Santa Visit

Growing up, we never did the Santa-in-the-mall pics. It just wasn't part of our repertoire. So, naturally (for me) we have not made Santa pics a regular part of our holiday. Today I decided to try. I even warned Sammy that if the line was too long, we would have to leave. (Is that bad?) There was ABSOLUTELY no way I would even attempt to brave a REAL mall three days before Christmas so we went to Country Club Mall. The main stores are Macys and Gottschalks and there is not a whole lot in between. It is a tiny, unexciting mall that happens to be very close to home. We got a great parking spot, walked right up to Santa, had a little chat, took our pics (Abby was even fairly agreeable), printed and bought the pics and were completely finished in about 7 minutes! I'm not exaggerating -- I was amazed! The pics are even pretty cute!

Success! Quite honestly, not what I expected. 

First Haircut

On Friday, Abby got her first haircut! It wasn't quite the occasion it usually is, but her hair looks cute! Here's the story:

She is a finger sucker and as she sucks those little delights, she pulls her hair. Not a gentle little twirl, no, our girl rips her hair right out of her pretty little head. So she was growing long blonde curls on the right side of her head and a little bald on the left. She had that lopsided 80's look. It was getting really bad. I felt like I should start dyeing it blue and giving her dangly earrings. 

One of the wonderful daycare moms is a stylist and she fixed Abby's hair for us (for free). Thanks Kim! It is still way thinner on the left, but it is far less noticeable now. No more comb-over attempts! Yay!! It looks like a little curly wedge cut to me. I love it! 

Normal is sometimes good

So Sammy's blood work all came back normal which is very good news except now the illness is still a mystery. It is not cyclical neutropenia which I suspected it was.  We will keep reporting symptoms to the doctor and see what develops. The next big step would be to see an infectious disease specialist. We'll wait for now...

Sammy is sick....again.

My poor boy gets sick soooo much. He is like clockwork. Every 4 - 6 weeks, his fever starts and stays with him for 3 days. It usually spikes to nearly 104. His current doctor is the first who suspects that it may actually be something other than "viruses." Really? Does it take a doctor to figure that out? I think it is neutropenia, but that is unconfirmed until I take him in for a blood draw while he is running the fever. Last time he got sick, he was so miserable, I just couldn't bring myself to take him to have them poke him with a needle...poor boy. Especially when the poke will NOT lead to him feeling better. 

Anyway, we were supposed to go get pics with Santa tomorrow. I don't think that will be happening now. It looks like I'm in for a day of TV and lounging on the couch (Sam lounging, not me). He'll play a little bit when the Motrin kicks in, but the rest of the time, he'll be down. Poor boy.