may seem odd, but I am in such a good mood that I can handle any ridicule).
I know I said I was writing a post on Pump It Up this week, but I am pushing it back to focus on something that has people around here more pumped up than Pump It Up anyway, specifically the subject of New York vs. New England sports. My husband, known in the blogosphere as the Big Giraffe, was born in New York City and despite spending what I consider to be his formative years (from when he was 2 until he was 13) on LoNG Island, he considers himself a total City person. He did live and go to school in various boroughs of New York City until he was 29. Although I couldn't care less about football, I understand that this year's Superbowl is a bit stressful for him, but I don't think I understand exactly where he is coming from. Here's why...
Alex Elliot (AE): So are the Patriots really going to win the Superbowl? Big Giraffe (BG): Probably. Unfortunately, they may be the best football team to have ever played. AE: Why unfortunately? BG: Because you know I hate the Patriots. AE: I have never understood that. Why do you hate the Patriots. BG: I don't know. I have hated them for as long as I can remember. AE: But they are our home team now, and the boys will root for them. BG: I am sure the boys will root for them. I won't. I root for all New York teams. AE: So are you rooting for the Giants this week? BG: Yes. AE: Because they are a New York team? BG: No, because they are playing against the Patriots. AE: So you aren't a Giants fan? BG: No. I don't have any strong feelings about the Giants. AE: Then do you root for the Jets? BG: I hate the Jets. The only team I hate more than the Jets are the Patriots. AE: I thought you root for all New York teams? BG: I do. Neither the Giants nor the Jets are New York teams. AE: Aren't they called the New York Giants and the New York Jets? BG: They are called that, just like the Manchester Airport is called Manchester Boston Regional. They can call it whatever they want, but the airport is in New Hampshire. The Giants and Jets play in New Jersey. AE: It is just on the other side of the river! I could get from Midtown Manhattan to the Meadowlands faster than I could have gotten to your old apartment in Brooklyn. BG: Brooklyn is in New York City. The Meadowlands are not. AE: So who is your favorite football team? BG: Mumble mumble. AE: Who? BG: Mumble mumble. AE: I still can't hear you. BG: The Miami Dolphins. AE: Aren't they the worst team in football? BG: Mumble. AE: What? BG: Yes. They suck. They are still my favorite team? AE: But they don't play in New York! BG: There are no New York football teams. AE: Isn't there a football team in Buffalo? BG: That doesn't count. They are nowhere near New York City. AE: So why don't you claim that you route for New York City teams, if you don't route for New York teams from other areas of the state. BG: When I say New York, I mean New York City. AE: Buffalo plays closer to New York City than Miami. So do the Giants, Jets, and for that matter, the Patriots. BG: Look, if I were rooting for teams that play in the suburbs of New York City, I probably would root for the Patriots. AE: So Foxborough Massachusetts is a suburb of New York City now? BG: Southern Connecticut is in New England, so at least part of New England is a suburb of New York City. We can debate about the economic dependence of the rest of the region. AE: Good luck with that debate. So what will you tell the boys if their home team loses this week? BG: To paraphrase a friend of mine from San Diego, 18-1 is nothing to be ashamed of. AE: You and he think that line is funny? BG: I do. He found it funnier two weeks ago before the Patriots beat San Diego. AE: I expect you to be in the same situation next week.
Addendum to Original Post Part III: Explanation
The New England Patriots Superbowl loss is obviously very old news, and it is not the reason for today's exultation. Rather, I am celebrating three wonderful events. First, one year after a 1-15 travesty, the Miami Dolphins just beat the Jets (which would be worthy of celebration anytime) to win the AFC East and earn a trip to the playoffs. Second, the Baltimore Ravens (about whom I usually do not care) won their game to take the last wild card slot, thus leaving the New England Patriots out in the cold.
Despite not caring about football, Alex did ask me if I could at least spare a positive thought for her family's home team, the Chicago Bears. (Her iPod does contain a recording of a song called "Chicago Bears." No, it is not Refrigerator Perry's "Superbowl Shuffle." This was actually performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.) Alas poor Alex. As I have told our older son (OS) many times, my favorite color when I was growing up was purple. Thanks to that preference, I chose the the Minnesota Vikings as my second favorite football team. As it happens, the Vikings and Bears are in the same division, and only one of them can be the division champions. In order for it to have been the Bears, they would have needed to win and the Vikings would have needed to lose. Neither of those events happened. The third wonderful event of the day was the Minnesota Vikings victory. For those of you who hate teams that play near New York City, you can at least be happy that their victory was over the Giants.
