I Am Thankful For...The Week After Thanksgiving

Chase spent his first Thanksgiving a drooly, whiny, miserable, teething mess. He picked Thanksgiving of all days to start pushing his first two teeth through, and he sure let the world know that he was unhappy.

Rosy cheeks, snotty nose and pushing teeth make for a less than happy little boy for his first Thanksgiving

His second Thanksgiving (last year) we had just gotten done passing the stomach bug through our family, which we proceeded to share with our extended family. 'Tis the season for giving, right?

This year, his third Thanksgiving, he didn't let us down. Thanksgiving morning he sported a wonderful 102 degree fever. My usually very happy, active 2-year-old was replaced with a glazed-eye snuggle bug. We all took advantage of the snuggles, but I would much rather have a healthy boy.

One week later, I am thrilled to have my happy, bouncing off the walls, goofy bundle of energy back. So today I will be thankful for the week after Thanksgiving for providing me with my healthy little boy again.

*In the spirit of Thanksgiving, "I Am Thankful For..." is a blog challenge I have decided to do during the month of November. Each day I will pick one thing that I am thankful for and blog about it. Obviously I am extremely thankful for the many things in my life I am blessed with, such as a wonderful family, my health and my family's health, great friends, a roof over my head, food on the table, and more. But this series is about all the other day-to-day things that I sometimes take for granted and that make life just a little bit better -- you know, the little things. To see a list of all the posts in this series, please click here.

I Am Thankful For...The Terrible Twos

Do you know what I love about 2-year-olds? They aren't 1-year-olds. Or infants.

I love my boys now, and I loved them when they were babies. But the first two years of their lives were not my favorite times. Here are some things I don't miss about when my boys were under the age of two:

• Teething
• The "let me see how many times mom will pick up this toy when I throw it on the ground" game
• A crying hungry baby
• A crying tired baby
• A crying teething baby
• A crying wet baby
• A crying mommy due to 10 hours of listening to a crying baby
• Sweet potato spit-up 
• Teething
• Drool
• Feeling the need to have my entire house bubble-wrapped to prevent injuries to my wobbly child
• The need to relocate every object in the house that is less than two inches in size to a high spot
• The need to relocate every stool in the house so that the wobbly child will not attempt to reach the small objects that were moved up high
• Did I mention teething?

So three cheers for the terrible twos! I'll take them any day over teething.

*In the spirit of Thanksgiving, "I Am Thankful For..." is a blog challenge I have decided to do during the month of November. Each day I will pick one thing that I am thankful for and blog about it. Obviously I am extremely thankful for the many things in my life I am blessed with, such as a wonderful family, my health and my family's health, great friends, a roof over my head, food on the table, and more. But this series is about all the other day-to-day things that I sometimes take for granted and that make life just a little bit better -- you know, the little things. To see a list of all the posts in this series, please click here.