Counting our Blessings

There is so much to love about Thanksgiving.  The obvious things:  family, food and the start of the Christmas season;  but beyond that, the opportunity to take a step back and truly realize how amazingly blessed we are each and every day.

We have been having so much fun with Charlie's first Thanksgiving week.  We spent Sunday downtown with Uncle Travis before he flew home, and met Kris, Stephanie and Korden for a wonderful pre-holiday brunch at Poogan's porch.  Grandma and Grandpa drove into town Tuesday and delivered the piano on which Charlie will someday suffer through his lessons and the dining room table at which he'll eat many, many, many more holiday and everyday meals -- both of which originally belonged to Charlie's Great-Grandma and already carry so many wonderful memories.

The festivities kicked of Wednesday with a BBQ lunch with Charlie's Uncle Chris, Aunt Chrissy and cousins, then a guy's night with Chad while Mommy and Daddy took Grandma and Grandpa to the Woodlands for an outstanding dinner.

Charlie made sure to wake us all up plenty early (aka 4:30) on Thursday morning to get the Turkey in the oven by 7 and watched his first Thanksgiving Day parade after his nap -- waking up just in time to see Santa.  Then he thoroughly enjoyed turkey, rolls, sweet potatoes, green beans, cinnamon apples and pink fluffy stuff before joining Daddy for a Thanksgiving nap.  Add to that pumpkin pie for dinner and Charlie definitely got a dose of the Thanksgiving spirit!

The highlight of the evening was the "official" lighting ceremony after dark to officially kick off the Christmas season.  We all oohed and aahed from across the street when Jason hit the switch. 

The best part of Friday was sleeping in to 7:15!  Charlie must have taken pity on his poor, sleepy parents.  So, we of course rewarded him accordingly with Aunt Chrissy's homemade pumpkin bread and pink fluffy stuff for breakfast.  I'm not sure what's going to happen when we go back to oatmeal and orange slices.

2009 has brought Jason and I so much joy and hope and growth.  Charlie's birth was the most precious experience of our lives and watching him grow and mature has been nothing short of amazing.  This year we've also found a church home here in Charleston, learned to understand and appreciate the value of my work situation, and been blessed with many visits from friends and family.  If I believed in luck, I'd have to say we're the luckiest people in the world.  Instead, I believe that God has chosen to shower us with incredible blessings, and I can only pray that we find the will and the opportunity to pass them on to our family, friends and neighbors.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brunch with Korden, Uncle Travis, Kris and Stephanie

Don't even think about touching my pie.

The lighting ceremony

Surprise!

I can't believe I made it!  I am notoriously bad at keeping secrets from Jason, but I did it.  With a lot of help from family and friends, I successfully surprised Jason with a visit from Travis Thursday night.  To go back to the beginning...

For the past three years Jason and I have talked about putting up Christmas lights, but we didn't know how to maintain Jason's standard on our house with 40 foot tall peaks.  Last year we hemmed and hawed and eventually decided not to do it, but I got the idea to take advantage of Travis' professional light hanging abilities and give Jason a surprise weekend with his little brother. 

My plan was to talk to Travis about it over the summer, but with my job uncertainty I couldn't commit to the cost of the plane ticket or the materials, so I waited.  Once my job was secure though, I emailed Travis with an offer he couldn't refuse:

Subject: Can I interest you in an all expenses paid trip to Charleston?????

Hi, Travis! I have an opportunity for you. If you are free any of the following weekends, I would like to treat you to an all expenses paid trip to the Charleston metropolitan area (Summerville, to be exact). Your weekend will include air fare, fine dining, and a stay at a waterside resort in a balcony room overlooking a quaint old-style Charleston neighborhood. In addition to all that, you'll be entertained by the cutest baby East of the Mississippi, his adorable dog and their parents. Interested? But wait, there's more! If you are able to stay for 3 nights, we will throw in a free trip on a 25 foot center console with a private fishing guide (weather permitting)! All of this and much more can be yours...if you'd be interested in helping Jason hang Christmas lights...

Luckily, Travis fell for my extremely persuasive marketing technique and agreed.  Soon after the plan was set in motion, I decided that I really wanted to try to pull it off without lying to Jason.  We have an agreement that lies in relation to Christmas/Birthday presents are permitted, but lately I've been feeling like I tell too many "little white lies" -- the kind designed to make people feel better, ease a situation, or just fill a break in conversation -- so I was determined to do without.  Not easy...but not impossible with a little creativity. (Though my mother reminded me there is little difference between lies and deception, I prefer to look at is purposeful vagueness...)

