And the Bad Blogger Award goes to....

ME, of course! I have been the worst blogger lately--almost as bad as my sister-in-law Anna (although my brother did take charge and post some pictures of my new niece last week) and my friend Meg, but not quite! :) I have good excuses, of course, if you want to hear them....after the craziness of the holidays and having company for a week (and you can't forget the nice round of the stomach bug that was thrown in there), last week I took Emma Claire to the doctor for her horrible cough that kept getting worse over the past month only to discover that she had walking pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, Prednisone (steroid), and oral Albuterol (medicine that's in inhalers and breathing treatments), two of which turned her into an absolute MONSTER. We had company again this past weekend (our great friends, The Columbia Fam) and thankfully they love us so much that they didn't pack their bags and head for the car when they realized that Emma Claire wasn't going to stop screaming and crying the entire weekend. I'd heard warnings from other parents that Prednisone is evil and now I know why---Emma Claire literally spent almost the entire day on Saturday screaming hysterically. We eventually realized that there was nothing we could do and we just had to deal with it. After a flustered call to the on-call pediatrician, we stopped giving her the medicine and her mood improved over the next few days, THANK GOODNESS. Thank you, Laura and Steve, for putting up with our darling little monster for the weekend! We had a blast and are so happy that you came to visit! We hope Steve's 30th birthday will be a memorable one! :)

Of course, the pneumonia and company aren't the only things that kept me from blogging, and if you know our health record in this house the past few months, you won't be surprised to hear that there's more---we found out yesterday that Emma Claire had Fifth Disease over the weekend, a pretty harmless virus that causes red cheeks and a rash on the body. No biggie unless somebody less than 20 weeks pregnant is exposed. It can cause health problems and/or miscarriage in the fetus, so I had to go this morning to have my blood drawn to find out if I'm immune or not. Crossing our fingers that I'm immune to it since about 50% of adults have had the virus at some point in their lives and are immune, and my OB said that we'll discuss further steps after we get the lab results tomorrow. I swear, if things don't settle down around here soon I may head for the loony bin! 

Besides all of that craziness, things are going pretty well around here. Grayson and Emma Claire are both in school now (EC's first day was today! Pictures to come in a little while...) and are doing great. Grayson moved up to the primary class at school and is loving it. EC took Grayson's place in the toddler class and I think it will be perfect for her. She's very smart, social, and independent so she was definitely ready for school. Grayson is going 5 mornings a week and EC is going 3 mornings a week, and I have NINE hours per week that I don't know what I'm going to do with myself! I've been a full-time mommy without a break for over three years now so I think I'm going to be a little lost without a child to care for three mornings every week. I have visions of a spotless house (HA HA!!), breakfasts with girlfriends, going on walks without a stroller (don't even remember what that's like), and enjoying some rare quiet time. :) 

Ben is busy with work again but was able to enjoy two weeks off during the holidays. We all loved having him around so much and wish his schedule wasn't so busy, but he's an amazing husband/father/provider so I try not to complain too much. :) He gave me a trip to NYC for Christmas so we're having fun planning it for next month. Neither of us have been so if you have any recommendations on places to visit/eat/etc, please let me know! 

I'm now over 14 weeks along and so far everything is going really well---the morning/all day sickness is starting to subside and I'm hoping that by 16 or 17 weeks I feel like myself again. Grayson is really excited about his new sibling and is constantly asking questions. Yesterday he was asking about the doctor taking the baby out of my tummy in July and asked, "Are you going to be nekkid at the doctor's?" I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants!! I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff!! He's been very inquisitive about how the baby got in my tummy and thankfully is totally satisfied with my answer of "God loves us so much that he decided to put a baby in Mommy's tummy so we can have another person in our family to love." We find out the gender next Friday and we can't wait! I think it's a girl and Ben thinks it's a boy...stay tuned! :)

Okay, enough with this mile-long update. I'm going to start posting pictures now! Hope all of my blog readers (if any of you have stayed with me through this drought) are staying warm and are having a good 2009 so far!