My sister Adrienne received a nice present this Christmas—a ring! Her boyfriend Jon Scoggin proposed to her Christmas morning in Memphis. They have not set a date yet, but they are officially engaged! This is an eventful week in my family, as Joseph's wedding is this Saturday. Congratulations Adrienne and Jon, and Joseph and Nicole!
Our family had a big day at church yesterday! Eliza had her baby dedication, my brother Gerald was baptized, and we had our Christmas music special. We had a lot of family come in: Adrienne from Florida; Joseph and Nicole from Murfreesboro, TN; and Granny, Meemaw, Grandaddy, Uncle Bobby, and Aunt Dotta and their three girls from Memphis. It was very special because Gerald is the youngest child in my family and the last one of my siblings to make a decision for Christ! Eliza is still a little congested, but she did really well while the pastor held her and prayed. James was also up there with us in front of the whole church, and he just stared at all the people. Then Jay and I handed the kids off to my sisters to take to the nursery and we went and joined the choir for the Christmas music. Whew! James is feeling much better, although he still has a runny nose. Eliza has been pretty happy despite her congestion, but she has been waking up unable to breathe through her nose sometimes. But things are looking up!
This week has been really tough! James has been sick since last Friday, starting with a cough and then congestion and fever. I thought it was probably just a bad cold and he seemed to be getting over it, but then he woke up Thursday morning running a 103.1 degree fever, and we decided to go to the doctor. The doctor didn't really find anything wrong except a little fluid in one of his ears, so he gave us a prescription for an antibiotic to be filled only if he started having ear pain. Well, about an hour after we left the doctor, James started messing with his ears and all of a sudden got really upset and was crying about his ears hurting. He cried off and on all afternoon until finally I called the doctor to see if there was anything I could give him for the pain besides acetaminophen, and they called in a prescription for ear drops. This is his very first ear infection. He also has been waking up two or three times a night for the past week, which is taking its toll on me! Maybe he will start sleeping better now that he is getting well. He has been a lot better today, although he is very hard to deal with because he gets so irrational and argues with anything I say- he is such a demon when he doesn't feel well! I am looking forward to having a normal 2-year-old again, as crazy as that sounds!
Eliza seems to have caught James' cold, but is not unhappy, just a little congested. The cold has actually caused her to sleep better, because she had been waking up in the middle of the night ever since we came back from Thanksgiving, but she has slept through the night the last few days. Needless to say, I have not been getting much sleep. In other news, Eliza now weighs 14 pounds, 5 ounces. I tried to feed her rice cereal for the first time last Monday, and she did okay with it, but was not very enthusiastic about it. I have not tried again since then because of the craziness of sick kids! I am hoping they will be all well before we start travelling next week for Christmas.
Eliza is getting so big! She has gotten very good at using her hands. I love it when she grabs my face and tries to shove my nose in her mouth, which she now does with everything! She chews on anything she can get in her mouth, which makes me think we may see some teeth soon. She can also sit up for a few seconds before leaning forward until her face touches her feet. She loves to laugh, especially when she is tickled or held up high in the air- she is such a daredevil! She is quite a charmer, and no one is more under her spell than her daddy and James. Yes, James is very enchanted with her, and he loves to see her smile, which she is often caught doing at him. They are already such big buds! I saw a one and a half week old baby at the library Monday, and it just made me wonder, Where did the time go?
I was watching a slideshow of some photographs on the computer this evening, and James walked up and started playing with the mouse while I was sitting there with my arms crossed. In a minute or so when I wanted the mouse back, we had this conversation:
At which point I realized I had lost the high ground and bribed him with something else to get the mouse back. This sharing stuff isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Here's a story I forgot to write about the other day:
Our church had a Thanksgiving Dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and my whole family sat together with James at the head of the table. As the pastor was saying the prayer, James yelled across the table, "Pappy, can you close your eyes? Gerald, can you close your eyes?" So much for sneaking a glance around during the prayer!