Big Giraffe's Lesson Learned: The Miami Dolphins and the Minnesota Vikings are in the playoffs, and the New England Patriots are not.
At this point I am probably going to cheer for the Giants for want of an alternative. I thought Oregon is part of the small corner of the US that is west of the Hudson River, right near the midwest in fact.
Happy holidays to you all! It's been a busy but fun week here. The funny thing is that I can't even tell you exactly what we've been doing except that I've laughed more this week than I have in a really long time. Don't get me wrong; I love to laugh much to the Big Giraffe's chagrin because there might be a slight tendency to have it be at his expense. Such as right now while I'm watching him trying virtual step aerobics on the new Wii Fit we got as a gift for Christmas.
Christmas Eve day the Big Giraffe ran a few errands while my MIL and I made cookies with the boys. I even made them from scratch and pulled out my cookie dough press. I have an itty bitty problem every year: operator error. The first several cookie sheets worth of cookies I make always look like a two year old got a hold of the cookie press. I master the cookie dough press by the last dozen cookies. Satisfied that I have put the cookie dough press back in place and made lovely cookies I then pack up the press and put it away for next Christmas Eve. We all found my cookies to be quite funny to my chagrin. The Big Giraffe told me in all seriousness that theis year's batch not only tastes better than last year's (thanks to the William Sonoma on-line recipe!) but also looks better. I like to think it's because the boys are better at decorating them, but the Big Giraffe has clarified that my technique with the cookie press has gotten better.
Christmas Day itself the boys were up bright and early. We opened gifts and then the Big Giraffe made us our traditional, delicious eggs benedict Christmas breakfast. We spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon playing with the kids and of course setting up their toys. We also set up the Wii and had a great time playing with it. All of us bowled together even my MIL. The Big Giraffe and I had a ton of fun competing in tennis. Then it was dinner time.
After much thought (on my part as everyone else said they really and truly didn't care) we bought a HoneyBaked Ham and a couple side dishes. This worked out perfectly because I was able to make homemade rolls (yes, from scratch!) and a homemade au gratin potato sidedish. We also had the Christmas cookies and a cake. The ham was already cooked so I had full use of the oven for my sidedishes. I was quite pleased with it. Then it was time to beat up the Big Giraffe at boxing to engage in some healthy sporting games.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: A Wii offers more than a wee bit of fun.
It's been snowing like crazy here. Not surprisingly the boys are very excited. Our older son (OS) kept on talking about how much fun it was going to be to play in the snow. His plans were quite elaborate; there were going to be snowballs, snow angels, a snowman, a fort and of course chasing the dog around the backyard. He could barely stand still he was so excited. YS looked pretty enthusiastic too.
The Big Giraffe and I took turns looking around the house for OS's snowpants. We just couldn't find them. OS decided to go without the snowpants. YS reluctantly put his on. By the time we had the boys dressed and headed outside, I was exhausted. Forget triathlon training, attiring little kids in winter clothing is a greater workout. Which is why it was no surprise that they spent a total of about ten minutes outside.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: The amount of time spent dressing kids in winter attire is inversely proportional to the amount of time they will play outside.
n playing outside for hours this last few days. I helps with my sanity. Of course, having them pee in their snowpants two days in a row doesn't add to my sanity.
I think this is the first year they haven't cried and demanded to go in 2.3 seconds after heading out!
snow is so rare in Belgium that I never have had any snowpants....we just played outside as we were, got cold and then got back inside with a tintling feeling in our limbs :). but we did make it for a lot longer than 10 minutes!
Maybe you should try without snowpants next time :)
Oh I hear you. Although my kids play outside for a long time now...but just a year or 2 ago it was bundle everyone up, spend 10 minutes outside then come back in because everyone's whining.
