Happy Thanksgiving

We had another great Thanksgiving. We went home and ate lunch with my husband's side of the family and had supper with my side of the family. Both meals were delicious, but I must admit, eating two Thanksgiving dinners in one day is plenty for me. At the end of the day on Thursday I felt like I had eaten so much food I wouldn't need to take another bite for the rest of the weekend. N played with my sister's boys really well. He and his cousin R (if you know us, you can probably figure out who R is) were like two peas in a pod. R was very interested in everything N could do and say and N wanted to do everything R was doing. R is about six years older than N, but N managed to keep up with him every step of the way. We decided not to stay the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house this year because, once again, we are all sick. (N was sick last year on Thanksgiving so we didn't end up staying over night last year either.)

My husband was up at 4am Friday morning coughing and couldn't go back to sleep, so he headed out to Best Buy for Black Friday (BF) to buy the TV he had his eye on. This was the first year he's ever done BF and he actually handled it very well.... In fact, I think he kind of liked it! He got the TV he went for, but later found out it's not exactly what he thought it was. Apparently Best Buy has a special model made specifically for BF. A few of the bells and whistles are purposely left off this model so it can be priced for the door buster deal. I think that's kinda naughty of Best Buy to do, almost false advertising in my opinion. So my husband is following some chat boards where people are talking about the TV to see if he wants to keep it.

D got home about 7:30 from his BF trip, so I headed out. And honest to God I only made it to one store.....I was there for 3.5 hours!! I was at Kohl's. D and I always joke that Kohl's is a black hole for me. Early on in our marriage we decided that we could not shop at Kohl's together because I get so caught up in my shopping there that I end up losing track of time and that drive's D crazy. We can never find each other while shopping at that store and always ended up fighting because of it, so Kohl's is a place we absolutely do not go to together... :)

Anyway, back to BG. I used the wish list feature on the Kohl's website to make my shopping list the night before. I found lots of gifts I wanted to get for my family...and myself. I also had an additional 15% off coupon they sent me in the mail, so I saved another good chunk of money by using that. Kohl's was running a deal that for every $50 you spent you got a $10 coupon... I got a few of those and was only one dollar and some change from reaching another $50 to give me one more $10 coupon and the lady wouldn't give it to me! Darn! If only I'd bought that $2 place mat
I put back on the shelf I would have gotten $10 more in coupons! Bummer!

As I stood in line at Kohl's I did notice something really funny. Have you ever noticed that some of the stores have their holiday candy/cookie tins strategically placed near the check out line? Well I wonder if they do that because they know that on BF you're going to be in line for a while and might need a snack while you wait. I think they put the goodies there because they know it will take a special kind of self control to resist buying the overpriced goodies. I must admit I was momentarily tempted by the puppy chow/moose munch they had packaged as "reindeer food." Man, that sounded good after three hours of shopping... Chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite combination! Then I looked at the price tag and it was $20!!! $20 for 10 ounces of puppy chow??? No way!! I could make a boat load of puppy chow for $20! I did have a snack with me... Not quite as fun and much more healthy, but also much cheaper!! So I ate my little package of trail mix while I waited.

I am happy with my purchases. I give props to those of you who stayed out all day and shopped!Some of my friends shopped like it was their job and that's awesome! I wish I could have. I have in th passed, but this cold thingy I have wouldn't allow it. I just didn't have the "gas" to shop more than a few hours. That night we made M&M cookies and watched N's new favorite movie Wall-e.

We put our Christmas tree up today. D brought the tree inside and opened the box. N stood over the box anxious to see what it was. When D opened it N exclaimed " I love it!!" He pulled out a few tree branches to help us and then lost interest in less than five minutes. That little turkey. Our tree is color coded to indicate where the branches go. N is getting better and better at his colors each day, so I thought he'd like finding the colors we needed... Nope. No such interest.
After eating lunch and playing for a little bit N went down for a nap. While he was sleeping D and I finished decorating the tree. N will see the finished product when he comes downstairs after his nap. I'll be interested to see what his reaction is. In the past D and I have surrounded the tree with baby gates to keep N away from the tree, but we haven't put them up yet. I want to see if we can teach him not to touch the tree so we don't have to put the gates up. D and I decided that if N touches the tree (and doesn't stop touching it after being warned) that he'll get a time out. N usually responds pretty well to that method so I hope it works. Keep your fingers crossed, but don't hold your breath. :)

After taking a nap and taking it easy today I do feel a little bit better so we are going to attend our local parade of lights. The tradition we have developed over the years is to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant before heading to the parade then we get bundled up and watch the lighted floats drive out of the barn they are stored in. We usually don't make it long enough to watch the whole parade then we head home. It actually works out pretty well because N's attention span works in our favor. We end up leaving before the traffic gets too congested.

Sick

Everyone at our house has been sick for a while. I think we are finally out of the woods, but we're all still trying to kick the cough. Because we were sick N and I did not leave the house that much last week. I get "cabin fever" verrrry easily, so one day N and I drove around town finding and watching all of the construction equipment we could find. I think we hit a few drive through's for meds and food just to get out of the house. While we were at home we did some more crafting when we felt well enough. We also built just about everything you can imagine with couch cushions - ramps, forts and "the Olympics" as we call it. The Olympics thing started this summer when N found an interest in the Olympic gymnastic events. I gather several cushions, pillows and blankets and position them next to the couch. N and I then take turns climbing, rolling, and walking down the cushions. It's a fun thing to do together and it's good exercise for N.

