A Pregnant Tale

When I was pregnant, I was a gyspy wife. I lived in three different cities throughout the duration of my pregnancy. This was due to my husband's job and our quest to find the perfect house during that time. This meant no job for me and lots of spare time simply marinating in all my unrealistic visions of what motherhood would be like. This also meant we were low on the green stuff so I made sure I was resourceful in buying some of my maternity clothes. This lead me to Craigslist, which then lead us to this Vietnamese lady's house one rainy Tuesday night in November. She had used maternity clothes to sell and I was hopefully going to score a great deal. Turned out she didn't have the greatest fashion sense so I ended up only purchasing 3 blah items from her that I ended up only wearing at home and only in front of the cat.
The whole time I was rummaging through her boxes of clothing, we chatted about her baby. "So, is he sleeping now?" I asked seeing no signs of a baby anywhere.  "Oh YES! THANK GOD!" she exclaimed. Sheesh, I thought a little TOO excited her precious angel is asleep I thought not realizing how tired she must be. "You have boy or girl?" she asked. "Boy, " I replied. "OH I PRAY for you, I PRAY for you!" she said dramatically making the sign of the cross like a hard-core Catholic. And then she went on in her broken English "When I first have baby, we come home from hospital and baby don't sleep ALL NIGHT!!! Oh I was SO TIRED and sick!" Well yeah, I thought babies do that right?  " I say to my husband, let's take him BACK to hospital! We take him back" she said with a desperate gleam in her eyes that made me realize she was serious at the time. Oh my gosh, I rolled my eyes at my husband who was trying hard not to laugh. It was hilarious to me but even more so I was so shocked that someone would spill their new mommy wacked-out hormonal thoughts with a complete stranger. (She's the perfect candidate to be a mommy blogger for sure!) She went on, "We take him back, but then I think: there's only ONE PROBLEM..." pausing with the most serious expression I have ever seen from someone contemplating such lunacy, "I HAVE BABY SHOWER! EVERYONE KNOW I HAVE BABY!!!" By this time my husband and I were doing everything we could to keep from rolling on her hardwood floor from laughter! WOW she was really serious! She wasn't messing around!
For the rest of the night we acted out the story, (accent and all) with each other and told our friends. "ONLY ONE PROBLEM...I have baby shower! Everyone know I have baby!" We went on and on and laughed until our cheeks hurt.
It wasn't until one week into Aiden's life at 3am after not sleeping AT ALL since he had been born that I truly understood the meaning of the new mommy wacked-out hormonal thoughts and how they can happen to anyone as I seriously thought about asking my mother in law to move in with us for the first month or so. :) Sure, my thought wasn't as irrational as truly contemplating taking my baby back to the hospital...but it was pretty close! :)
What were some of YOUR most hormonal moments during those first few crazy weeks? I want ALL the dirt! :)

Aiden at around 4 days old

Christmas Bishop-Style!

Learning new skills

Cabin trip to the snow with Grandparents

family time

People always ask, "What did you get Aiden for Christmas?" And my new response is: "Have you seen my recent Christmas photos on facebook yet?" :)

Sledding with his cousin Emma

beautiful sights

uninterrupted time with mommy

...and Daddy-O

Aiden's Mimi

Classic!

We enjoyed almost two weeks of special time spent with family and close friends eating, laughing, sledding, roadtrippin, catching up, reading, and playing. Unplugged from our Wi-fii, iphones, Apple TV, ect. we spent quality time with each other. We made it a point to make less shopping lists and more memories of fun times for our Christmas. When we look back on how we spent our Christmas, we will remember the look of excitement as Aiden sledded down his first hill all by himself, or how he mimicked his daddy singing to "White Christmas" while holding a flashlight for a microphone. Or maybe we'll remember how whenever he saw Christmas lights he said in his cute little voice, "Ooooh LIGHTS!" We will remember how he said, "MMMMMMM!!!!!" with such intensity as he got to bite into one of my gingerbread cupcakes, painting his first wooden ornaments, and leisurely drives to see Christmas lights.
We will remember being reunited with friends who live far away, making a human pyramid by the lake, singing "Itsy- Bitsy Spider" like lunatics to get the babies to smile for the perfect picture and drinking yummy soy eggnog with fresh nutmeg sprinkled on top.

mommy loves you

Opening presents with Emma

Whooooosh! Down the BIG hill with Daddy! 

Tough guy with a snowy wet face

lots of cousins!

And yes, Aiden got plenty of presents for Christmas as well to answer the true meaning behind your question of "What did he get for Christmas?" Most of them came from both sets of Grandparents and a few small ones from us. :) His favorites so far are his ball/beanbag/ring toss activity set, his foam books, and his tractor. :) 
But I think it goes without saying that the greatest gifts of all were the gifts of time with each other that was well spent :)