THANKFUL

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! We had the most perfect holiday week(end), it's hard not to stop and pause and think about the good things in our world. My family came to our house and we all cooked together. Which I absolutely LOVE. My Mom is doing amazing, even with a recovering right hip, you would never know since she's cruising around prepping the Turkey and stuffing at 6 a.m.! Rob made his new favorite pumpkin pie (Gingersnap/walnut crust with a cranberry drizzle) -- it is to die for! April shared her ever so wonderful cranberry sauce and Timmy indulged us with his amazing New York cheesecake (how fitting since he really thinks he is a true New York -- boooo YANKEES fan!) but we had the most relaxing and wonderful holiday together. The girls made a special Turkey of their own with Daddy -- they cut out their hand prints and used them for turkey feathers and traced their shoes for the turkey body -- it's a cute version of a turkey, I love it because it has both of them combined into one crafty keepsake.

This year, many many of my friends were hosting their families for Thanksgiving and that got me to thinking -- are the tides changing? Are we all getting to the point where we are the adults???? UH-OH! But then again, it's really nice. It's nice to have the chance to show our families how much we love them and treat them to a really special dinner. I hope all of the dinners came out wonderful.

Though the day to day may keep us from settling down, it is ever so important to stop ... reflect ... and report on those things we are Thankful for.

I am Thankful for ...

• Our family of 4 + 1 cat ~ this early flu season has showed us we are fit for 2 kids only and definitely no dogs!
• My sweet husband and the best Daddy to our girls
• Emma and Julia ~ it's been amazing to see them growing/playing and to see how much they love each other
• My Mom
• RaRa and PopPop
• My Sister
• Auntie April and Uncle Timmy
• My wonderful friends ~ you all fill me up with joy
• Staying in touch with my big family, I am really glad we had our reunion and all got reconnected on Facebook
• Facebook ~ can not believe that's on my list but really it's been a great social tool
• Running
• My health
• Red Wine ~ Pinot Noir and Zinfandel to be exact!
• Honey ~ it has done wonders in helping with this year's coughs and sore throats!
• the iMac ~ it simply rocks

There is much more ... but that's my short list of things that make me feel ever so grateful.

Holiday fun!

Date night! Celtics game then drinks with friends! Thank you Auntie April and Timmy for watching the girls.

Happy Holidays

The shopping is done! We had lots of luck on black friday! Happy Holidays.

First tastes

Happy Thanksgiving - Julia likes her first taste of egg nog.

Flu and cold care

Although we have had some really touch and go moments with the colds, we have found some really decent remedies to get the girls through and I thought I'd share ...

• Black Elderberry Syrup - 2 teaspoons per day
• Nutrition Now - Rhino FOS & Acidophlus
• Local Honey - morning and night (and as needed through out the day when they have a cough or sore throat -- only use this if your child is over the age of 1)
• Highland's Homeopathic Flu Care for Kids (a bit of a pain the first hour but really simple after the initial dose is met). I also took this for myself and my symptoms were gone in 24 hours!
• Cool mist humidifier nightly and nap time -- and when the cough gets really bad, sitting on the bathroom floor with the door shut and the shower running to get a good sauna going
• Popcorn -- surprisingly great for sore throats! (Thanks for the tip Mom)
• Puffs Plus tissues
• Yogurt and lots of it!
• But when the flu hit it's very worst days we went with the traditional -- Children's Motrin and Children's Benedryl -- a few days of these and Julia was in a MUCH better mood and her wet nose/cough seemed far more manageable
• And inevitably, amoxicillin to knock out the ear infections ... which also seemed to clear up alot of the head cold symptoms for Julia too ... though they try to say that's not connected?
• And of course lots of TLC

Flu updates

Ok, as any reporter knows ... don't ever report with confidence because when you do it is certain that the other shoe will drop. I posted my last updated on last Tuesday and by Friday at 9:15 a.m. Julia had spiked a fever. Mysterious. She was healthy for the better part of 4 days, stopped her antibiotic for double ear infections on Thursday night then BAM ... Friday morning fever which resulted in a full body shutdown which is now being looked at as a 'febrile seizure'. The really good thing is, her body did what it was supposed to do to fight the new infection. Well that's how the doctor explained it to us. Though I was panicked and still have moments of complete horror, the doctors assure us that this type of seizure is fairly common in children under the age of 6 and has no correlation to a neurological condition. But, come on! It's our little girl ... but you know what, through it all she's doing remarkably well. We are lucky, even though I feel like she's constantly fighting something, she is fighting it so we have to know that she's actually healthy and for that we are truly blessed. But what I've learned is, we are living in a new time. A time where there are bigger bugs than before.

