Party, Party, Party

I'm finally able to blog again because I'm home from work today with a sick kiddo. Last night, Ellie didn't have much interest in eating and was uncharacteristically cranky so I took her temperature and it was 100.8. This morning it was 101.8 so we went to the doctor as early as possible. She has a sore throat. Apparently she has some virus that is going around so the doctor told me to give her Tylenol for the pain and pedialyte if she's not eating. She's been sleeping most of the day.

Poor thing probably got sick because she had quite a busy social schedule this weekend. So of course Ellie started of the weekend with a bang - literally - by falling forward onto the floor at daycare and bopping her head. When I picked her up, she had a big purple knot just above her left eye on her forehead. So I called her "bruiser" the whole weekend. It doesn't look that bad, but I think there will be more falls in the future for her since she's getting to that point where she's trying to crawl and pull up, but she's still very clumsy. She's really fine... I just wanted my baby to be bruise free when everyone saw her this weekend.

We finally got all of the Christmas decorations on Friday night. No longer a Christmas bush, our tree is lit and fully festive. And yes, it leans. I should have leaned when I took the picture to make it look like it was straight. But then I guess the ceiling would have looked crooked. Lee is not a big fan of Christmas tunes, but he humored me and turned on the Christmas XM station while we decorated. Ellie was right there with us. This conversation occurred while trimming the tree:

Lee: Smell my finger.

Me: No.

Lee: Seriously - smell my finger.

Me. No. I don't want to smell your finger.

Lee: Don't you trust me?

Me: thinking ... this must be another one of his Jedi mind tricks.

His finger smelled of lush evergreen. Apparently Mr. Smellmyfinger had come across some sap. Who knows what it'll smell like next time.

On Saturday, the whole family headed to the Meyerson to see "Deck the Hall", a children's Christmas concert. They had a local high school symphony play and then Joe McDermott sang. He had songs about riding on elevators and roller coasters and being a cowboy so all of the kids were jumping around and dancing. Ellie was a little young to do that, but she watched the activity on the stage the whole time. She also had her picture take with Santa and loved it. She sat on his lap and smiled a huge smile while they took the pictures. They're going to send it to us within 10 days so I'll scan it when I get it and post it.

That night, Lee and I went to a party hat one of his friends was having and then out for some sushi. Beth (B.B) took care of Ellie for us and I think that Ellie was pretty good. While we were at the party, one of the ladies we met gave us her daughter's babysitting business card (she's 14 and she has a business card) so I may call her in the future if I need someone for a few hours.

Katy had her annual ladies Christmas luncheon on Sunday so Ellie attended. Her sister's son, Jaydon, was there along with Leslie's daughter, Grace. Unknown to them, they provided exceptional entertainment by sitting together on the sofa while we took their pictures. That night, we had the last of our weekend parties with the play group of our church's mother's association. All very fun. I need to get on the ball this upcoming weekend and wrap some gifts... I can't believe that Christmas is only 12 days away. Next year my plan is to get everything bought and wrapped by Dec.1 so I can make December about family instead of stressing about gifts. We'll see how that works out...