We've had a lot of snow lately too, but it was too cold today to play outside (-11 this morning! brrr)
at least you have power. my SIL in Mass was w/o power for 11 days. ack.
we are now in MI, so will be testing out this lesson you've learned. MQ is pretty excited abou the huge mounds of snow at the end of my inlaws driveway!
In order to drive my friend and her family to the airport on Friday, I needed to arrange for my older son (OS) to go home from school with a friend. OS was absolutely thrilled. It was like Christmas had come early. In fact, all I had to do Monday morning was to remind him of the playdate, and he jumped right out of bed.
The friend's mom had graciously offered to keep OS until late afternoon so that the kids could have plenty of time to play. It turned out to be good not just for OS but for me as well. YS and I stopped for lunch, and it took a lot longer to get back than I originally thought it would. We ended up getting back just in time to pick OS up. Unfortunately, he was well into a movie called Rudolph's Shiny New Year. Not wanting to overstay our welcome and also having some things we needed to do, I promised OS that we would try to find the movie on TV later. Surely it would be playing many times again before Christmas.
Unfortunately, when I got home and looked on-line for the next showing, I couldn't find it anywhere. OS was upset and ready to nomimate me for worst mother of the year. I was able to appease him by pointing out that another showing of regular Rudolph was coming on that evening and we could record it. Unfortutunately Tivo deleted the one I had recorded last week. I even said he could stay up late as a special treat.
Later that evening the Big Giraffe, OS and I were camped out in front of the the TV. However, I kept on getting up to answer the phone, load the dishwasher and perhaps read blogs and check Facebook. Basically I had no idea what was going on in the movie. At a couple points the Big Giraffe and I even asked each other what movie this was. I briefly checked the info and read that it was a 2001 version. I assumed it was a re-make of the original Rudolph. However, when the singing hippotamus (not kidding) made her debut, I began to have an inkling that this was a different movie. Turns out it was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. See I thought that's what the original movie was called.
OS loved the movie. Neither the Big Giraffe nor I were as impressed, by which I mean that there may have been a lot of eye rolling and stiffled laughing, pariticulalry at the part where the Abominable Snowman dressed up in a pink bunny costume as a disguise. OS kept on saying that he didn't look like he was in disguise and didn't understand why he was wearing the costume. If a five year old is picking up on the flaws of the movie...well...that's enough said right there.
Here's the worst part though. I'm about to reveal a spoiler so if you haven't seen this movie you might not want to read the next part or this movie may be ruined for you forever more!
S P O I L E R
S P A C E
Picture this said in a darky echoey voice. The bad guy turns out to be a forgotten teddy bear. Apparently he was a favorite toy of a boy until the boy grew up and put him in a box on a closet shelf. One day the bear got thrown out and ended up on a giant heap of trash in a dump. I could feel the tears building up. He got mad and vowed to take care of the forgotten toys. Santa explained that it was a mistake and in fact the boy wanted him very much. He was all grown up with his own child. I'm getting choked up even writing about this. This is worse than a Lifetime movie! Anyhow, at the end of the movie, a little girl in a crib snuggled up to the bear and then the grown up who had owned the bear as a boy came in to look at them happily. That's when I lost it. OS was pretty alarmed. I mean he was already confused by the Abominable Snowman in a bunny suit, but mommy crying over this movie; now that he completely didn't understand. Come to think of it, I don't either. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go find a kleenex to wipe up some tears and blow my nose.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Bad cartoons with hippotomauses and discarded, super-villain teddy bears can be as moving as any other drama.
*Apparently Rudolph's Shiny New Year will be on abcfamily this Sunday at 7:30 am EST followed at 8:30 by Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reinder and the Island of Misfit Toys.
You've never heard of the Island of Misfit Toys? This is a classic! Although to be honest, I don't think I've ever watched it... Anyway, I am in love with Bumble the Abominable Snowman. I used to have Bumble slippers, which I believe I got from Delia's, the teen clothing store. But I digress. Bumble rocks. And I'd cry like a baby over an abandoned teddy bear, too.
A while ago a friend asked me to drive her family to the airport because parking and car services are pretty expensive. I was happy to help, except for two things. First, the drive would coincide with my older son's (OS) preschool pickup. Second, I couldn't fit my friend's family, my younger son (YS), and me in my car at the same time. Size soon became the least of my car problems.
