I am so done with 2009!!

Here’s hoping that the start of 2010 is better than the ending of 2009! December just didn’t seem to be my month. The beginning of the month saw my problems with my teeth (as written about here and here) and now ending with this cough that I can’t seem to shake for the past week! ARGH! I know, there are worse things that can happen but really, this is not how I wanted to end the year! I have another update about the voodoo dentist (as I started nicknaming her) because I had to see her on Monday but I figure I would just whine about 1 thing this post. The cough is most annoying at night as it keeps me up and I get concerned that it wakes Yves up. I took Nyquil one night (the first night back from vacation) for the actual cold. That was over in a day. The next 2 times I took Nyquil (in order to knock me out and be able to sleep), Sienna acted all wacky both times, calling no screaming for Mommy at the top of her lungs in the middle of the night. Still not sure what that is all about (there’s an issue with a new nightlight I bought for her. It’s too bright but then she wanted it on. One night I shut it off before I went to bed and she screamed later on that night. Another night, she didn’t seem to have fallen asleep and told me the light is scary (after I told her earlier that day that the scary monster might be attracted to the light. Sigh. You can’t win.) My cough had been a dry cough but last night I started getting a sore throat again from all the coughing! Argh! And last night Sienna was acting all wacky! Turns out she had a slight fever and I eventually ended up sleeping on her floor in her room to appease her. The humidifier in her room actually helped my cough! I still coughed but not as much. Sigh….Is it 2010 yet?

Christmas Par-tay!

Since my parents do Christmas presents on the Eve, we didn’t have much planned for the rest of Christmas Day after opening our own presents. I was delighted that Starr invited us over along with Geneva, Layne and Phoenix. I always get so bummed out right after opening presents. So much preparation and excitement and hub bub for the one big day and then bam, all done. Of course it’s fun to play with all the goodies you got but I still get a little sad when it’s all over. So I was happy to prolong it just a little bit with a party at Starr’s house! Woohoo! I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, my now “famous” homemade thin mints, macaroni and cheese and some pretzles with chocolate kisses and M&M’s on top and homemade chocolate lollipops.

We played a fun game while we were there. Everyone gets a sticker on their back with the name of a celebrity that made the news that year. We have to guess who we are by asking yes or no questions to everyone else. It was so much fun! I was Michael Jackson and I was suprised at how long it took me to guess him! Yves was Bernie Madoff and he was the last to guess. So a bit later we did the White Elephant. Everyone brings a gift and one person picks a gift and opens it. Then the next person on the list can either take away your gift or opt to open a new gift. I goofed by only bringing one gift from me and Yves. The kids each got a gift but got to keep the ones they opened! I ended up getting scratch off lottery tickets (no winners, boo!) and Yves got coffee mugs and dish towel/mitt because Geneva was nice enough to be the one short changed a gift. The big prize was the Blue Mountain coffee I gave as a gift. Geneva opened it and it got taken by Starr. LOL. Brian made pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce, collard greens, butternut squash and slaw. Geneva brought over a wonderful green salad with cranberries and walnuts in it. It was really a fun time!

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Layne, Yves, Geneva and Starr
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Sylvie and a messy cookie
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Sienna didn’t do too badly with the chocolate!
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Sienna got a platypus for her White Elephant gift, which she promptly called a duck.
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Nico watching excitedly as his dad Brian opens his gift (2 frames and M&M’s)
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Phoenix got our puzzles!
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The kids flocked around Yves a lot that night!
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Starr and Sylvie
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Some great peeps!

Happy Christmas!

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Yes, I realize I am really behind in my posts and in wishing you all Happy Holidays. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and got lots of great presents and spent time with the ones you love! I have the Jamaica vacation to write about as well as lots of swaps but wanted to start off with Christmas.

