On the Move!!!

Before I begin this week's posting let me say to all of our loyal readers... Sorry for the late posting!! To make a long story short (I'll go into detail later)... Over that last week I have been unable to type due to a mishap that occurred with molten lava (AKA sweet potatoes). But alas, I'm here an doing my part to ensure family, friends and most importantly Stephen, stays updated on our family. You see, Stephen reads the blog to find out "what's happening with my family". Silly man.

Where did I last leave off? Since I'm not quite sure what happened towards the end of last week I'll start with last weekend. :)

Saturday we hosted our annual holiday party. I think we had RSVPs for about 45 people to attend. I know, quite a showing, right?! Who knew we KNEW 45 people, let alone had 45 people who liked us enough to come to our house!? We were quite excited.

We decided, as we have in years previous, we would not cook for the event. No, we didn't tell our guests to starve it out or brown bag it. We did the only noble thing... and had it catered. Well, if you call Boston Market catered that's what we did. We ordered one complete turkey dinner and a complete ham dinner. Presto... food is prepared. Well, sort of. You see, this is when the "sweet potato incident of 2008" occurred. The Boston Market meal requires you to heat the food prior to serving. Novel idea. Most of the heating can be done via microwave. The big things (turkey and ham) go into the oven. We had prepared all of the appetizers and had gotten items ready for the super scrumptious chocolate fountain that we were having for dessert.

Let me set the stage for "the incident". I'd taken a shower, Katherine was sleeping in her swing and Stephen still needed to take a shower. It was 5pm. Stephen was in the process of heating the sides in the microwave. (Molten Lava preparer) The party was set to begin at 5:30pm. I sent Stephen to take a shower and he (attempted) to give me instructions on the rest of the heating requirements. Sweet Potatoes in the microwave for another 3 minutes, stir then put into the pan and put marshmallows and crunchy stuff on top - insert in oven and bake for 5 minutes. Check. I can do that. In two minutes check the turkey and ham's internal temperatures to ensure they're heated. Use a thermometer for this event. Check. GO SHOWER.... He runs off.

The microwave beeps alerting me that the sweet potatoes are done. I go to pull them out and can't find the pot holders. I use pot holders. Stephen uses kitchen towels. I deplore using kitchen towels as a pot holder. They don't protect me!!! After searching the drawer, the family room, the counters, etc. I give up on the pot holders and grab the sweet potatoes with the kitchen towel. (Note previous statement of deploring this act.) The container got squirrely on me (technical term) and the molten lava spilled all over all four fingers on my right hand. I screamed louder than I ever have in my entire life. Katherine's now awake. I can't think... the pain is SOOOOOO horrible I think my hand is on fire. Seriously. I run it under water and it laughs at me. I put ice on it... Oh my God the pain. Worst pain of my life. (Recall 18.5 hours of labor with no epidural... ) My hand was a shade of red not normally seen on skin. I can't even describe the color. I can't take my hand off of the ice/water combo for even 5 seconds because the pain gets so unbearable. I think... get aloe. Yeah right... not a chance. I can't touch my hand let alone rub anything on it. Awful. Where's Stephen??? Still upstairs showering. We learned a vital lesson during this event... I could be murdered downstairs (directly below our bathroom) and he would have no idea.

What did we do?? Continued with the party. We had 45 people coming!!! Ya can't cancel now!!! My hand never left an ice pack for 4.5 hours. If it did it was long enough to show someone so they could offer their opinion on how to stop the hurty. I got, drink some spiked egg nog, put butter on it, no seriously, drink more, ok, combine drinking with some pills... that'll help!! I didn't drink at all. Perhaps that's where I went wrong. I went through the night and tried really hard not to complain. I wanted to make sure our friends and family had a good time! If I wined in pain, that might prevent the good times from rolling.

The next morning, after looking at the burn some more, Stephen suggested we "go somewhere" to have it looked at. I thought of the Minute Clinic at CVS. We looked it up online and it said they treated burns. We packed Katherine into the car seat and off we went. (Ok there was a lot of time in there, but you get the drift.) The Nurse Practioner took one look at my hand and said "oh honey, I can't treat THAT, here!!!! You need to go to the ER or Urgent Care." I said NO ER. I don't have DAYS to wait for someone to see me. So we take the info for the Urgent Care center... I try to tell Stephen it's not that bad, and all will be fine. He looks at me, puts the truck in drive and goes directly to Urgent Care.

An hour later we see the doctor... He says something to the effect of NICE JOB. That's definitely a 2nd degree burn. Partial thickness burn... Which my translation gets... Ya gotta bad burn chickie. Check. Got it. What are ya gonna do about it?? Well, he starts going into debreeding... but oh, he doesn't think I need that. (The color starts to go back into my cheeks after he said I didn't need it... HOLY CRAP.) He tells me I need to dress it, put on silvadine (sp?) and writes a prescription for that and pain meds. He didn't even ask me if I wanted the pain meds. He just said, "you need them". Huh. Apparently he knew it hurt.

We go get the drugs and silvadine from the pharmacy.... then go get food because we're all starving, Katherine included. Yes, she's been along for the ride the whole time and has been, as she always is, an AMAZING baby. My girl's a trooper!!!

We start eating, I take my pain meds, and 20 minutes later there's a visual queue for Stephen that the drugs have kicked in. I think it was my drooling. Seriously, the meds kicked my butt. I couldn't talk, could barely walk, was nauseous, swore my hand was across the room (even though I could see it right in front of me) and generally just had a horrible reaction to the meds. So that meant the rest of Sunday was a bit blurry for me. You can ask Stephen what happened. I just know my hand was "over there". That was the end of those pain pills. I'll suffer through the pain thank you very much.

Moving on in the week....

Sunday evening, even in a drug induced haze, we decided to give Katherine a new food. Green beans. The only green food that I'll eat. I'm praying that she likes it. She doesn't like peas (secret happy dance happening) but surely green beans she'll like, right?! I mean peas are nasty... but green beans?!?! Yum!! Not so much. Katherine doesn't like green things. She has added sweet potatoes to her list of foods that she does like. (No comments, please.... Sweet potatoes are now banned in our house with the exception of her baby food containers.)

Monday was a big event for Katherine. Stephen says "look at you!!! what a big girl". I go in to see what she's doing that makes her a big girl and she's playing with her feet. She's on her back. OH MY GOODNESS. She's ON HER BACK!!!! She's finally rolled "the other way". Woohoooooo we're so excited we do a family happy dance. (I'll give you a moment to imagine that........................) Quite an exciting moment. I beg Katherine to "do it again" and alas, she ignores me as if to say "I do not do tricks Mother".

Tuesday AM... Same deed. She's back on her back. Huh. So I roll her over then move to the other side of her crib and call to her. She rolls over for me so now I have witnessed it. YAY!!! Come look Daddy!!! She does it again. Clearly we're onto something. :)

Wednesday, Katherine is lying on the floor and we're playing. She starts to do her rolling thing. Huh. She rolled over from her belly to her back while playing. Pretty cool.

Thursday... Katherine is on the move. She realizes that if she rolls she can move herself across the room. Yes, folks, Katherine can get places now. Nothing is safe. Daddy needs to order the rest of the outlet thingamajigs’ and install them. Girl doesn't want to be held back any longer. The only way we can leave her in one spot and expect to find her in the same one when we turn back around, is if she's sitting up. :) So that's what we do if we want her to stay put. :)

Katherine has also started a little "uppie" thing. If I hold out my arms to her she'll put her arms up for me to pick her up. So cute!!! She did this for the first time on Wednesday when I went to pick her up from daycare. She gets so excited when I go in to pick her up. Squeals and yells and all big smiles. Makes you feel so loved after a long day!!! It's one of my favorite parts of the day.

Katherine is now home from daycare for the next 9 days. Her teachers both said goodbye today, gave hugs & kisses, and told her they'd miss her. I'm sure Katherine will miss them too. She's quite fond of her teachers. They get big smiles from her in the morning when I drop her off. It's good to know she's happy at daycare!! :) And of course, she has her boyfriend, Jacob.

Next week we will be heading to FL to spend RC Christmas with Tootsie, Pop, Jacki, Nicole and MomMom. No, folks, we won't be spending this year with the rest of the Raleigh Jewish community at the movie theatre & Chinese restaurant - for dinner of course. (Both are open on 12/25 and many of us who don't celebrate on 12/25 go watch movies then eat Chinese food!) This year, we're heading to FL! We are leaving to go down sometime on either Monday or Tuesday. We haven't decided yet if we're splitting the drive over two days, driving through the night, or waking up at crack of dawn and driving. We're trying to figure out the best option for 600 miles of driving with a 6 month old. eeek.

This week’s pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/daleksza/OnTheMove#