Last week as I was driving my boys to my older son's (OS) Tae Kwon Do lesson, it sounded like a group of preschoolers were planning the drums in my car. OS and my younger son (YS) were actually innocent. I know! I couldn't believe it myself. Not surprisingly, cars aren't supposed to make that noise. Unfortunately, the replacement axle wasn't in stock, and it needed to be ordered. I was told my car was safe to drive as long as it wasn't icy or snowing out. Hmm...call me crazy, but I think we may have just had the teensiest tiniest weather incident out here...so teenie that a state of emergency was declared and the National Guard was called out! That effectively meant we were down to one car.
At least we had our health...until I found a spot of blood at the foot of the bed where my cats typically sleep. After examining both cats and the dog, I was unsuccessful at finding any wound. I was unsure whether to be relieved or more concerned.
Fortunately, all problems had a solution. My friend suggested that we get around the car capacity issue by taking her car to the airport. I could then drive it back home. She further asked that we keep her car in our driveway to avoid it being towed in the event of another snowstorm. As long as we were going to take car of the car, she further, generously suggested that we borrow her car until my car gets fixed. Meanwhile, OS had been asking for a while to have a playdate with a close friend of his from preschool. Her mother agreed to pick OS up with her daughter. To describe OS as excited would be more of an understatement than my description of our snowstorm.
This morning, I felt things were on the right track. I even slept in a bit, skipped spinning class, and continued to extend the life of my less and less supportive and more and more stinky shoes by using the newly fixed treadmill in our basement. When I got off and pulled off my socks to get into the shower, I found the solution to the last problem. The source of blood at the foot of our bed had been a foot...specifically my foot. I apparently had a blister on my heel that was bleeding but fortunately didn't hurt.
I had a good conversation with my friend on the way to the airport. My friend doesn't need to pay for airport parking. I don't need to rent a car. OS had a fantastic playdate, filled with hugs and play. And I will be giving myself a holiday gift of running shoes this week.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Trivial problems have easy solutions.
I woke up on Friday morning for spinning class. It was raining out, and I debated going back to bed. I figured I would get up and look outside to determine whether it was safe. Since things looked okay, I drove to class without thinking too much about it. It was raining out, and there were a heavy puddles along the way. One person who was in the class commented that her alarm didn't go off because of the power outage. The rest of us were surprised. What power outage? We had no idea.
In fact it wasn't until I drove back from the gym that I heard on the radio that schools were being closed and that there were major power outages. It was actually raining hard enough to make me uncomfortable driving. That's pretty rare for me, but it left me relieved that school was cancelled. I later saw on TV that a state of emergency had been declared for MA. The Big Giraffe has many colleagues who live in Northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire who had no power, heat, or (worst of all) internet. I hadn't realized how bad things were closer to home until today, when calls started to come in from local friends who didn't or in many cases still don't have heat or electricity. We have offered to let people we know stay with us, and we also had one very nice couple call us assuming we didn't have electricity and ask if we would like to stay with them. We went to a mall on Friday night and it was jam packed. In hindsight, we realized the crowds were there probably because people were looking for a place to stay warm.
Today we went to a birthday party at one of those kids' birthday party places. The kids had a fantastic time. Many of the parents did not seem as upbeat. As we chatted, we learned that we were the only people there who had electricity! Worse, none of them were expecting to get power back until Monday.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: New England storms affect the whole region.
My mom asked me how you were faring and whether we'd be able to visit you this weekend, as she heard that the problems in your area were bad. Glad that you were spared!
that ice storm ad its problems was on the news here. I'd panic if I had no electricity in winter. it must be awefull to have children and not have heating. And all the food in the freezer is going bad. Oh gosh....is all electricity back now?
New England is a fairly dense region...can't they make investements in underground electricity cables??
Ever since my younger son (YS) was a baby he has been a snorty kid. I remember asking about it at the hospital and being told that c-section babies often were like that. Except that my older son (OS) was also born via c-section, and I didn't remember him sounding like that. As YS moved from infant to young child, I was told that sometimes kids just sounded funny. It was written down in his records at both the pediatrician's and ENT's office that I was concerned.
