Greetings from the Great White North where the temperatures currently reside in the single digits. Needless to say, the kids and I are secluded in our lovely apartment as I attempt to entertain them by reading, dancing, and singing; in reality I'm just trying to keep them happy in between nap and bedtime. It's equally as difficult for Ben as he must drive our heater-less car to and from work. Shiver.
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Happy New Year's, everyone! We started the year with a bang: Ben worked the night shift New Year's Eve! Oh yeah, we know how to celebrate holidays chez T.
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I thought I'd look at my goals and do a little on-line evaluation. If you recall (which I don't expect you to), I made the goal to post 5 days a week if sickness did not hamper my attempts. Well, I didn't stick to that because sickness hampered my attempts. Seriously, we've been sick EVERY SINGLE MONTH of this year. You name it, we've had it: colds (x like 20), flu (x 3), stomach virus (x 5), and respiratory infections (x 5). Oh and add all the other weird things Ben and I have dealt with and you will have a nice year-long sickness partay. I am a little sick (haha) of these on-going fiestas so here's to hoping we remain relatively sick free this year.
My goal this year remains the same, and I intend to catch up with summer posts and pictures. Wish me luck.
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In keeping with the resolutions topic, our resolutions are pretty awesome this year, if I say so myself. Neither Ben nor I have goals to lose weight and/or eat healthier because we've already been doing this for the past few months. I love getting a head start on things.
Something that we are both working on is moving away from survival mode and moving toward get things done mode. This year has been hard. It isn't getting any easier and we feel much more prepared to handle everything. Well not prepared, exactly, more like experienced. One thing in particular is parenting. I have let many things slide when it comes to consistency and following through because I've either been too tired, too sick, or too stressed. Usually a combination of two or three of those. Now that I know the fatigue and sickness will not go away (if it isn't an ulcer thing anyway), I'm much more accustomed to handling it; therefore, I am more willing to actually be here for my kids than to give myself excuses--no matter how much I deserve it. It kind of feels awesome to be at this point, to know that Ben and I have made it through the worst emotionally and can now better ourselves in this tough and exacting situation.
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In case you are wondering what stomach ulcers feel like, I will gladly explain. You can skip this paragraph if you'd like, I'm recording this mostly for posterity's sake. (I'm cool like that.)
Ben and I have had different symptoms, so I'll describe his ailments first.
Ben has had on-going heartburn for three months. It has been bad. Like really, really bad. It keeps him awake at night and miserable during the day. It goes away for a little bit after he eats, but comes back full force an hour or so later. He downs a bottle of Tums every two weeks or so, has cut back on heartburn-inducing foods and beverages, and even desperately tried an over-the-counter heartburn medication to no avail. This is serious business, people.
As for me, it's been wonderfully nauseating. (Insert a sarcastic laugh.) Seriously, I've had awful nausea--very reminiscent of first trimester nausea without the pregnancy. It's been so bad that I can't sleep at night. Add in a little vomiting, severe upper stomach pain, and awful bloating and you have a very tired and grumpy Mama. As with Ben, I'll feel so sick that I try eating something to make it go away. This works for a few minutes and then the sickness comes back an hour or so later. It's peak is at night. Holy crappy miserableness. I live in sweats these days because pants hurt and make me feel even more ill. And I feel horribly fat.
So, if you ever feel horribly sick all the time, you might consider being poked for an ulcer.
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Back to the resolutions thing, I have been horrible at taking pictures of the kids. The excuse is, once again, health related. Since I am no longer letting myself use that excuse, at least to an extent, I am going to try harder to take at least a couple photos a day. And at least one video a week. I love taking pictures of the babies and hope that I can continue working on my photography skills by taking beautiful photos of my gorgeous babies.
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Have I mentioned the kids' poor sleeping habits? In particular, Emily's? Yes? Well it bears repeating that she is sleeping HORRIBLY. I'm at the end of my rope with this kid. At first I was pretty understanding. I soothed her, cuddled her, and let her hang out while I cleaned. Now, I'm kinda like, "Get your freakin' butt in bed kid because I'm going nuts!" Hey, considering I'm with my kids, ALONE, from 7am until 11 pm a good portion of the week, I think this kind of thinking is completely understandable. Even if I am trying to change it (see resolution paragraph numba 2 above.)
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I thought I'd change things up by including a few videos. The first is of Andrew enjoying a balloon. The second is of Emily and Andrew playing with bubbles. They were both taken around September so are a bit old, but still fun.
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I hope all of YOU are doing well.
