Catching Up

This might be a record for me...16 days without blogging!  I keep making mental notes of things I need to blog about, but now that I've sat down to blog I have forgotten most of them. Go figure.

Christmas was nice and relaxing.  We kept it fairly low key this year.  Apparently so low key that I didn't even take any pictures! (Jonathan took a few after Santa came--still, there's none of the kiddos)  Oops.  Poor Lane is getting shafted in the photo department; he doesn't even have a picture of his first Christmas.

Santa brought Maggie this bear tent.  She was a little timid around it at first and refused to go inside, but I think she's warming up to it.  After we spent Christmas morning as a family, we drove down to Jonathan's parent's to spend the rest of the weekend with them.    

Me:
I'm still in pain from going to the dentist.  I was okay with the dentist himself, but I didn't feel like his staff was very professional.  Plus, I have never been in pain like this after going to the dentist.  They told me it was probably a spasm in my jaw muscle from having my mouth open for so long.  I felt it was my jaw muscle and joint as well, but it didn't seem to be getting any better.  They didn't offer much help, they just made it sound like it would get better within a few weeks.  After taking the highest doses of Tylenol and Ibuprofen for several consecutive days, without seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I started to worry about how my liver and stomach were holding out.

I scheduled a second opinion exam with a dentist I've been to before and had no problem with...don't ask me why I felt the need to switch dentists.  I'm still kicking myself.  He basically told me the same thing since my roots and nerves still look healthy in the x-rays.  He prescribed a muscle relaxer and compared the situation to throwing out your back--a spasmodic jaw muscle takes time to heal since it is constantly being used to talk and chew and has a hard time completely relaxing. (Jonathan told me there was an easy solution--quit talking. Haha.  He was joking of course, but I still told him he better be joking since I am far more quiet than a lot of women.  You might not guess it by how long my blog posts are though.)

The muscle relaxer made a big difference but has left me feeling completely drained of energy and a little too relaxed.  I still have pain every now and then, but that is a drastic improvement compared to the constant pain I was in.  I have to go back on Monday to get the crowns seated permanently (they only seated them temporarily in case the problem was with those teeth).  I've never liked going to the dentist, but I have never been anxiety ridden over it.  Last night I had nightmares about the dentist.  Now I'm wondering if my most recent experience has changed my feelings toward going.  To top it all off, they billed the insurance wrong so  the insurance isn't wanting to pay for any of it.  Argh!  Once I'm done with my appointment on Monday I am never going back to that dentist again!

I forgot to post pictures of this cake I made the week before Christmas.  It wasn't anything fancy, but I've posted every other cake picture so I might as well keep it up :)

Maggie:
Seems to be picking up new words every day.  They aren't clear as a bell, but we at least know what she's saying.  It sounds like she's saying "Achoo" when she says "thank you."  Sometimes I'm tempted to say "bless you" instead of "you're welcome."

Today while we were grocery shopping, she pointed at the hot dogs and started panting like a dog.  She's a little confused.

She always wants to talk on the phone.  Usually she just says "uh-huh" in response to questions and makes her animal noises.  My favorites are her elephant noise (completed by swinging her arm up like an elephant's trunk), her owl noise, and her horse.  She neighs well, but she can't quite get her lips to vibrate when she tries to make the horse sneeze sound, so she just blows air through her lips.  

She is a little dancing machine.  She cannot hold still if she hears music!  She seems to have pretty good rhythm too.  I was cleaning while listening to Brooks and Dunn the other day.  I tried to teach her the Boot Scootin' Boogie, but she just watched me and laughed at me like I was some crazy lady.  It got my heart rate up though so I counted it as exercise.  I'll post video of it soon (Maggie dancing, not me).

Her two year molars are coming in.  They haven't seemed to bother her too much until last night.  She was waking up about every twenty minutes crying until we gave her some medicine.  Thank goodness for Children's Tylenol.

Lane:
Is cute, chubby, and fairly easy to please.  He gives me giggles every day which I love of course.  He is wearing 6 month clothes and will be four months old on the 17th.  He does not like being on his tummy and is yet to roll over.  I'm not sure how to answer the typical "how does he sleep?" question.  I guess the best answer is "not consistent."  Some nights he'll sleep from 8:00-4:00, other nights he wakes up fairly often.  I've determined that he is afraid of the dark.  We were having a hard time getting him to fall asleep at night without rocking him, yet I could lay him in his crib and he'd fall asleep on his own for naps.  So I started leaving the light on when I put him in his crib for bedtime.  Now he falls asleep without hardly making a peep.        

Jonathan:
It's been almost ten years since Jonathan left on his mission.  To commemorate I checked out The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency from the library.  It's an HBO/BBC series about a lady in Botswana who opens a detective agency.  I have heard the books are really good, but I haven't been able to find them.  Anyway, it's filmed in Botswana/South Africa and all of the actors/actresses are natives except for the main lady.  I knew Jonathan would enjoy watching it for that reason.  He did.  It was fun to get a little taste of the culture and scenery of his mission.  I had a hard time understanding their accents and dialect at first, but it didn't seem to phase him at all.  It made him a little homesick; if only we could afford to fly halfway around the world.

I also checked out an African cookbook and made Peri-Peri chicken the other night.  He ate it on occasion at a restaurant called Nando's (which now has a location in Washington State, and Maryland.  I have friends in both of those states...if you're reading this, have you eaten there?)  It was yummy, but way too spicy so I'll have to alter it next time I make it.

Well, I can't remember any other mental notes so I guess this is goodbye for now.