Oh What A Week We're Having

Wow, it's been an eventful holiday season for us.

We spent Christmas in NoVA with my (Jim's) parents in Haymarket. We got there on Saturday evening and spent the next few days there, returning home on the 26th. As Abbie has pointed out, we see my dad more now than when we lived in NoVA. Go figure.

We spent Sunday the 24th with Katie and Bruce at their townhouse. It was so cute watching how Emily plays to the crowd and even with other babies around, she's still the center of attention. Cooper was crawling all over everything since it was all new to him. Sullivan simply did his cute thing without too much fuss (wish it was that way at home). We stayed for the first quarter of the Giants-Saints game where the Giants were handing it to the Saints. We think we were the good luck charm in that household of Giants fans because once we left, the Giants imploded upon themselves yet again. What happens this weekend when they play the Skins? Are we the Giants' good luck charm or the Skins? And what about Abbie's new favorite team, the Panthers? How are they going to do? She only likes them because Jake Delhomme makes funny commercials for Sprint down here.

Abbie got sick that night. Violently sick, I would say. She was vomiting like her life depended on it. And the runs she had, whoa, Nelly. Poor thing. It was an awful night for her. We never figured out what it was, either...although it rears its head later.

Gene and Kathy had a blast with the boys. Kathy hooked us up big time with wanting to hold Bear all the time. He may be young, but he's far from little...so always holding him gets tiring at his hefty 20lbs (and he's only seven months old...the little chunky butt). She just soaked his heftiness in and held him and hugged him and squeezed him all over. Cooper played a lot with Dad, and demonstrated to Grandpa how he could walk up and down stairs holding your hand.

Christmas dinner on the 25th was at Dad's house with the grandparents and John, Kat & little Lauren. Chris and Wanda came over also since they were in town for Wanda's doctor's appointments. It was very nice to have both sets of grandparents in one place, if even for one night. Chris did assimilate very well with my dysfunctional family...they even sucked him into the post-dinner booze and politics at the table whilst the women-folk went off and did what they do.

Cooper said "Papi" for the first time. Papi is French for grandfather and that's what we call Chris D'Addario. What? Not like we can call every grandfather "grandpa"...do you have any idea how many grandpa's these kids would have? Sheesh. (For the curious, that would be four...and yes, they have four grandmothers, too).

Our drive on the 26th took us over five hours. Usually only takes us 4 hours, but we decided to avoid the awful traffic in NoVA to get to I-95, so we took it out towards Culpeper and down Rte 3. It was actually a pleasant drive, and we had fun jamming out to Cooper and Sully's new Backyardigan DVD's. Yes, yes, Abbie and I like the music just as much as the boys. You would too if you sat down and watched the shows a few times. Very catchy tunes, quite frankly. "Boinga, boinga".

The next day, after I finished my half day at work, I came home not feeling very good. I had the chills and my stomach wasn't feeling very good. That night, I went to bed while Abbie stayed up to work on a Deltek project she's had on tap for some time. About an hour after I went to bed, I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to projectile vomit into the commode. The next day, I spent most of the day resting, with no appetite, and managed to steal a needed 3 hour nap in late afternoon. After going to bed for the night, I found myself jumping up and running to the bathroom yet again so that I could projectile vomit. It wasn't until Saturday that I finally regained my appetite. Very disconcerting to not want to eat anything for three days. Guess I caught what Abbie had.

And then yesterday, Cooper started giving signs that he was getting sick. Today, he got it bad. Throwing up everywhere. Barely eating anything. And the diahrrea...DAD TIP: don't take your child out of the house if there's the potential for the runs and those runs have a distinct potential for leaking out of the diaper. If you do, bring at least three pairs of pants, and an entire package of baby wipes. Oooh, it was a mess.

BIG NEWS ALERT! Abbie has completed her tenure with Deltek. That project she was working on was her last, and she got it completed after long nights of working. I'm going to leave it to Abbie to detail this period of transition of her's for y'all. Needless to say, for me, it's nice to have her not have to worry about Deltek, although, the extra income will be missed. Abbie is going to take up the banner for our FreedomRocks business and has been preparing for her kick off point. $1M in 2 years is our goal and we know we can do it. Deltek chapter...closed.

BIG NEWS ALERT! I've officially stopped being a real estate agent in Virginia. I got notice today from my old broker, Help-U-Sell Patriot Realty, that my subscription with the MLS was terminated and that my license had been sent back to the Commonwealth of VA. It was a bit sad, but the only thing I truly liked about real estate (other than the potential for big bucks) was the flexibility in scheduling. Virginia real estate salesperson chapter...closed.

Cooper had his birthday on Friday the 29th. Finally two years old. He got a little activity table with which to play at. He took to it immediately, and has demonstrated that he definitely knows its his and what to do with it. We'll post pics of this past week soon.

Our anniversary is tomorrow, and it will be yet another quiet evening at home thanks to the chillins. I look forward to the day that we can start attending New Year's Eve like regular people...Raleigh got one of those First Night celebrations that look like fun for the whole family. Of course, we're going to plan some kewl shindigs on New Year's in the future that we hope y'all will come to.

Whatever y'all are doing for New Year's Eve, please be safe, and have a prosperous New Year. Cheers.