We were at our friends’ house to hand out our candy.  Ben was playing in their big stock pot of candy.  He leaned into it with his feet off the ground.  When I pulled him out, he had a candy bar in his mouth and had already gotten it open!

What a wonderful day today is!  Three years ago it was just Jim & I.  Two years ago it was Jim & I plus one in-utero.  Last year it was just E (formerly known as in-utero babe! LOL) and me.  This year its all THREE of us!!

My babe had soda for the first time today.  I made her a southern Hoosier babe with a bit of Big Red.  (She’ll also be all set if we ever get stationed in Texas where they serve it from the FOUNTAIN!!!) YUM!  Mostly it was her just sticking her tongue into the bottle of it and then smiling.

We also had our first choking incident today.  She was eating cookie dough ice cream and, evidently, swallowed a bit of cookie dough.  I was holding her when it happened.  I reacted fairly quickly (more quickly than I ever thought I would), turned her down & over, pounded her back and was able to get it out of her pretty quickly.  We were both a bit shaken.

Now we’re off to some event, I’m just not sure what.  Either the Freedom Fest on base or over to Tacoma’s Freedom Fair.

E and I had a very quiet & uneventful New Year. Last night we were going to get together for dinner with some friends. None of us, though, were really in the mood to celebrate so we called it off. E caught up on her sleep by going down about 12:30 pm and, save for getting up to eat and a couple short play sessions, slept until this morning. I napped, unpacked, cleaned, caught up on some journal reading and watched TV. I accidentally fell asleep about 11:30.Today we went to get E’s 3-month pictures taken. They came out pretty good, so I was quite pleased. We got home about noon and spent the rest of the day playing, running a couple errands, getting a box ready for Jim and napping a little. Oh, and spitting up all her milk from her dinnertime feeding. All over herself. And her carseat. And the back seat of Jim’s car (better his car than mine!!).

I just finished talking to Jim and putting E down, so I need to go straighten up a little, make some brownies and then settle down to watch Suze Orman (LOVE her show!)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I don’t really like the holiday food (like the idea of the day, though), so I wasn’t really excited about it. Also, it is one of Jim’s favorite holidays, so I wasn’t looking forward to not having him around for it. E woke up about 4 to eat. We watched a bit of Fox & Friends while she did. And what do I see?? Several soldiers from Fort Lewis. So I keep watching. They start to interview a sgt. with whom Jim works (it was cut short b/c of a helicopter overhead)!! Throughout the show they do a few more overview pans and I saw lots of patches from units here. And I catch a glimpse of my hubby!! It was just a quick side-shot but it was definitetly him!!! What a way to start my day!!!!!I couldn’t go back to sleep so I started getting myself ready while E snoozed. Took a relaxingly LONG shower for the first time since September. It was heaven!

After getting ready, I finished up the apple cider cookies I was making for our meal and started my barley dish. I couldn’t start my corn recipe until I talked to my sister (she’s made the recipe before) and E needed to eat by then. Fed E and then called my sister and got my questions answered. I didn’t really need to start the corn yet, so E and I played and did a “photo shoot” of pics to send to Jim. She went down for another snooze, so I made the corn recipe and then talked to my sister again. And my grandma.

As my sister and I got off the phone, she told me to kiss E for her. Now, when I had done that for her after our first conversation, E launched into a screaming fit. I should have known better. I did it this time and E proceeded to throw up (a lot!) all over me!! Put her down and changed myself. Dishes were ready, so I got those out of the oven and loaded into the car. At some point, E had lost her clothes so I started to get those back on her so we could leave. And we have an explosive diaper as I’m carrying her upstairs. So I put her down and change my clothes. Again. FINALLY we get out the door!!

Dinner was at 2 and we got there a little early so I could help out. E was asleep but as soon as people started arriving, she woke up and started cooing at everyone. A couple people took turns holding her and feeding her (I pumped a couple bottles) so I could eat with two hands. That was great! LOL

We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening just chatting. There were 14 of us plus three kids. A couple husbands had just returned from Iraq, one was home on R&R, one deploys next summer and the rest of us were husband-less. It was really a great way to spend the holiday. Looking around the room at the guys reminded us just how much we have to be thankful for this year.

We got home and I was hoping for a quiet evening. HAHA. We decided to scream and cry for two hours. Nothing would soothe her, I was in tears out of frustration and sadness that I couldn’t make it better for her. That kind of crying cuts straight to my core and literally hurts me. She finally passed out for a bit. When she woke up, she was SUCH a happy baby. Whew! We watched Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving, talked to E about what I was thankful for and then I put in Miracle on 34th Street. Add in a walk before CB’s T and that is Jim & I’s ritual every year. Neither of us made it too far into the movie. WOke up about 1 and put her into her pack ‘n play and crashed on the couch. I was too tired to get us upstairs.

All in all, a great Thanksgiving Day.