Since June, YS has had to go in to the pediatrician for periodic weight and height checks because he appears to have a super metabolism. He eats large quantities of food yet is only in the third percentile for weight and the twentieth percentile for height. When questioned by the doctor about what YS ate for breakfast, I described: two pieces of whole wheat toast slathered with butter, a Danimal, a cup of whole milk and two pieces of American cheese, not to mention a piece of Advent candy. Sometimes he will also eat some fruit. He'll only be 2.5 at the end of the month. The pediatrician asked me whether or not he snored. Um...yeah...It sounds like there is a symphony in his room every night.
Apparently sometimes kids with enlarged adenoids burn extra calories because they have to work harder to breathe. Since YS had enlarged tonsils, she thought he might also have enlarged adenoids. X-rays were ordered, and sure enough YS has very large adenoids. We have an appointment in a couple weeks with his ENT to see if he needs surgery. While I am very concerned about YS and the surgery, I do have one really important question to ask the ENT: can his enlarged adenoids be transferred to me, because I would love to burn extra calories sleeping at night instead of getting up at the crack of dawn to workout!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: There are upsides and downsides to enlarged adenoids.
huh - more calories to breathe. crazy! i know m had her adenoids removed as a child. the only possible adverse side effect is that she is pretty short. but i don't know if that was causal...
The Big Giraffe only began to celebrate Christmas when we began dating. He's only had a Christmas tree since we've been married. Since this is our eighth Christmas as a married couple, you can do the math, right?
In our older son's (OS) preschool newsletter, there was a blurb that a local church was having a Santa and cookie event. We took the boys and they loved it. Let's just say that Santa definitely earned his cookies this year. He had the kids looking out the window for the reindeer he said were on the church's roof. This church was also selling Christmas trees in the parking lot as a fundraiser. We didn't have the cash on us yesterday, but we promised the boys we could come back today and get a tree. OS was quick to remind us of our promise first thing this morning.
Although today is only Dec. 7th and we have a tendency to wait until the last minute to get a tree (my friend Balex Melliot got a crazy cheap and gigantic tree one year on Christmas Eve), we set off to pick out our 2008 tree. OS immediately fell in love with on tree. I do have a vague recollection of the Big Giraffe saying that he thought the tree was too large. However, it was only a couple inches taller than he is, and he's 5'7". We paid for the eighth Christmas tree in the Big Giraffe's life and loaded it up. Immediately I had visions of a happy tree trimming. Why had we always waited so long to put up our tree? This wasn't stressful at all?
In fact the more I reflected on it, the more I realized that the closer to the beginning of December that we put up our tree, the less stressed out I get about it because we're not trying to cram it into an already filled holiday schedule. Sure, the longer we have pine needles on the floor more annoying I find it, but compared to all the needles we had upon entry to our house the year that we Balex Melliot got the tree on Christmas Eve since it was so old, it really wasn't bad.
We brought the tree into our house. The boys were eager with anticipation. The Big Giraffe picked up the tree and I tried to gently guide the trunk into the Christmas tree holder. It didn't fit. I tried to shove the tree into the trunk. No dice. I even tried to shove the holder onto the Christmas tree. Nothing was working. I was determined to remain calm and zen-like. Let's just say others, one other actually, in the house was losing it. Particularly when I informed him that I thought we needed to saw a little more of the tree off. I thought perhaps the knots were keeping it from fitting.
The Big Giraffe grudgingly dragged a hand saw up from the basement and laboriously sawed away while the two boys looked on with delight and I tried unsuccessfully to keep from laughing. Then I pointed out that we needed to saw off some branches from the bottom of the tree. The Big Giraffe gruffly informed me that he already knew that. For some reason I don't think he appreciated my rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". We tried getting the tree into the tree holder once again. It still didn't fit. Even worse, while throwing the thing around, we dragged it against the ceiling, leaving what looked to the parents of a potty-training child like tire tracks.
I came up with what I thought was a plausible solution: exchange the tree. The Big Giraffe looked even more annoyed particularly when I pointed out he really should go right then because otherwise the volunteers would have changed over. After all, the only thing weirder than seeing someone you helped before come back to exchange a Christmas tree is seeing someone whom you've never seen before claiming that they bought the Christmas tree hours earlier and now need to exchange it. In fact thinking back on all my years of Christmas celebrations, not only had I never exchanged a Christmas tree, but I don't know anyone who ever did. But this was for a church fundraiser and the people there seemed incredibly nice and filled with Christmas spirit...The Big Giraffe looked less filled with Christmas spirit.
