11
Jan, 2010

Now that “the holidays” are officially over, I’d like to recap some of the awesome holiday events I attended. Then next several posts will be dedicated to the holiday treats and surprises Aubrey and I were so fortunate to receive and experience. Happy 2010 everyone!

1) Help A Mother Out Playdate at the Treehouse Social Club

It was INSANE and awesome! The Help A Mother Out playdate charity event at the Treehouse Social Club in Beverly Hills. This super cool organization does diaper drives to support homeless and poverty stricken mothers and their children. Could you imagine not being able to provide clean diapers for your baby? Unfortunately, many mothers face this reality in the US and the babies suffer and often become ill from being in a soiled diaper for hours, sometimes days at a time.

Super awesome mom blogger, Kim Tracy Prince organized this diaper drive (and then got so sick she couldn’t even attend her own event – boo!) and it was a great success. The kids were treated to live music, awesome kid snacks (Goldfish, mini cupcakes, gluten free cookies, juice boxes and more!) and there were grown up appetizers and wine for the parents. Aubrey played, snacked and danced like a maniac and she was excited to donate our diapers too. It was Aubrey’s introduction to formal philanthropy and I think she really understood why we were giving the diapers. Thanks for this wonderful opportunity to help our community of moms and children and have fun at the same time! Please support this amazing organization… oh and on a side note…

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Tags: Amy Anderson • Aubrey • Beverly Hills • diapers • Help A Mother Out • homeless mothers • homelessness • Kim Tracy Prince • Los Angeles • Treehouse Social Club

01
Jan, 2010

After a very stressful and sleepless Christmas time with a super sick toddler, I’m VERY glad to be enjoying a two night getaway with my guy at an undisclosed location. I don’t want people bugging me, so don’t worry about where I am. Let’s just say there’s a hotel here with a bed and it’s getting REALLY slept on! YEAH!

I knew I was tired going into New Year’s Eve, but I was exhausted. I needed this catch up sleep so badly. Especially since I was finally feeling 100% healthy for the first time in over a month after a couple, back to back, long lasting colds.

I rang in the New Year in bed, slept late today, ate a breakfast big enough to feed a family of four, went back to bed, got up and wend to an afternoon movie where I ate candy and popcorn and then, I actually went to the hotel fitness room and worked out! For real, like ran two miles and lifted weights, did dips, abs, all that good stuff. Why? Because I then went to dinner and ate a dinner big enough to feed a pack of wild boars. I had a beer too.

I can’t believe that sleeping in a hotel and eating like a pig has become my dream get away, but for now, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do. I can’t think of anything else I’d have the energy to do either. Later this winter, I’d like to go snowboarding, maybe take my little Aubrey sledding, but for now, I’m all about sleep.

Oh and I did make a New Year’s resolution and, like my current location, I’m not sharing that either. It’s personal and needs to stay that way. 2009 was both wonderful and horrible for me and I hope I learned from the horrible and enjoyed the wonderful as best I could. My best friend made a list of her 2009 accomplishments and I thought that was such a cool thing to do. We often get caught up in the negative in life, focus on the “should haves” and forget to stop and appreciate how far we’ve come. I was a little upset that some things I really wanted in 2009 didn’t happen, but it’s a new year and there’s no use dwelling on the past. Onward to 2010! Attack attack attack… right after I’m done sleeping for one more day.

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Tags: Amy Anderson • motherhood • new year’s resolutions • sleep

28
Dec, 2009

Many of my friends and family have been following my crappy Christmas saga via my Facebook updates. This truly was a rotten Christmas for Aubrey and me, but it’s never to late to celebrate…

Christmas 2009 officially goes down in the books as the WORST Christmas ever. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, Christmas hasn’t even happened yet.

Aubrey’s father, my ex-partner, and I live about 26 miles apart from one another. It was her turn at his house but this year we co-purchased her “big” Christmas gift and both wanted to be with her when she opened it. Our plan was for me to drive to the ex’s house Friday morning and do Christmas morning gifts together. Our nanny is on vacation until Monday, so it would be just the three of us.

Well, Thursday during the night, Aubrey woke up with a fever. By the time I arrived on Christmas morning, she had a high temp, sore throat, cough and was listless. When we decided she needed to see a physician, our pediatrician’s office was just closing shop. It was nice of them to have Christmas morning hours available, but there was no way we were making it from Westlake Village to Santa Monica in fifteen minutes. Stupid far away Ventura County.

So we spent Christmas day in the emergency room doling out a small fortune to be told something along the helpful lines of, “it’s probably viral but could be bacterial”. Thanks Dr. Holmes. The doctor didn’t say a thing about her ears and just that her throat was a little red, but not bad. He wrote a prescription for amoxicillin and never ran a strep test. When you’re in the heat of the moment with your one and only, never been sick like this before, screaming, feverish child, you don’t necessarily think to ask questions, like, “Should we run a strep test?” Or “Are you sure you didn’t see any inflammation in her ears?” Or “Tsk tsk,” the doctor for writing a prescription for an antibiotic when he’s guessing whether or not your child has a viral or bacterial infection. You kind of hope the doctor would think of these things on their own in a professional, doctory way.

The night got progressively worse as Aubrey went into her first ever barf-fest, vomiting five times during the night and her sore throat getting worse. The next morning, Dec 26th, we made the 40 mile trek (Did I mention that I HATE Ventura county?) to our pediatrician’s office and finally discovered that Aubrey had an ear infection. The first one she’s ever had and the first one I’ve experienced as a mom. It’s late afternoon now and she finally ate some chicken broth and water without yerping it all back up and has been napping her little life away. I think the worst is behind us and she’ll start her antibiotics as soon as she wakes up.

So is this piece about the incompetence of some physicians? The heartache and helplessness of seeing your child suffer from illness? Or the TOTAL funky weirdness of having to hang out at your ex’s house all day and spend the night because you live so frickin’ far apart from each other but you want to make sure your child is well taken care of without having to cart her all the way back to your house in Sherman Oaks and risk her barfing all over your leased Honda? No. Well, actually, yes. It’s about the latter, but let me restate that in a kinder, gentler, not completely jaded way…

This piece is about setting differences aside and doing the right thing. I can’t say that my ex and I have had the best of times since our split and even recently had a bit of a flare up over some personal issues. And while we have fairly different parenting styles and immensely different personalities, we do both love our daughter and want the best for her. That is why I am sitting in my ex’s house in Ventura county, co-watching over our sick child. Making sure she doesn’t choke if she vomits in her sleep, helping to keep her hydrated, making Tylenol and Pedialyte runs. We are not best friends and we don’t spend time together in any other way, but tonight I’ll eat leftovers from his fridge and sleep in his guest room in case she has another episode during the night. For now, we are working as a team because our third member needs us. And, as much as I hate to admit it, he and I need each other right now too. It is too much to do alone and as I sit here typing in a dimly lit living room while my baby sleeps on the floor next to the Christmas tree, my heart goes out to every parent out there who has had no choice but to do it alone. You deserve a purple heart.

The saddest part of this entire holiday fiasco is that poor Aubrey has been so sick, she still hasn’t opened her Christmas gifts. We have asked her if she wants to open them several times and the answer is always a feeble little, “no”. It is almost December 27th and maybe tomorrow will be the morning my little one wakes up feeling well enough to smile and dance and sing again. Maybe tomorrow, it will be Christmas.

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Tags: Amy Anderson • Aubrey • Christmas • ear infection • emergency room • happy holidays • single parenting