Holiday 2012 wrap-up

19 months, 2 weeks

As you can probably tell from the lack of posts, this last few weeks have been just crazy for us! Good crazy, but crazy nonetheless.

Christmas started with a little drama for us. We woke up Friday morning (before Christmas) with plans of heading to Wichita that afternoon for round 1 of Christmas celebrations. However, Brock had a low grade fever and had thrown up in his crib over night. I immediately had flashbacks to this EXACT time and trip last year where Brock had the stomach flu, which we thought was teething, and ended up spreading it to my ENTIRE family.

We made a trip into the doctor who tested him for influenza and strep throat - negative on both counts. She said to watch him throughout the day and then make the call from there about going out of town. Well, after much debate, we decided to go ahead with our trip. He hadn't thrown up and seemed to be his normal, wild, happy self. He still had a mild fever but he had 2 molars coming in so we thought we were fine. BIG  MISTAKE - about halfway on the drive, he just started getting fussy and his little cheeks were flushed. We got there and he was burning up! We stripped him down and tried to cool him off, thinking the car was just hot because it was crowded. He started to perk up (or so we thought), then started shivering. I was running errands with my dad and got the call that Nick was taking him to Urgent Care. We headed straight there and once we got back to be seen, his temperature had spiked to 104*! Needless to say, Nick and I were a little freaked since he's never had a fever like this.

They concluded it was some sort of virus, nothing they could do to cure it, so they gave him some Tylenol and within an hour, he was bouncing around the room. He started eating and drinking and his fever was gone in no time. We were on high alert all night and the next day but his fever never came back and he was his crazy self for Christmas with the Cole Family! It was an awesome day and trip and he was spoiled! At first, he didn't really 'get' the wrapping paper idea, but he was super pumped about every toy he got and wanted them all out of the box immediately!

We came home Sunday and had a million errands to run to get ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas Eve we spent at Gary/Judy's with all the brothers (and their ladies) and the Hoyle clan. Brock and Joey were finally old enough to really play with each other. They had a BLAST! They were just running, screaming (well BROCK was screaming) and chasing each other around the house! It was adorable and Brock was asleep before we got off their street to head home.

Christmas morning was just our little family and it was perfect. We had unwrapped and put together all his toys so he could play with them right away. He was a little confused at first but quickly got over it and dove into all his toys. Then my mom and sister came over for lunch and we had round 4 of Christmas. Once again, this kid was spoiled beyond belief! He is one blessed little man! We ended the night at Great Grandma Elsie's with the entire Barbosa clan! By this one (Christmas #5), he had the whole wrapping paper gig alllll figured out!

I had to head back to work Wednesday, but since daycare was closed, Brock and Daddy got to spend lots of quality time together! He even bonded with Osci. They spent some of their time snuggled up on the couch together.

We started the process of getting our house ready to put on the market so we were really busy with that over the weekend and on New Years' Eve/New Years' Day. We're getting very close and hope to have it listed next month!

Brock has just started communicating with us so much more. As you know if you follow this, he's always been incredibly verbal. But now, he really speaks with a lot more meaning, not just repeating things. He is even on to 3 word sentences (sometimes 2 sentences in a row). Last week I hurt myself and he said 'uh oh Mommy. You ok?'
Some of the main sentences:
'I love you'
'I'll get it'
'Where Mommy go'
'What is it'
Those are just a few of the faves. We've also entered the phase of 'no'. You ask him a question, the answer is 'no'. Not a mean 'NO', it's actually kind of a cute 'no'. Just this week it seems like he knows the difference between yes and no, so he's started putting 'yes' in when it involves food or milk. :)

He also says 'bless you' when you sneeze and is super giving with kisses for Mommy. He'll even ask for them sometimes and it's so cute. He got a little spoiled when he was sick at the ER with sleeping on Mommy's chest so he's started wanting to do that more and more. I know it's a bad habit to start so I try and do it sparingly, but when your baby wants you to hold him, how do you say no? He's also started waking up (sometimes crying) yelling for Mommy or asking 'where mommy go?'. It's heartbreaking and no matter how early it is, it totally works. I go in there and scoop him up and if it's too early, just bring him back in bed with us.

He has become my little buddy and helper. I was cleaning the fridge out and he was in there with me, handing me things to put back (or sometimes taking them back out) and helping me wipe down the fridge. He just loves to help!

He's really into 'colors' (his word for coloring) so he got lots of crayons and paper for Christmas, along with a picnic table to color on at home. I think we're slowly moving past the 'Puss in Boots' phase and he wants to watch Cars now. He always has a car of some sort in his hand. He finally learned out to say 'Queen' for Lightning McQueen and he still knows his Mater or 'namer' as he sometimes calls him.

Lots to catch up on so I apologize for the crazy long post!