One of the Big Giraffe's arguments against returning the tree was that he had cut the original twine taking the tree down and thus had no where to secure the tree to return it. Not only did I remember that we had a ball of twine in the house, but I actually found it so that we could tie the tree back onto the car. At this point I wasn't even trying to hide my laughter.
The Big Giraffe returned a short while later (after I did the reasonable thing and shared the story by phone with a friend laughing so hard I could barely speak) with his ninth Christmas tree. He was quick to point out both that he had brought the tree holder with him to be sure that this tree would fit and that if we had listened to him before we would have gotten this new tree in the first place. I pointed out it was basically the same height, and when he said the first tree was too big, he hadn't mentioned the width of the tree. He argued that he had not been specific about what constituted too big. I still couldn't stop laughing. I briefly wondered if there are stats on the number of divorces triggered by conflicts over a Christmas tree.
Fortunately, all is well that ends well. We have a lovely decorated tree. We worked together to scrub the sap off the ceiling. Many years from now both the Big Giraffe and I will both be able to look back at this Christmas tree and laugh. Hmmm...the Big Giraffe just asked me if he's going to be really mad at my blog post. Now I'm wondering again about those stats...
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: You should figure out the maximum Christmas tree height and width that will fit in your home before exchanging it.
Wow. I think my husband would have dropped the tree off at the side of the road and then would have been it. At least it ended well and what a funny story you have now.
hmm I should go back to your facebook pictures as I'm totally confused about the "tree holder" concept? are you trying to fit the trunck in some kind of frame?
We always plant our tree in a huge bucket of earth. Preferably we bought a tree with roots (to plant it in the backgarden and attempt reuse for a couple of years) (real living trees don't loose the needles as easily if you don't forget to water them :) ). Unfortunately nowedays you can hardly find any Christmas trees with roots anymore in Belgium. What a shame.
since I hate the idea of a dying tree in the room (that's basically what a tree without roots is doing), we have already for 3 years an artificial tree now. I love it. It's a bit insane to be matching branches in a trunck with color codes, but once decorated it looks really good. No needles on the floor ever!
The holidays are always a funny time for me. I suspect that the Big Giraffe would say that they are a somewhat crabby time for me. I absolutely love Christmas. Plus right after Christmas is my birthday. I enjoy the Christmas lights, the cheesy Christmas music, and the awful decorations in the mall that go up way too early but make the mall look bright and cheerful. Every year I'm determined that it's going to be the best Christmas ever.
However, with family living so far away, this festive season can bring on bouts of homesickness not to mention shear fear. Fear of what you might ask? Let me explain the holiday dinner transition theory that my husband hears about every year.
When you grow up, your family prepares your big holiday meal. As you get older you begin to help with the meal. Gradually you work your way up to making a dish or two all on your own. Then one day, you have your own place and you actually cook that dish in your own home and bring it to your parents' house (or whoever hosts the family meal.) Then over time you host the meal, but it probably starts out small. Perhaps you cook the main dish and family members bring over side dishes until one day (in my homesick mind it's about 20 years later) you host the whole thing on your own and if you have kids they are also in the beginning stages of the transition.
The problem is that I went from making dishes at my parents home (I have lived out of state since college) to making the whole meal. This tends to cause major stress particularly because I am not one of those people who finds cooking relaxing. Plus I really like relaxing and playing with the kids on Christmas, and I have no desire to spend hours in the kitchen preparing a meal. On the bright side, the Big Giraffe and I are free to come up with whatever holiday menus we choose.
This year my MIL is coming for Christmas. It's the first Christmas that a relative has ever celebrated with us since we got married. While it's her first Christmas celebration, and she doesn't care what we serve, her presence causes the backup plan of frozen pizzas stashed in the freezer just in case to lose their appeal. The past couple of years we've done fondue which has been a lot of fun, but the boys don't particularly like it, by which I mean they don't like it at all. Plus I'm a little nervous about them being around the fondue flame. For several years, relatives have sent a meal on dry ice from a famous Chicago restaurant for Christmas Eve. That has been fantastic and is another idea that we are considering extending on our own for Christmas this year.