I think through all of this I've struggled with not being home. If I were home and not working would she be getting sick? If I weren't at work, I would have been the one with her when she spiked the fever and seized. We are so fortunate to have the most loving and experienced babysitter. Renee was calm and did exactly what we would have done and Julia is OK. After a trip to Children's Hospital, which was actually really smooth and pleasant, Julia was back to her sweet, spunky self. We do have to watch her for cold or fever like symptoms and be preemptive with Motrin to hinder her fevers from spiking and she's still fighting a gross gross cold with another ear infection, but I have to say overall this kid is a trooper!!

So I'm sending this out there ... can the flu/cold season please END ... this family has had enough of it already!

Week of the flu

Finally, I can say with confidence our family is Flu free ... somehow everyone managed to escape the first round of the H1N1 flu ... except Julia. The Thursday before Halloween we opted to get the girls vaccinated and wouldn't you know it, 7 hours later Julia came down with a 103 temp and vomitted 4 times. Yes, again my child threw up ALL over ME! For some reason this is just what they do. Fortunately, Julia really did a great job of recovering all on her own. It was a very long week of fevers and no sleep but we made it through and she's back to her peppy spunky self.

Other tidbits in our life:

~We decided to take Emma out of pre-school for the Winter months. Her teacher and doctor were in agreement that she was better off staying at daycare for the Winter and her teacher reassured us that Emma is right on task and above average in most areas so she had no concerns about her taking a few months off.

~Julia is gabbing away - though the sentences are not understandable to most ears we can tell what she's "trying" to say. Things like:

• "Ishuta" = I shut it
• "fyfy" = firefly
• And while reading Good Night Moon "goomoobye,kitty, balloo, bye, moon" = Good Night Moon, Good night Kittens, Good Night Balloon, Good Night Moon (this is actually the most adorable thing EVER -- she sits in the rocking chair and flips through the pages very quickly and says this same sentence on EVERY page, absolutely adorable)
• "Niiiighty" = Good night
• "Go! DeDee Go!" = Go Dewey, go! (and she says this with the arm waving and a big deep voice)
• "ADBD" = ABCD ...

~Julia is also enjoying dancing in big big circles, she's created her own "floor routine" too where she does a minute of spinning around, then rolls on the floor and flips onto her back and says "ahHA!" with a big grin of pride!

~ Emma has just finished Soccer! Though we were not so sure midway through the season if she was cut out for it or if she was just too young, we were pleasantly surprised and impressed at how well she did for the last 3 weeks of practices/games. We no longer had to go on the field with her, she was no longer pretending to be an airplane chasing all of the soccer players, and she actually practiced kicking the ball INTO the goal. It was a really good first experience for her and we are thinking about signing her up for Spring Soccer.

~And since Emma has been asking for a year to join dance ... we start Ballet/Tap class this Saturday morning. This is uncharted territory for me, but of course I am very excited to see her all dressed up. But any dance tips will be gladly accepted here!!!!

~I am so proud of a few people and wanted to share:

I am proud of my Mom and how strong she has been through her recovery from hip surgery. She's already walking with out any assistance! She's driving and has had a really positive attitude. Great job, Mom.

I am proud of Sara who has really been disciplined and is in the best shape!!!! She's been my motivator and running partner and we are doing great, but she's rocking!!

I am proud of Michelle, for all of her hard work at school. She's been volunteering and spending a ton of observation hours at schools in Florida and she's also taking 5 classes!!!!

~Today I got to have a lunch date with Rob and it was so wonderful! Sometimes the hubby comes up with a great idea and he knows better than me when to take a break. Thanks babe!!!

I am very much looking forward to the upcoming holidays and lots of quality time with friends and family. Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

Happy Halloween 2009

The biggest carved pumpkin I have ever seen at a farm in Pomfret

Julianna and Emma at the beginning of the Great Pumpkin Walk

The Cowardly Lion appears in CT (starring Timmy)

The Wicked Witch of the West in full character (starring Auntie April)

The Texan Herders (starring the Tans)

Good vs. Bad (starring Emma and Auntie April)

Flower Munchkin (starring RaRa)

Wicked Witch of the West, Cowardly Lion, Munchkin, Spooky Talking Tree, and Tin Man

Almost the whole cast (Julia was too grumpy to put on the whole scarecrow costume and Auntie Em and Uncle Henry had already left Oz for the night)

Emma, Maddie, Grace and Quinn (the only shot I got of the Sumner clan who were super heros!)

Auntie April and Emma in costume!

Spooky Talking Tree (starring PopPop)

There's Dorothy!

Glinda the Good Witch (starring Mommy) and Dorothy and Toto (starring Emma)

Though we had a bumpy start to our Halloween Party with Ms. Julia feeling under the weather, we were still able to have a fun-filled evening of trick or treating and dress up! Our family is so awesome, they all got into character and had the best time entertaining Emma. She absolutely loved every second of it. She got to dress up as Dorothy, Glinda the Good Witch, AND the Wicked Witch of the West ... and had a Wizard of Oz tote to go out and get lots of treats in. Thank you to everyone who made her day so special.

Enjoy the Halloween pictures! Hope you all had fun!