We haven't been very good at keep up with the blog of late. The week of Thanksgiving, Scarlett was really sick. She wasn't herself all week -- a little fussier than usual, not sleeping well, and seemed to have a really bad cold. She was clearly teething and uncomfortable, but on Thanksgiving day, we knew it was bad. She'd been so stuffy that she couldn't breathe at night, and thus couldn't sleep. Her normal position of sleeping on her knees made it impossible for any of it to drain down, so she really could only sleep when she was sleeping on one of us (Paul in particular) or down on the recliner in the basement. It made for a long week with little sleep, but luckily, Paul and I had both planned to be home the day after thanksgiving (his birthday -- Happy 42nd!) and that weekend. On the way up to Baltimore on thanksgiving, I noticed that she was messing with her ear. She didn't touch it again though, so I thought it was a fluke. She was still really sick so by Saturday morning we decided to take her in to the doctor. As it turned out, in addition to cutting three molars and having a bad cold, she had gotten an ear infection! We felt horrible for not taking her in earlier, but the stories we had heard of babies with ear infections involved constant screaming. I guess she is just too mellow for her own good because we knew she wasn't feeling well, but she was generally pretty normal (jumping on the trampoline, playing with her toys). She was napping a lot more, not eating much, and much needier, but otherwise nothing all that unusual. Anyway, they gave her some antibiotics for the ear infection and within a day or two, she was feeling much better and in an amazing mood because of it. We love how much she loves life. When she is feeling good, she wake up giggling and ready for the day. If only we all had that attitude!
We hadn't realized until we were on our way up north on Thanksgiving day that Scarlett was so sick, so the day before we went to Paul's friend Mike's house for a thanksgiving day prequel party with her. There were a bunch of people and older children. Despite being under the weather, she did really well. She wandered around through the crowd and tried to play with the other children. There was an interesting moment when the other children were running up the stairs and Scarlett was following after them (I was trailing behind watching to see what she would do) but Scarlett stopped at the bottom of the stairs, shook her head no, and turned around and walked away. I was so proud! I was expecting to have to scold her or run and grab her, especially since other kids were going upstairs, but she corrected herself! Not bad for a one year old!
As I said, on Thanksgiving we went up to Baltimore to Paul's cousin's restaurant to spend thanksgiving with his family. We had a nice dinner and although she definitely wasn't herself, Scarlett was doing pretty well. After we got home, Jacy came over and we met Tracy at Tyson's Corner Mall for midnight madness (Black Friday started at midnight!). We got back from a pretty successful trip around 4:45 AM.
Paul's birthday didn't turn out quite as planned because I was feeling sick, Scarlett was too sick to leave the house, and it turned out that the dinner I wanted to make required sitting overnight in the fridge. Paul can say more about his birthday and dinners, but the short version is that he ended up making his own birthday dinner -- a full thanksgiving dinner.
Saturday morning, Bonnie, her mom, and Caroline came over to visit. That night I finally made Paul's birthday dinner.
The past week has been pretty hectic with work and I started coming down with something. I knew I was coming down with what Scarlett had. In part because she and I always share, but also because I had a few hours here and there where I felt pretty crappy. Paul and I were pretty focused on her though, so I was able to hold it off for a while. I thought I was through the woods until last night after Liam's party when I started feeling flu-ish. To back up, we went to Silver Spring for Jacy's 29th birthday dinner on Friday. Since she shares her birthday with Liam, we decided to break it up and give her a baby-free evening to have the focus on her. Saturday though it was all about Liam. They had a big jungle-themed birthday party for him in Oxon Hill (I'm sure she'll say more about it in her blog (http://www.jacysbabyblog.blogspot.com/). It was awesome! The decorations were adorable and they had really cool favors; "photobooth" pictures on personalized backings with a picture of Liam. Too cute!
We'd planned to go out after the party, but I was feeling pretty horrible by the time we made it back to the house. Instead, Paul ended up taking care of Scarlett while I took some medicine and turned in for a 12-hour night of sleep. Luckily, Scarlett seems to be back to normal and is full of energy. Paul left today for Tampa for a few days of business. Scarlett and I have been having a lot of fun in his absence, but are looking forward to his return! He gets back on Tuesday afternoon, just in time for me to head to Philadelphia for a few days. Next weekend we're planning to spend a few days baking Christmas treats, so if you have any good recipes, let us know!
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As Shonna mentioned, Scarlett was basically sick the entire week. However, as you can see by the pictures, she perked up during the day and crashed hard at night. One of the modification we had to make was to elevate her head so she could breath while sleeping. The bed photo was taken early morning after Scarlett woke up in her crib. She was much more comfortable with her head raised on mommy's pillow :) The 2nd sleep photo was taken after I pulled her out of her crib and slept on the recliner in the basement. Believe it or not, I was able to slide out of the chair and take the photo (and I may have slipped in a nap on the nearby bed... shhhhhh). Well, this late-night, early morning wake up was getting tiring (literally) so I did some research. After educating myself, I grabbed a bunch of books, raised the right side of her crib roughly 4 inches, and wouldn't you know it the solution worked???? She slept through the night.
So this week apparently was the week of extremely large meals. Normal people instinctively have lighter caloric days throughout the week with Thanksgiving looming. We bucked the trend and decided to make it a 3-day eating frenzy. Thursday, as Shonna mentioned, we ate Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin's restaurant. It was an excellent but non-traditional meal. Smoked turkey breast instead of a whole turkey, a sweet sauerkraut dish instead of our usual version simmering in turkey meat (its a German/Baltimore thing), mac and cheese... and LOTS of desserts.
