Let's Talk Turkey: Babble, Babble, Babble

Michael had his first Thanksgiving this week, and it was quite an exhausting yet exciting time for us all.

After a typical tension-filled packing session in order to try to head for Katy at a reasonable hour, we finally piled into the car. Michael only napped for a half hour the entire drive, much to our disappointment. I wo-manned my post in the cramped back seat to try to keep him entertained and soothed and shared some hearty laughs with him late in the trip.

Since crying it out, we've had much success in getting him to sleep through the night, which has been wonderful for all of us. Of course, David and I had some concern over how Michael would sleep in a totally different but not completely unfamiliar house. We were hoping that he wouldn't disrupt the sleep of my mother-in-law who had committed to making our entire Thanksgiving feast herself. A sleep-deprived mother-in-law plus Thanksgiving stress would be a recipe for disaster.

Amazingly, he slept through both nights, and he was even able to go down for a few brief naps without using the boob to send him into his slumber. Hooray!

Michael was his observant self throughout the festivities as all of his relatives constantly oohed and aahed over him. A pink balloon brought big laughs with Aunt Kathy, and great-great aunts Kitty and Bunny were simply smitten with him. Over at Great Aunt Mary's and Great Uncle Ralph's, his presence brought smiles of delight to everyone. He watched his older cousins play, and I know that it won't be too long before he's running around with them.

After an action-packed couple of days filled with family and food, we anxiously made our way home. Michael was quite cranky prior to getting into the car, and we feared that this would be a horrible precursor to how the entire drive would be. Much to our surprise his demeanor completely changed once he was fastened into his seat. Once again, he only napped for 30 minutes, but after his nap, he conversed with me. It wasn't his typical vocal gymnastics conversation where he tests the octaves and volume of his voice, but it was filled with bilabial consonants. For at least an hour we talked about "mama" and "baba". It was as though he had been taking notes since birth and spilled forth all of his thoughts in his precious baby language.

David and I continued our dialogue with Michael well into the evening until it was bedtime. Just before he had his last feed, he uttered "mama" a few more times. Those are some of the sweetest words, even if they make no sense.

I'm learning that motherhood is rich with non-sensical sounding things that have so much meaning.