Adventures of a Mama Bat: December 2011

I guess I'll just give a quick overview of our hectic, fun-filled holiday season and hope it makes sense for you. Ha!

So, we started off the season with a trip to Hammond's Candy Factory for the tour and the holiday themed madness. It wasn't as much fun as advertised...but I'd go again a different time of the year to take the tour again and pick up some fantastic candy!

And there was shopping. And more shopping. Here's the bad part, and why all of Santa's shopping will be done online or by herself next year: Dante can look at something I purchased, and he'll remember the store. He sees his juice boxes, and he says "Juice box from Target, Mama!" or when he saw the MAYONNAISE of all things, and said "Albertson's, Mama." *headdesk* So he announced where everything was purchased on Christmas day except for the Xbox (my friend Donna Ann distracted him while I bought it and they put it in a thick red bag and stapled it shut.), my outfit (purchased online), Hubby's jeans (online) and the candy (Donna Ann's distracting abilities shone again!).

Had a picture taken with Santa, which was less than fun since Dante didn't sleep much that day...but he slept on the way home, which is better than nothing, I guess.

One of the high (and low) -lights of this holiday season was baking cookies with my best friend Katie. We had a blast, working off hardly any sleep with kids who hardly slept and it got more interesting as the day went on... Near the end of the day, when we were both so incredibly silly and delirious from lack of sleep, Katie went to pull fudge out of the fridge. She was faced with a dilemma: save the fudge or save two cartons of eggs. She made the rational (instinctual) choice and saved the fudge. Unfortunately, that meant that a few eggs fell on the ground. So we cleaned that up, and cleaning it actually made the floor even more slick. We went to the dining room to start organizing platters for our friends, and I noticed the new platters needed to be washed, so I grabbed them and turned around to get to the sink. As we were joking that my clumsy ass needed to be careful, I slipped, and in my infinite grace, somehow managed to both land on my left hip and twist my right ankle. Oh, and both hands got hurt in some way. But I was so amused, I sat and laughed for what may have been a seconds, but it felt like a good five minutes. It was hilarious! I sat, crying because I was laughing so hard, and because it hurt like a motha'! So I limped for a bit, and we got everything baked, everything sorted and labeled and divvied up, and the three of us (Scarlett, Dante and myself) got ready to go.

So, at one point during the day, the kids decided that playing with Dante's super cool Converse with the flames would be a blast, and they disappeared. No biggie, I thought. I figured this happens all the time; we were bound to find them when I actually needed them! Or, not. I asked him to please put away a toy, and bless his giant, tiny heart, he tried. He was wearing "non-skid" socks, and he slid on the hardwood floor and slammed his face into a busy box-type thing. I yelped, and nearly passed out when I saw the pool of blood that started pooling near his eye, eventually finding its way to his gorgeous peepers. It was everywhere, on me, on Katie, all over his face. Scarlett was asleep in her car seat, all buckled and ready to go, but considering the severity of the situation, Katie threw my jacket on me (that thankfully had my wallet), grabbed my keys, and shooed Dante and myself out the door and into the car, telling me as we slid our way down her ice rink of a driveway that she had Scarlett, just get him patched up.

Ran to the Children's hospital up near them (AKA: BFE) and there was no wait. (On the way there, he freaked out a bit (can't blame him) and then he tried to sleep. But fearing a severe concussion, I kept him awake and made him sing the alphabet.) They took my insurance card and ID and shuffled us into triage. While the triage nurse entered info, I got my cards back and we were shown to our exam room. By this point, Dante was having an adventure. He jumped on the gurney, and even tried to stand on the doc's spinning seat, but I got him off of that. Then he moved the child sized chair over to the computer and when the doc came in to talk to us, he told her he was checking his email. Ha! But he got cleaned up, and we saw that the gash was smaller than it could have been, and not as close to his eye as I had feared. So they had me help them pin him down (!) and they washed out his eye again with saline and then glued the skin back together. For being a good sport (well, as good a sport as an almost 3 year old can be when he's pinned down and scared out his mind) he got a really cool handmade wooden toy from the Kiwanis; a rabbit that rolls. He also got a really cool sticker, which made him super happy.

Then he played in the waiting room while I paid the co-pay and got all the paperwork together. I tried to get him to leave and he refused! I told him we had to get Scarlett so we could go home and he yelled! "No Scarlett! Dante play!" Aw, poor little buddy! But I pried him away, went back to Katie's to grab my other child and all my stuff, and I stopped by McD's on the way home. I figured nutrition can take a flying leap when my brave little man wants french fries. And now his little scar is fading, but gods help me! That freaked me out!!!

Christmas day was pretty uneventful. We played Santa, ate cookies and got stuff set up. And subsequently didn't get much sleep. But it was all worth it to see the joy on Dante's face as he ripped into his gifts! I tried to guide Scarlett's hands into opening hers and Dante did most of the dirty work. We ate leftovers from our huge pot roast dinner on Saturday and nibbled on cookies as Dante and I made ourselves look like idiots, dancing all over the living room.

But I am really looking forward to Spring. More walks, more greenery, more sunshine...I'm a Spring baby, can't help it. I can't believe Dante is going to be 3 in March!! How scary! It feels like it's been both ten years and ten minutes. But I have to admit, I was always pretty good at playing by ear, and this has been no exception.

And now I have to pretend to be a grown up and get stuff done. Blech.