My parents came over on the Eve (as per tradition) and we all got our red envelopes. We gave my dad a OXO chopper and a melon slicer device. My mom got a calendar of Sienna photos. Sienna got a bunch of presents! She got some a new frog animal (she named Ribbit), wood blocks, a Winne the Pooh computer (which she promptly said that she was going to check her e-mail!), a vest jacket, fleece and sweatshirt with Tinklebell and some Tag books (she didn’t open the actual Tag device until Christmas morning since that was from us.) Then we went to eat at the East River restaurant in the Brooklyn Chinatown. It was all good!
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Christmas morning Sienna woke up at 6:20 with excitement to open presents. They usually let me sleep a bit but Sienna came into the bedroom to wake me up! Well, how could I say no? Originally we were thinking of holding back some presents since Yves bought her a bunch of stuff and I bought her a bunch of stuff. We decided to just hold back one present (to save for her birthday) after spending 10 days with a certified brat of a toddler, it made us appreciate how well behaved Sienna is (for the most part anyway, she still is only 3 months shy of being 3!) And the fun begins! Yves got her a bunch of Melissa and Doug wooden toys. She got fake wood food, wood pots and pans and a set of instruments for her “band.” She also got the Tag Reader and another tag book from us as well as 3 more wooden puzzles and a tool set and bench from Santa. My brother sent her a Curious George write your own book set and from Jamaica, a ballerina wooden puzzle and some crocs. I gave Yves a diver’s watch, an F1 driving game, Boom Blox (2nd version) and sports set for the Wii. I also gave him the Christmas version of It’s Almost Sunny in Philadelphia. Yves spoiled me as well. I got the Hello Kitty sizzix that I wanted (for cutting fabric and felt! woohoo!) with a bunch of the dies. I also got a new pocket camera! Mine broke earlier this year and Yves was tired of me asking to borrow his (actually the one that broke was his too! He bought that one when Sienna was born to take quick shots of her!) We ended the fun by having a yummy breakfast of homemade buttermilk waffle and bacon. Later on we went to Starr’s house for a fun party that I will write about tomorrow!

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HoHoHo!

So I don’t want to leave the last post before vacation to be about pain. So here is something fun!
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We went to the Kings Plaza Mall on Sunday. Yves dropped us off. He was supposed to come with us but when we went out to the car Sunday morning, the car wouldn’t start! The battery was dead! At first we couldn’t figure out why, we’ve only had the car for 7 months! Turns out the lights were left on! By Sienna! Sienna likes to sit in the front seat and “drive.” I usually let her but on Friday, we got back from our playdate later than usual so we were behind schedule. She had scooted into the front seat before I can stop her so since it was late, I just grabbed out of the seat. I only saw that she turned the wiper handle so I put that back. I didn’t notice she turned on the lights! I called my dad and he came and gave us a boost. Turns out that my dad saw the lights were on as they had stopped by on Friday just when we got home! He just assumed that they shut off by themselves. Argh! Yves was nervous to go to the mall and shut off the car and be stranded so he just dropped us off and drove back so the battery has a chance to recharge. Everything is fine now.

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Waiting for Santa

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Getting ready (I got yelled at for having my camera out)

Pain update

Continuing with my saga, I went to the dentist for part 2 of the root canal on Wednesday. Remember I was in pain? Well, apparently, my back tooth (next to the tooth originally worked on) got infected and she went in there and had to do a root canal. So, I got 2 root canals in 2 weeks. The gum pain? It’s a lesion on my back tooth and because I told her it hurts me to swallow, she wanted me to see an oral specialist to get it checked out because I’m leaving for a trip. And when she went in to look at the gums, she touched the sensitive spot, not once but TWICE even after I cried real tears of pain when she touched it the first time. She said “hmmm, that’s weird.” Do you really want to hear anyone in the medical profession say this after looking at something that hurts you??

The oral surgeon agreed to squeeze me in on Thursday. Well, what a turn around. This dentist I could almost say I LOVE. He was friendly, introduced himself, shook my hand. Answered all my questions, told me everything he was going to do and he took his time with me. Even in the waiting room, he had come out and approached a man (who was ahead of me) and introduced himself, apologized for the wait and told him he just wanted to let him know he knew he was waiting there and will get him in as soon as he could. Who does that??? If this was a cartoon, you could see hearts fluttering out of my chest.

Anyway, he tells me the lesion is due to trauma to the area. I said what? He believes it’s a scratch from something I ate like maybe a chicken bone (er, I don’t eat chicken bones). And if he’s right, you should be gone by the time I come back from my trip. I don’t fully believe his reason for the trauma since even before the root canal, I always favored my right side for chewing hard things. The more I think about it, the more I feel it got ‘traumatized’ during the root canal. Hmph. In any case, he prescribed me topical medication to put on twice a day. I am much happier today than I’ve been since this all started! I truly believe I will soon be able to eat whatever I want on the trip! woohoo!!

