We're So Very Thankful

We celebrated a terrific Thanksgiving with the Behrens (Mom, Dad, and Jason) this week, even though I did very little of the actual cooking this year. My feelings of guilt faded quickly when I dug into all the yummy food! Thanks, Mom! It was wonderful seeing my family again; I get to see them so seldom.

What am I the most thankful for right now? Jason's eagerness and ability to feel the baby kick. Granted, I don't see Jason often, but from the sounds of things, he hasn't been overly interested in becoming an uncle. I don't have bad feelings about this because I'm not sure he "gets" the whole concept. We haven't had babies in the family, so I'm not sure why he would know what to expect. It's just kind of a bummer that he's not more excited (again, although I understand). Anyway . . . Jason was sitting next to me while they were here, and the baby started kicking. I said something about her kicking, and Jason reached right over and put his hand on my belly. It took a while for her to kick again, but when she did, Jason definitely felt it. It was such a cool feeling to be able to make this more concrete for him. Later in the weekend, Jason made a comment about something he wanted to buy "his niece". It made my whole day!

We had a very productive weekend following Thanksgiving. We registered at both Target and Babies R Us. We knew that most people won't have access to Babies R Us but also found a lot there that Target just didn't have. What a stressful thing to do! I never realized there was so much stuff out there -- and so much I don't know! I've never felt more unprepared for motherhood! I only suffered one minor breakdown when I couldn't get a car seat out of a stroller. Ryan could do it blindfolded with one hand. Me? Nope -- couldn't get the blasted things apart. Ryan had to assure me that this didn't mean I was going to be a horrible mother. I'm still not convinced. How hard can it be, right?! Needless to say, we did NOT register for that travel system! We also bought a crib (actually, we bought two, but that's a longer story). Hopefully we'll only end up with one. We also got a book case which I'm planning to make into a window reading seat by making a cushion for the top. Finally, we got paint for the nursery! Now THAT'S progress, folks! Ryan seems very excited to paint the nursery. He started taping when we got home from Home Depot! It was so much fun to spend the weekend pondering parenting with him. I think we might survive this after all!