Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy Holidays!

I hope you and yours had a nice Christmas and New Year. We've been doing okay at the Pool Room...just okay. Zoey's been great, healthy, got over a cold, got lots of presents and was really excited about Santa coming to our house this year. Christmas Eve seemed to start off well for me and T, as Z had fallen asleep at 8 pm on the couch. We thought maybe we'd have a nice evening together either watching a movie or playing the Wii (our big Xmas gift to ourselves). But no, an hour later, Miss Z woke up and started talking about how Santa was going to come to our house, and how she was really looking forward to saying hello to him. I had to explain that Santa didn't come to houses if the kids were awake--only if they were sleeping. "He knows when you're sleeping, and he knows if you're awake. You can't pretend." This would settle in, for about 15 minutes, after which she would again announce that she was going to "stay up all night and wait for Santa Claus." It was a vicious cycle, made worse because she had essentially taken an hour-long nap at 8.

We finally got her back to sleep, around midnight. I had told her that Santa had already ridden past our house and didn't come in because he knew she was awake; and that he would probably come by one more time, but that was it. After all, he's a very busy man on Christmas Eve. Luckily for all of us, she did finally go back to sleep, and I got to put her presents under the tree. We'd only gotten her one big toy for Christmas (and a number of smaller ones), because we'd spent all our money on the Wii, but it was a Princess Storybook dollhouse I knew she wanted.

And of course, she woke up at the crack of dawn in the morning talking about Mr. Claus. I was upstairs and awake at the crack of dawn too, though not in anticipation. I was in pain from the toothache, and unable to sleep without taking more pain pills. So I had gotten up even earlier and groped my way to the medicine cabinet for some Advil. I took two, and then thought, no, I need more than that. So I took another one. Then I thought about my empty stomach, and thought to myself, "Bad idea." And it was. Children, don't take large doses of Advil on an empty stomach, because it won't stay there. Trust me. You can hopefully imagine how I spent the early part of the morning. Fortunately, I was able to eat soon after (a dry tortilla...yum!), and I think enough of the medicine had gotten inside me to subside the pain to make the morning tolerable by the time Z woke up. Because she had a blast. "This is the best Christmas Ever!" she exclaimed a number of times. And since she can't really read yet, she gave Santa credit for all the gifts under the tree. Actually, if she'd had the patience to look at the labels, she would have been able to tell who the gifts were actually from, but no, at her age, it's just a wonderland of wrapping paper.

The best part was when she opened the Princess dollhouse and said, "Wow! It's just what I wanted! How did Santa know?" How indeed, little one.

I know you're not supposed to lie to your kids, but lying about Santa was just so much fun this year. And hopefully for a few years yet, because he's such a helpful little story. We got her to behave using naughty/nice threats a number of times--it's really effective now. At least in December. I guess we need to come up with another lie to get her to behave the rest of the year. I don't know, maybe Satan, hell, and eternal damnation.

The rest of the day was a blur for me. We drove to Galveston, where Z got more toys (and play makeup! oh god--do not want. but of course, Z loves it). After a few hours there, we drove to Houston for yet another christmas. The whole time, my jaw throbbed with nerve numbness and I was in a vicious pain pill vs. pain cycle--It was a lovely and only slightly effective combination of high doses of advil teamed with old, expired vicodan. Yum. So we decided to give my old H-town dentist a call to see if he was open and could fit me in. Turns out, by 10am I was sitting in a dentist chair, and by 10:30 the doc had started in on my emergency root canal.

Can I just say, root canals are not fun. Sure, you're numbed to high heaven and your mouth doesn't feel the endless drilling and digging, but the smell is sickening, and after about two hours your jaw is so exhausted of being pried open. After she finished, it was difficult to even close my mouth. But whatever, the pain would go away, right? Wrong. It lasted for another 5 days. It wasn't worse, but it wasn't better. So we decided to let me stay at my parents house and recuperate while T went back to Austin. This worked pretty well for me and Z, as she had lots of people to pay attention and play with her, and I got to veg out on the couch and rub my sore jaw. I think I left the house maybe two times: once to go to Target to buy a few more shirts (we'd only packed for one day away), and once to go to the Proletariat to see Thane's other band play. Otherwise, I just sat around and watched TV, and even read a whole book. Which isn't too bad, really. Except for the pain, that sucked.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

They there!! I thought about you on NYE- it was the first that we have not celebrated together in a while. I hope you are feeling better. I had a root canal 5 years ago. I remember the smell was not pleasant but what really sticks in my memory is the doc suggesting I just remove the tooth entirely-then I won't have to worry about it rotting away again. Pleasant thought yes? Miss you!! love,tricia

5:28 PM  

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