Pain

Root canal = pain. This post is just a reminder to myself about the pain. I had a root canal many years ago and apparently that dentist did not get all the root out so it started acting up. Due to insurance, we have a different dentist that referred me to a different specialist. Right off the bat, I did not care for her. She wasn’t a terrible or mean person, just not someone that made me feel warm and comfy about a root canal (not that you can feel as warm and comfy about getting a root canal!)

I wasn’t terribly worried because I did not recall much pain for the first root canal. I wonder now if I just blocked it out. Now, this pain wasn’t a “I’m going to die” pain. For goodness sakes, I gave birth without any drugs! The difference with this pain and the birthing pain was that I knew the birthing pain would come to an end once the baby popped out. This pain I was unsure. At first I thought any pain would just be for a day or two. After a few days passed and the pain felt worse, I wanted to cry. It’s one of those throbbing constant bits of pain. Like a tease. Pain, ease, pain, ease, pain, ease. The 600 mg of Motrin was not working.

The procedure occurred Thursday and when the numbness wore off, I thought I could handle it for the night and did not take anything. Friday it was the constant throbbing and I finally relented and took the Motrin. It took 2 hours for some of the throbbing to ease up but it never fully eased up. Saturday, more constant throbbing and more Motrin. Sunday it felt like it was getting worse and not only that, my gums in that area were sore! WTF?

On Monday morning, I called the dentist and the assistant that answered told me it was all normal. Great. I’m thankful that later that day, I went to the library with Sienna and spoke with some people. One is a friend’s mother that works for a dentist and one is a pharmacist. They both told me to call back and get Tylenol with codeine. And I was told to rinse with salt for my sore gums. I did just that. Got the tylenol with codeine and within a half an hour, I was in pain free heaven. I was also feeling a little loopy but I didn’t care. Ahhh…it lasted 6 hours. I took more tylenol and I’m waiting for the pain to go. I waited…and waited… it wasn’t working!! The only difference from the afternoon was that I had already taken a motrin before getting the tylenol. No time to be strong, I popped motrin in too. I went to bed after that and I guess it kicked in because I fell asleep.

Tuesday my tooth was actually pain free but I wasn’t. MY GUMS WERE KILLING ME! Waah!!! It felt like it was traveling down to my throat because it was hard to swallow on that side of my mouth. I knew they were healing tho, it was that sort of hurt before the healing pain that I know when I get mouth sores (usually from biting my tongue or cheek)

Today it’s back to the dentist so she can fill it in. I’m hoping everything is ok and that all this pain I’m going through is normal. I’m a little annoyed at the dentist because she made it sound like there shouldn’t be much pain (at the end of the procedure, she told me, ‘eh, if there is pain, talk the motrin.’ Wouldn’t that make you think there shouldn’t be much pain?)

I now officially hate the dentist (honestly, I never hated the dentist, it wasn’t always my favorite visit but I never hated it.)

Shopsin’s and Cannolis

It’s been a month since my semi-regular lunch date at Shopsin’s with Pete. It’s been so long that I don’t even remember the names of the sandwiches we got. I want to say one was gihadboy. They both had tahini in it. I’m sad to say that while these sandwiches were good, they definitely are on the bottom of the list of my favorite things at Shopsin’s. The very bottom. Well, it was bound to happen at one time!
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Pete’s pick and the tastier of the two. This one had pignoli nuts in it and really added a nice touch.
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My choice, had eggs in it.
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Pete made this origami suit out of dollar bills and left it as part of the tip.

After lunch we headed over to try stuffed Artisan cannoli’s. I’m not a huge cannoli person but I had to give these flavored treats a try. We got 3 mini ones. Of course I picked Mint Chocolate Chip and Pete picked the peanut butter and chocolate one. And we both agreed on the pumpkin pie one as the 3rd choice. I think the pumpkin pie was my favorite. I did enjoy the other two as well. I’m glad they offered mini ones as I don’t know if I can handle a whole one. (Who am I kidding? I can handle a whole one but I would be more satisfied just eating a chocolate bar!)

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Pumpkin, chocolate mint and Reese’s
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A couple of their other flavors
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Stuffed and Satisfied