Musings of a Wannabe Super Mom: And more updating

Even though there are other posts here, this is my first official post on my new blog. I originally started on wordpress, but I made the decision to switch recently. My school district currently uses google sites, and blogger is the default blogging site for google. Plus a lot of blogs that I am interested in for party planning and parenting seem to be on Blogger. Having one will make it easier to keep up with them. Now on with the rest of my update summary of 2012 and first part of 2013.

November-Firsts all around
The first weekend of November we went to Arboretum for their fall display with Maga. We had planned to go several weeks earlier to take Halloween pictures, but it wasn't meant to be. The pumpkin display was awesome, and we got to see the Chihuly exhibit everyone was talking about. Thanksgiving was the first family holiday without Mom. We hosted again this year. It was a simple meal with Brett's mother and grandfather, Maga, J, and his mother. It was a hard day all around because I always associated Thanksgiving with my mom since she loved to cook. It was great to have family and friends around, and it made things easier to deal with. We decided to give Gray his first meal of solids since he turned 5 months that day. It was an interesting experience! Unfortunately, Gray had two other firsts that week as well: his first respiratory infection and ear infection. He seemed a little fussy the night of Thanksgiving and had mild temperature, but in the morning, he was fine. We chalked it up to teething and headed to Wichita Falls to see Brett's grandma. Unfortunately, he got worse while we were there. We took him to the doctor the next day to find out he had the respiratory infection and ear infection in his right ear. We were surprised about the ear infection because he hadn't been pulling at his ears. Gray had to have his first rounds of antibiotics and a breathing treatment for several days. The one upside to Thanksgiving break was Brett gave me my birthday present early. We lucked into a decent Black Friday deal on a DSLR camera, which I had been wanting for awhile.

Gray showing off his new shades

Hanging out with his Maga

Chihuly

Thanksgiving with Grammy

Showing off his homemade Thanksgiving outfit

First chair pictures with the new camera

December-First White Christmas and more sickness
The first part of Christmas was very busy. Semester exams were before break, and we didn't get out until right before break. Brett and I did manage to sneak in some Christmas fun. We took Gray to the Arboretum because their Santa was part of admission. It wasn't a perfect Christmas setting I wanted, but it was better than standing in a long line or paying for the Santa experience. I had always wanted to go to the Santa in North Park, but I had seen several friends responses about it being a bit of a pita. Since he was only 6 months old, it wasn't going to be worth the annoyance. It may even wait another year or so until he really can understand what is happening. We also got to see a real reindeer and see part of the Chihuly exhibit we missed in November. Gray got sick again right before break. This time it was a double ear infection and the stomach flu. Poor guy had to get a shot because he couldn't keep other meds down. We ended up having to cancel an early Christmas visit with my dad, sisters and Zoie. It ended up being okay because we had a lovely Christmas morning. I made a yummy french toast casserole, and we had a nice time. It was very relaxed, and it was like breathing again. Gray got completely spoiled over all. We had planned to go over to my uncle's house, but the bad weather came in the early afternoon. We got celebrate our first white Christmas with Gray's first Christmas. It didn't last long; we did get a chance to take him out and show Gray the snow. Not sure that he was in love with it, but he probably didn't really notice either. We wrapped up the month with a visit from H family. We finally had a chance to introduce D and R's twins to Gray. I am sure it will be even better when they are older and can run around like maniacs. We hosted a get-together for H family, and we had the chance to finally see and introduce Gray to some friends we hadn't had a chance to meet. We ended up spending New Year's at a friend of D and R, and we ended up being home before midnight. We rang in 2013 with Brett's mom, S, and a couple of glasses of Prosecco.