Fuller’s first Christmas was a smashing success. If by smashing success you mean that he was awake while we opened his stocking and 5 presents. Then after he slept an hour and a half, he was awake for another hour while we continued to open presents and then he went back to sleep for another hour and half.

Yes, the orgy of greed took us about 4 hours to complete. Our family likes to open presents one at a time and see what everyone got. Since there were 13 of us receiving presents, it took a long while to go through the process.

Fuller, being the first grandchild, great-grandchild, and nephew, made out like a bandit. He is well supplied with books, including a Children’s Story Bible, his first train, and other things that I can’t think of right now. But in all he was very well behaved and not over stimulated. He just kept going through his daily cycles while we all sat around with gifts piling up at our feet and paper trash filling up the garbage bags.

We were able to be leisurely with our gifts because we had our Christmas dinner on the 23rd when my cousin and his wife were still here. Not having to squeeze in a big meal yesterday did make for much more relaxed Christmas day. And it kind of stretched Christmas for us over a few days.

To add a little update, we finally received Aunt Margery’s bags and we think she is one of the lucky ones. Apparently US Airways was having a sick-out and the picture in the paper of the piles of luggage sitting in the Philadelphia airport was a site to behold.

My entire family is getting increasingly upset with US Airways. My Great Aunt Margery arrived in Dayton on Wednesday. Delayed a few hours because of the snow. That is understandable. But the delays also caused a luggage mishap and today is Friday and her luggage still isn’t here.

This is an 80 year old woman who needs her things! We have received confirmation emails that her luggage arrived and was sent via carrier to our house. But have we seen this luggage yet? No.

This is getting very irritating.

The snow is still here but the roads are getting cleared- very slowly. The temperature outside is 0. I wanted to post a picture but it is too big to upload. So pictures will have to wait until later.

Keep those toes and ears covered!

Take 15 inches of snow. Add one dog, 8 inches tall. What do you get?
Lots of laughter at her expense!

We are snowed in. The men of the house are taking turns shoveling out the cars and driveway using the one snow shovel my dad has. They shoveled a lot yesterday but this morning the drifts and sheet of ice all over everything means they have to keep at it. D took his shift at 4:30 this morning. Not because he had to but because he was awake.

When D & I went to Germany for Christmas in 2000, they got the most snowfall in 20 years. This Christmas, Dayton is getting the most snow in one snowfall in almost 20 years. We all think this is D’s fault.

Keep staying warm!

My parent’s house has one more bed that is empty. After today it will be filled by my Great Aunt and then there will be no more room at this inn. It is nice to have all these people here. It is making my mother a tad more loopy than normal, but c’est la vie.

Now that D has arrived (with the dogs) I am a little more comfortable. He really is my best friend, someone to just pal around with. And since he is my husband and father of our child, he is someone I can dump my son on and not feel guilty.

If you know D, you may know that he is very much against cold weather. We keep our home’s thermostat at 72-74, maybe 68-70 at night.

If you know my mother, you know that she is hot nature and her home’s thermostat is never above 70. And it only gets to 70 if I go and bump it up to that when she isn’t looking.

Well, I was worried about D and how he would react to the cold- the cold outside in Ohio and the cold inside my parent’s house. So I got him a present. Silk long underwear. It will keep him toasty warm, inside and out.

When we got up this morning at 7:45 we were greeting with a view of the white stuff falling from the sky. It is going to continue to fall throughout the day and we should have about 4 inches by tomorrow. When Fuller starts his next cycle I plan on dressing him in his snow suit and making sure he experiences his first real snow. (The flurries in Chattanooga do not count.)

Stay warm everybody!

Breastfeeding is frustrating.
There I said it.

Fuller and I have the mechanics of it down, but the timing… well, not so much. When he decides to shorten his cycles down to 2 hours (2 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next) it becomes frustrating because inevitably he has taken only a very short nap and I have accomplished nothing non-baby related- like sleeping.

And then there is the consideration, the one that I admit I always forget about, about what goes into my body also goes into his. And while what is in my body is ok, it may not be ok for him. Like cabbage. Take 2 meals of a cabbage heavy meal (it has pasta and ham in it too), process through a mom, feed to baby via breastmilk, and you get a gassy baby.

Also, I am not one of those mothers who insist that her child get always and only breastmilk. Fuller gets the occasional bottle of formula. It is so occasional that we haven’t had to go through trail and error to find the one that is right and doesn’t upset Fuller’s insides. But, when traveling I do tend to be lax and allow others to feed him while I go on little outings. So on Sunday I went to church, leaving my son with his Aunt Stina who fed him a bottle. Then that afternoon we traveled to Columbus and he had another bottle of formula. 2 bottles of forumla in one day. For a child who isn’t always forumla fed, that makes for a gassy baby.

So, we have cabbage laden breastmilk and 2 bottles of formula. What does that make for?

A really, really, really gassy baby. A really, really, really fussy baby.

Sunday night was a 45 minute scream fest. Monday was a huge diaper blowout (in the crib) that happened when McGrandpa was watching him. And last night he was still so uncomfortable that he nursed every 2 hours after 1 am. That isn’t really normal behavior considering that he has been sleeping about 6 hours at night.

Breastfeeding is frustrating.
There I said it.

This morning at breakfast Grandma asked me to define what Bill Cosby meant by “bling.”

It is fun to educate my family.