An Excellent Day

Yesterday was an excellent day.  Excellent indeed.  Callum seems to FINALLY be feeling better, and he was cheerful and sweet and rather angelic all day long.  He napped without protest, and he played happily by himself and with all of his aunts and uncles whom he hasn't seem in months.  It was a Christmas miracle!  And to top it off I got my fabulous new DSLR camera in the mail yesterday, and Laura and I had fun playing around with it all day.  This is my favorite picture of the day.  Here's to a Christmas Eve full of baby giggles . . . not baby crying.  Merry Christmas!

Poor Little Callum . . .

Poor little Callum.  It seems like he is always sick!  Colds, croup, colds, croup...on and on it goes.  I guess he inherited his mother's crappy immune system, as opposed to his father's iron-clad one.  That stinks for him!  Breastfeeding proponents always claim that breastfed babies are healthier than formula fed babies, but my little breastfed boy seems to get sick way more often than his formula fed baby friends!  Weird.  Last Monday Callum has his nine month well-baby visit to the doctor.  He did great and we were all thrilled that he only had to get one shot.  AND, for the first time EVER, he was in a higher percentile for height than for weight!  Crazy!  Now that he's on the move he is just slimming out, I guess.  Here were his stats as of last Monday:

Weight: 22 pounds exactly  (75th Percentile)

Height:  29.5 inches (80th percentile)

Head:  Off the charts....shocker. 

He was pronounced to be very healthy.  A couple of days later he spiked a fever.  A fever that kept going, and going, and going.... It reached 103.7, but lingered around 102 for two plus days.  He also had diarrhea (fun for me), so on Friday the doctor got to see us again.  Just a virus, she said.  Over the weekend it briefly looked as if he was getting better, but then the fever returned.  102 again.  Back to the doctor on Wednesday.  Now it looks as if he may have an ear infection...and his throat is pretty red.  Hmmm....  She thought it COULD be strep, but NO!  Nine month old babies don't get strep!  But, even though it is extremely rare, they swabbed his throat to check it anyway.  Yep.  My nine month old baby has strep throat.  POOR THING!!!!  I am just glad that they figured it out, because the amoxycilin seems to be really helping both the strep and his ears.  Aside from the persistent high fevers, the scariest thing about this whole ordeal is that he lost almost an entire pound in the last week because of his diarrhea!  That is a LOT when you are just a little guy!  To me he now looks like he is wasting away to nothing.  What happened to my insanely fat little infant?  Sigh.  (Drama, anyone?)  Here's to better days ahead.  The picture above is from better days before (taken a couple of months ago).  It is so cheerful that it cheers me up.  I am looking forward to a healthy, NON-CRYING baby on Christmas vacation!

And now for a bit of Callum news that is of a more cheerful nature:

1.  He is now a great little stander!  And he always looks so pleased with himself when he does it.  :)

2.  He may be walking soon.  (YIKES!)  The other day he was leaning against a bench and he let go and walked down it.  His leg was still touching it for balance, but that's the closest he has come to walking on his own.  It looks like my dad may witness Buddy Man's first steps as well  as his first crawls.  How does that happen when you only see someone once every few months?  Who knows.  As he (and Napoleon) would say...."LUCKY!"

3.  Callum said "Hi!" to me in the elevator last week.  I said it to him and he responded.  It was very exciting, but he hasn't chosen to repeat it since then. 

4.  Callum learned how to clap his hands together this week.  What a snoog!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged:  All three of my jewelry sales are now officially OVER!  Hooray!  The three combined to give me a tidy little profit.  I am quite pleased.  We are using the money to pay ourselves back for supplies and catch up in our budget, and then we are going to combine the rest with our Christmas money from my dad and grandparents to buy ourselves a rocking DSLR camera that can keep up with Callum and take beautiful pictures of him and our other children for years to come.

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged:  Callum's sicknesses.  Obviously. 

