So is the flu season over yet????

Because I really don't know if the family can take much more!! Oy, what an awful time we've had over the last month & a half. All three of us have been on antibiotics and albuterol. Two of us (Kevin & I) have been on steroid inhalers. And one of us (yours truly) was on oral steroids too. Throw in two of us (Nick & I) with either food poisoning or stomach flu and a random nosebleed for Nick - that just about covers it! I suppose I can't forget the cold with yucky wheezing & cough that Nick is currently getting over. Yea, I think we've all had it with illnesses.

I don't know if this is cute or sad, but here is Nick with his "mask". He now insists on doing it himself and is quite content watching "Nick TV" while he's getting his dose of medicine.


The good news (I guess it's good news) is that Nick has had the H1N1 vaccine, so I hope we'll dodge that bullet. I just received notice that my doctor's office is now giving them to adults with asthma, so you can bet I'll be getting that ASAP. What we had wasn't the Swine Flu, but it was horrible enough that I don't even want to chance getting it!!!

ANYWAY.

On to more pleasant things!

This last weekend, the three of us headed up to San Francisco. It was a great trip!! My company had their annual Holiday Party on Friday night. Our friends, Kirsten & Sean immediately offered to watch Nick for us, so not only were we able to get out for a nice evening, Nick had a blast playing with Kirsten & Sean at their house. And, as far as we've been told, he only broke one thing!! Nick was cool as a cucumber as we left; he barely took the time to say goodbye. Always nice to leave him happy than a crying mess.

On Saturday we hit the Farmer's Market with Danielle, Lisa and Maggie. Nick had a great time running all around and yelling at seagulls. I think Maggie got a little exercise chasing after her Godson and Danielle & Lisa sat there in awe of the energy that comes out of a toddler.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency down on the Embarcadero. The lobby is a HUGE atrium that they had beautifully decorated for Christmas. Nick loved all the lights and the little "towns" they had set-up with trains, snow, people, cars, etc., etc.


They had a ginormous Christmas tree in the atrium.


The atrium goes up about 15 floors - all the hallways to the hotel rooms surround the atrium. At about the 12th floor, they strung lights that hung all the way down to about the second floor above the atrium. You can see them in the background of this picture, but it really doesn't do them justice as to how cool they were.


Completely unexpectedly, the hotel brought in a Santa Claus on Saturday. We thought "Great! We can get a picture of Nick with Santa!" Yea, Nick had other ideas. He was happy to stare at him from afar but had NO desire to go climb on his lap. This about as close as he would get. And clearly rocks are much more interesting...


Nick took a super late, super long nap that afternoon. This worked out well as Kevin took Nick to go meet with Joel, Hope & Emma for dinner and they didn't meet until 8 PM, which is about a half hour away from Nick's usual bedtime. The late nap worked, Nick had a great time at dinner and totally CRASHED after dinner. We didn't have the heart to try to get him out of his clothes...


On Sunday when we went downstairs, Nick was asking where Santa was. Sure, kid, you won't go near him one day but the next it's "Where Santa, Mommy?" Humph. So we let him climb up on the blocks instead.


So once we got back home, we were talking with Nick at dinner. I asked Nick where Santa lives.

"San Francisco!!!"

I suppose some summers could be considered similar to the North Pole...