Bundle of Boy (Ten Things of Thankful)

It's my usual Saturday thankful day and i have a great big extra special reason to be thankful this week!  Red-headed Alec and Sweet Sue's baby Lee is here!

It's a boy!  He's about 15 hours old here.

They called me very early Tuesday, and i'm thankful that i was awake and alert and able to let them know my work schedule and when i would be able to get up there.

It was another of those days where one horrible wreck on the freeways shut down the whole area, so i am thankful they got to the hospital well before that happened, and that i was going to work the opposite direction from it all.

My boss did get caught in the traffic (she had an early appointment and asked me to come after, figuring she'd be home by 9am).  About an hour and a half into waiting in her driveway, i was desperate for a restroom, and in that area, there are no nearby gas stations, restaurants, etc., and i didn't want to go far because i knew she would get there eventually.  Thankfully there is a city park near there, and the custodian happened to be there and let me use theirs.

This particular house that i clean every other Tuesday has terrible cell phone reception, and i'm thankful that on this day, i actually received every call, especially the updates.

Because this was a first baby, Sweet Sue's early labor was not very fast, so i'm thankful i was able to get done with work and get home and change before too much was happening.

When i was dressing and about to head up there, she was only at 6cm.  By the time i got there, about 45 minutes later, they had just started to scrub up because it was time to push, so i'm thankful i was in time to wait with the family.

She only pushed for 20 minutes, and i'm thankful for her sake, as well as for the fact that he was only 8 pounds (they expected at least 9 based on the last ultrasound). 

About 25 minutes after he was born, all of us were allowed to go see him, and i am so thankful to have been included at that time.

Also, i am thankful he is a little redhead just like both of his parents, since redheads rule the world (in my opinion, anyway).

As an honorary foster grandmother, i am tickled pink and thrilled and glad i got to visit a second time and hold him for several minutes.

He has already been gifted with several books from me, and i'm going to be giving more.  His parents have been warned that when i babysit, he will get read to a lot!

Red-headed Alec keeps saying, "I'm a father!  Can you believe it!  I can't believe it!" and i keep telling him to breathe, he's going to be a wonderful daddy. 

Thanks to the wonderful Josie Two Shoes, hostess of Ten Things of Thankful, anyone who has a thankful or two or ten to share may do so.  If you've had ordinary or extraordinary things for which you are thankful and want to share the smiles, please post and link up and give us all the chance to rejoice with you.

Today is:

Constitution Day -- South Africa (the 1993 Constitution, granting blacks the right to vote, was approved)

Day of Ardvi Sura (Aredvi Sura Anahita), Mother of the Stars -- Ancient Persian Calendar (date approximate)

European Antibiotic Awareness Day -- ECDC (because prudent use of antibiotics can help stop antibiotic resistance)  

Family Volunteer Day -- to get families working together to better their communities and the world; information here   

Feast of the Virgen de Chiquinquirá -- Maracaibo, Venezuela

Hap-Dancing and Tiger-Tuning -- Fairy Calendar

Holidays in the City Grand Illumination Parade -- Norfolk, VA, US (to kick off Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays)

Independence Day -- Morocco(1956); Western Saraha(1975)

International Games Day @ Your Library -- libraries in many countries are sponsoring a local Games Day, check with yours!

International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day  

    National Survivors of Suicide Day -- US (by Congressional designation since 1999, and now an international movement; remembering those who have lost loved ones to suicide, especially as Thanksgiving and the holidays are coming)

Married to a Scorpio Support Day -- remembering those married to Scorpios (like me!) and suffering because of it, and encouraging them too hide the flow charts and assert themselves today; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Natchitoches Festival of Lights -- Natchitoches, LA, US (over 350,000 lights go on every night from now until Jan, 6, with carolers on Friday and Saturday evenings downtown, festivals and events every weekend; come celebrate the season in the Oldest Settlement in the Louisiana Purchase)

National Adoption Day -- US (encouraging us to find a home for every child; many courts finalize thousands of adoptions of children from foster care on this day each year)   

National Day -- Oman (trad.; will be observed Nov. 23)

National French Vichyssoise Day

Ned Ludd Memorial Machine-Smashing Day -- internet generated, but enjoy!  i know i will

