Advent-ures!

Ahhh.... The adventures of Advent at Casa Haytko!

I love Advent for so many reasons.  One of the many actually is the entire gift thing that we do (or don't do, depending on the way you look at it).  Instead of a huge gift giving extravaganza, the kids get one gift, five different days.  We'll start with candy (and a dollar) in their shoes on St. Nicholas's day (the 6th), followed by a gift (this year, a new tent and a Thomas and Friends carpet) on Solstice, followed by a small gift on Christmas Eve (I have no idea....), then one on Christmas (Maya is getting a baby doll- she's been BEGGING for "a real one", I guess her other little dolls arent real enough! and the Thomas and Friends Cranky the Crane for Bobby, something he asks for all the time), and finally a gift on Three Kings Day/Epiphany (Jan 6th) (I'm not sure yet.... usually they get clothes...)  I love the spacing out and how special each thing seems to them.  We also do our annual angel tree.  We usually do three angels, but this year we'll do our three and the kids will each get to pick one.  :)  There's just something so magical about this part of our tradition.  I love it.

But the entire season of Advent seems so full of love and hope... 

The kids were each given a chocolate-a-day Advent calendar.  They love the idea of popping out a chocolate underneath a numbered square is quite a highlight for Bobby especially!  But they both really enjoy it, and I think it's going to really encourage Bobby's speech skills, as he's constantly asking for the next day's chocolate!

In Bobby news, we're reintroducing dairy into his diet.  I know Maya has been sneaking him some cheddar Pirates Booty, so he's been getting at least some dairy every now and again.  (The little sneaker would hold her bowl out in front of him and then play watchdog!  When she saw me, she'd pull it back and sit down with a grin!)  So, today he's had about 6oz of chocolate milk and a 2oz scoop of ice cream, as well as a half cup of the cheddar Pirates Booty with his lunch and a slice of GF toast with nutella (which has dairy in it).  No adverse effects yet, and his eyes are normal, so I'm hoping this week will show us that dairy is not an issue for him!

For me, the nausea is still in full swing each and every second of every day, but I finally have a smidgeon more energy each day.  I did some laundry this morning, took the kids out for a quick outting and a visit to the local dairy to see the animals.  We had a lovely morning, especially after yesterday.  In addition to still being as tired as all get out, Maya woke up in tears at 2am, complaining of an earache.  By 5am, when I was holding her on the couch and praying we'd both get some sleep, she began burning up with a fever.  The pediatrician was closed, since it was Sunday, so at 10am we are in one of the local urgent cares.  Sure enough, double ear infection.  The doctor said we caught it very early, and that they were simply inflamed instead of the pus-filled joy that most kids have by the time their parents bring them in.  He wrote a 5 day antibiotic to knock out the infection, and off we went.  She napped on me on and off all day, but by the evening was finally asking for food. 

Food?  Not something I wanted.  While a table full of people ate, I was displaying my awesome gastrointestional pyrotechnics in the bathroom.  I can only imagine how lovely that sounded...

Back to Maya, she slept solid last night and crawled into bed with us at 7am this morning.  She still was under the weather but clearly felt better.  Amen!  We canceled playgroup and spent much of the morning watching cartoons and snuggling.  Bobby asked for cereal, but Maya asked for a piece of toast... then for some eggs... So yay!  More eating!

Today is GORGEOUS.  It's in the mid-60s.  The kids are dying to go to a park, so I told them that, after nap, we'd go to a local playground and just enjoy the sunshine!  On that note, Mr. Bobby is stirring, so I'll post this!