The flu + Christmas = bad

It has been a busy week. Friday night, Abby's school held a Winter Wonderland event where they hosted a "store" where the kids could go and pick out presents for their family members. A volunteer took Abby in to the store and helped her pick out gifts. I thought she was going to take forever, but she was in and out really fast. She's very proud of her gifts and I can't wait to see what she picked out.


The real reason Abby wanted to go to Winter Wonderland, though, was to see Santa. We always try to see Santa somehow every year and this was a good way to fit it in. Last year was the first year she wasn't afraid to sit on Santa's lap. This year, she knew the deal. She went right up to him and started telling him exactly what she wanted - some of which "Santa" was hearing about for the very first time.


Adam and I saw Santa at Wal-mart a couple weeks ago and he didn't cry when he saw him, but he buried his face and wasn't interested in talking to him. It was pretty much the same situation here, except Santa invited Seth and Adam to sit in Santa's chair so Adam could still get his picture with Santa. Abby thought that was pretty cool. I'm not sure Seth did.

Seth, Adam, Santa and Abby.

Abby and Santa.

Abby telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas.

Adam finally did wave at Santa and I told Santa Adam wanted Diego so that Santa would know what he wanted. After that, we took the kids to dinner at Pasta House. Every month, Abby has to read 10 books for school and if she does, she gets a gift certificate to Pasta House. They expire at the end of the year, so we've been trying to use them up. I actually like Pasta House, but twice in two weeks is a bit much.

Saturday, I had lunch with Dawn. Dawn and I have been trying to meet at least once a month since her wedding in September just to make sure we're staying close and seeing each other as often as we would like. It's so hard to do that and it works so much better for me if we actually put something on our calendars. So, we went to a breakfast/brunch/lunch place called First Watch. It was pretty good and I had a good time as always. Love Dawn!

After lunch I went home to get ready for Abby's first dance recital. Abby has been taking dance lessons that are offered through her day care. It works out great because the teacher comes to the day care on Tuesday afternoons and I don't have to take her anywhere. She really likes dance and I do think we'll continue with it. She did a really good job. They did four dances with four costume changes. It's impressive that kids that young can remember that many dance moves. I'm still having trouble with YouTube, but I think I've almost got it figured out. We did videotape all four of the dances and plan to post them soon.

This is Abby before the recital.
This is Abby in her costume for a song from High School Musical 2.

This is her costume for a song from Lilo & Stitch.

A country song called "Little Bitty."

In between songs, Adam was mingling with two little girls from his class, who were also at the recital. This is Sarah (left) and Lily. Lily gives Adam a stuffed Barney every morning when we get there so that he doesn't cry when we drop him off. Very sweet. Adam also just got invited to his very first birthday party. Adam talks about a little boy named Logan at school quite a bit and I think it makes him a lot more comfortable at school now that he has a friend. He still tears up a little, but not nearly like it had been. I think Logan has a lot to do with it. So, Logan is having his 3rd birthday party and Adam is invited. How cute is that? :)

This is Abby's costume for the song from the Nutcracker. She did a great job and wasn't intimidated at all by the crowd. It was just held in the gym at a nearby elementary school. She'll have another recital in May.

After the recital, Abby had a birthday party for her friend, Riley, from her day care. She had a really good time there. And then after that, we went to Kevin and Abby's because Brian's brother, Dan, was making rosotto and a rack of lamb with a mint sauce. Holy crap was it good. The lamb was so tender. Unbelievable. Seth might try to make it sometime because it was delicious.

Sunday morning, Adam woke up at 6 a.m. with a high fever. Despite Tylenol, it kept getting worse throughout the morning and by 11:30 a.m., it was up to 101.8 under the arm, which is really like 102.8 becaue they say to add one degree to he under-arm temperature to get an accurate actual temperature. So I took him to the pediatric urgent care center. We were there for over two hours and it turns out Adam has the flu - like influenza. They did a flu test by sticking some swabs up his nose and it came back positive. Poor guy. So, he is on alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours, albuterol breathing treatments every 4 hours, a steroid to open up his airways, and a strong antibiotic to make sure that the junk in his lungs doesn't turn into pneumonia. I don't know if he got it from Seth or what because Seth was home Tuesday and Wednesday last week throwing up like crazy (that was not fun) but Adam hasn't thrown up once. They said Adam could be sick for 7 days and if anyone else gets it, it will happen in the next 3-5 days. Adam will be better by Christmas, but hopefully none of the rest of us get it because depending on when we get it, we might not be better by Christmas, which would totally suck.

So, in addition to trying to scramble to get ready for Seth's birthday and Christmas, I now have a very sad 2-year-old with the flu. This week looks to be a busy week at work and home. Abby has Girl Scouts on Tuesday and I'm sure there's other stuff going on that I just can't think of right now. Sheesh!