Meet The Martinez Family

For some reason beyond my comprehension, I always get sick on Christmas. This year was no exception. As we gathered 'round the table at Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve I felt the impending doom of a cold closing in on me- starting with my throat. My illness did manage to put a bit of a damper on my holiday but did not entirely destroy my festivities.

Christmas morning began with opening presents at my house. Art surprised me with a gorgeous opal ring to match the opal necklace he bought me for our anniversary. I am sure he spent way more than I wanted him to, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to refuse his generous gift. As per my request, he bought me Microsoft Office for my computer since the bootleg version he previously installed on my computer was not registered and ran out of unregistered uses. He bought me System Mechanic for my computer too. I got an "IOU" for a book he ordered from Barnes and Noble that did not come in yet and a Christmas music CD. I gave him a T-shirt from the baby that says "This is what a really cool dad looks like." I also gave him a black Adidas hoodie just like he wanted, Season 1 of The History Channel- The Universe, and the 2009 Hubble Space Telescope calendar to coordinate with the space theme.

This is the ring Art gave me.

After we opened presents at our house, we headed over to my mom's house for breakfast burritos. My Uncle Mark came to spend Christmas with my family which was a pleasant surprise. We opened presents at my mom's house, then stopped by Art's parents' house to open presents there, then returned to my mom's house for a delicious dinner of homemade enchiladas and tostadas. It was heavenly. The baby was good all day, as usual, and I managed to make it through the day despite my party-crasher cold. Regretfully, I didn't get any pictures of us actually bathed and dressed because I didn't feel well enough to get off my butt and use the camera, but we do have some video footage as evidence that we weren't in our pajamas the entire day.

I can't let this Christmas pass without describing Art's lack of present-wrapping talent. I came home from grocery shopping a few days before Christmas and he was finishing up a couple presents for me. He was sitting on the floor carefully cutting a square of wrapping paper to cover each end and taping them to the package all the way around. He wraps every present differently but his most popular method of coverage is to wrap one sheet around the middle with the ends open then tape squares to the side. Despite the randomness of his wrapping style, the one thing all the gifts have in common is that they all look like they were wrapped by a kindergartener. He says it makes them "cute" but I think she should stick to bags and tissue paper.

On Saturday we went to a get together at Art's uncle's house. It was Keira's first time meeting The Martinez Family. She got to meet her Great Grandma Erminea Preciado, or "Nana" as the family calls her, who is said to have been born under a tree in Turlock. She is also estimated to be in her 90s and she is a live wire! It was a lot of fun visiting with her, Art's Aunts Angel, Nancy, Lucy, his Uncles Henry and Miguel, and a few cousins. They all LOVED the baby, of course. Keira now knows where her daddy gets his silliness and where she got her dark complexion.

I only have 2 more weeks before I go back to work so I am concentrating on getting Keira on a better schedule. She is already on a very regular schedule but it involves staying up much later at night than I can deal with if I have to get up and go to work in the morning. The earliest I can usually get her to sleep is 1 am- if I'm lucky, but it's usually closer to 3 am. THEN she sleeps for 6-8 hours, eats, and goes right back to sleep for several hours. She eats again at 6 pm, then between 10 and 11 pm she is wide awake and smiling, has her nighttime bottle, then wants to be awake for several hours. In order for me to be at work on time, she has to get up and eat at 6 am so I figured that's as good a place as any to start adjusting her routine. I am also waking her up during her 8 am to 3 pm nap and feeding her earlier. My goal is to get her down by 10 pm and up by 6 am so that I am not a brain dead zombie at work. I do expect to lose some degree of sleep, but would like to put forth every effort to avoid it.