thanksgiving in the OBX, round 2

after last year's successful thanksgiving trip, we were pretty much decided we were going to do it again if we could. but this year we had the chance to go with FAMILY instead of just by ourselves, which made it even better! we spent the week with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who came down all the way from new york in a beach house in corolla, NC, and had a REALLY fun time. the weather was rather rotten (it was really pretty windy and cold most of the time we were there) but it was a great getaway. here are some pictures for your enjoyment. 

the five sine kids loved, loved, l-o-v-e-d dane. there were lines to hold him whenever he was awake. lucia, the two year old, talked a lot about "baby dane" and kept asking to "hold it" and "help dane." she even made a pilgrimage to our room at 3 a.m. one night to come see dane. . . . it was adorable. 

annie helped us figure out how to use the baby bjorn carrier because we could NOT understand the ridiculous picture instructions on the straps. dane got to spend a bit of time every day in there after that. he loved it--his dream come true! he's sleeping snuggled up to someone all day long!

caroline and claira were entertainers the whole time.

 seriously--lulu just wanted to hold him all day long.

choke hold! dane didn't even seem to mind. 

dane also loved alec and sarah!

oh yeah, we did take some pictures that didn't involve dane . . . we were all eagerly anticipating the thanksgiving PIE! it was so hard for these girls to wait.

everybody loves tommy. he was trying to distract them from the pie at this point by taking pictures in the freezing cold wind. 

lucia also wanted dane to just sit next to her sometimes as well as holding him. 

the thanksgiving table! don't mind me nursing in the background. and tommy was taking the picture. 

we stayed in a great beachfront house, which luckily had a jacuzzi because it was FREEZING most of the time.

the sine's traditional thanksgiving family fun run on the beach! 

 we also took dane to see santa at the little shopping center in corolla (for free, i might add...). he was dressed in the cutest little elf/santa outfit and yeah, everyone loved him. we had crowds around us and people taking pictures of him in his cute little hat. 

MORE PICTURES OF DANE!

me and lulu on the way to the beach. 

and then we took family pictures on the beach in the evening. i'll share some of the outtakes--but since we got some good ones i think we'll actually send out a christmas card this year, so i won't share any of the really good ones until after we do that. dane was a champ.

it's so weird that thanksgiving is over . . . but now we're getting ready for christmas! we are so excited.

dane's crazy awesome life

dane is so lucky. he has so many adventures. 

he lays outside on the grass with his mom, enjoying the beautiful fall weather and changing leaves.

he takes naps on the couch with his dad.

he's super thug with his mom.

he PLAYS WITH HIS TOYS! THEY ARE THE BEST! MY LIFE IS THE BEST! (at least, that's what he's thinking right now.)

he chillaxes in his diaper.

he votes.

he hangs out in his pajamas all day, with his mom (who's doing the same thing), and practices his poses for the camera.

he wears outfits that his dad wore 28 years ago, and goes on walks like the great connoisseur of the outdoors that he is.

and, oh my goodness, he's just got the cutest face in the world.

AND tomorrow we head to the outer banks, for his first out-of-town adventure! we're so excited to see the some family for thanksgiving break.

when he's crying...

sometimes, we'll sing this song to dane:

and he'll sing this back to us:

where does he come up with this stuff? crazy kid.

motherhood

dane at 3:21 pm: happy

dane at 3:22 pm: sad

dane at 3:27 pm: asleep

two of the things i was most afraid of before dane was born was that a) i would get bored staying at home with a baby all day and b) i wouldn't like it. i think these fears stemmed from reading The Feminine Mystique in college and (more recently) from reading too many mommy blogs. there are so, so many representations of frustrated stay-at-home moms out there. and despite the fact that i personally know many happy and fulfilled moms to counterbalance that image, i never knew which side of the fence i would fall on. this might sound blasphemous to say, but you can't deny that it's a bit of a leap into the unknown! and it's impossible to predict how you will feel or how your baby will act or how wonderful/difficult it's going to be for you.

but i have had the beautiful surprise of loving everything about being a new mom. and i don't know why it should be such a surprise--i mean, i've always loved babies and loved taking care of them; of course i'm going to love taking care of my OWN baby. but every day i think, "wow, i love this." and whenever i'm rocking dane or singing and talking to him or even bouncing him to sleep while he cries, i always tell tommy, "i could do this all day long"--forgetting that, yes, that's what i do all day long. the empty gap in my life that i felt while i was still in school--the feeling that what i was doing was abstract, pointless, and not exactly useful to anyone--has gone away. i feel a billion times more useful and, yes, fulfilled, than i ever did writing a research paper on a book for a class. (to be fair, i did feel useful and fulfilled while teaching. just not while taking classes.)

now, i know that cuddling with one very easygoing newborn is not all that motherhood entails. and i know that he's only seven weeks old, and that things change very rapidly, and that i'm very, very lucky in how everything has gone so far.

but i hope that when i look back on this short time in my life i remember how happy i am right now.