Oh, what a night!

Jacob's very first outing was so much fun! We loaded into the car after his evening meal. He let out one whine with a look of worry on his face. I squeezed his little foot and said, "It's okay", and he relaxed right into his car seat for the ride to Nana's. When we arrived we were greeted by the girls (my Mom had taken them to visit with family early) who were through-the-roof excited to share their baby brother. Our wonderful family had been instructed to restrain their urges to scoop Jay up and smother him with kisses. They all did such a good job giving our boy the space he needed.

Upon walking into the house Jacob seemed to be in a state of shock. The TV was on (what is Thanksgiving without football?), there were people everywhere, his brother and sisters immediately began running through the house and excitedly talking to their Grandparents, there were endless decorations and foods to look at, the kitchen was bustling with Thanksgiving dinner preparations, and of course, everything was new about the environment.

I spent the first 20 minutes holding my boy and taking him on a tour of the different rooms we would be in. Then Brad and I brought some toys into the living room (the room farthest from the TV) and got down on the floor to play. Jacob immediately opened up and started to have fun.

The Grandmas came in to watch him play and he decided to show off some of his first steps. I don't know if it was the big open space, the soft carpet, or a combination of the two but for the first time Jacob decided walking unaided was kinda fun. Over the next 30 minutes he learned to walk all by himelf!! I couldn't believe it.

He went from this:

To this:

We finally settled around the table for dinner and Jacob showed his excitement for the menu. He is still a major foodie and the description my dad later gave of him appearing "ravenous" was not an overstatement. Jay probably could have cleared his own plate of Thanksgiving dinner. He enjoyed green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and some of a dinner roll. This was pretty impressive since he had already had his own complete dinner just 2 hours earlier.

After dinner we all played and Jacob made his way through Nana's house discovering all the "no-nos". There are so many more of these at Nana's house!

Then it was time for pie and ice cream. Oh my. Angels were singing for Jacob. He made the strangest face when he tried his very first bite of ice cream. Only a Russian baby would make a sour face when given ice cream for the first time. We were told not to offer him anything cold. The Russian women told us, "only room temperature". But who has ice creme at room temperature? Despite his obvious dislike of the cold sensation he eagerly signed for more.

After pie it was getting close to bed time and Jacob started to show indications of being over done. I was actually very surprised how long he lasted but the rocking, thumb-sucking, and avoiding eye contact began. We prepared to leave and allowed family to have their good bye hugs and kisses we had promised. Jacob was not thrilled but did a really good job of looking for mommy. No tears, but no flirting either. This is actually the best response he could have given. I am so proud of my boy!

 

Once we got home and worked on bedtime his over-stimulation started to show. It normally takes about 2 minutes of rocking after bedtime bottle for him to settle into sleep. This time it took over half an hour. But he was very sweet in between flopping around and fussing and spent a lot of time gazing into mommy's eyes and smiling.

He slept about an hour less than normal last night and woke up still showing signs of over-stimulation and self soothing. But, let's face it, a holiday meal with 5 new family members who are dying to hold you in a big house where you're not supposed to touch anything is a pretty overwhelming experience. We will be keeping things quiet for the rest of the weekend to recover. But overall Jacob did really well with his very first adventure.