In order for the plan to succeed I needed to:

1. Make a large charge on our credit card from "Creative Displays"
2. Convince Jason not to make any other plans for this weekend
3. Arrange for Jason to take Friday off work
4. Get Jason to the airport Thursday night to pick up Travis
5. Keep my big mouth closed

Obviously, number 5 was the hardest, but here is how the rest worked out:

1. Reminded Jason that my corporate card was "broken".  Then told him that there would be a large charge from a "fixture company" on our personal card, but not to worry about it -- I would be doing expense reports in the next week or so. All true.  (Apparently my corporate card had never been turned back on after maternity leave -- oops!)  Then hid all of the boxes in the enormous trunk of the Impala.
2. Suggested to Jason that it had been way too long since he'd been fishing and that we should leave this weekend wide open to ensure that he could go.  (He and Travis are picking up the boat right now to go fish the jetties.)
3. Told Jason that I had a "wiring specialist" flying in from Kansas City for a project in Summerville on Friday that required my consultative support.  Then told him that Donna had doctors appointments in Columbia this week --they happened to be on Wednesday, but I left that part out.  Finally, asked him if he could get the day off and be home.
4. Emailed Jason Thursday morning and told him that I had offered to pick up the "wiring specialist" from the airport after reminding him of the cutbacks in travel spending since my company's merger.  Then asked him to go with me, since the specialist was arriving at 10:00 at night and I would be more comfortable if I weren't picking him up alone.  When it was time to leave, I told Jason that the Impala was completely out of gas (true!), so we'd need to take the truck, thus avoiding unauthorized use of the company car.  Finally, when asked if I knew what the guy looked like, I suggested that Jason keep an eye out for a someone who looked like he was from Kansas City.  I told him that if that didn't work, the guy would recognize us since I was the only redhead standing around.
5. Told my mom, my brother, Jason's whole family and most of the neighbors about the surprise -- to keep from popping -- and regularly reminded myself that any false comment would ruin everything.

So, believe it or not, it worked!  Jason was completely confused when Travis walked through security and thrilled to here that Travis was here to go fishing.  I'm not sure he was quite as excited about spending an entire day of Travis' visit hanging Christmas lights, but he definitely loved the idea of a weekend with one of his brothers. 

Plus, now that they are done and no one has to go back up that 40 foot ladder until January (next year we're renting a cherry picker), he is thrilled with the lights, but based on the number of neighbors that stopped and commented, most of the men in the neighborhood are not thrilled though -- apparently my surprise has tweaked the interest of quite a few of their wives.  Oh well!

While I would love to post pictures of the lights, all self-respecting Kansas Citians know that the official lighting ceremony will not be until Thanksgiving night...but I assure you that they look incredible and we never could have done it without Travis.  What better way to kick of Charlie's first Christmas season than to light up our house like the Star of the East! (Speaking which, I'm considering adding a large star as a chimney topper next year -- with the cherry picker it should be easy, right?)

Supervising

Whoa!

Giggles

Laughter has always been at the heart of Jason's and my relationship.  We both love to laugh and between our goofy senses of humor and my natural "grace", we have ample opportunity to do so.  Throughout the years laughter has rescued us from fights, comforted us from loss and eased the boredom of many long flights and drives (what other adults do you know that drive down the road making fish faces at each other?).

In spite of all of this experience, though, neither of us was prepared for the overwhelming  joy of Charlie's laughter.  We took him swinging for the first time on Saturday, and my cheeks actually started to ache as he giggled his way to and fro.  It's definitely safe to say that he inherited our appreciation for silliness.  In the past few days it has become easier to make him laugh than to get him to stop, and I assure you there is no sweeter sound than his little "khu-kA-kAA-kheeee". 

He laughs when he's tickled, when he's changed, when Mommy & Daddy wake him up in the morning, when he gets ready for bath, when he sees Otis, when he swings, when he rides down the street in the pack, when Mommy flies his spoon almost to his mouth then throws it in reverse (beeps and all), when Mommy peaks around Daddy who is pushing him in the cart at Home Depot, when Mommy or Daddy sneaks around the edge of the couch, and sometimes just for fun.  He's an absolute delight.  The joy is just spilling out of him and brightening the world around him.  We are so amazingly blessed.

Playing in the Warming Drawer

"Those" Parents (with Pictures)

It happened this week, Jason and I became "those" parents, the ones you roll your eyes at in annoyance or worse, wrinkle your forehead at in concern for their poor children. 

