Holy crow has it really been nearly a month since I’ve blogged? Happy belated New Year everyone!
The past month has slipped by so fast…. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve managed to end the semester, finish holiday shopping, make it through the holidays, complete all your visits with family and friends, pack and leave for vacation, return home, and plan and get ready for a 1st birthday party. Not to mention any time I tried to blog I was rudely interrupted by said one year-old.
That’s what I’ve been doing this past month. We went to my in-laws the week before Christmas, then to my parents for Christmas day, and finally left the following Saturday for Sedona. My parents joined us on vacation, and it is a good thing -we definitely had our hands full…. all 8 of them. Taking vacation with a one year-old is not the easiest feat. I am so glad we had the extra help.
We all did get to do a few things while we were there – like go to the shops, go hiking, take a lot of pictures, and go to the walk-in clinic for Jaden on New Year’s day… but we did nowhere near everything we usually do when we’re there.
The main treat for us while we were there was the Red Rock Fantasy lights. The resort hosts a holiday lights display every year, which we had access to every night since we stayed at the resort. The light displays are set up by volunteers and they have a contest for the best display. The money they raise is donated to charity. The displays were incredible and the lights were really beautiful. I’m glad we had the chance to see it. Here’s more info for anyone who is interested: http://redrockfantasy.com/
As for the walk-in clinic, Jaden came down with the hives on his birthday while we were in AZ. 
Poor baby. It was a pretty bad case of the hives which had him scratching like mad and unable to sleep easily. We had to spoil him by rocking him and patting him to sleep, which did wonders for our bedtime routine once we got home. He got so used to us coaxing him to sleep that he refused to go down without being rocked for 20 minutes to an hour. Argh. We’ve finally almost broken that habit, and at least he’ll lay down in his crib now when we put him down.
We’ve made great strides in the last month with his sleeping. He is back to waking up only once a night for a bottle, and although it generally has us up nearly an hour, at least it is only once and at least we get a few hours sleep before and after his wake up.
The night terrors are not completely gone, but they happen much less frequently now – thankfully. My friend Ellen gave me a lot of good information she had learned when her son had the night terrors, which helps us deal with them much better than we had before.
Unfortunately Jaden’s birthday party was twice a bust. We planned to do a small celebration while we were in Arizona, on his actual birthday, but as I mentioned he ended up with the hives and not in any mood to ‘party’.
We also planned to have a celebration when we returned from AZ, with the whole family here in our house. The planning for this started before Christmas, but who knew mother nature had other plans for us yesterday. We now have a refrigerator FULL of food and a giant sheet cake that we will never be able to eat before it goes bad, and for the second (or third?) time our birthday celebration for Jaden was foiled. Luckily Neville has some friends we can offer some food to. 
We did manage to get a video and pictures of Jaden in his hanbok, and also of the cake. We were really happy that Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Tina were here to celebrate with us and enjoy some of the food and cake.
OH – I forgot to mention — JADEN STARTED WALKING!!! He’s doing great. Such a little man. It’s crazy how quickly he is growing up.
My New Year’s resolutions: finish my research (so I can keep my job), do yoga (for my aching back), actually send a postcard to someone (in my postcard pals group), and blog more.
What are your resolutions???