christmas with the croup

yesterday morning i took elenora sledding for the first time. there are some good hills a few minutes' drive from our home, so i took her there. we had a lot of fun playing in the snow. i think i had more fun sledding than she did. ella opted to just run/crawl around in it without the sled most of the time. but it was really nice to be outside in the snow without freezing. (the temperature was up to 38 degrees yesterday.)

after ella's nap, we headed to boston for the park street church Christmas Eve service. i had planned on having elenora wear a pretty black velvet and red plaid dress, but when we went to put it on her it was too small (i'd just eye-balled it ahead of time... it was given to her last year after Christmas and i'd hoped it would work for this year...) so i quickly glanced through the closet and found this black-and-white dress that i'd picked up in a give-and-take. it turned out to be the perfect dress. so precious.

the service was lovely, and i actually got to pay attention to it this year. we sat in the very front row by the piano, where momby was located. j. and h. were there too. ella was so good. she was wiggly, but so cheerful. she definitely amused the entire row behind us. she'd randomly ask a stranger "what's your name?" or say "merry christmas!" to the baby behind us. after one of the songs she said "want to sing it again?" she sings right along with "silent night" and loved seeing the baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph.

however, as the night wore on, her little nose started running and her head felt warm. by the time we got back to the b.'s house, she was sneezing out green stuff. i put her to bed and she cried 40 minutes later. i put her back to bed, and had dinner with everyone, but then she woke up coughing something horrible around 11 pm. sounding like a seal barking. j. called the doctor and he said "croup... take her outside for a walk." so we bundled her up and took her for a late night walk around the neighborhood before driving home. not a very good night sleep. i was up for awhile at 6 something, and then up for good by 8 am.

not what i had hoped for christmas morning.

but i tried to make the best of it and just have fun with her. first, she noticed the little unicorn sticking its head out of her stocking. so i let her take that out and she played with her "mommy and baby" unicorns until breakfast was ready. she was so sweet with them--tucking them into a makeshift bed and carrying them all about.

j. came out for breakfast (he slept horribly--worrying about ella's health). blueberry pancakes, orange slices, turkey bacon and scrambled eggs.

in our rush to get ella home last night we forgot our champagne at momby's house, so we didn't have our traditional mimosas. and j. had stowed all of my presents at his parents' house and we'd forgotten them, too, so i couldn't open any of my presents.

here is ella opening her stocking...

after breakfast j. and elenora opened their presents. i really enjoyed seeing ella with her presents. i'm glad i got everything that i did. some big hits included an etch-a-sketch that has magnets shaped like animal heads, a medical kit from my mom, and a baby doll that came with lots of accoutrements like binkies, a bottle, diapers, a spoon and bowl, and a potty.

here she is pretending to pour some tylenol into a spoon for her baby.

also, j. made elenora a book by pasting about 60 photos onto blank pages and writing about her life in a way that is specifically written for her.

yes, he gets the #1 dad award. i think it's just so sweet that he would take the time to do that for her to show her how much he loves her.

after watching my family open their gifts, ella and i headed out for a walk around the neighborhood. then she had lunch and i put her down for a nap.

when she woke up we took her to j.'s parents' house along with all of our gifts for his family. the plan was to have elenora open her gifts from his family, then eat dinner all together, then put ella to bed and open all of the presents from the family. we traditionally sit around and each person takes a turn opening a present until everyone's gifts have been enjoyed. then we usually drink coffee and eat snacks and cookies and play games into the night.

then we were going to leave elenora at her grandma's so that we could get a much-needed night off.

so, well... that is what we were supposed to do.

elenora did open her presents. and we did eat dinner as a family. and we did put elenora to bed. after the first time of shutting the door and going downstairs, ella cried immediately. "want mommy to tuck you in better???" is what she cried. i found her still tucked in just fine and told her to go to sleep. 10 minutes later she cried again... "want mommy to tuck you in better???" and again she was still tucked in just fine. over the next hour and a half she kept crying... and getting more and more upset... and not sleeping at all.

i could barely open presents, which held up everyone else's present-opening. and nobody could relax and enjoy the whole thing with ella screaming upstairs. it was so frustrating. finally we brought elenora downstairs and momby packed up our things while i hurriedly opened all my gifts all at once so that i could leave--taking ella with me to put her to bed at home.

as i walked out the door i turned to say good-bye and just kind of burst into tears. 8:40 pm, and i was heading home with a sick, overtired baby.

and here i am now. feeling very sorry for myself indeed. j. will be home later with all our gifts.