My sweet boy won the grand prize for his efforts with our school's first ever Run for the Arts. He was given his award in our school's first ever assembly. Thankfully I was tipped off by the Mom that organized the whole deal to come to the assembly and even more thankfully I work two minutes away so I was able to come and watch him accept his award with typical Paulo enthusiasm. We are seeing The Christmas Story at Portland Center Stage later this month as part of his award package. And we will have tickets to a Portland Youth Philharmonic concert coming up in March. The prizes were outstanding, but even better was watching his complete and utter joy. That boy knows how to accept an award!
It's blurry but you get the idea! He was so happy and I was so grateful to witness it.
We celebrated Thanksgiving last month with dinner for 16-this is a decrease from last year by about a full table! It was still lovely, even with a few less faces. I have my toe dipped into being a vegetarian though so there was some personal conflict leading up to the big day. Ultimately though I ended up eating some of my bird. I have not eaten much meat at all since the end of September. October was Vegetarian Awareness month and I answered the challenge to forgo meat for the whole month. It was easier than I thought it would be and I found my body runs better without the meat clogging the pipes. Plus since Paulo is not eating dairy there have been more days than not that I have actually been vegan. I am still not 100% committed to being a vegetarian and honestly some of my hold ups have to do with my family. I married a serious carnivore and he comes from good, hearty, meat eating stock. Food is such a big part of our lives too, all of our celebrations revolve around food and frankly most of them center on meat. I'm not sure where I am though in it, I'm still a work in progress.
We entered December and were hit with Paulo's first major illness. He had developed a cold in mid November which settled into a lingering cough. On the 1st of December he woke me up around 4:30 and as soon as I reached out and touched his hands I knew he had a fever. He missed three days of school and ultimately ended up with a trip to the pedi and a round of antibiotics. She suspected a sinus infection. I really didn't want to give him the drugs but ended up starting them last Saturday after the 4th day of fever. By Sunday he was fever free so I suppose it was for the best. Through it all though I did take comfort in the fact that his ears were CLEAR!!! Ear infections plagued us last year, it was terrible. Holding your sobbing child while he waits for the pain meds to kick in...it's no fun. I was so happy he was not in pain last week. It does give me some encouragement to keep up on his wheat/dairy/egg free diet. He's able to tolerate eggs to a certain degree but definitely no wheat and dairy right now. The other thing that comforted me was how well he'd been sleeping prior to the fever. In the past every cold meant days of disrupted sleep. But he's been a much better sleeper this Fall despite a little case of the sniffles here or there.
Paulo got to experience his first ever professional Blazer game with his Dad. Ooooh boy, was that a huge hit! He was able to yell and cheer and scream and no one told him to Shh!
We're gearing up for Christmas now and all the events that go with it. We went tree hunting last Saturday, despite Paulo not feeling 100%. He was a trooper though, it helped that we were in and out of the farm inside of 20 minutes. It was by far the fastest tree hunt ever for the Rodriguez Family.
We have our company holiday party coming up soon and then a week later, wham! It's Christmas Day! I am amazed at how fast this year has flown by. It is almost 2011! One of my boys will be 7 in April and then the oldest turns 16 next August....16?! I don't know quite what to think of that.
I know I need to remember to slow down and enjoy these moments as they come. Seeing the years fly by reminds me of that. But to be honest I have a hard time putting it into practice. I know I should slow down....I know I should enjoy the moment....but how when there's a pile of dishes to be washed and lunches to be made? I think perhaps that will be my New Year's Resolution, to sloooooow down. Wow, time to start thinking about goals for a whole new year. I do make resolutions. Often they are about food or health related, one year it was to remove HFCS, another year to purge food dyes, that sort of thing. This year though perhaps I need to refocus inward and see what sort of growth I want to see in myself. What about you? What has the coming end of the year brought to mind for you? What do you see for yourself in 2011? Amazing...2011. But before I get ahead of myself, I need to enjoy the end of 2010.
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