Thanksgiving 2011 and beyond!

Well we wrapped up the last couple of months of 2011 in the Martinez household and man oh man, it was a whirlwind! 

Some highlights/memorable moments...

My parents and brother were able to come to Laramie to celebrate Thanksgiving with us and keep me company while DJ traveled to Boise for a football game the day after Thanksgiving. I love having my family come to visit especially when they all come together.

Not so much a highlight as it is just memorable, Jayden began his, what we would find out to be, weeks of illness. It started with a cold, turned into croup, developed into a double ear infection and finally made it's way the heck out of dodge. But not before it reared it's ugly head on me as well. Jayden and I have been sharing germs back and forth for some time now and not because we're both feeling especially generous... I guess it's just part of the mother/son bond.

The Cowboys finished up a very successful season after winning 8 games, 2 more than needed to be bowl eligible! Jayden and I didn't make it to any regular season away games even though I had planned on going to Fort Collins and Colorado Springs but between being constantly sick and then having not-so-good weather, we ended up cheering on our boys from home. 

Mid-December found us traveling to Albuquerque though for the New Mexico Bowl. Unfortunately we lost that game but we were able to introduce Jayden to his great grandparents that live in Taos as well as some other family and friends that were able to come to the hotel where we were staying so for the Martinez family it was a pretty good trip. Once again though Jayden became quite sick, this time with a very high fever (at one point it got to 103 degrees) so each day was a waiting game to see if we would be able to venture out and enjoy the day. It didn't happen often and needless to say, we were very happy to head home after the game on Saturday. It's not very fun to take care of a sick baby in a hotel room! (Another tiny little highlight is that Jayden got his own seat on the plane ride to and from Albuquerque and now I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to travel again without purchasing another seat for Jayden. It was great!!)

A personal highlight for me was getting to travel to Rapid City during the first week of December for a quick one night stay in order to attend my grandma's cookie exchange. I didn't realize it at first but discovered later that it had been 9 YEARS since I had been to a cookie exchange so I was even happier that I had braved the drive to be there for one night. I was reminded once again of the amazing hosting skills that my grandma has - I hope after about 50 more years of my own parties that I can be as efficient and organized as her and make it all look effortless!!

AND even more notable about that trip was that it was the first night I had ever spent away from Jayden. DJ and I had been working on weaning Jayden from nursing at night and two days before the trip, he went the whole night without nursing so I got it in my head that it might be a good time for me to leave Jayden and finish the weaning process for good. It turned out to be a very good idea because in addition to having great one-on-one time with his daddy, Jayden hasn't nursed since that day (he was already done nursing during the day so we were just down to nighttime nursing sessions). As a side note, I have to tell you that I miss some of the benefits of nursing A LOT such as having an easy way of calming Jayden when he has a temper tantrum and providing additional nutrients during cold and flu season but I do not miss the responsibility. I was needing some "me" time and having my body back to myself before the new baby comes.

After the bowl game, DJ's schedule has significantly slowed down much to my GREAT relief. We attended a few Christmas parties (a very funny memory coming about one of those), traveled to Rapid City for 10 days (also very memorable) and spent a week of enjoying a 2 hour/day work schedule for DJ. It's times like these that make me wonder what the heck we are doing in this profession because man oh man, it can be brutal! It has been so nice having DJ around more and I think DJ and Jayden will really be able to develop their relationship more before the baby comes!

At the football Christmas party that the head coach holds for his staff, babysitters were provided to watch the kids in another room at the hotel where the party was held. It was a great idea I thought, until we got there and I realized the sitters were high school girls that didn't really seem to have a whole lot of experience with children. But I threw caution to the wind given that we were literally next door in the other room and tried to stay out of the way since it seemed to bother Jayden more if I went in the room to check on him. Well.... I later found out that one of the activities the girls did with the kids was decorating cookies. They give the kids GIANT bowls of icing that were filled with ooey gooey deliciousness that Jayden had no idea was intended for the cookies. All he knew was that it tasted really. really. good. And he proceeded to ingest more icing than any other child there according to reports from other mothers and the babysitters... I was mortified to say the least. To top that, they had also given dinner to the kids but, given my naiveté of being a first time mother, I didn't think to ask what they would be serving. I just assume that other people realize what is appropriate to feed a 15 month old such as not feeding them greasy, breaded, sugary foods as a meal. Well I learned my lesson that night. Jayden got his first taste of french fries and I was also told that he ate more chicken strips and fries than any other kid there and he was one of the youngest there... I left the party very worried about what the night was going to hold in terms of a sick baby but thankfully, Jayden's digestive system seemed to handle the sugar and grease just fine. Yaaay... I hope to have pictures soon that another mother took so I'll be sure to share those.

We spent a mostly fantastic Christmas in Rapid City which was the first time since May that we had traveled there as a family of 3. It's hard to believe how much time had gone by! And I say it was mostly fantastic because on Christmas Day, lovely of all lovelies, I came down with the flu. I made it through the gifts and Christmas waffles before I stationed myself upstairs for the rest of the day. I then spent the afternoon in the emergency room because I became dehydrated and I got worried about the baby so to be safe, we went to the hospital where they gave me a couple liters of fluids (I'm starting to feel at home with an IV in me this pregnancy. This wasn't the first time I've gotten dehydrated/sick and needed fluids. Hopefully it's the last time though.) I felt much much better once we returned from the hospital but unfortunately I passed the bug to DJ, my brother Chace, my brother-in-law Dan, my mom, my mother-in-law and my aunt. Merry Christmas. So that part wasn't fantastic but the rest of the time was great and the bug tended to only last about 15-20 hours so it was a quick thing. 

DJ and I had a couple of dates while we were in Rapid City too! We went to a movie with our brothers, Dan's girlfriend and another friend (Mission Impossible 4 if you're wondering and it was really good - DJ and I enjoyed it anyway, others were only moderately entertained). And we also got to spend New Years Eve out when we attended a very exciting hockey game and then rang in the New Year with our very good friends from high school at one of their homes. I think it was probably the first time I had celebrated the New Year by staying up till midnight since high school! My inlaws graciously offered to watch Jayden both times and he did really well and went to bed fairly easily both times - what a relief that was for us!

And now here we are our first week into 2012! I definitely have some New Year's resolutions in mind that I hope will include being a better blogger!! Especially because I have become quite lax in documenting Jayden's life. I know I'm really going to regret that later because he is going through so many milestones right now. So here's to hoping!