A2H 2019.01: Banging in the New Year

Typically one would "Ring in the New Year", but for us this year came with more of a Bang.  The year closed off nicely with a holiday visit from Eric's parents.  They arrived on New Year's Eve and after a short time of visiting, unloaded their car and gave us their Christmas presents to unwrap.  The boys were elated to have more gifts to open from not only Grammy and Gramps but also their aunts and uncles and other extended family.  I, on the other hand, found this time less enjoyable.  Don't get me wrong I had fun opening gifts and watching the boys open theirs and I was happy to have the company of Eric's parents.  Unfortunately though I was feeling pretty crumby.  About a week or so before Christmas I got the nasty cough/cold that Asher had had for a while.  The cough was deep and frequent and after having it for a couple of weeks by this time had also become very painful.  Every cough that I had would give me horrible pain in my ribs.  It was so bad that I could barely move.  Therefore, as everyone else enjoyed opening presents, playing with said presents, eating our Chinese take-out dinner and celebrating New Year's I stayed on the couch where I observed, opened my own gifts and took pictures...

My quiet dinner on the couch.

Happy New Year!

Celebrating from the couch.

The next day was New Year's Day and as I said, it didn't exactly 'ring'.  I woke up still in a lot of pain and every cough was excruciating.  :(  I spent the morning observing again from the couch while everyone else visited and played together.

By late morning, I couldn't take the pain any longer.  Every cough literally brought me to tears and my chest was getting tighter making it harder for me to breath and get deep enough breaths.  Therefore with the encouragement from Eric and his mom I decided to go to the walk-in-clinic at the hospital to see if there was anything that they could do for me.  I thought that maybe they would give me a breathing treatment and some pain medications and send me home.  However, I quickly learned that they take an 8 Month pregnant woman with difficulty breathing VERY seriously.  Instead of a quick in-and-out visit to the walk-in-clinic I was checked into the ER, given what seemed like every test imaginable and not allowed to check out until after 8pm!

While Eric and I were at the hospital, the boys spent the day hanging out at our house with Eric's parents.

For the remainder of the work, I worked from home, Eric headed back to the office and Eric's parents hung around and played with the boys.

For dinner Wednesday night we got Marco's Pizza as a fundraiser for Asher's school and got to see the pizza box that he decorated.

On Thursday, the play continued for Grammy, Gramps and the boys while Eric and I worked.  Later in the afternoon, Asher and Grammy played a game of checkers, which is currently his favorite game.  Usually, Asher isn't a big fan of games because he hates loosing and isn't confident that he will win.  However, he is quite good at checkers and therefore has a lot of confidence in himself when he plays.  Therefore listening to him play a game with Grammy was quite entertaining as a whole lot of trash talk was exchanged back and forth!  :P

That evening I took pictures of the boys new ornaments for the year and then Eric, his mom and I got to work putting away all of the Christmas decorations for the year.  Typically, I would wait until the first weekend after New Year's to take the tree and decorations down, but with a baby coming within the next couple of weeks I wanted to get the house back to normal and figured we could use a little help with the process.

This year, Asher really took to fishing and enjoyed fishing on the lake whenever he could.  Since Eric isn't a big fan of having to put worms on the hook for him all the time, making it so that he has no time to fish himself, he taught him how to use lures and their fishing experiences have been even better ever since!

For Avery, this year was all about Batman.  He loves to dress up as Batman, read about Batman, watch Batman shows and even had a Batman birthday party.  Thus, when I saw this ornament I knew it had to be the one for him!

Avery got this Bumblebee ornament from Eric's parents this year.

We made this ornament of Avery for his Grandparent gift this year.

This was Asher's.

Asher got this Optimus Prime ornament from Eric's parents this year, but we had to return it and get another one because it was broken.

That evening as we worked to put the decorations away the boys had already fallen asleep for the night.  All of a sudden, Avery came out of his bedroom and since that is not uncommon I quickly asked him what was up.  He did not respond, but instead walked right past me onto the living room rug.  Then I asked him again what he was doing and again he did not respond.  As I watched him curiously, he began to pull down his pants.  Again, I wasn't totally surprised by this and figured he would start to tell me about something on his bottom or legs that hurt (as finding things that hurt at bedtime seems to be one of his favorite tactics to postpone bedtime).  When he pulled down his underwear, grabbed himself and squared up to the couch though I quickly realized what was actually happening.  Avery was sleep walking and thinking that the couch was the toilet!!  My mom instincts kicked in quickly so I ran over to him and since I could not lift him up and move him I did my best to protect the couch in case he actually started to pee.  Thankfully though that did not happen.  Eric got to him fast enough and carried him into the bathroom where he continued his business (looking rather confused) and then went back to bed.  The next morning, he remembered nothing, but I'm pretty sure I'll never forget it!  :P

On Friday Eric and I went to my 38 week doctor appointment and then around lunch time that day we all said goodbye to his parents as they headed back home.  As I mentioned above, I worked for the remainder of the day and then looked forward to a lazy weekend at home with no company and no plans.  As I said though, the New Year came with a bang and with it my plans were quickly altered...but for that you'll have to wait for another post.

Asher & Avery: A 4 Legged Michigan Animal.