12.24.12 Sitting in the dark in my parents living room. Presents abound. Twinkle lights doing their thing. Quiet house except for the carols playing quietly from my computer. So so happy. This is the best part. Christmas morning it already feels over, although it should be fun to watch Ian play.

We’ve been here since Friday night, and the theme so far has been, “Walking through the worst-case scenario.” Ian screamed from the time we left the cab until we got through security. And we had trouble with our tickets so that was a long time to scream (we think it was low blood sugar since he promptly returned to his old self once he got about five pretzels in him). He’s never done anything remotely close to what we experienced.

He was great on the plane, and we stayed with friends on Friday night since my dad and sister were recovering from the stomach flu. We entered the house on Saturday thinking we were in the clear, but at 3pm on Sunday, Ian puked eggs, bacon, grits, toast, pears, milk, and bile all over me, dad, the rug, the car, the couch…we’d never experienced anything remotely close. He’d only had one stomach virus before but it did not effect the front end if you know what I’m saying.

I wondered what it would be like dealing with a barfing toddler. The answer is it’s messy and unpredictable. They seem fine and then BLAAAAAH. The good news is I did not throw up at the sight of his throw up, AND over 24 hours in to his illness, neither me nor husband is down with it so we are keeping our fingers crossed that this plague has officially left the building. I have way too many calories to consume in the next week thank you very much.

Ian is so sweet here. Grandma has laid out the house so thoughtfully, with lots of play corners and treasures to find. He’s being a really good listener and is gentle with Alice, if a little uninterested (she’s not quite ready to catch a ball at seven months). He sleeps so easily in new environments now and being sick means he’s super snuggly so everyone’s had some good lap time, which is not always easy with an almost two year old boy.

I’m so grateful to be here. I’m so grateful to have two healthy babies in the house. I’m so grateful to have two healthy parents with us. I’m so grateful to have a husband willing to wrestle a 30-pound pig (aka Ian) on the plane for four hours to hang with in-laws for ten days in the freezing cold.

Take it all in, I say to me…

12.27.12 Twenty-four hours after writing the post above I was barfing. I’m two days in to this flu and still feel pretty shaky. Oh, and Ian still has diarrhea and has a cold and is possibly teething, and it’s freezing and he doesn’t really like the snow. Merry Christmas!

When life gives you some sucky ass bitter winter lemons, make a dance party, I say.

We started out with flashlight as a dance prop…

Which turned dangerous quickly, so we turned it into a prop. Much better.