My question to you is what do you serve for the holidays? Or perhaps I should ask, if you could start holiday meal traditions from scratch, what would you serve?
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Without traditions, holidays offer a blank slate of opportunity.
Lasagna or homemade spaghetti and meatballs are good dishes that everyone will like - including your boys - but can still be made to feel special. Add some good wine, salads, cheeses and crackers (for appetizers), and a special dessert. The boys could help you make meatballs and you could prepare the sauce early and let it simmer all day.
One of my friends' family has filet mignon every Christmas dinner because it doesn't take a lot of time and is luxurious. Pop some potatoes in the oven and make a good side dish like mac and cheese with really quality cheese (Martha Stewart has a great recipe).
A few years ago when I hosted my first Christmas Eve for the whole family, I made a huge pot of chili and set out shredded cheese, sour cream, guacomole, and corn chips. It was a lot of fun.
we were thinking of cooking a turkey of xmas eve, eating some of it, and then using the leftovers to make m's dad's ragout - which is basically brown gravy full of shredded turkey and pork meatballs, all poured over traditional tourtiere (old-fashioned quebecois meat-pie).
and the best part is, here in ontario, you just BUY the meat pie (and don't tell anyone).
so, yes, meat, meatballs, brown gravy, all over ... meat in crust.
yum.
it's our first xmas on our own, so we are looking forward to doing our own thing!
Super easy - roast a chicken, boil the potatoes while the chicken is roasting (peeling is Big Giraffe's job), use some packaged or canned gravy (there are some wonderful ones in gourmet stores), steam green beans in the microwave, heat up parker house rolls that you got from the supermarket, and serve a bakery pie for dessert. If you don't find cooking relaxing, you should be able to spend the day with the kids. This dinner can be brought to the table in about 20 minutes active time and an hour and a half total time (I have a great, easy chicken recipe I can send you).
Alternative - serve Christmas day brunch, instead. Buy a stollen, heat it, make scrambled eggs and chicken sausage. Voila! Mimosas for the adults.
I do a brunch menu on Christmas (usually stolen from Williams Sonoma) and then on New Year's misc appetizers, keeps us full and happy all day. A great start to the year. Best of luck!
WOW, I'm really bad at advice on this subject. My husband is the cook in my family. And I usually end up at my sister-in-laws for holidays and the most we have to bring is like a pumpkin pie or something.
We don't have any Christmas traditions. My parents (still the hosts, their won insistence) sometimes have ham, or beef, or turkey. Except when they don't--one year we all made Chinese dumplings with my Taiwanese SIL, yum. The traditions are more a simple brunch after presents (egg casserole and coffee cake), lavish Christmas stockings for the kids. The last few years there have been Christmas crackers, a la Britain. It will be great! And less pressure than Thanksgiving, where it's all about The Meal.
I've told you before about the waffle feed Christmas Eve, which is SO fun! But also, on Christmas Day we have sticky buns in the morning and then a ham dinner later...my mom makes her rolls and we have all kinds of fun salads, but the main meat (the ham) is a Honeybaked Ham so just needs heated...I think your "on ice" idea sounds like lots of fun!
My mom suffers from a lot of cooking stress as well, but my best holiday meals I remember are fondue or fondue (bourgignonne) or raclette.....nothing to prepare except for salads etc , everyone cooks during the meal himself. It's very cosy, it's very festive (with the heat glowing from the table), and it's often done in Belgium during the holidays. You can order special meat/cheese fondue dishes at all buchters.
oh and the best thing is that most butchers give you "crepe/pancake batter" along and then you make crepes in your little pans after the meal!!!!! mmmmmm, with hot apple sauce or chocolate sauce or ....
I remember before I was a parent I would sort of shudder when parents talked about their children's bodily functions. Sure, I was happy to enjoy a conversation about pets. Then again I rarely hear pet owners rarely bring up constipation outside of an animal hospital. Or at least not without a lot of euphemisms. Fortunately, animal excrement talk doesn't bother me.