We did a neat craft today that I found on the internet. I taped a piece of clear contact paper sticky side out to our sliding glass door. I printed out Thanksgiving themed clip art and bought colorful feathers for N to stick to the contact paper. After he was done sticking things to the contact paper I placed a second piece of contact paper on top of his little creation and made it into a place mat.

We don't have much going on tomorrow, but are looking forward to a play date with friends on Friday. I'm sure N will be extactic to play with his little friends again.

Potty!!

We just had a very exciting moment at our house! N went pee in the potty!

We bought a potty seat last weekend and set it out for him to see. He has been sitting on it with his clothes on to get used to it (as reccomended by the book that came with it). We have been reading a couple books about potty training, but have not been pressing the issue. This morning N went into the bathroom and pulled out his potty and said "go pee on the potty, Mommy. " So he did! He went potty then sat there for a while as I read him some books. Then he put his potty away and went down for his nap.

I will say, I can already see that this is going to be as much of a learning experience for me as it will be for N. Teaching a boy to go to the bathroom may have it's challenges. Either we need to get a larger training seat or I need to learn how to teach him to sit on the seat so "it" doesn't squirt everywhere! We have a pair of wet pants, some wet socks and a wet floor to clean up as a result of our first time going potty, but that's not hard to fix. N got upset when he got everything wet and I said "that's okay, honey. It's just potty. We can clean it up. Don't worry about it..." I didn't want to discourage him in any way... But, in my head I am quietly thinking "Uh, how do we do this so we don't make this kind of a mess every time he goes??" If anyone has any tips please email me. :)

Art Work

N has reached the age where he will sit down and do an art project. The amount of time he will spend on a project depends on the day and his mood, but he will at least attempt any craft I present. His favorite thing right now are the paint stamps with the knobs on the top. He loves them because they are fairly easy to do and I like them because they create less of a mess than other paints. N also does craft and art projects at school that he brings home each week. Storing all this art work has presented somewhat of a challenge. I recently read in one of my Mommy magazines (okay, they could be Daddy magazines, too. Let's not exclude the Dads.) that one Mom takes pictures of her kids holding their pieces and saves the picture on the computer. That way she can eventually throw away some of the pieces and she can save the really treasured pieces. I took that Mom's advice and took pictures of N standing next to the fridge when it was covered with his art. Then I took pictures of each piece individually. Since so many of you who read my blog do not get to our house to see N's art hanging on our fridge, I thought I would post some here for you to see.

Summer Summary

It's hard to believe that summer went by and I did not post a single entry on this blog.. Time flies!! N and I spent lots of time outside, so I wasn't at my computer a whole lot. It's hard to be on the computer with a toddler around because any time I log on he wants to play games on his favorite kid websites. Therefore, I end up saving my computer usage for nap time and after the little one has gone to bed. This summer was exciting and this fall has been, too. I have posted several pictures to recap the past few months.






We got our front door painted red.







N and I passed the time by cleaning his outdoor toys with buckets of water, soap, and wash cloths. He loved it!

N also saw his first display of fireworks (or "fire spiders" as he called them) on the 4th of July, but the pictures did not turn out so good, darn it.








N's birthday! I can't believe he's another year older!








N and I ate as many lunches outside as we could. N calls them picnics. I brought his little table inside now that it's cooling off. We still eat at it quite often and N still calls them picnics even though we are eating indoors.







My sister came home for her final wedding gown fitting and her bachelorette party. Good times!!





















Unfortunately N came down with a terrible ear infection and was sick while my sister was here, so he had to stay home quite a bit. J and I tried to keep him occupied and as happy as possible by crafting with him. After twenty four long days, two rounds of antibiotics and three trips to the doctor he finnnnnallly kicked the ear infection!!!




N started a one day per week school at a local church in early September. These pictures were taken on his first day. It's funny because he insists on carrying his backpack to school every day. He does verrrry well at school. One of the best parts of the day (for me anyway) is seeing his face light up when he sees that I am there to pick him up. He always says "Mommy" with a big smile on his face and runs to me with his backpack on his back. Too cute!!




In late September my family went to The Netherlands for my sister's wedding. The trip was fantastic and the wedding was incredible. Congratulations again, Sis. You two are a wonderful couple and you were a stunning bride!!! My husband took the week off of work to stay home with my son while I was on the trip. Although I enjoyed my travels, I missed "my guys" immensely. D was good about emailing me daily updates and he took lots of pictures. They actually had a very active week. D even made a decorative cement block with their hand prints in it to commemorate the week.











































N is currently very interested in pretend play. He loves his kitchen. As I said above, I have our picnic table in our dining room which is located right by "N's kitchen." N "cooks" us pizzas, pancakes and noodles all the time. He is very good about serving me my diet coke with everyone meal!! Ha!!







N was Bob the Builder for Halloween, but I cannot find the pictures at the moment. I will post pictures when I find them.









This fall will be busy with household projects. D got a ton of stuff done outdoors while it was still warm outside. He built landscaping walls all around the house that will be ready to be filled with plants next spring. He closed in the underside of the deck and built a little shed under the deck to store our patio furniture, etc. He did a huge renovation of the creek in the back yard and was able to grow a pretty nice yard of grass... He is struggling to push the crab grass out of the yard, but it all looks great to me. Our big project this fall is finishing our basement. We've already got our belongings stored in various places of the house and D has framed in all that walls that can be framed in at this point. With some help from the professionals who built our house, we hope to have the basement finished by Christmas!

Take care,
C