The Big Ole Thanksgiving Post

I've been off for a few days. Hope you don't mind me taking a bit of a holiday. Here's what happened over our break.

Wednesday we headed to Grandpop's. Billy refused to sleep in the car, despite being past his bedtime. Nope. It was just too exciting to be heading to Grandpop's house. We haven't been down since the summer. But finally he passed out. Some time before the bridge, but well, that was still way past his bedtime.

When we pulled into Grandpop's drive late, Billy woke up. Even if he had still been sleeping, the canine contingent would have woken him up upon entering the house.

Billy briefly came in and said hi to the family that was still awake, but we quickly packed him off to bed. I wasn't sure how that was going to go. He's sleeping in a big boy bed at home, but only has a porta-crib at Grandpop's. We didn't know if he would accept sleeping in a crib. Also, there's the house. But he went right to sleep.

Screech! Let's pause right here and I'll explain the house- which is important for later. Grandpop, Nana and Uncle Alex live in a big Victorian. It's been in the family since it was built in 1905 by my great great grandfather. It has a wrap around porch that's lovely to sit on in the summer. A grand staircase in the front foyer and a servant stair in the back hall. It has a gracious parlor with a fireplace. A living room with the family initial carved into the fireplace. A large dining room with yet another fireplace. And lots of other rooms to explore, a third floor full of heirlooms, which is actually not the attic- that's above the third floor. And all of the rooms are NOT BABY PROOF. Yeah, very much not baby proof. Breakable antiques everywhere. Hot radiators. Two staircases with no baby gates. Long staircases. The house has 12 ft ceilings. Long staircases.

So, with a fully mobile and very curious toddler, it's a veritable playground and a parent's nightmare.

Enter Thursday.

We started the morning with Billy shouting at us. The porta-crib was in our room. Daddy woke up and poked me in the belly. Mind out of the gutter. The bed is much smaller than ours at home, being an antique. So there wasn't much room. And Daddy moved me over by giving me a sound poke to the belly. "Ouch!" To which Billy responded by standing up in teh crib and shouting, "Daddy... STOP HURTING MOMMY!"

"SHHHH!!!!"

One, it was not even 7am and the house was full of family. Two, I really, really don't want family thinking that either Daddy is hurting me or that Billy saw canoodling (which is absolutely did not).

So, Daddy rolled over and put his arm over me to cuddle and go back to sleep. Well, here's hoping. Not likely. But hoping.

"Daddy! DADDY! STOP HURTING MOMMY!"

Ok, ok I'm up.

We had breakfast with the family that was awake and headed into the living room to watch the Macy's Parade. I wanted Billy to see the balloons and Santa. Billy was chasing Molly around the house. Molly is Nana's Pomeranian. I kept calling Billy in to see the TV for the balloons. But they were only showing the balloons for the briefest period, and by the time he ran right into the room, the balloons were already gone and the announcers were back talking about random boring stuff. Show the balloons! But he did get to see Santa and waved to him as he waved back from the tv screen.

And now it's nap time. Oh dear.

The room is too bright, the crib too small, the house unfamiliar, the family too loud, and the toddler too excited. After trying for two hours we were finally able to get him to go to sleep by Daddy strong arming him into the big bed and holding him there until he slept. Daddy might have fallen asleep too.

Then it was turkey time. I had been selling turkey to Billy all week. "What do we eat on Thanksgiving?" "Turkey!" "What does a turkey say?" "Gobble, gobble!" "Who cuts the turkey?" "Grandpop!"

Well, we all gathered around the table for the meal and first came out the soup course. I didn't think Billy would eat it and he didn't. But he was starving. And tired.

Next Grandpop brought out the turkey and started carving it.

"Grandpop, turkey!!!"

He was hungry and he wanted his turkey now. We sent his plate down to be fixed first and he had all of his food in front of him before anyone else. And before we even said Grace he had eaten all of his turkey. "Grandpop, more turkey!" He shoved the plate away with all of the other fixings on it. He only wanted turkey. (In hindsight, I might have oversold that turkey).

He had three helpings of turkey and refused the other foods. In the middle of the meal we tried to get him to eat one of his favorite foods- sweet potato. Only, it didn't look like normal. He wasn't convinced. Daddy put a spoonful of it in Billy's mouth and you would have thought it was dog poop or rotting worms or dead fish. He let out a loud wail. Uh, oh. Epic Meltdown!

Daddy and I took turns eating and playing with Billy in the other room. Later, when the table was clearing and after he was settled down, I brought him back to the table to finish his food. He was still hungry. He took a few bites and then his head sank lower and lower. I put my hand out and caught his head before it fell into the plate. And... he's done. We gathered him up and put him to bed. The turkey wore him out. (Also the short and late nap didn't help).

Friday

We started the morning early with Grandpop making breakfast.

It's all about the bacon. Billy ate lots of bacon, two eggs and chowed down on trail mix afterwards. We played quietly in the morning and took a long nap. He was extra tired.

The, we rode down to the ocean to see the lights. The line was out the door, around the corner and down the street. You wouldn't believe it. We waited over an hour to see the lights.

But finally, we loaded onto the train and got to ride through the wonderland of Christmas lights on the water. Billy was more excited about the train ride than the lights. And if you ask him what lights he saw he'll skip the holiday related stuff and say, "Dinosaurs! And a rocky horsey!"

We got back so late that we had to put him straight to bed and stay the night. We had planned to go home sooner, but well, who knew the lights would be so busy?

Saturday

We traveled. Up and out in the morning. Home in time for a nap. He slept much longer than expected and needed it too. We were supposed to go to another party, but he was just too tired. We also were going to go to the festival of trees, but again, too tired.

Sunday

Christmas! The tree is up, but not decorated. The house is decorated, though. And he spent the whole day without a diaper and without an accident. He spent the whole time at home on Saturday without a diaper too and had no accidents.

And that was our holiday.