Thanksgiving With Aidan
This Thanksgiving holiday was a great way to spend some extra time with the A-man. Although he has been teething and isn’t in a great mood 100% of the time, having a four-day-weekend was wonderful for me and Ryan so that we could enjoy our son. Even if he is a little crabby, I feel like these past few days have helped us grow as parents. We are working as a team more than ever and I am constantly relieved of my mothering duties by Ryan so that he and Aidan can have father-son time while I get a few hours to myself.
As much as I have enjoyed spending a long weekend at home with my husband, son and dog–I find myself excited to return to work on Monday. It is clearer and clearer to me that having a career is very important to me. I do not think about all the things I am missing while being at work. Instead, I look forward to the time I do get to spend with everyone when I am not at work.
Turkey day was fabulous because we got to dress up and go to the Country Club with Ryan’s parents, his grandmother and a couple family friends of ours. Everyone chipped in and took turns holding the drooling-goobing boy so that Ryan and I could get food from the buffet and I was able to enjoy a couple glasses of wine.
Here is our family photo from Thanksgiving 2011:
In between playing with Aidan and making sure he gets two good naps throughout the day, I was able to put up my Christmas tree. Last year, I felt so icky from the morning-sickness that I lacked the energy to even think about decorating our house for the holidays. I remember Ryan’s mom telling me that that would be the last year I could ever skip Christmas—by way of decorating the tree & house—because when a baby is around, you will always want to do it. And she was right. It wasn’t even a chore to drag out the box with the fake-already-lit-tree. I have gotten so many ornaments as gifts and hand-me-down’s in the past that this year I was able to be very picky for what I wanted to hang on the tree. I decided to hang lots of snowflakes and only a few ornaments, mostly the new ones that Aidan got. My favorite is Alvin the chimpmunk because he is wearing a red sweater with a big yellow “A” on the front, which was the latest gift from Grammy Di. I also put out a couple noise-makers so that he would have fun listening to Christmas songs; one is a guitar that plays Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas” and the other is a dog dressed up like Elvis that sings and dances to a couple different Christmas songs. The tree is on an end table right next to Aidan’s pack n’ play so he can enjoy the pretty lights while getting his diaper changed.
The best part about decorating the Christmas tree while Aidan napped was bringing him downstairs from his room to show him the tree for the first time. I held him up close to the twinkling lights and snowflakes and ornaments so that he could take it all in. And that’s just what he did–he stared with his mouth wide open. After a few minutes of just looking, he lifted his hand to caress the branches. He likes to feel more than he likes to grab so I began to sway him back and forth so that he could get really close to it, all the while his arm stretched out and his fingers lightly touching the branches. Then he pulled a snowflake off and smiled! It melted my heart. I told Ryan that next year, Aidan will be scooting his butt down the stairs with his dog close behind him so that he can go see the tree. It’s going to get better and better every year, I can’t wait!
