All Hands on Deck: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

We've made it to week 25, and you've finally graduated from papaya to the next produce item on the list. That's right, buddy, in perfect time for Thanksgiving, you're, no, not a turkey, but an eggplant! (Mimi makes the best Eggplant dish on Thanksgiving...so, it's not a total non-sequitor)

That doesn't mean you're a purple, moslty mushy food that hardly anybody likes; It takes a LOT of effort to get as mushy as an eggplant. What this does mean, though, is that you're growing- probably about 1.5 pounds and 13.6 inches long from head to toe.

But we don't need to play guessing games to know you're there or that you've grown. We can see AND feel that just by watching and touching your Mom's belly.

Over the weekend you were kicking for what seemed like 10 minutes at a time and we both just watched and felt in amazement. In fact, you seem to react a lot to music too! Your Mom and I were playing Beatles Rock Band and at this one point with a lot of bass your Mom saw you dancing along. But more on that later.

We can't help but smile every time we feel you kicking. This show was too good to keep to ourselves, so we had to take it on the road.

At a Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving feast at the home of our friends BJ and Kari, we were all just sitting around talking after the meal. I went over and put my hand on your belly to feel you kicking and then your Mom grabbed Michelle's hand to let her feel too. She felt you kick and, also, couldn't help but smile and laugh! Michelle said she could almost even feel a little foot kicking her hand!

Next thing we knew, everyone wanted to feel you kick and squirm and move, and you didn't disappoint your future "Uncles" and "Aunts" and friends: they all got to feel you kick, and all reacted differently. Uncle Jeremy didn't even realize it when he felt you kick- he thought it was just a muscle spasm!

But everyone overall loved "meeting you"-- and they, like me and your mother, can't wait to meet you for real.

Feeling you kick definitely makes your arrival seem more real...but it still seems so unknown, so far off and altogether UNreal. That is to say, we still can't fathom what it will be like when you're here, nonetheless, we still can't wait for it!

To feel you kicking and hold your feet and see your eyes for real will be beyond words; but for now, feeling and seeing you kick against your Mom's belly is incredible enough and, on this week of good food and family, seeing you kick, feeling you move, watching you grow and knowing you're in there definitely and being able to share that with everyone gives me something to be Thankful for.

And THAT's how you get as mushy as an eggplant!

Clean Plate Club

There's a club in which I've often been a member. Your Mom has seldom come close to even an honorary membership. But last night, at a BBQ joint, your Mom joined the Clean Plate Club.




We went to Peggy Sue's BBQ with Danny and Kelly, and your Mother ordered chopped brisket, corn and mashed potatoes. When all was said and done, your Mom's plate was SPOTLESS. We're not talking "I ate all the food, and there's some sauce still left on my plate." We're talking Clean. Plate. Club.


Your Mom would have given their dishwasher a run for their money. The only way that plate could have been cleaner would have been if Holly started eating the plate itself. But then we might have had to pay for that.




I think a major growth spurt may be coming very soon, to the dismay of BBQ joints in the greater DFW area.



Dinner was also interesting for another reason: crazy kids in the restaurant.



A couple of families had 3 young boys between them, and those kids were being pretty good for kids at restaurants. By "pretty good," of course, I mean, these root-beer-drunk, sugar high heathons were dumping their food on the floor, talking really loudly and wandering around the restaurant all willy nilly.



In reference to the Lords of the Flies, Kelly said "That'll be you guys soon!"



And, in all honesty, I can't wait! Hopefully you won't get all hopped on root beer all the time, but these things happen!



And, those kids' behavior was way better than the behavior of a couple in relation to their toddler that we witnessed a few days before.



When we were out to a Tex-Mex dinner with your Uncle Joe a few days ago, the family at the table next to us was just letting their little girl toddler wander around. No one was watching her, no one was stopping her from going up to other people's tables and putting touching the salt and pepper shakers, pulling on the table cloths, etc. We plan on teaching you to stay in your chair at a restaurant to avoid these types of displays (and it is possible, Uncle Taff and Aunt April do it with Addison!)



And you'll be thankful for these efforts when you hear what we'll be keeping you from doing. Listen to what happened next with this little girl:



Feeling tired from all that walking around, she decided to lay down on the restaurant floor. On her stomach. She made snow-angels there for a few minutes until someone came by and picked her up. But in being picked up, the little Toddler spilled a whole bag of dry cereal on the floor.



Now here's where we enter bizarro land. About five minutes later, the little girl was on the loose again and, once again, belly flopped on the floor. But this time she was, apparently, hungry. She proceeded to eat the cereal off the floor. Without using her hands.



That's right. She was bobbing for cereal off of a dirty restaurant floor.



With that, she earned herself a membership in the Clean Floor Club, and her parents were none the wiser. That's a club I hope we're all gonna stay out of...but who knows how hungry your mother may get!