Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving (2007)

Our first Thanksgiving with our new BabyLove was a wonderful adventure!

The morning started off great. I was so excited. I woke up early, nursed the baby, he fell asleep again so I put in him in bed with Daddy and went down to start cooking. I put on some Christmas music… MY FAVORITE… and went to work. I started some veggies, made my breakfast, blogged about Sesame Street, and pumped a bottle for the car ride!! I was so on top of things.

Not too long later, they boys were awake. My husband decided to make a video of all of us to send to his family since we could not see them for the holiday (due to them being sick… yucky… so sad) which was all fine and good but I had not accounted for this side project in my planning and timing. I thought I would be freed up to tend to the food preparations and he would mostly play with our son.

Because we were now making a video, I had to stop and get my shower and get ready. By the time I finished, it was time for the baby to nurse again. I was worried about the time and pulled double duty while nursing – I’d apply my make up now too. Ok, video time. Captured. Now my husband was working on dumping the video; saving the video and uploading it to send it in an e-mail. This was a long process.

Meanwhile the baby was sleepy and fussy. I was trying to mix my pie filling and check on the veggies. He was just not content. I did not have time to sit and rock. Fussiness continued. Then… it hit me… I had bought this fabric while we were in Guatemala. The ladies there just strap the babies to themselves with this very colorful and strong fabric. (And they probably do this in many other countries… wrap up the baby and tie it tight so they are laying diagonally across your back… then sling it around to your front when the baby needs to nurse… simple enough & HANDS FREE!) So, I tied the fabric around me, a good double knot just to be sure it was safe, and figured out how to get the little one in there. He was secured across my chest! I gave him his paci & we went back to the kitchen to the ½ made pie filling and boiling green beans that were intended for a casserole.

I just want to strap a 17 lb. boiling ball to Rachael Ray & then we’ll see about that 30 minute thing!! Actually, a 17 lb. ball is really not comparable to a baby at all, because a 17 lb. ball does not have any felt needs. No not one. A 17 lb. ball does not need to be soothed, rocked, swayed, patted, sung to, entertained, or swaddled. A 17 lb. ball cannot pee, poop, spit up, choke, cough, fuss, cry, talk, or yell. While a 17 lb. ball may provide a fair handicap to my friend, Rach’s 30 minute challenge, its only interference is - in fact - its mass. I digress.

We finished the pie & it’s one of those things where you’re reading the directions as you go… so then I see, written at the very bottom, “chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours”. Well, Bloggers, What do you do when you don’t have 2 hours left? Yes, that’s right, you stick that sucker in the FREEZER! That’ll do.

The beans were doing their thing… cooking down. Time was running short.

In stopping to tend to the baby, I left everything going and never got to transition the beans to the casserole. I fed the baby again (his “lunch” meal); it was nearly time to go. I had gotten him a special “My First Thanksgiving” onesie, as seen in an earlier blog, and I was excited to finally see it on him, along with his navy Izod cargo’s! So cute! Time was running out. We still needed to get loaded and turn everything off. We were heading out to two family gatherings (one after the other) and needed wipes, diapers, the pumped bottle, extra clothes, burp clothes – etc… for the whole day. He finished nursing.

As I’m burping him… in true form… the spit up totally misses the burp cloth and douses my clean, ironed, only nice shirt that fits right now, black button-up. As I looked at the time… I stared to cry (a little). I would have to change shirts now and I would have to take to beans – as is. Not what I had planned. And now we were late!

On our way to stop #1 I realize that I left the bottle I pumped in our refrigerator. We’d have to go back later. The baby did ok at stop #1… just fought sleeping until my Grandmother (his Great-Grandmother) rocked him with just the right touch to help him get a cat nap. The food was great and we enjoyed seeing family!! He missed our family photo due to this nap - - which was not a big deal at the time, but later in the day I was regretting his absence in the picture.

Then we were off to stop # 2. (Except we had to swing by our house first, to get the pumped bottle. Ok, bottle ready.) We were on our way. It was about a 2 hr drive or so and he slept for a little while, then took the bottle, and then got fussy for about the last ½ hour or so – off & on. We were 15 mins away when my husband and I thought we smelled something. Hum?! Well, let’s just press on… we’re close.

We arrive at stop #2 with our little fussy bear. To the back bed room we go, to get him out and change that diaper. Tragically, a diaper failure had ensued. There was poopy all over his back side, almost all the way up to neck… Oh, my! No wonder he was a little fussy-bear, he was just trying to tell us he was feeling too WARM in that seat! The poopoo had even gotten on his Kiddapodamus positioner thing, Yuck! And this was his special “MY FIRST THANKSGIVING” onesie outfit!! You see he’d missed the family photo at Stop#1 and we only just arrived at Stop#2, so no one (but us) had really even seen it or enjoyed – AND I had not gotten any pictures!! We wanted to map out a plan of how to get him cleaned up, questioning the number of wipes we had with us, we borrowed a wash cloth.

We laid him on is changing mat and he was so happy… he’d been released from the binding car seat and he was thrilled. He was smiling and cooing to beat the band. Some of the other family members came in to see his cute outfit - - that still looked perfect on the FRONT SIDE. I even snapped a few pictures of him!! He’s such a great baby. He just carried on and entertained everyone with his joyful smile. Then, they all abandoned ship at the mention of beginning the clean up. Thanks!! Well, I can’t say I blame them.

The rest of our time at stop #2 was pretty good. He nursed well. He finally napped and that is always helpful. We headed home after that and he did must better on the return flight. He was resting most of the time and very content. He was probably worn out with such an eventful day! (We enjoyed listening to Christmas music on the radio too… I just love that!)

We were all so exhausted that we slept very well that night. It must be the turkey!!

All in all - - even when things don’t go as I plan - - I am always Thankful for all that God has blessed me with and my fantastic family! The Bible says, "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us Rejoice and be Glad in it." Let us always hold thanksgiving in our hearts, today and everyday. Thank You Lord.

Happy Thanksgiving from this AtlantaMama!!