home from the holidays and "mommy merit badges"

Well we're back from the holiday. We had a fantastic time home seeing friends and family (see all of our holiday photos here) and showing off Grant to anyone within a 10ft radius. It felt like it was a nice lengthy vacation yet as always we still didn't get to see everyone and do everything we would have liked. It's a weird after having no sort of childcare at home to having 10,000 arms lining up to carry and play with Grant. I don't have a problem with other people holding him I just didn't want people to think I was always trying to relieve myself of my parental duties. Having said that we were allowed the luxury of getting in a few naps and going to TWO movies (2 thumbs up for Narnia and 2 so-so thumbs for KingKong).

Grant also got his first cold on Christmas Day. :( I thought it would have run through his system by the time we headed back but no such luck. Fortunately, the congestion didn't seem to affect his ears too much during the flight and he only had about 3 minutes of fussy time the whole trip. He has never been a really snugly baby. He's never liked resting his head on your shoulder. If he's up there it's just another opportunity for him to look around at stuff. You could tell he was sick and felt miserable because he had no interest in looking around. He just rested his head on my shoulder or chest as I walked him around. This trip I was also faced with my former gross-out thing and found it wasn't so bad, in fact I forgot I would have normally been grossed out. I think everyone has their gross-out thing whether it be poop, saliva, earwax, spit-up or whatever I think we all have one thing that skeeves us out. Mine is snot. I was kinda grossed out by the nasal aspirator (booger sucker) for awhile before I had Grant. After hearing his little congested breathing and hearing him all clogged up I gladly used it to try and help our little dood out. When he sneezed on the plane on the ascent I had no kleenex on me and without thinking I used my sleeve to wipe his nose. When his little head conked out on my shoulder his nose continued to run onto my shirt and I didn't think twice. I wore the two little snotty streaks on my shoulder as some sort of "mommy merit badge" and never thought about them again until I threw the shirt into the laundry that evening. Of course my concern for Grant's well being would always overshadow any sort of bodily fluid he's flung on me but I didn't expect it to be such a non-event. I didn't recoil in horror, I didn't think EWW, I just thought "oh.. poor little dude, you're really not feeling well, rest your head". Anyway... I know this is all the stuff every other parent has ever felt so it's not exactly ground breaking news. I just thought I'd share another of my "mom moments".

Took Grant into the doc today to make sure it was nothing more than a cold. He weighs 14lbs 7 oz. I thought for sure he'd be up more than that. I checked with the doc and he's in the 50th percentile. He's fluctuated between 50th and 75th since we've had him. But the doc assured me all is normal. He's back in to the doc on Thurs for his 4 month well baby check-up where he'll get his 4 other DTAP injections :(. Not looking forward to that.

Anyway, I'm off to start unpacking and start setting things aside for our New Zealand trip.

-misty