The BullDog of Shredders

Leave it to me to read some article about identity theft and garbage cans and I'm off to the races. I actually put on my Christmas list that I wanted a Shredder for our home. And, boy did I get one! This thing is AWESOME! I think it could actually chip wood if I tried.

So far, the following items can be gobbled up without even a hiccup:

1. Jeff's old driver's License
2. A Plastic Bag
3. Stacks of paper
4. Credit Cards
5. Envelopes

The better news is that the following items can not be gobbled up:

1. Andrew's Fingers - Which he wanted desperately to try.
2. Andrew's Toys - Again, wanting desperately to try.

This bad boy has a touch sensitive kill switch that won't let it turn on if there are any fingers near it. I'm not sure if they all do this, but I'm in Shredder heaven! Thanks mom for my great new toy!

Here is "BullDog"

Seriously...Sick Again??!!

Today was going to be the first week that Andrew made it from Monday-Friday at daycare. Don't get too excited and pop the bubbly yet - he is sick again! He woke up this morning moaning and groaning and not happy. I'm beginning to wonder if this kid puts the thermometer up to the light when I walk out of the room. Today's highest temperature is 102.5, at which point we were shoving him in the car and off we went to the doctor. He was lethargic, burning up and we had no clue why.

Turns out, kiddo has a double ear infection this week. Mind you, he just got over one (first week of January) and now he is infected again. This will be 3 in the last year and 2 in the last month. Jeff had to have tubes when he was a baby due to chronic ear infections and the doctor has begun the conversation with us regarding Andrew getting tubes. I'm prepared for it and am more than willing to take that step if it will help him feel better. He is miserable so often these days as he fights one illness after another.

So, maybe next week will be our week to make it through at school. But, for now, little man is asleep after getting 2 shots in the legs. I'm hoping his fever will break so that he can start to feel better. We have a follow-up at the doctor's office tomorrow morning to see how things go over night. Dr. Blair is as concerned as we are about how often he is getting sick and how sick he is today.

I do realize this is part of the process with daycare, but I'm beginning to really question my decision to put him in at this point. Paying money for a service you don't use, not able to work because you are constantly taking care of your child and the doctor's visits and prescription costs just add to the frustration. Not to mention, a sick baby is not easy to handle - the concept of 'let mommy put you down for just a minute so she can go to the bathroom' is not even possible without a huge breakdown. It's heartbreaking.

But, I'm optimistic about next week!

UPDATE: Andrew's highest fever for this round of sickness went to 103. We went back to the doctor on Saturday for his second round of Rocephin shots in the legs. He remembered being there on Friday and went absolutely nuts when we brought him back to the exam room. He had a feeling he was going to get shots again and guess what - he was right. He cried for 15 minutes. Every single person in that doctor's office knew we were there. And the bad news is, I have to bring him back Monday morning for round 3 of the shots. Dear Lord, make me a bird...

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

Well another year has gone by for the Meredith Family. Mom and Dad reached 37 years of marriage yesterday. WOWSA. I'm so happy for them and wish them a wonderful Anniversary and a wonderful year together. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Nursing School

Jeff has been working up to this moment for 2 years. Nursing school has finally started! We decided in December of 2008 that Jeff would leave his job and we would go in to penny-pinching mode for the next few years while Jeff became a Nurse.  The real-estate world and his home-sales job were getting more and more difficult to rely on financially and at the same time, taking such a toll on him. He was not happy there and wanted to find a career that would provide job satisfaction, challenging situations and a more flexible schedule. So we crunched some numbers and figured out how we could make it work. It was going to be a challenge, but one that was completely achievable without changing too much about our day-to-day lives.

Boy were we fools.

• A few days after we made the final decision - our wiener dog, Cooper, slipped a disc in his back and was paralyzed within 12 hours. We had to have emergency back surgery on him or put him down. I'm not the "put him down" type if the problem can be fixed. He actually had his surgery on Jeff's last day at his job - ironic. A hefty 3 grand later, our little puppy was back and learning to walk again. Fast forward to today - he runs everywhere and has had a fantastic recovery. Totally worth it.

• 3 months after he started full-time school, we got the shock of our lives. I was pregnant. We had literally tried for 2.5 years with no luck at all and NOW we get pregnant?? I told him it was because he was in school now and his swimmers were smarter. ;-)We were between coverage with insurance since he had left his job and I was self-employed. So, I was pregnant and had no insurance. GULP. We jumped on Cobra and rode that out through November when our turkey was born. The insurance coverage was mediocre to say the least and we ended up with thousands in medical bills along with the costs of a new baby, diapers, nanny, etc... Again, totally worth it.

