Inconsolable...

No, not me...  Lydia, last night.  It was the strangest thing.  Last night, Don and I had our 11-year-old nephew Nathan over for a Star Wars marathon.  We all went out to a diner--Don's of Traverse City in Novi, for anyone who's interested (yes, it's really Don's Drive-In, same owner and everything, except in Novi!!!).  We then had her in bed asleep at 8:15.  It was a little past her bedtime, but she went down well and seemed to be her normal self.  At around 12:00, once the boys were into Movie #2, she started to cry.  After 2 or 3 minutes, I went in to soothe her, and I couldn't calm her down.  She just kept crying.  This hasn't happened since she was a tiny baby.  I'm always able to calm her down in seconds by breastfeeding her, and it just didn't work.  She just kept crying and saying Mama, Dada, Mama, Dada.  Don came in to join me, and we looked her over, stripped off her clothes looking for constricting hairs, felt her head, looked in her diaper, nothing.  We gave her some Tylenol because it does look like she has some new teeth coming in.  We tried to distract her with all sorts of toys and other games that usually make her laugh.  We could get her to stop crying and give little laughs, but then she'd start right back up.  Finally we put her into the tub and let her play a little bit.  After about an hour, I was able to get her back to sleep.  It was so strange.  I think it was probably the teeth, but it was so unusual for her.  I really felt helpless.  I know it's going to take a long time for her to be able to express those kinds of thoughts, but she kept babbling and I felt like she was trying so hard to tell me what was wrong, but I couldn't understand.  So hard...  I'm hoping it doesn't happen again.  I gave her some Tylenol before bed, to try to soothe those tender gums.  Fingers crossed.

In other news, we celebrated our first Christmas with our angel baby.  We had a fun holiday.  I had to work Christmas Eve, so we had a lot to do that day.  I didn't get home until around 4:15.  At around 5:30 pm, Don went out to get some groceries for dinner that night and for our morning bread pudding, as well as a Christmas present for our niece.  We hadn't counted on all the stores closing so fast.  He managed to get everything, but our plans for individual Beef Wellingtons were stymied.  Meijer had no meat except for ground sirloin.  Don made do, though, and we had delicious sirloin burgers topped with mushrooms and a sherry reduction sauce, wrapped in puff pastry.  Yum!  I served it with gorgonzola polenta, and we had a lovely dinner.  

I then prepared the apricot bread pudding that I make for breakfast every year with my family.  I always make it on Christmas Eve, so that it's ready to go Christmas morning.  Finally, I had to wrap tons and tons of presents.  Every year, I vow to do my Christmas shopping earlier.  I now resolve to purchase earlier and to wrap earlier.  This late shopping and wrapping is exhausting, and it will only get more exhausting as Lydia and her future siblings get older.  I really felt a lot of admiration for my parents, and my mom especially.  Christmas was always so awesome, and so exciting, and there so many beautifully wrapped presents.  All of the presents were labeled, and everything from Santa was written in a Curlicue handwriting that is very time-consuming (as I found out this year :)).

Christmas morning began at 8:15, as Lydia slept in after her 6 am feeding.  We brought her down, fed her breakfast, and while the bread pudding was cooking, she started looking really tired, so Don brought her back upstairs for her nap.  We laughed that this will probably be the last year that she goes upstairs for a nap before even opening a present.  After her nap, we opened our presents.  Unfortunately, we didn't take lots of photos, as we were doing a video.  However, here's a cute one of her in her Christmas pajamas.

We got Lydia only a few presents, as we knew she'd get lots of stuff from her aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  We got her a little push duck whose wings flap as he moves, a set of keys and a remote car opener that beeps and makes noises, and a lovely baby doll.  I looked long and hard to find the perfect baby, and this is definitely it.  She really seems to like it, it's nice and soft, and it's the perfect size and shape.  When we ask, "Where's your baby?" she looks around and then crawls around until she finds it.  Soooooo cute! I'll definitely take pictures.  

Later that day, we went to Jenny and Kevin's house for Christmas dinner.  Lydia looked adorable in her red velvet dress with white fur trim.  See for yourself!

Merry Christmas Everyone!  The next post will probably be in 2009!