Virginian Rhapsody

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We've been very busy over here, but I am currently sipping coffee, updating my blog and watching my Bitty play with her new Christmas toys. It's FANTASTIC to have some time off to get my house back in order after the holidays, and enjoy slow mornings again with Cedar. Ahh, the life!

Poor little Cedar was very sick last week, and I was exhausted even prior to the Holidays. Turns out, our little Bug had a UTI which worked its way into a kidney infection. Not pretty. Especially worrisome was Cedar's hydronephrosis - excess fluid in the kidney - which is causing us to keep a close eye on her. She had a high fever for over four days, and we had to keep her on a steady dose of tylenol and motrin for over 24 hours, as nothing else (even just the tylenol) seemed to keep her fever down. She just finished up her antibiotics and has seemed to fully recover, thank goodness!

There is nothing worse than seeing your baby in pain. That was absolutely horrible. The older Cedar gets, the more I realize how painful being a mother can be. I was genuinely scared that something very serious was wrong with my girl, and there was nothing I could do to help her. It stinks that I know these emotions will be back some day, and probably with a vengeance as she gets older. But, I supposed that's life. It's just hard sometimes.

Anyway, she is on the mend and so I will move on:

Jody has started with MRL and is doing great! We are getting used to his odd hours, and are oh-so-grateful for paychecks! Cedar and I are also doing great at our 'gig' and I enjoy spending time with my two little buddies every day. I have truly been so blessed for this opportunity.

Christmas festivities were a bit unorthodox this year, but pleasant all the same. Jody had two family members in the hospital, so we were busy running back and forth between hospitals, our house to nap the kiddo, and my parent's place. We had fun setting up the tree with Cedar, and although she was completely clueless, I loved buying her a few new toys and 'helping' her unwrap her gifts from Grammy and Papa. We also had Jody's younger sister, Hailey and our nephew, Michael stay with us on Christmas Eve, so we got to 'play Santa'. Jody did most of the work there, but it was lots of fun watching the kids open their presents.

Onto little Cedar updates! She will turn 8 months in just two weeks, and is still just as happy as can be! New achievements are crawling, waving, and saying 'da da and na na'. Recently she has started cuddling up to me before and after naps, which completely melts my heart. Life is getting a bit quicker and messier now that she's crawling, but I look forward to the next step in watching her grow. Fun fun!