The setting for our fall from grace was a whirlwind trip to KC.  As soon as we found out I had a permanent job, we scheduled a trip back to meet Charlie's new baby cousin, Landon, and his best friend Tom's new baby sister, Abby.  It was so much fun to meet the babies and see so much family.  In addition to seeing most of Jason's family, we were surprised by Charlie's Great Aunt Jan and Great Uncle Sam when we met Great Uncle Jim for breakfast on Monday. 

Our slide down the slippery slope began during our layover in Atlanta.  Charlie was getting a little bit fussy, so I started to pat his mouth when he whined.  Well, he and I both got a huge kick out of the "wah-wah-wah" noise it made -- the rest of the passengers in line to board the plane, not so much. 

Next, upon arriving in KC we coerced our very sleepy baby into staying up past 10:00 central time, more than 3 hours past his bedtime, just to play and smile at his aunts, uncles and grandparents.  Then when he woke up at 3 AM, rather than calmly and patiently easing him back to sleep, I snuck in an extra feeding to quickly nurse him into oblivion. 

The next couple of days were full of on-the-go, abbreviated and some downright skipped naps, late bedtimes, and all the junk food we could get past those perfect little lips, including: cookies, frosted animal crackers, goldfish, angel food cake, custard, french fries, cran-apple juice, pickles and more.

Then on the way home I, Charlie's devoted mother, neglected to sanitize the seats, tray tables, arm rests, windows and video screens on either plane (unlike on the trip out).

To top it all off, though, Jason and I -- loving, responsible parents that we are -- allowed Charlie to be "the snot-nosed kid".  You know, the one that you see out in public with boogars on, in and smeared beneath his nose.  Yep, that was us.  Charlie came down with a cold, the prime symptom of which was continous, spigot like dripping from his nose, and we didn't wipe it every single time he glanced our way.  As Jason put it, "There is a time and a place for the shrieking that accompanies a nose wipe, and a weather delay in Row 28 is not it."

If anyone had told me 3 months ago that I would wreak this havoc in my baby boy's life, I would have been shocked and riddled with guilt, but interestingly enough, I'm fine with it.  In fact, I've learned that too much sugar will not send Charlie into a frenzy, missed bedtimes will not turn him into a terror and at 8 months he is still able to nap in the Baby Bjorn.  Most importantly, though, I learned that even babies can relish the decadence and upheaval of vacation and thrive on it, as evidenced by his flirting with a sweet little 2 year old in ballerina jammies as we waited for our luggage.

Lest anyone be concerned, Charlie had pineapple with his cereal this morning, not cookies, and is back to his normal routine -- nose wipes and all.  I have to admit, though, that it is possible that some of "those" parents are just letting their kids have a little bit of fun and freedom, and that might not be so bad.


Some pictures of our fun:

Kissing Cousins

Standing around with Demetrius

Breakfast with Uncle Jim, Uncle Sam and Aunt Jan

Big Moment

Jason and I are amazed  by how quickly Charlie is learning new things.  He now drinks water from a sippy cup, pulls himself up to standing as often as possible, and has even cruised 2 steps along the coffee table!  Plus, he remembers where things are and hunts them down (particularly shoes!).  It's so much fun.

With all of this newfound ability/knowledge, we've started introducing "No" at our house.  At first, it was just a meaningless syllable, quite similar to Charlie's preferred babble of "na-na-na-na-na."  Then it became funny, but last night and this morning we had our first breakthroughs!  He continually goes after the movies under the TV, and we slap his hand and say "No" in a firm voice.  (slap may be a stretch -- the first few times I did it he didn't even seem to notice...) Then we remove him from the scene of the crime.

Pretty much he just turns around and heads back over, but once for Jason last night then 3 times for me this morning, when we said No, he turned, looked at us and crawled off in another direction!  It was like a miracle -- so much so that I called Jason on his way to work and then left my mom a voicemail at 5:45 AM Mountain Time (sorry, Mom!).

I have to be honest -- I basked in the dreams of a fabulously obedient, well-mannered toddler for a good 5 minutes.  Then I ran into the study to take a work call and came back out to find Charlie eating dog food!  So, we still have a ways to go, but we're headed in the right direction (I hope!).

Standing on Dad

Daddy's Shoes

Trick-or-Treat

Charlie's first Halloween was a raging success!  He wore his costume like a champ, and while he kept taking his cap off -- he did let me put it back on at each new house.  He absolutely loved trick-or-treating and watching all of the big kids out in the neighborhood -- plus the sheer joy of being out after dark!

In fact, it worked out perfectly -- he stayed up until 9:00 and slept until the new 6:30 this morning.  We couldn't have asked for more!

Passing out Candy

Puppy Love

Bunch of Hooligans