Fight the Good Fight!

What's the Good Fight? So many things. Right now I have a couple of "Good Fights" that seem to be at odds with each other. The first "Good Fight" is to keep the baby healthy and how do you keep a baby healthy during a very cold fall and winter AND the flu season? Well according to all the doctors, you keep your baby away from large crowds, especially crowds that my have people who really should have stayed home because they are sick (i.e. church and parties- because who wants to miss out on those things! No one, so people tend to go even when they aren't feeling the best). So for the past 3 weeks I've stayed home from church, and although we did go to Thanksgiving dinner at my Parent's house, we didn't stay long and we haven't been to Sunday dinner with the family in 3 weeks either. Which leads to the second "Good Fight", Kate needs to Socialize! I feel quite isolated staying home as much as I have been and I'm starting to wonder if the Baby Blues and Postpartum Depression are more common during the winter. I was really feeling sad after spending 20 minutes at the Turner Family Cookie Swap. I felt like it was important to introduce the Baby to her her Great Grandmother, and we tired to get to the party during the hour before it started, (to avoid the crowd), but that didn't work out,

(imagine a 3 year old who is awoken from his nap before he is ready......and then proceeds to cry and lay on the floor and make it really hard to get everyone ready to get in the car and go to the party)

and we arrived pretty much at the same time that most everyone else did. So there was a crowd. The baby met many wonderful relatives.....

Like her Great Grandmother- Verna O. Turner

And her Great Aunts, Deb and Sue (why didn't we get a picture with Susan?)

.......and then we collected a few cookies and headed home, to have dinner by ourselves. I held back tears for most of the night, but inside I was having my own little pity party. It's the Christmas season and I just don't seem to be feeling the spirit of the season. I don't get to sing Christmas Hymns at Church, I stayed home from the Church Christmas party, and like I just said, I had to leave a Family party without really socializing. So I did what I've learned is best to do when I'm feeling down, I told Ken all about it. I had to let it out, because my pity party was RUINING my "You can do this, Kate!" attitude that was really helping me feel like an adequate mother (oh, I just realized I need to blog about that....maybe tomorrow). After crying a little and telling Ken all about how I was feeling kind of lonely we came up with a plan. Ken is very willing to let me go out, and yes a girls night does sound fun BUT I would miss my baby. So another thought was to invite a couple or two over for a game night. SO, we are going to try to make sure that I get some very much needed socialization. Hopefully my Sisters and their families will be super healthy this winter too- because I miss going to Sunday Dinner.

So we are going to continue to Fight the Good Fight- both fronts of it. The next 5 weeks will probably fly by and in a few months I won't even remember how hard the "Fight" was, but sometimes, in the thick of the "fussies" (that's what we call the crying that 2 to 6 week old babies tend to do in the early evening) and the  "Poo-pocalypses" and "Poo-tastrophies" that our girl is so amazing at producing (I haven't figure out how she does it yet- but she's AMAZING at making gigantic messes!), it sometimes feels like this time of our life might never end. I just have to remember the two older boys to realize that it will end all to fast and soon my sweet baby will be 3 or 5! AAAAAAAHHHHHH. So, feel free to say a little prayer for us, but don't worry too much, we are going to be fine. We are pretty good fighters.

And here's a little view of my life today. After driving J all the way to the bus stop (It's 1/10th of a mile, but it was 6 degrees outside), we came home and I fed the baby. She immediately started to nod off, so I laid her down next to me on the couch- I had to run upstairs to grab some stuff, and also change out the laundry in the washer and dryer, so I made her a little nest. B joined us on the couch- since the couch is the best place from which to watch Caillou- and he may have kicked his sister in the head (very lightly, I guess it was more like a swipe than a kick) but we spent a very happy 90 minutes napping/blogging/cartoon watching together this morning.

And with that, I must be off. I've got a wide awake baby now, and she needs some cuddling!