Rob and I were so excited for Reagan’s first Thanksgiving…earlier in the week, our team at Nemours decided we could try to give her a few “thanksgiving” items. As in, real foods, not baby food, so we were so excited to measure out sweet potatoes from the casserole and even have her taste a little apple pie.  Our dietician had said we could start looking at what we eat and start introducing things to Reagan. Of course, we still have to measure and calculate…and our 288-page text book will be our guide to figuring out all sorts of foods.

You think I’m kidding…

But I’m not…it’s really 288 pages. Here’s a massive section on crackers!

Our Thanksgiving menu for Reagan looked something like this: tiny pancake pieces in the morning, some real bananas and some real sweet potatoes.

But…that all changed with the first item as we gave Reagan pancakes. We were all sitting around the breakfast table, Rob and I had blueberry pancakes and bacon…the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was on in the background…and our baby was about to figure out how much she loved pancakes.

A few bites in and she seemed to be really working that gag reflex out.

And then…

Vomit.

Everywhere.

It was immediate and it was gross.

My first thought was maybe she was allergic to something, but likely it was just that the pieces were too big, even though they were tiny. Reagan learned that pancakes don’t dissolve like Puffs, and so did we.

So Thursday’s meal for Ray Ray changed and it was similar to other days but we weren’t about to let a little (or a lot) of vomit ruin our Thanksgiving. You have to have a stomach of steel if you want to consume all that is Thanksgiving…

I included that little anecdote to our first Thanksgiving b/c 1) we will never forget it. It will always be part of our first Thanksgiving story, it was not what we were expecting, but we can look back and laugh now. And 2) I’m thankful Rob and I handled it as a team and just hit the reset button for the day.

After cleaning Reagan up, the next logical thing to do is to make stuffing, and that’s just what we did. I’m pretty positive that stuffing can make any situation better, it certainly can’t hurt.

Our Thanksgiving started out the complete opposite of what we were expecting…although we could say that about a lot of things in life.  Rob and I often reflect on these past nine months with Reagan and one thing remains…how much we continue to be amazed by her. She’s grown so much, she is incredibly strong (the other day, they drew blood and she didn’t even cry, not a single tear!)  Her team at Nemours has said her condition has been pretty easy to manage food wise and we pray it just continues.  We are so incredibly thankful for God watching over her health. Rob and I believe that God has truly put a barrier of protection around her, it’s something we pray for that every single night…and we praise him for keeping her healthy and answering that prayer. I am so thankful for all of the blessings he has given to us.

I hope you are able to look around and see the wonderful blessings in your life too…not just on Thanksgiving, but all year round. Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend 🙂

Mimi and Reagan

Three generations

Happy little family

She has the most squishable, kissable cheeks!

Sunset at Rob’s Grama’s house…just beautiful.

Rob’s family: Vinny, Jen, little Autumn, Grant, Uncle Tom, AM, Grama W, Rob and the amazing Becky behind the camera.