On December 22, Pierce woke up from his afternoon nap with a fever. I called the clinic and made an appointment for the next morning. I wanted to know what we were dealing with before spending the holidays with family. When we walked in, the boys' pediatrician said that it was probably RSV. He had seen a large number of cases of it, and Pierce was showing the same symptoms. He told us that RSV would mean we wouldn't get to go to Christmas with family. I was trying to remain calm until we knew for sure. They swabbed Pierce and tested it for RSV and Influenza. Thankfully, they both came back negative. That meant he had a different virus. The doctor recommended that we stay home the next few days to get well and then go to Great Wolf Lodge on the 26th. It was disappointing news, but we knew it could be so much worse. We broke the news to family and then planned to spend the next three days at home. Pierce got over his fever quickly. It was only over 100 that first afternoon. We contemplated going to Zach's grandma's on Christmas day, but we decided to stay home.
On Christmas Eve we decorated cookies for Santa.
All ready for the kids to wake up
Monroe asked Santa for a Lite brite, Shopkins panties, and Shopkins dishes. He gets off so cheap :)
We bought her the table.
Full stockings
Santa's letter was written in cursive, but Monroe was able to read most of it.
A Shopkins milkshake
Santa came through!
Santa got the boys pacifier pals, their first sippy cups, and puffs.
When I was a kid, we always got sugary cereal for Christmas. Monroe was so excited when she opened this.
Shopkins activity books
more panties
Her Christmas gift to us
We got the boys coats and swim suits for Great Wolf Lodge.
We had Monroe open her big gift from us last.
She is not very interested in toys right now. She spends her time writing, drawing, coloring, playing school, doing puzzles, and playing games. We decided a table was just what she needed to have a place to do all of those activities.
It was hard to find a table that she could grow into. Most were for ages 2-6. Finally, Zach found this larger one. We love the slots underneath.
We spent the day playing and packing for KC.
We had recorded The Santa Clause earlier in the month. Such a good movie :)
My parents got the boys portable camp high chairs that I had been wanting. I think these will be wonderful to have.
On the 27th, we found out that Zach's cousin's baby who we would have been with on Christmas day was in the hospital with RSV, and his grandma had pneumonia. We were so glad we had stayed home. We were protecting others, but we ended up protecting ourselves.
