Thanksgiving 2010

We flew down to North Carolina to spend Joshua's first Thanksgiving with my family -- ten months old, and he's already been on four flights!  (Though that's nothing compared to his buddy Luke... What was it, 16 flights in his first year?  Impressive!)

We ended up staying in a hotel while we were down there, in order to better guard Joshua's sleep and naptime routines.  It's actually kind of funny, the lengths we go to in our attempts to make sure J-bear gets all the sleep he needs... He's very much used to his routine, where we'll sing a little lullaby, put him in his crib, give him his ducky, tell him we love him, and then walk out of the room.  In our little hotel room, though, as long as we were within eyesight, he thought it was still playtime... So we ended up hiding in the little (2x5) corridor next to the bathroom and the room door, hunkered down with reading material and waiting until it was clear that he was totally asleep.  Next time, we're totally getting a suite with multiple rooms.  :)

But Joshua seemed to really enjoy the hotel experience!  Complete with his cute little travel highchair, and the ability to wander around, socks in hands, and explore new territory...


PJs, a comfy and cool highchair, and yummy Cheerios -- what more could a boy want? 

Playing with socks, and playing with papa!
And of course, it was wonderful spending time with my family.  They hadn't seen Joshua in person since our last visit, when he was only five months old... He's kind of grown up a little since then.  :)  He did have a little bout of stranger anxiety when we first arrived -- which wasn't exactly helped by my dad greeting him by growling fiercely right in his face.  Poor kid got all startled and then started screaming in fear.  :(  And poor grandpa -- he was just trying to get his grandson to laugh!  It took some soothing to get him to calm back down, and once I had my dad offer Joshua some Cheerios, all was right in his little world, and he warmed right up to his grandparents and uncles.


Still looks just a tiny bit scared here, but really, he did warm up! 

Showing Grandpa how much he loves this little spoon 

Seriously.  He loooved that spoon.  Thanks, Grandma, for letting him play with it! 

Thanksgiving dinner from the vantage point of a wee babe 

And just one more of Joshua and his beloved spoon
All in all, a very lovely first Thanksgiving for our dear little man!  We really do have so much to be thankful for!