Parents, though, are another matter. It seemed like they could go from talking about what they cooked for Thanksgiving to whether or not their child had "pooped" that day and, if they did, whether or not it was a decent size. I was never going to be like that. Today though I left the following voicemail for a friend who had foolishly volunteered to watch the boys for me this afternoon:
"Hi. I was just calling to confirm the sit for this afternoon. I also wanted to give you a heads up that YS is potty trained. However. . . I'm not sure if he'll tell you when he needs to go to the bathroom. We've never left him with a sitter before. OK that's not true, but not since he has been potty-trained for a time period that's been more than an hour. Since we always try to get him to pee before a sit, it hasn't mattered to a sitter before. When we're out in public, I have him pee on the hour. So far we haven't had any problems. He can hold it for several hours, but this way you shouldn't have to worry. Oh, but he won't say that he wants to try and pee so just announce to him that it's time to pee so that you're not giving him a choice. Then you can ask him if he would rather pee standing up or sitting. He'll say standing up, but at least this way he feels like he's making a choice. I'm hoping he'll poop before we come to your house. I'm leaving you this message because I didn't want to say this all in front of him. See you soon."
I cannot believe I left that message. Yet I would do it again. I did save the best...nugget for when I was dropping the boys off at her house. "I'm really sorry, but the pediatrician put YS on an OTC laxative yesterday and said we really should start it that night. So far nothing's happened, but she said it could take a couple days."
YS if fine, but she said that she tends to recommend laxatives for toddlers who are having constipation during the first couple months of potty training. More importantly to my friend, I did tell her I would give her extra tokens if the laxative took effect while she was watching him! Fortunately there were no accidents, and YS did a great job peeing for her in the toilet. How weird does that sound? Also fortunately, the laxative did finally take effect once we got home, and I have to say I was very impressed that something that size could come out of his little tiny body. The words "kid sized bowling ball" came to mind. Alright I really need to stop now.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Parents can take voicemail to another level.
I know what you mean! The poop talk seems so strange before you are a parent and then it basically becomes life.
My oldest used to save it up for days...like 10. You want big? Sometimes I was seriously tempted to photograph it for Guinness. Thankfully I came to me senses before it got out of hand.
I consider myself fortunate that I have not been on an airplane for a while...not because of how I feel about flying, but because of what happens at airports. In particular, I am concerned about the repeated announcements asking people to report any suspicious bags or packages to security. Since becoming a parent, I have always felt like all of our bags are suspicious because there's usually something gross either on them or in them.
These days, I have started carrying a bag that is far more icky if not suspicious than a typical diaper bag. In fact, my Trader Joe's bag reminds me of the belly I used to have at the end of each pregnancy because it seems to enter each room before I do. Why? Because it contains a Diego potty seat that goes on top of the toilet. That's right, my younger son (YS) decided not to use a toilet unless he can sit on that seat. In fact he liked that seat so much that we tried to find a second one at Target for our upstairs bathroom. Unfortunately, YS may not be the only child whose urination is Diego-enabled. There were none to be found. YS had to settle for a Dora seat.
This past Friday I took my kids to a children's museum with my friend Sally HP and her boys. The boys had a great time. I had stashed the omnipresent Trader Joe's bag behind a bench in the middle of the room. I figured that was a good place, because it was close the bathroom while being out of the way of any curious kids. We ended up not even needing it. YS discovered how to pee standing up!
However after we had left, I realized we had left the seat behind the bench. The problem is that YS still needs it for...well business involving actually sitting on the toilet. I had a terrible image of some poor employee digging through the suspicious bag only to discover a potty seat that had been used on public toilets! As stressed as I was when considering the embarrassment of returning to the museam to pick up a potty seat, I was more afraid of the argument with YS if he could no longer sit on it. I therefore participated in a most unusal phonecall during which I encouraged the museam receptionist not to touch the Trader Joe's bag that had been left behind the bench. Of course she had to ask why. There was definitely a long pause when I answered.
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Parenting includes some crappy experiences and memories that just can't be flushed away.
I considered buying one of those foldable potty seats when my first was training but never got around to it. I guess I was lucky that she and her brother weren't picky about their seats.
Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.
Good luck with the surgery and recovery. I know what you mean about taking your heart and putting it outside of yourself. Something I only knew intellectually before I had kids, but now would do almost anything for them to not be in pain.
Hopefully it'll all be over soon, and he will be back and better than ever.