Thanksgiving

I am finally getting to writing about the second biggest holiday of the year. It has only taken me a week and a half as we are well into our Christmas season. Oh well.

Our Thanksgiving started off like any other normal Anderson holiday: with a trip to the ER. Go figure. It's almost laughable. This girl has the absolute WORST and best timing in the world to get sick. The worst because it's the holidays. The best was because our family just arrived hours before she woke up wheezing and we were able to leave Jared at home with them.

I spent all day Thursday making way too many rolls and pies that I'm finally starting to see disappear from my baby belly. I went to bed at 1:00 and Claire woke up at 2 with a terrible croupy cough and some incredibly scary breathing. She could barely get any air in. Mind you, she had not been sick in the slightest that day or any other day recently. We gave her a blessing (which I'm so grateful for) and allowed my anxiety clear for a moment when I was reassured it would be a quick doctor trip. She even started to calm down by the end of the blessing and breathe a little easier, but we took her in anyway since we couldn't take her to her pediatrician on Thanksgiving anyway. Just get her on steroids and have it taken care of.

We took her to Children's Medical Center in Dallas where I have now seen the most ridiculous non-emergency, emergency room entrance. You have to walk about a half-mile before even getting to check-in. Is that an emergency? Come on, people. Terrible planning. After being in the cold air and being up for a little longer, she was breathing almost normal (still a little wheezy) by the time we got to the treatment room. Ridiculous #2: treatment room. What are these people thinking? I guess we live in a ginormous city where they need to be able to treat lots of people at the same time; however, I feel like they're just helping spread illness faster by this room. You have basically an open half-cubicle...one rear wall separates you from the person behind you. That's it. While we were there I watched 3 other children vomit. I was sure we were going to all start throwing up by the end of our stay. After two hours, she got her steroids and we went home.

On to Thanksgiving. We got home from the ER at 5 and I got up at 7:30 to start making dinner. I cooked an entire Thanksgiving dinner on 2.5 hours of sleep all by myself...and I didn't burn anything. It was delicious (at least I thought so). Our kids had way too much fun with cousins and we had major withdrawals when they left a few days later. After dinner we took the kids to the park....COLD!!! I started to get T.I.R.E.D. and took them home shortly so I could get some shut eye.

Our Thursday night ritual of going to Target at midnight was hampered because I had to sleep. I went to bed by 10:30 and slept for 10 hours. That's a lot for me. Happy black friday. :) The men took the kids to Legoland on Friday where Brian had too much fun with Claire. Daddy daughter dates must be fun! Mary and I walked around the mall and bought very little. Long lines are enough to make me leave. By the time Saturday came, family was leaving and Claire came down with a fever. Super weird. We gave her some Motrin and it never came back. Weird. Then on to more sick week by Monday......

 This girl loves to sing!

We are totally a Lego family.  

Haha. That smile...