But, we have stayed the course. I did not want to take out student loans if we could avoid it so we have paid cash for school, books, supplies and the rest. He remained in school, got all of his prerequisites done and waited to find out if he was accepted. We cut back everywhere and made it through without any debt! Not only did we not have debt, but we did not have any more savings, no more nest egg, no more breathing room. But, that was part of it.  It was what we wanted and what we know will change our lives and Andrew's life in the long run. This was all going to be very worth it.

And it has been.

Jeff was accepted to his first choice school and started yesterday. I'm that beaming wife with a smile from ear to ear. We are thrilled that this day has finally arrived. It's a goal we have been working to get to for so long and I'm just so proud of him. Granted, the road ahead is long too, but we had a major win yesterday!

I love you Jeff - my Murse to be.

Stomach Bug

Last Monday when I picked Andrew up from daycare, his teacher informed me that he was not his 'normal' happy self. She said that she checked his temp and he was at 99.5. Well, little did I know that by 10pm, that temperature would be 102.2 and he would be vomiting everywhere again! We JUST went through this right before Christmas. And now again, he was up all night and got very little sleep the next day as well. I was thinking we had gone through the worst of it and the bug was passing. HA! He continued to blow out diapers and throw up for 7 days. I became that frantic, doctor visiting, nurse calling, internet-searching mom who thought for sure that my child was about to explode. UNTIL - I got it. Thursday morning I woke up and thought, "hmmm, I don't feel very good" and the flood gates opened. We were not a happy family around here. Jeff was officially thrown in to caretaker - doctor - grocery shopper mode. He managed Andrew while I moaned and groaned for 2 days.

Once I got better and Andrew was still vomiting, I was really worried. But, knock on wood, Andrew is back to normal. Fever is gone, poops are normal, no vomiting to be seen - THANK GOD! He is back at daycare and I'm back to work.

We realized that since we have been doing the daycare thing - Andrew has not gone one full week. Either with Christmas or him being sick over and over again, we can't seem to make it through a full week. But, I feel confident that this week will be great! 

Until, of course, I read that there has been an outbreak of Pink Eye. ugg.

Day Care - 1 Month Later

On December 7th, Andrew started daycare. It's a great facility that is literally within walking distance from our house. In some ways, we were thrilled about Andrew starting daycare and in other ways, we were so sad. Daycare was going to give us full-time help with Andrew instead of part time with an in-home nanny. It was actually less expensive for full-time daycare than it was for part-time in-home care.  And, the biggest part was that Andrew is an extremely happy and social baby that was not getting much interaction with kids his age. We knew he would absolutely love to be able to play with other kids and start to create friendships.

Our First Day - We walked to the school

We had a choice with his daycare - start him in with the older infants or start him in with the early toddlers. Older infants were 10 - 14 months old, crawling, still on the bottle and napping more than one time per day. Early Toddlers were 12-18 months old walking, on the sippy cup and only one nap a day. Andrew was 12 months old, not walking, still taking a bottle for his milk but on the sippy cup for everything else and was somewhere between 1 and 2 naps a day. We decided to shoot high and then move back if he was not in the right class. The early toddlers get to go outside twice a day, had more kids and more structured class interaction like painting, reading, shapes, etc... It was the right decision.

The outside play area for the kiddos

We figured that starting him out with a full day during the first week may be hard so we transitioned him slowly by putting him in for 6 hours, then 6.5, then 7, and so on. This transition did not work worth a darn. He was not a happy baby! He cried that silent-not-breathing kind of cry each morning that we dropped him off. It was heartbreaking for me. Then, he got sick. Week 1 - 4 days in to it - my kiddo had fever over 100. He got over that and we made it to week 2 - 1/2 of the class was sent home due to having RSV, which is extremely contagious. UGG. Off we went to the doctor because at this point our turkey's fever was back and had been for 3-4 days. No RSV, but a nice ear infection. 2 Days later - our child actually stayed up ALL NIGHT long projectile vomiting. He finally went to sleep at about 8am after Jeff and I had called hospitals, on-call doctors and tried to figure out the right thing to do. At this point, it's December 23rd and we are back to the doctor for what was just a stomach bug that got much worse with the ear infection. 2 big shots later, our kiddo is back at the house and sleeping again. He felt much better but I was cursing daycare at this point.

After a loooonng night of being sick.

 As a side note, I've always been one of those people that looked down at mom's whose children have an actual snot river going from their nose to their mouth. It's absolutely disgusting and I could never figure out how someone could let their child run around with that situation occurring. I have to apologize now for being so critical of these moms. Before having a child in daycare, I did not realize that snot actually flows out of a child's nose similar to the current of the Mississippi River. It's constant, non-stop and it's hard to catch it and even harder to talk a baby in to "blowing" when they have no clue what that means. Not to mention, after you wipe their noses 1,000 times, the nose is red and sore and the child now does the head-dance to keep the kleenex away from the sore nose. Don't get me wrong, I still think it is gross and I try to fix the problem as much as I can, but I only have one child - I can't imagine having to play this game with more.

Andrew is now back in daycare after a great break for Christmas and a week with my parents while we went on a much-needed cruise with friends (blog about that to come later). Because of the long break, it's like week one all over again. He is not impressed with going to "school" - no matter how much I build it up, dance around getting excited about school and make him think that getting to eat fish sticks is awesome. And, no I'm not sure he is understanding all of my hype, but I figure if he knows what I'm saying then maybe the power of suggestion will get him through the day.

I know he is having fun though. As soon as I leave the room, I stay and watch until he quits crying. Within a few minutes, he forgets that we have left and focuses on all the fun toys, what the other kids are doing and being the class favorite with the teacher. I know that all of this is "normal" but experiencing it for the first time is hard and quite the learning experience. Watching your child cry and be so upset but not able to do anything about it is a hard lesson but I can see the value.

I will update things about daycare as we get more in to it. But, the first month was "not that bad."

Christmas at the Walker House

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

This year, Jeff and I hosted Christmas at our house. Normally, we all pack up and head to Louisiana for Christmas celebrations. My Aunt Marion would host the Christmas Eve bash and my mom would host the Christmas Day gathering for all the cousins, grandkids, aunts, uncles, etc... We decided to do something a little different this year. Since my brother currently lives in Oklahoma and has a new job that does not allow him much vacation time, we decided to save costs and cut time off of his travels. Coming here would only take him 2.5 hours by car - going to my parents would have been more like 10 hours. We knew it was a matter of time before the traditional celebrations would come to an end. With Andrew getting older and soon to learn about Santa Claus, we figured we would want to celebrate at home in the years to come. But, we decided to start the new tradition early!

My parents arrived on December 23rd to an exhausted household. Andrew had been throwing up all night and we were about to take him to the doctor when they got in from their 7 hour drive. By the time Andrew and Jeff got back from the doctor, he was feeling better. But, it took some loving from Pappy and some time on his new Couch that he got from Granny and Pappy to make him back to his old self.

Christmas Eve was a day full of cooking. We invited a few people over but knew that we would not have a big showing. In fact, outside of the family, we had one couple join us. We actually knew that was going to be the case, but wanted to cook a lot anyway. Our spread of food and drink was obnoxious considering the amount of people we had. But, as my mom said, it's the start of a new tradition so it will grow. I enjoyed the cooking and getting out the party dishes - even if it was just for a few of us. The sad part was that we had all the food ready and the table set up but I would not let anyone eat until the one couple got there to "start" the party. Thanks to David and Sandi for coming and for being on time - holding off Dad, Matt and Jeff for much longer would have been a challenge.

Sandi and David - Our Christmas Eve Party

Our Spread for Christmas Eve

Christmas morning was fantastic. Sybil slept over on Christmas Eve so she was here and Mike got here around 9am. We gathered around the tree and passed out presents and began taking turns letting each person open their gifts. Andrew was a complete doll. He helped to unwrap gifts, he played with tissue paper and boxes and was extra lovable during the morning. Not to mention, got another haul of great gifts for himself.

Uncle Matt And Andrew

We set the table and had Christmas lunch/dinner around 4pm. A full spread of Turkey, Dressing, Homemade Rolls, Rice/Gravy, Broccoli Cheese Casserole and Cranberry Sauce. We used a new Turkey Brine recipe this year that made our turkey fantastic! Of course, it's a food network recipe. I can't get enough of Food Network recipes - only 5 stars though...anything else seems to be hit or miss.

Jeff and I working on the turkey.

 After we ate, we pulled out Mexican Train Dominoes and played for a few hours. Each round, one person would sit out and be the designated Andrew entertainment. He loved it - getting full attention for 20 minutes from each member of the family. We loved it because it did not make one person have to miss out on the fun of the game. Andrew went to bed at about 7pm and we started to play Oh Hell, the card game. 

All in all, the day was fantastic! We had a great time, ate way too much food and really enjoyed our first Christmas at the Walker's.