Happy Thanksgiving ... Is Over

Get it? I'm wishing you a belated Happy Thanksgiving ... and I'm happy Thanksgiving is over.

The boys and I headed over to my folks' farm Wednesday afternoon. We spent a fun afternoon playing in the snow, building snowmen and Teddy getting 4-wheeler rides with Grandpa. We enjoyed ice cream for dinner, following my family's tradition that whoever gets a deer while hunting has to buy ice cream for the entire group (including the non-hunters). AJ listened to stories with Grandma Goose, as he calls my mom, while I stayed with Teddy until he fell asleep. Then AJ went to bed without a peep, and I played cards a bit with my family before heading to bed.

Snow much fun!

Then the fun began. Teddy woke once, and settled back down fairly easily. But when he woke again, he wouldn't settle down. What resulted was at least an hour of fairly quiet flopping around, sitting on my neck, kicking me and constant adjusting. The real problems began when he discovered two things:

1. There was a door that led out of the room.
2. AJ was sleeping on the bed right above him.

The first discovery came when I finally gave into the urge to use the bathroom (partially to give myself a quick break from Teddy and my increasing frustration). The second came when Teddy began screaming when I wouldn't let him leave the room, and those screams woke up AJ.

So between 4-4:30 a.m., I took Teddy out to the car to give AJ the opportunity to fall back asleep. After I had a meltdown (because I'm guessing I'd been up with Teddy since probably 2 a.m.) while Teddy contentedly played in the car, we took a quick drive around the block to give Teddy a break. Well, that backfired because when we went back in the house, I found AJ sobbing quietly.

Apparently, AJ saw the car lights leave and thought we were leaving without him. My brother got him calmed down to quiet sobs, and I consoled him while Teddy was all excited to see AJ. AJ offered to sing Teddy a song to make him fall asleep, so AJ serenaded us with Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Needless to say, that didn't work.

At 5 a.m. I took both boys to the car to hang out until others in my family awoke. The reason we were in the car is because there's no place to easily contain Teddy and keep the boys fairly quiet without waking the whole house or chasing Teddy everywhere. It's simply so much harder to have Teddy anywhere than home because our home is as Teddy-proof as any place (aside from a padded room) could be, and there's space to go with him.

Car selfie at 5 a.m. Yippee!

I was quite happy when 6:30 a.m. rolled around because it meant I passed my adorable children off to my folks and went for a 5-mile Turkey Trot run with my brother. My patience was recharged when we returned since it had been depleted during the hours of 2-6:30 a.m.

Who doesn't want their picture with a turkey?

Dinner was another struggle with Teddy, though, because he does not sit well in regular chairs and is still refusing high chairs. I ate after I finished feeding him (no big sacrifice there ... Whole 30 doesn't make Thanksgiving the feast it normally is). During the meal, two glasses of wine were spilled (one because AJ's LEGO tower fell). Then AJ almost stuck his arm in the Cool Whip on his pie. While I was trying to prevent that mess, I flipped the entire piece of pie on the floor, Cool Whip side down. Oh, this was after Teddy stole my 94-year-old grandpa's cane and whacked him in the head and shoved the cane in the pumpkin pie. I do believe comedy of errors is an accurate description for our meal.

As I told a friend, I enjoyed spending time with my family, but the rest of the holiday sucked. There's always next year. Maybe we can top this year ... or the year we were at my folks for Thanksgiving and got everyone puking ... or the year Teddy decided not to go to bed until 3:30 a.m.

I think it's safe to say that Thanksgiving is not quite my favorite holiday.