Happy Thanksgiving

Jackson had a long day. He looks like I felt after dinner. Ready for a nap. I wonder if he feels like he's in a "Turkey Coma" too!


Isn't Thanksgiving great?? I really love it! The eating and talking and laughing and more eating. Then there's the game playing, the football game on tv, and pie, oh the glorious pie!! And of course remembering that Thanksgiving is meant for us to be thankful for all that we have. Since we are over here in a country that doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, we were kind of on our own this year. We would have loved to have spent the day with our family, but that's just how it goes sometimes. The fact that you can spend hours planning a meal, shopping for the perfect ingredients, pulling out all of Grandma's recipes, and adding those special touches of your own, Stand in the kitchen cooking for hours, to have it all devoured in 20 minutes, and then have to do 3 hours worth of dishes with a tummy ache. It all just didn't seem worth the effort for just the 3 of us this year. So instead of doing the traditional feast at home we opted to go out to eat today. We went to the restaurant on base, they were serving a huge Thanksgiving buffet. It was great. We ate and had a nice time together as a family and then went home with full bellys and no dishes to do. All in all it was a good day for us. And having Jackson with us made it all the more special. Here are a few pictures from our day.

After dinner we came home to relax. I decided to play with Jackson in his jungle gym on the floor. You know when you have those times as parents when it feels like you do the exact same thing everyday, everyday, everyday. Changing hideous diapers, feeding, crying, feeding some more, rocking, and singing, and crying, over and over again. And then I wonder if I'm doing a good job as his Mom. Is he learning? Is he growing enough? Does he feel loved? And then that one little smile or laugh will make it all worth it. Today was one of those days. For some reason the smallest thing can brighten my day. Jackson was playing in his gym and he reached out to grab onto the little monkey that was hanging above him. He was smiling at him and kicking his legs in delight. And then he started to babble at the monkey like it was his little friend. For some reason I got so excited and thought he might like to play with a toucan, so I took the monkey and set it aside and gave him the colorful bird. No. Not what he wanted. He scrunched up his face and turned his head so that he could see the monkey. He started to cry, so I gave him the monkey back and he smiled at it again. He recognized it. He could distinguish the difference between the bird and the monkey and knew he wanted one over the other. How cool!! He IS growing and learning! We are doing a good job. What reassurance. It made me feel so much more confident that we are doing all that we can for him. Above is a picture of Jackson and his Monkey.
Jackson and Mama at Thanksgiving Dinner.
Brandon feeding Jackson.
My Little Turkey!
Cutie Pie Jackson. Ready to go have dinner.