Author: Jo Bird

a Christmas to remember

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments
I’m an idealist. Or in other words I have unrealistic expectations.

This was how I imagined Christmas at our house:

We would put together a plate of cookies for Santa and the reindeer with the children. Then they would go to bed cheerily to dream of sugar plums. (Whatever those are…) Richard and I would prepare the gifts with broad smiles and butterflies of anticipation before settling down for our long winter’s nap. (You are beginning to see my unrealistic expectations, afterall, we have a newborn.) In the morning the boys would rise early full of thrill and would laugh and squeal with delight as they excitedly opened their gifts.

This is how our Christmas unfolded.

Richard and I suggested we leave a plate of cookies for Santa and the boys threw a fit. They wanted the cookies for themselves. The fit evolved into all-out tantrums by the time we got them to bed so Richard and I wrapped the gifts in a grumpy pout trying to figure out how our children became so selfish. We considered not giving them the gifts at all, but naturally I still had high hopes for the morning. Cameron fulfilled my expectations and awoke excited and was delighted with his gifts. Eli seemed to be in the same funk he was at bedtime and refused to look in his stocking. He expressed little emotion as we helped him open his gifts. Richard and I couldn’t believe that a kid could be so pathetic on Christmas morning. Just as we were about to finish up the festivities Eli threw up everywhere. Merry Christmas.

We felt awful blaming his bad mood on his tempermental nature. After things were cleaned up and he rested for a little while he felt wonderful and his holiday excitement surfaced. Sadly the gifts were all unwrapped and I think he felt robbed of Christmas. Thank goodness for grandparents.

Of course now that Christmas is two weeks past, all the boys can talk about is what they want next year. There’s nothing like reality to help adjust expectations.

heck of a night

/ Jo Bird / 2 Comments

Monday after work I stopped at the store. It was the night of the big game, Feista Bowl 2010. It was jam packed with folks in BSU gear buying alcoholic beverages. Excitement was in the air.

Let me just say this. I’m a loyal citizen of Bronco Nation. I love coach Pete. I’m proud of Kyle Efaw for modestly admitting that the Broncos are “probably not” #1 in the nation. I forgive you Brandyn Thompson for getting burned on that touchdown pass since you had two interceptions. And Brotzman, you redeemed yourself from that missed field goal with that sneaky conversion on fourth down. What a game.

Can’t wait for September blue and orange.

POST EDIT:

That’s how I felt as I lay in bed last night. Those were the words I wanted to write this morning.

What a game.

But somewhere during the dark hours my anxiety and nerves from the game took the form of digestive failure. I’ll put it this way, my bad food choices during the football game have gone the way of the sewage and I get a clean slate for my New Year’s diet. Little did I know that when the team dumped the cooler of gatorade on Coach Pete it would be a preview of coming attractions for the first day of my 2010 diet.

I am rethinking my fan-dom now. I’m glad I have 8 months to do it.

and then they rested

/ Jo Bird / 4 Comments
Our holiday extravaganza culminated today with Miriam’s blessing. For over a week I have had three of my siblings in town with their spouses and children. All were residing at my parent’s house, so until today I had little responsibility as hostess. But today after the blessing we fed 18 adults and 4 children before they loaded up their Christmas loot and hit the highway to return to their respective homes. After everyone had departed this afternoon, the five of us all went to bed, and slept for over two hours.
Christmas-time is both a rewarding and challenging time to birth and care for a newborn. With family in town and holiday traditions I found myself especially sleep deprived. On New Year’s Eve as people joked about being too tired to stay awake until the midnight hour, I commented that we had stayed up past 12:00 every other night, why should this one be different?

In any case, today my baby is one month old. As I reflect on the last month and how quickly it passed I am so grateful to have been able to spend the time with family.

My cup runneth over.

Happy New Year. I am excited to be blogging again.

I’m great, really.

/ Jo Bird / 3 Comments

After a few phone calls from concerned family members I decided I better clarify. I’m not actually experiencing post-partum depression or anything. In fact the only depressing issue around here is that it rained for 24 hours straight and I would have loved for it to be snow. Oh how much snow it would have been! But alas, our white landscape has been washed away by winter rain. Blah.

In any case, check out the song “It Snowed” by Meaghan Smith. I can’t get enough of her voice. You can download a free “holiday sampler” from iTunes with the likes of David Archy and Barry Manilow. Twenty free tunes, including this new favorite of mine. Enjoy!

post-partum blog blues

/ Jo Bird / 2 Comments

It seems that this adjustment is occupying all my brain power and I am left without words for the blog. Or pictures for that matter. And tomorrow Richard goes back to work. Sigh.

Luckily Krista rescued me again from a photo-drought and I’ll post some quality pictures of our little doll soon.

Oh, and then there’s that holiday that is coming up… I hope I can devote some attention there in the near future.

and then there were three

/ Jo Bird / 15 Comments

I don’t consider myself to be the type who is easily overwhelmed. Richard might say otherwise but he doesn’t know some of the people I do. But yesterday the reality of three hit me, and I panicked.

Richard was home, but in the shower and I was feeding Miriam. When Eli was a baby and Cameron needed my attention during a feeding I could usually talk him through it until I was physically available. But yesterday as pandemonium broke out between Cameron and Eli in the bathroom while I was nursing I realized this was a new ball game. I tried shouting into the bathroom but that was useless so I just listened helplessly while the battle unfolded. That was when it hit me. But then it got worse.

The bathroom issue resolved itself and the boys came out into the living room. That is where the scissors come into the story. We have a Christmas countdown chain and I told Cameron he could get his pre-school “safety scissors” out of his backpack for Eli to cut a chain. Thereafter a fight over the scissors ensued, right in front of me. Snip and blood.

“RIIIIII-CHARD!!!!!!!”

Eli cut off the tip of Cameron’s thumb and I have no photo because 1. It was gruesome, and 2. It was always too covered in blood to see anything. Cameron hates blood and he became hysterical. Eli felt terrible and he became hysterical. Miriam’s breakfast was interrupted and she became hysterical. I realized I am now the mother of three needy children and I became hysterical.

I’ll cut out the details of the next four hours. Here is a summary. A lot of wrapping and unwrapping of the wound by various nurses and doctors, and each time the red stuff appeared it was a fit of hysterics by Cameron. On top of Cameron’s medical needs were Miriam’s medical needs and after some blood work of her own it was decided she has jaundice and needs to spend 24/7 with a biliblanket.

It was an exhausting day during an already exhausting time for me. But now that it is behind me I can feel gratitude again for my three children, in spite of the new insensity level parenthood has reached for Richard and me.

for now…

/ Jo Bird / 15 Comments
Here are some pictures of our little jaundiced treasure. More on that, and the other exciting events of today (events that involved a lot of Cameron’s blood), tomorrow. That is assuming I have the energy to laugh and write about it.