Friday was my birthday and it was fantastic. It started with Shonna running off to Black Friday @ Tysons, and ended with a turkey coma. Scarlett and I spent the morning together while The Black Friday Widow rested. During the afternoon, I thought it would make sense to cook our (big local farm fresh) turkey so we could eat post thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. I knew Shonna was going to make a birthday dinner so I wanted to get it done early. Unfortunately I put the turkey in later than I wanted to. It was going to be an issue because Shonna came home with birthday dinner which included dry-aged prime rib. Mmmmmm. Unfortunately the recipe called for 24 hrs of marination, and 3 hrs of cooking. Marinading in a salt rub was something we could work around, but 3 hrs of cooking was an issue, especially at 7pm. On to plan B it was! Turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing... the works. Too bad I tried to make a semi-healthy version of mashed potatoes (partially due to ingredients on hand), but besides that, the dinner was excellent.
Saturday was THE dinner day :) Scarlett had a great meal as well. Too bad she couldn't taste it! Up to this point in her life, Scarlett's palate had to be one of the most sophisticated of any baby I've ever heard of. Unfortunately her recent congestion put a halt to that immediately. She seemed so frustrated with her taste buds, that she refused to eat. She lost a pound and a half just to give you an idea of how her eating habits changed this week. It reminded me of a science experiment we conducted in Jr. High School. Try plugging you nose and eating an apple and raw potato blind folded. You can't tell the difference. That's the state Scarlett was in. Can you imagine going to an expensive restaurant and spending $100 on a tasteless meal? You might as well drink manischewitz and eat rice cakes... Okay, back to the meal. The prime rib was marinated in season salt, rock salt, and all other kinds of goodies. Have you ever had a Morton's prime rib? They only serve them on weekends, and I believe they limit it to 2 full racks (14 bones) but they serve double boned or roughly 3 lbs of juicy salty love. Morton's usually sell out in a couple of hours max. We also had seared scallops and multiple desserts. Again Mmmmmmm. It would have been absolutely perfect if it weren't for our faulty thermometer. The calibration was off, and we overcooked the beef. Live and learn. The flavor was still simply amazing however!
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As Shonna mentioned, Scarlett was basically sick the entire week. However, as you can see by the pictures, she perked up during the day and crashed hard at night. One of the modification we had to make was to elevate her head so she could breath while sleeping. The bed photo was taken early morning after Scarlett woke up in her crib. She was much more comfortable with her head raised on mommy's pillow :) The 2nd sleep photo was taken after I pulled her out of her crib and slept on the recliner in the basement. Believe it or not, I was able to slide out of the chair and take the photo (and I may have slipped in a nap on the nearby bed... shhhhhh). Well, this late-night, early morning wake up was getting tiring (literally) so I did some research. After educating myself, I grabbed a bunch of books, raised the right side of her crib roughly 4 inches, and wouldn't you know it the solution worked???? She slept through the night.
So this week apparently was the week of extremely large meals. Normal people instinctively have lighter caloric days throughout the week with Thanksgiving looming. We bucked the trend and decided to make it a 3-day eating frenzy. Thursday, as Shonna mentioned, we ate Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin's restaurant. It was an excellent but non-traditional meal. Smoked turkey breast instead of a whole turkey, a sweet sauerkraut dish instead of our usual version simmering in turkey meat (its a German/Baltimore thing), mac and cheese... and LOTS of desserts.
Friday was my birthday and it was fantastic. It started with Shonna running off to Black Friday @ Tysons, and ended with a turkey coma. Scarlett and I spent the morning together while The Black Friday Widow rested. During the afternoon, I thought it would make sense to cook our (big local farm fresh) turkey so we could eat post thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. I knew Shonna was going to make a birthday dinner so I wanted to get it done early. Unfortunately I put the turkey in later than I wanted to. It was going to be an issue because Shonna came home with birthday dinner which included dry-aged prime rib. Mmmmmm. Unfortunately the recipe called for 24 hrs of marination, and 3 hrs of cooking. Marinading in a salt rub was something we could work around, but 3 hrs of cooking was an issue, especially at 7pm. On to plan B it was! Turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing... the works. Too bad I tried to make a semi-healthy version of mashed potatoes (partially due to ingredients on hand), but besides that, the dinner was excellent.
Saturday was THE dinner day :) Scarlett had a great meal as well. Too bad she couldn't taste it! Up to this point in her life, Scarlett's palate had to be one of the most sophisticated of any baby I've ever heard of. Unfortunately her recent congestion put a halt to that immediately. She seemed so frustrated with her taste buds, that she refused to eat. She lost a pound and a half just to give you an idea of how her eating habits changed this week. It reminded me of a science experiment we conducted in Jr. High School. Try plugging you nose and eating an apple and raw potato blind folded. You can't tell the difference. That's the state Scarlett was in. Can you imagine going to an expensive restaurant and spending $100 on a tasteless meal? You might as well drink manischewitz and eat rice cakes... Okay, back to the meal. The prime rib was marinated in season salt, rock salt, and all other kinds of goodies. Have you ever had a Morton's prime rib? They only serve them on weekends, and I believe they limit it to 2 full racks (14 bones) but they serve double boned or roughly 3 lbs of juicy salty love. Morton's usually sell out in a couple of hours max. We also had seared scallops and multiple desserts. Again Mmmmmmm. It would have been absolutely perfect if it weren't for our faulty thermometer. The calibration was off, and we overcooked the beef. Live and learn. The flavor was still simply amazing however!
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