Thanksgiving 2006

Thanksgiving is a holiday that for us, lasts a whole weekend. We start by having lunch at either my mom's house or John's mom's house, go to the other one's house for dinner and then leave for Tallahassee to visit John's dad and his step-mom on Friday. It's always a fun time but I get tired just thinking about it. I'm a person who can get myself very worked up in anticipation of an event, or in this case, a series of events, but this year I was determined not to. I was going to enjoy the time we had with each part of our families and not get too worried about logistics, naps, etc. And I did! We had a very enjoyable lunch with my family and then headed over to John's mom's house for dinner/leftovers. John's brother and his family had been at her house for lunch and then Jim's (John's step-dad) son and his family stopped by, so we were the third set of guests to grace their house that day. Even though we only saw Anna and Lee and the kids for a brief moment, it was great to see them. Anna is the one who set John and me up on our first date so we are forever indebited to her! She and Lee have two beautiful boys and John and I really enjoy being with their whole family. They live in Augusta so we don't get to see them very often.

Our trip to Tallahassee on Friday went smoothly and we had an enjoyable visit with everyone. There was a house full! John's brother and his family drove down as well and Jackie (John's step-mom) was babysitting her son's children for the weekend. So there were 7 kids ages 6 and under. John David loved being with all the big kids and the big kids really took to him as well. We kept up with the tradition of having brunch at "Another Broken Egg Cafe" Saturday morning and getting pictures made with Santa at the cafe which is on a lake. This was John David's second time to visit Santa but the first time he was only 3 months old and didn't really know the difference of who was holding him. Well this year he did!!!! He was okay with seeing Santa from a distance, but once we tried to get him to sit in Santa's lap, it was a different story. We were aiming for a picture of all the grandkids together with Santa and what we ended up with was a classic picture of a terrified 14 month old and 6 kids looking at him to see what the big deal was.


All in all it was a great Thanksgiving and we are grateful to have so many people who love us and want to be with us to celebrate God's goodness and bountiful blessings.

John David is Walking!

It's official, John David can walk by himself! It has been fun to watch his balance and coordination improve over the past few weeks as he has gone from taking a few steps ever so often to just letting go and taking off. The first day he decided to let go he kept making himself fall down because he got so excited that he was actually walking that it threw off his balance. Other times he fell because he was clapping for himself so much that he couldn't keep his coordination up. He's still a bit wobbly but I'm sure that will improve over the next few days as he continues to practice his new skill. Now if I can just teach him that he still has to back down the steps to our sunken den, we'll hopefully avoid a few busted lips.

John David's First Trip to the Beach

Weekend before last, we took John David to the beach for the first time. My parents have a condo on Panama City Beach and they were nice enough to plan a trip and invite us to join them. I always love the beach this time of year but it was especially interesting this trip. A huge storm came in on our first day there. I've never seen waves that high and the wind made it almost unbearable to be on the beach. Nevertheless, I was determined to let John David experience the sand. So we dressed him warmly in a cute little "cabana" outfit and headed for the beach. He thought it was great! He liked the feel of the sand between his toes and headed straight for the water. It was too cold to go in that first day but the storm passed and the temperature started to rise and he was able to jump a few waves on Saturday and Sunday. We were able to have dinner on Saturday night with my good friends, Cassie and Benjy and their son, Ben. It was so nice to see them, just too short of a visit.

He has been doing better at walking on his own and I thought that weekend would be the time that he just took off and really started walking. We got a few good video clips of him taking some steps, but it's just been this week that he has been interested in letting go of whatever he is holding on to. His friends at church are younger than he is and are walking so I think he is experiencing some positive peer pressure for the first time in his life.


My mom and dad with John David the first time he saw the ocean.

A day after the storm passed, we were able to enjoy beautiful sunsets again.

Our Little Bumble Bee

John David was a bumble bee for Halloween this year. I couldn't believe how quickly he caught on to the idea of trick-or-treating. We took him to a few of our neighbors' houses and he was so cute holding his pumpkin bucket out to get the candy. And if I started chatting too much he let me know quickly that he was ready to move on to the next house. Such a difference from last year. He was only 2 months old on Halloween and he slept through the whole thing. Here's a picture of him in his "sweet pea" costume from last year, taken the day after Halloween.