christmas eve

i can't believe it's christmas eve aleady. as i've mentioned before, this year has positively flown by for us. then again, we've done everything you can possibly do in a year, i think - move across the country, i found a new job, we bought a house, had a baby, bought a new car, sold a car... i think the only thing we didn't do was get a new pet (and we couldn't have handled one!). all in all, it was a pretty great year. there were plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong, and luckily we made it through without any major disasters.

oliver caught the cold i've been struggling through, and came home friday from day care feeling pretty miserable. he is doing slightly better today, but still not 100%. saturday was pretty rough for the poor little guy. i think once he finally was able to nap late in that day he began to feel better. i just hope he continues to. it's pretty difficult watching him, since there's not much we can do for him. he's still too young to take anything like tylenol, any cold medicine, or even use the baby vick vab-o-rub. so we've been using the saline nose drops, a cool mist vaporizer, some hot steam showers, warm baths, and lots of hugs and kisses. he's currently chilling out in his swing with a nuk, the cute travel blankie hannah got him, and the hiccups (i am working from home today since, well, there will be roughly 2 people in the office). he really loves the mobile on the swing.

ally has gotten another lump, near one of her skin tags. this one is different than the one she had removed in july, but we went to the vet on saturday morning nonetheless. they took some blood, and i need to call today for the results. they said it may just be from her licking her skin tag, so we'll see. we may just have her skin tags removed to avoid the problem.

mom has been feeling pretty good since her surgery. some headaches, which is to be expected when they cut open your head and let air in. but she's already able to stay awake longer during the day, and no jaw problems - woohoo!

other than that, we're just waiting for my work day to be done so we can start celebrating the holiday. we're excited for our christmas eve dinner of shrimp and grits, even though it means i'll probably have to avoid feeding ollie all day tomorrow so he doesn't get those nasty milk proteins that make his tiny belly hurt. i am excited to have some dairy though... while i am certainly more than happy to give it up for the baby, i have been going through some serious dairy withdrawal. it's a true physical withdrawal, i swear. i eat a LOT of dairy normally. it's probably good i am eating some, lest i freak out and devour an entire brick of cheese in one sitting, eat some random cream sauce, and top it off with some ice cream. it could happen! anyways, i am looking forward to dinner. my family may or may not be joining us; shannon apparently doesn't like shrimp so we shall see. i bought some breakfast sausage for our biscuits with sausage gravy christmas morning breakfast (we'll see if i brave that much dairy, though). shannon has a lovely ham dinner planned for tomorrow, which should be scrumptious. hannah flies in wednesday, and has our day planned out to the minute! new years eve we're making malaysian (i'm making a beef rendang, and shan and i have yet to plan any additional sides). bryan insists on corned beef and black eyed peas for new years day, as that is a southern tradition, and i am a ok with that. it promises to be a week full of yummy food!

happy holidays to you and yours!