Adventures of a Stay at Home Mom: Dear January....You can go now!

The past few days have been anything but relaxing. It seems that we just can't catch a break. Actually. It's pretty much been crazy for the last month....or maybe longer! I thought the craziness would settle down after the holidays. RIGHT! Needless to say, I am SO over the month of January. February can hurry up and get here because as of right now, the only thing that is planned for February is the possibility of a mini-getaway with the kids & my mom to go visit Colin & Molly in South Carolina. Oh. And my turning 29....but we won't go there quite yet.

January has been one of the GLOOMIEST months. And we are only 1/2 way through! UGH! It has rained almost every.single.day! Talk about depressing! But, thanks to all of this rain and cold and grossness, my laundry has been kept up with & my house has been as clean as it can be with a 1yr old and a 5yr old! I usually like the winter months and bundling up in big, comfy sweaters & wearing scarves......but this is just crazy! Getting out with two kids in the rain is the worst!

Okay. Enough ranting about the weather!! The beginning of January, not only did my husband 30(!!!!!) but Grayson turned ONE!!! Holy cow! I'm still in disbelief that he's one. It feels like 2011 flew by! But anyway! So yes, Grayson turned one! We celebrated his first birthday the first full weekend of this month. And planning it was super quick and rushed and felt like it totally snuck up on me! I mean, for Ava's 5th birthday, I started planning in September (she turned 5 Nov 30!) Thankfully, things came together great! Minus the fact that my brother wasn't going to be here.....and that meant that Molly wasn't going to be here either!! I was beyond bummed! Just my luck they would be moving into their new house the same weekend I was having Gray's party! But the BEST part of it was when my mom informed me that she was going to Paris with my dad that weekend.....and leaving the DAY of his party! Between not having either of my parents here OR my brother OR Molly......I had a minor nervous breakdown! Thankfully, my parents flight left later in the afternoon (& we live like maybe 10 minutes from the airport) so that meant that they could come hang out for the first part of his party & see him dig into his cake! My dad was great & convinced my Gram to come up from Florida for the birthday party. Even though she REALLY didn't want to be here.....she was a trooper!

Last weekend, we had a few of our good friends over for a game night. It was a BLAST!!! We played Cranium.......my stomach hurt SO much from laughing by the end of the night! And I saw a side of my VERY conservative neighbor that I didn't think existed! Things got a little hectic with the kids....there were 8 kids running around at one point! But. It was still fun! We decided that having a game night (with or without kids!!) is a MUST at least once a month! Honestly, it was nice to be able to have some "adult time". Minus having to stop at least every 5 minutes to deal with a "crisis" upstairs or to change a movie (that wasn't even watched!!)

Ava & I had a "girls day" on Sunday with our neighbor & her daughter Emmy. Ava & Emmy are best friends. We took the girls to go see "Beauty & the Beast 3D". But really, we just went to go see the "Tangled" short that played before the actual movie. Ava told me that it was her favorite. She's just a tad bit obsessed with Rapunzel.....and so is Emmy! Maybe that's why they're such good friends!

After the movie.....Ava & I made a quick trip home to pick up the boys. The hubby & I decided that we would bring dinner over to my mom's. She came home Sunday from Paris.....and Ava was so excited! Chick was SUPPOSED to be coming home around 6pm.......but of course.......the airport in DC had other plans for her. I had gotten a text from her while Ava & I were at the movies saying that she had landed, but her flight was delayed & she had no idea when she was going to be leaving. Awesome. But, what was even better.....was the fact that nobody told my Gram! So, by the time we made it out to my mom's house, Gram had already left for the airport. She was NOT happy when I broke the news to her! Thankfully, she turned around and came back to the house. Ava was bummed that she wasn't going to get to see Chick & give her the YUMMY (and incredibly small) cupcakes she made for her! We hung out with Gram until it was time to go pick up mom at the airport. Her flight FINALLY came in around 8:30pm. Talk about a long day!!!

Monday, Gram was leaving to head back down to Florida. And Lord knows she was ready to get home after being here for a week! Our plan was to meet Chick & Gram at the airport and then go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. So not what Gray had in mind! Sunday night he woke up around 9:30 and was running a 101.5 fever. He's NEVER had a fever that high! It took him until 10:30-11pm to go back to sleep. He was back up at 6am with a 101.1 fever. NOT how I wanted to start my week! As soon as 8am rolled around I called our pediatrician's office (that is AMAZING!!!! and my former employer!!) to get him seen. While we were there, Gray broke out in this horrible rash while they were collecting samples for just a few (okay, maybe more like 4 or 5) lab tests. Thankfully, Chick came to pick Ava up on her way home from the airport....she was so worried about her baby brother!! The only test that came back a little elevated was his white blood cell count......so we were instructed to come back the next day for another CBC. Awesome. Tuesday morning he woke up with lovely sores on his hands, feet, and mouth. And even more miserable then the day before! Turns out, he has Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease. His WBC count did go down, so that was a plus. But, he had a lot more of the lovely sores in his mouth & in the back of his throat. My little piggy of a son has not been eating or drinking nearly as much as he used to!! We met Chick at Cracker Barrel for lunch......and all he ate was a few peas & lima beans from my soup. And maybe a tiny piece of chicken! I felt so bad for him!!! Oh, and, the best part of all of it, he does NOT -I repeat- DOES NOT want to go to bed at his normal bedtime!!! He has been staying up until at LEAST 10pm all week! Tonight was the first night that he went to bed at a decent time!! Thank Goodness!!! I forgot to mention........he's also teething! Yay for FOUR molars trying to make their debut!!!

So January......please please PLEASE get better! Or at least hurry up & be over! I know that I am ready to see you go!

i totally forgot to post a picture from yesterday.......so here are two from today!!! this morning was spent with the little dude since sister stayed with chick so she could go pick up the big dude at the airport!!

cheerios + milk + sunshine = a great start to the day!