Nordic Yulefest -- Nordic Museum, Seattle, WA, US (a Scandinavian holiday extravaganza; through tomorrow)

PCS Day and Homeplace Festival -- Waretown, NJ, US (a family affair with country, bluegrass, and traditional music)

Proclamation of the Republic -- Latvia (1918)

Push-Button Phone Day -- launched this day in 1963

St. Odo of Cluny's Day (Patron of needed rain)

Surin Elephant Round-Up -- Surin, Thailand (includes elephant football, elephant tugs-of-war, and parades; through Sunday)

Tori No Ichi -- Japan (the second "rooster day" of November, so called because it is held on the three days of the rooster this month, in which to wish good luck and prosperity at temple and shrine ceremonies around the country, and celebrate with a fair)

Total Disregard for Taste Day -- marking the debut of Howard Stern's radio show on this day in 1985

Vertieres Day -- Haiti (Battle of Vertieres and Army Day)

William Tell Day -- the famed apple-off-his-son's-head-shot was today in 1307

World's Champion Duck-Calling Contest and Festival -- Stuttgart, AR, US (pageants for Queen Mallard and Junior Queen Mallard, carnival, and the best duck calling possible; through Nov. 30)

Birthdays Today:

Owen Wilson, 1968

Elizabeth Perkins, 1960

Sinbad, 1956

Katy Sagal, 1956

Kevin Nealn, 1953

Andrea Marcvicci, 1948

Jameson Parker, 1947

Wilma Mankiller, 1945

Susan Sullivan, 1944

Linda Evans, 1942

Brenda Vaccaro, 1939

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, 1939

Mickey Mouse, 1928

Alan Shepard, Jr., 1923

John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer, 1909

Imogene Coca, 1908

George Gallup, 1901

Eugene Ormandy, 1899

Clarence Shepard Day, 1874

Dorothy Dix (Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer), 1861

Ignacy Jan Paderewski, 1860

James Edward Sullivan, 1860

Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, 1836

Asa Gray, 1810

Louis-Jacques Daguerre, 1787

Sojourner Truth, 1787

Carl Maria von Weber, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Minecraft(Video Game), 2011

Star Trek: Generations(Film), 1994

Malcolm X(Film), 1992

Calvin and Hobbes(Comic strip), 1985 (in this first strip, Calvin catches Hobbes in a tiger trap baited with a tuna sandwich)

"See It Now"(TV), 1951

"Skin of Our Teeth"(Wilder play), 1943

Steamboat Willie (a/k/a Mickey Mouse), 1928

US Uniform Time Zone Plan, 1883 (on this date, the railroads adopted the current uniform time zone plan; it wasn't legally mandated until 1918)

Today in History:

Old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated, 326

The Japanese Emperor Kammy relocates the residence of Nara to Kioto, 794

William Tell shoots the apple off his son's head, 1307

The Holland/Zealand dikes break during a storm, resulting in thousands of deaths, 1421

The first English printed book, "Dictes & Sayengis of the Phylosophers", is published, 1477

Christopher Columbus first sights the island now known as Puerto Rico, 1493

Vasco da Gama reaches the Cape of Good Hope, 1497

The worst earthquake in Massachusetts Bay/Boston area, 1755

The first Unitarian Minister in the US is ordained in Boston, 1787

30 women meet at Mrs Silas Lee's home in Wiscasset Maine, to organize the Female Charitable Society, first woman's club in America, 1805

Mark Twain's story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press, 1865

National Woman's Christian Temperance Union organizes in Cleveland, 1874

Standard time zones are formed by railroads in the US and Canada, 1883

The first newspaper Sunday color comic strip is printed, in the NY World, 1894

Britain flies its first sea plane, 1911

Lincoln Deachey performs the first airplane loop-the-loop, over San Diego, 1913

Sigma Alpha Rho, a Jewish high school fraternity, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1917

Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the third appearances of cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, 1928

Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake, centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula, 1929

New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison, 1940

In the United States, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is ratified, 1993

HIP 13044 b, a planet that was formed in another galaxy, is discovered in the Helmi Stream, 2010

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria becomes the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, 2012

NASA launches the MAVEN probe to Mars, 2013