A Jewelry Party Success Story

It. Is. OVER!  Hallelujah!  I can not even begin to tell you the weight that I have felt being lifted from my shoulders since this jewelry sale happened!  My dear friend Ann Brown and I worked like dogs to get enough pieces ready to do the show, and we did it in the gorgeous lobby of my apartment building.  The building was built in the 1920s, and it still holds most of its charms.  (And setbacks....no dishwashers, old radiators, etc.)  We did it in "foyer" (a.k.a. the little room off to the side of the lobby), and it turned out to be the perfect location.  It was just the right size and it gave the whole event a special feel and ambiance.  As far as sales went, we did quite well, although, in all honesty, not quite as well as I had hoped.  However, I think that it was a success, especially for a first try!  Tuesday of this week we are taking our leftover pieces to Jane Thomas' home in West County St. Louis for a second show, and on Thursday we are taking the leftover-leftovers to Ann's work so that people can buy Christmas gifts during their lunch hour.  The things left after that point will become Christmas gifts to friends and family or will show up on Etsy.  :)  Here are a few pictures from our event.  I also added some to the slideshow on the sidebar.  Isn't the setting lovely?

See some things that you like?  

There is plenty left!  Hit our second sale!

Date:  Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Place: The home of Jane Thomas

34 Portland Drive

Saint Louis, MO

Cash and checks will be accepted.

(By the way, if you are looking at the pictures and thinking, "Wait a second...HOW MUCH is that pair of earrings?!?!" it is probably because you are seeing the code.  On one side is the price--say, $10--and on the other side it may say S42, which stands for Sarah, Item 42.  We did that to make it easy for us to "check out" items for both people at once while keeping track of how much we each earned.  Ann's were coded with an A, but my S looked suspiciously like a dollar sign.  Oh well.)

Thanksgiving Weekend

Well, now that it's almost Christmas I finally have time to devote to writing a post on Thanksgiving!  We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Utah, and we had a great time!  It was so fun to just relax and play with family.  Callum got to meet tons of his extended relatives---twenty-seven, to be exact---and he was quite charming.  He especially loved his Great-Grandma Jo!  (As do we!)  I think the pictures tell the tale of the weekend better than my words could, so I will now turn the time over to them.

Thanksgiving is all about EATING!!!

Everyone wanted to take a turn feeding Callum (except for his parents, of course, who are still confused as to why anyone would want that job).  He tried lots of healthy new foods, like mashed potatoes and gravy, as well as many unhealthy, and unauthorized, foods that his grandparents kept giving to him, like cookies and cupcakes.  (See the picture below for proof.  That is a cupcake.)

Baby Mozart

Callum was completely fascinated by the grand piano.  Especially when Aunt Elise was playing it while his father sang.  He was so eager to help her!  And what a help he was!

Fun, Fun, Fun With Everyone!  

This awesome new toy has an air suction that blew balls out of a hole in the top so that they could slide down the slide.  Callum was mesmerized by it!

Hanging upside down rules!

Doesn't this just look like the best game EVER?!  :)

Cal loves his mama!  (And trying to eat her jewelry!)

Aunt Elise (above) and Aunt Taren (below)

just can't get enough of their little Cal Pal!

And, of course, Grandma and Grandpa
are the best playmates of all!

New Friends!

 

Great-Grandma Jo was a huge hit with Callum!

Aren't they cute together?!

One of my former college roommates, and current closest friends, Jessie Jensen flew home from her vacation a day early and drove all the way up to Logan (she lives in Provo) just to see me and meet Callum!  Now that is a true friend!  Love you, Jess!

When all of the fun is over, it is time to . . .

. . . clean up . . .

. . . and take a nap!

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving weekend, McKennas!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged:  My jewelry sale is finally OVER!!!!  Well, sortof.  The original one is over.  Now we are going to do two follow-up sales using our leftover stuff.  (Of which there is plenty!)  But the preparing and jewelry making and STRESS is OVER!!!  Hallelujah!   

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged:  Callum was very sick last week with a high fever and diarrhea.  His fever lingered around 102 degrees for two days and got all the way up to 103.7 degrees.  It was not fun.  Poor baby!