Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! This is my favorite holiday, so I was ecstatic when I woke up on Christmas day and felt a teeny bit less sick... fever had gone down and my energy was 100% better. Evan was much better except for the never-ending stream of green snot. Jerry still had no symptoms & was excited to get out of the house.

We went to my parent's house on Christmas morning and had fun. Evan enjoyed the holiday. He wasn't that excited about opening gifts, but he liked delivering them. My dad (playing Santa, as usual), would hand Evan a gift and say, "Give this to Uncle Bob..." And Evan would carry the gift to his uncle, then everyone would clap, and then Evan would clap for himself, sometimes squeeling with delight. A few times he delivered "mommy's present" to Aunt Suzy. Not sure what that was all about!

He loved being around family and being the center of attention. He would go back and forth between hanging out with his cousins in the back bedroom, and joining the adults in the living room. He loved his cousins and followed them around, and kissed and hugged them (Sophia and Jilli are 11 and Ben is 9).

He didn't really get into opening gifts until the end, when he did participate in some ripping. One of his favorite gifts is a train set given to him by his grandpa Stogsdill. He gets really impatient when we are putting the track together, saying, "UHH!!" in a really loud voice, which basically means, "I'd like to get started now! Can you please hurry?" Sometimes after the track is put together, he sits on it and we have to redo it. He also got a Lion King hog that you feed bugs to (and it says funny things, and farts). He thinks it's quite funny. And he got lots of clothes, and some blocks from us, and most importantly (from Santa) -- a big wheel made for his age, which he pushes with his feet. He likes to sit in it for dinner and throughout the day. It's like his throne.

The day after Christmas, Jerry got sick, and we've all been sick off and on since then. This is a bad time of year for sickness! But I'm pretty happy this time of year, so I can't complain too much.

Daycare update
We've found a daycare provider. Her name is Selena, and she has two boys, ages 3 and 5. She lives in a cute bungalow near downtown and stays home with her boys and watches a 9-month old girl and Evan. He has a great time over there. She says he and the 3 year-old run around in circles in the house, play with trains and the pretend kitchen, and burn lots of energy. She has a hard time putting him down for a nap because he doesn't want to stop playing, so he naps for her later in the day.

Acting kinda toddler-ish
Jerry and I have felt especially sleepy lately, and not just due to our colds. Evan is acting more and more like a toddler, getting upset over little things and insisting on his way more often. He hasn't had the official tantrum where he kicks and screams on the floor, but he does seem quite passionate. We're good at setting boundaries and sticking to "no," but it's hard when he acts like the world is coming to an end and his little heart is broken because we won't let him play with the cat water. He's still a great kid with a loving heart, and we know this stubbornness is totally normal, but we're so tired!

Christmas Eve

We're sick
Evan and I have a cold/flu, and I'm not very happy about it. We were all set to go to my mom's house when Jerry touched me and said I was all clamy and sweaty, so I took my temperature... 100 degrees. Evan's was the same, plus he's all snotty and coughy. My only symptoms are aches and fever.

So Jerry went to the store and bought the fixins for his chicken noodle soup and came home and took care of us. I couldn't be upset for too long about Christmas Eve being not what I expected, when I've got the best hubby and kid anyone could ask for. Plus, I love soup and magazines and orange juice and hot chocolate and all the other things that go along with being sick (I guess it's probably obvious by now that I'm not that sick.)

Evan's so cute when he's not feeling well (aside from the cranky moments). He's quiet and cuddly. He sat on my lap and watched movies while gently pulling my hair, as he does so well.

I've been taking our temps using an ear thermometer. He used to scream and squirm when we did this, but now he likes it. When we're done, he puts his ear toward it again, or grabs it and puts it in his other ear. He has officially discovered that his ears have holes. We'd better watch out, or he'll start putting holiday candy in there.

I'm hoping our fevers will be gone by tomorrow morning, and we can go to my mom's for Christmas day. It's Evan's first real Christmas... I mean the first one that will mean something to him... and I would love for him to play with his cousins and rip open paper.

Daycare update

17 months
We've spent the last couple weeks calling potential daycare providers. I called about 27 home-based providers and 3 centers. Most of the home-based providers refuse to take kids on a part-time basis, and although the centers would take him on a part-time basis, they'd require us to pay for full-time care (no thanks).

We have narrowed it down to two people, both home-based. One has a girl Evan's age and a 3 yr-old boy, and we like everything about her except for the huge TV they have in their living room. When we went over for a playdate, Evan was obsessed with pushing all the buttons and watching the TV. We fear he'll either drive her crazy, or at the very least, he'll watch TV all day and be a zombie when we pick him up.

The other provider had two boys -- ages 3 and 5, and she also watches a 6 month-old girl. This seems to be a great fit. We had one playdate, and her 3 year-old boy shared Craisins with Evan -- handed him one at a time, Evan would eat it, then he'd receive another one. They didn't play together, but each did their own thing while sharing Craisins. They have about a 9" TV, which they never watch (brownie points). And the mom is loving towards her boys, who are well-behaved and sweet. Plus, they have a pretend kitchen that Evan liked playing with (more brownie points for good toys).

We're excited about Christmas. We bought a small tree and let Evan pick out a couple ornaments -- Spongebob and Clifford the Big Red Dog. For the most part, he's unimpressed by the tree, but he did seem to enjoy it in the beginning. At least he's not trying to pull it on top of himself. He's still a bit young to get it.

This weekend we bought Evan a toddler bed. It's so cute. It's dark pine, a cross between craftsman style and a sleigh bed with slats. He "helped" Jerry put it together, and when it was all done, he crawled on top of the bed and pulled the blanket up over him, up to his chin. He understood right away that it was his. Last night he slept in there until 3:30, then crawled into bed with us. We keep telling him what a big boy he is to sleep in his big boy bed, which seems to mean little to him, but you never know. Now we just need to get him to sleep there all night.

Daycare problem

Things were going so well when, all of a sudden...
Evan was adjusting so well to his daycare provider and her child when she dropped the bomb on us... she can't take Evan anymore because she's decided to only take full-time clients. She just started doing this daycare thing a couple months ago, and at the time, I suspect she wanted to do part-time to "try it out" and see if she really liked watching other people's kids... now she realizes she likes it, but she's not making enough money. Since state law only allows providers to watch a certain number of children, Evan is essentially taking up a *spot* by only being there 1 day per week, but she could instead take a full-time kid and make four times as much money.

So I don't really blame her, but then I do. I don't blame her one bit for needing the money, but I wish she could have been upfront from the beginning. I'm a teeny bit bitter, which I know I'll get over soon, but just yesterday morning, we dropped Evan off there, and he was *so* happy to see her and to play there. We felt really good driving into work knowing he was in good hands and having such fun. Then a few hours later, she told me.

So now we are back at square one, right where we were 6 weeks ago. I am calling home-based providers and daycare centers. Fifteen home-based places so far will not take part-time kids. Daycare centers will, but we might as well sign over our 401Ks to them with how they penalize part-time clients like us.

Now I know why so many moms intended to work part-time, but were forced to work full-time after realizing how expensive part-time care is.

You know what we need? An organization that matches up part-time parents with other part-time parents. We only need daycare on Thursdays. Surely there is another parent out there who only needs daycare 2 or 3 or 4 days per week... if I knew about them, we could hire a sitter together. But how are we supposed to find such a person, who also happens to live near us and wants the same things as us? Calling all entrepreneurs: someone needs to start this business. I'm too busy making phone calls right now.

Aaaanyway, on the bright side, we're going to get a tree this weekend, and put up lights, and let Evan help with the ornaments. I'm very excited! Christmas is my favorite time of year, no doubt. I think we'll also get all our shopping done, but then again, we still have 2 whole weeks for that... Happy pre-Christmas!