Christmas is behind us and 2008 wide open!
We've been home since the end of December, but it's taken us that time to recover from the holiday and travel and illness....
I've been a bit bummed out lately because Boo's first Christmas wasn't exactly as I hoped. I was definitely worried about the travel but I think my expectations were accurate and we were well-prepared for the trip even though it was pretty stressful. Boo was great in the plane and we learned some tricks about how to entertain him during a long-haul flight. After several hours of trying to keep him entertained in his car seat and him straining to get out and explore, I finally let him play on the floor despite whatever grossness was down there and he was perfectly happy.
Our visit home was a blur of wee-hour wakenings, sick baby, worry over sick baby, jetlag punctuated with some nice moments of contentedness -- walks in the brisk air, chats with the uncles, a bit of yoga, playing with new presents and a visit with my 93-year old grandmother (Boo's only surviving great-grandparent). I knew that our routine would be subverted a bit, but didn't count on how much impact being both jetlag and sick would have on all of us. I felt guilty that I couldn't spend more time with my family and that Boo would wake up the whole house at 5am. I was frustrated that I didn't get much holiday down-time. More than once that week I went to bed at 7:30pm knowing I would be getting up again around 1am.
The trip home was smooth, and Boo was getting better. I was grateful to be home and quiet for New Year's week. New Year's eve I went to bed at 10pm. We celebrated with a nice dinner the following night with a ban on resolutions for 2008. I had contracted Boo's very nasty cold and decided to take us both to the doctor last friday to confirm we didn't have sinus-infection or bronchitis. Luckily not, but it was only Sunday when I started to feel a bit better and rested.
I had taken for granted how smooth everything was going with Boo the last few months and the trip and being sick threw him for a loop. He's pretty much back on track but not completely and I wonder of those stories about the flexible, easy-travel babies -- do they really exist? Boo, who normally eats everything, stopped eating while we were in Nashville and would only drink. It was a bummer because he was just weaned completely a couple weeks before because he was only drinking a couple of bottles a day. Now he was drinking double the regular amount and all formula! I felt a bit guilty about it, but not too much. I mean, how could I have known? And anyway, it would have been doubly awful for me having to nurse enough to provide what he wanted -- just like the old days.
So. Christmas was nice (really nice) to see everybody. But it was also a period to just muddle through and find the moments of happiness as they came. It wasn't easy. Coming home and comparing stories I realize that Christmas is often really difficult with small kids for the same reasons we suffered -- illness (prime time), travel, routine disruption, exhaustion of parents, family obligations and personal expectations. Lesson learned! Do less! Expect less! Enjoy the small things.
Having said all that, we have 3 airplane trips planned for the first half of 2008. So we're persistent!
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