'Tis the Season

Our poor little boy has RSV, or Respiratory Syncytial Virus.

It started last Friday with a slight cough and a low grade fever. The cough got worse and the fever didn't go away, so we went to the doctor. Michael was just one of over a dozen sick babies they had seen with RSV recently. Since Michael is a bigger boy, his symptoms aren't as bad as they could have been. I've always loved having a chubby baby, and now that flub is keeping our boy out of the hospital.

He'll probably be contagious for at least 2 weeks, but his symptoms are already getting better. His breathing isn't labored, his fever is gone, and he's surprisingly active. He does occasionally wake up for night feedings (just in the last week) but, as he's suppose to drink as much as possible, I have no problem with it. Even that has lessened, so I don't think we'll have any issues going back to his normal sleep schedule once he's well.

He is still very clingy, has mood swings that put pregnant women to shame, and his coughs sound terrible, but he's going to bed easier and he's finally accepting his daddy again.

I can't wait for Michael to feel completely better and to go back to his adorable, dorky self again.

Taking Down Christmas

I wish I was kidding.

We had friends over for the Superbowl, which meant I spent Saturday cleaning house, which finally gave me the motivation I needed to put away Christmas. Most of the cleaning involved wrapping and storing ornaments and shoving fake branches into my Christmas tree bin. Thankfully, I only had one run in with a spider and it was relatively small.

Here's our awesome tree. It looked a lot prettier decorated, but I love this tree:

I also had to put away the hand carved nativity set my dad bought in Israel. He bought one for each kid while on TDY back when I was about 8 years old and living in Florida. It's really cool to think that it's traveled and been in storage for about 17 years and comes out of its box looking so good (unfortunately, the stable broke, but it's fixable if I buy a wood clamp). It's gorgeous:

Michael was as helpful as a baby can be, which is to say that he cried and got in the way the whole time. He also didn't appreciate it when I tried to make him wear his santa hat:

No fun at all. At least, not until he "crawled" over to me, climbed up my sweater, and started laughing:

Which takes me to our little King of Cruising. Michael can pull himself up to standing all on his own and likes to make his way up and down the coffee table:

It's amazing how much he loves playing with his walker even when he's not sitting in it:

First stage of babyproofing our house, baby gate at the top of the stairs. It's the perfect height for our boy to stand next to, plus it has such fun textures for him to play with. That's why we got it, little boy, purely for your entertainment:

It's insane that he was just starting to push himself into a sitting position a few weeks ago. It probably won't be long before this kid is walking.

Last but not least, here's Michael's impression of his daddy: