Catching up

Ok--I know it has been more than a month since I last updated the blog. I seriously do not have a very good excuse except that we really have been busy! In the past month we have had to manage 8 nights of Hanukkah at our house, 2 Hanukkah/Christmas parties with family, 2 weeks of Mia and Jonah out of school and daycare, 2 cases of strep throat, 2 job interviews, 1 new sleep training book, and 1 major career change--all on an average of 5 hours of sleep per night. Can you really blame me for not finding the time to reflect on all of this madness? Even tonight, as I write this, I am practically falling over in my seat from sheer exhaustion. So, I will make this brief as my bean bag bed is calling my name.

Here is the low down. Hanukkah was great. I will let the pictures below speak for themselves. Jonah took a 2 week vacation from daycare while Mia was an break. I stayed home for most of that time. It was great to be a stay at home mom for a while and catch up with my little ones. While we were home Mia and I suffered yet another mother/daughter illness--strep throat. I'm actually glad it was strep throat and not another cold/flu. Strep is so much easier to get over once medication is started and we both got better quickly. Jeff and I both had job interviews this past month. I am interviewing for a different position at the U. I'm not sure if I will be called back for a second interview, but I should know soon. Jeff's interview wasn't exactly for a new job, but an opportunity to join a co-op of private therapists. After a lot of reserach and number crunching, Jeff has decided to enter private practice. So, he has quit his overnight job at United (Yeh!!), cut down to 1/2 time at his day job, and will be starting in private therapy on February 1st (Yikes!!). So we have had to spend a lot of time getting organized around this decision and are still quite busy with this task. There is so much to think about when you strike out on your own, but all is going well so far. Lastly, and most important, I am reading a new sleep training book--Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. We have finally hit the point of such extreme exhaustion that we are going hard core. Basically we made Jonah cry it out. I'm quite pleased to say that it has worked quite well so far. We had one tough night where he cried for a while when we didn't rush in to pick him up, but he finally put himself back to sleep and has been sleeping much better ever since then. Some nights he is even sleeping 8 hours before waking up for the first time. That is pretty unprecedented for Jonah. We are still dealing with him waking up way too early in the morning (4am), but we are tackling that as well. If we can just stay strong and power through this transition time, I think we will all feel a lot better.

So, that is life in a nutshell. Pretty much all else has gone to the wayside, but so be it. At least I can say I have posted a blog entry...

Mr Jonah with his Uncle Joe

Basking in the glory of all his presents

Yes, the wrapping paper is the best part of presents

Lighting the menorah

Mia and Grampy getting goofy

Sharing presents

Mia seemed to enjoy Jonah's presents as much as he did

Having fun at the toy store

"Hmm...which one should I suck on first?"

Nothing but love going on here

Pure cuteness