Giving Thanks

Despite a lovely, five-day weekend, I didn't find much time to post anything on Thanksgiving. So here it goes ...

Tuesday we began celebrating with a Thanksgiving luncheon at the kids' school. All of the children except the youngest infant/toddlers participate, but I snagged Ryan from his class so he could eat with me and Brendan. Parents and teachers brought a variety of dishes and we gathered in the Artium for lunch. I discovered Brendan loves swedish meatballs -- not your typical Thanksgiving dish but certainly his favorite of the day. Ryan happily ate anything I gave him.

Thursday we enjoyed a lazy day at home while preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. The weather here has been freakishly warm -- in the 50s and nearing 60 for almost a week now. So picture this scene around lunchtime: All of the kids in the surrounding houses are outside playing together, with the fathers gathered around our neighbor's fishing boat. The wives, of course, were inside cooking and (in my case) cleaning. I admit, I enjoyed the quiet time to get things in order. (And I didn't hear my hubby complain!)

Around 4, the Newmans arrived for dinner. Terry and Christine have two little girls, 22 months and 9 months. We agreed to feed the kids early while we finished cooking dinner, so perhaps we'd have a chance of enjoying dinner. Our plan worked. We enjoyed 45 minutes at the dinner table with very few interruptions. I think we actually carried on a few conversations! (Any parents out there understand what I'm talking about here.) After a short break, we even sat down for dessert. All in all, the company, food and evening were great.

The rest of our holiday weekend was spent playing outside and decorating the house for Christmas. We avoided the malls, though I made one visit Sunday evening just before closing. It was a good time to go; no one was there!

I hope everyone else enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as we did. Now, for the most wonderful time of the year ...

(P.S. -- We did talk to Brendan about the meaning of Thanksgiving and told him the many reasons we are thankful. His response: "I'm thankful for Blankie." We asked if there was anything else? "No, just Blankie." OK, I'll give him until next year to mention at least one of his parents!)

Fish in the water

Last week, Brendan began his first swimming lessons without parental participation. He was bouncing-off-the-pool-bottom excited, so we quickly realized he'd need some play time in the pool away from lessons.

So Sunday I took the boys swimming. (One thing about our community, Canton, is that it is heavily geared toward families. The Summitt is a nice rec center that offers endless activities for the kids.) Brendan showed he's getting more comfortable in the water, which means he's also a little more daring. He put his face underwater, without prodding or deal-making from Mom, for several seconds on his own. I think we'll see him make significant strides during these lessons.

Ryan showed how comfortable he is, too. He was such a joy to watch in the pool. He had little interest in holding on to me, but preferred walking on his feet or his hands with his legs kicking behind him. He must have jumped in from the side at least a dozen times and smiled with every jump.

Needless to say, both boys had a blast! Hopefully, I can get some video in the future to share.

Addicted viewer

Thursday night TV has been one of my favorites for many, many years. I'm happy that with the recent departures of excellent shows, Thursday is still the night to get the kids to bed early and stake out the longer couch.

My hubbie and I always enjoy the Office, by far the funniest show on TV. It rarely disappoints, and last night's episode offered a twist in the end.

But the best for me is Grey's Anatomy. I've said it before, here on this blog, and I'll say it again: If you're not watching, you're missing one of the best shows ever on TV. It's so well-written. The actors do an amazing job. And every episode manages to connect with me somehow. Last night, it was watching that mother give birth when she knew her baby was dead. I cannot imagine ...

(Check out Grey Matter for the writers' blog!)

Will that be one nap or two?

Ryan is going through that oh-so-wonderful phase in which he doesn't want to take two naps but can't survive on one. I remember this phase with Brendan, though he seemed to move into the longer, single nap with more ease.

Yesterday, for example, we put Ryan down for a nap at 10:30. Clearly we couldn't wait any longer. He almost fell asleep on our way home from breakfast and errands. He didn't fuss one bit from his crib.

By 12:15, he was wide-awake, calling for Mom. Now, this means trouble. Going from 12:15 until 7 p.m. without another nap is nearly impossible, even though this 15-month-old will try to convince us otherwise. Sure enough, by 5:15, he could barely remain standing while the boys played in the leaves outside.

Brendan, on the other hand, is slowly waving naps goodbye. He goes through spurts, possibly linked to his growth spurts, in which he will nap for a solid week. But most of the time, he'll nap one day, then skip the next two days. Thankfully, after a year of practice, he's taking to "quiet time" in his bed on those napless days.

Frogs on TV this afternoon

The Horned Frogs play UNLV today at 3 p.m. EST. The game is on Versus. With a 5-2 record, they can become bowl-eligible with one more win. Of course, we want more than that! As the Mountain West Conference stands now, they're playing for second place.

Go FROGS!

Winter wonderland ... in November?

We came home last night to find our pumpkins on the porch lightly dusted with snow. Yes, snow! I've heard many Michiganders tell me it's not unheard of to have snow on Halloween, but we hadn't been so lucky. This was pretty close!

This morning, Brendan was delighted to watch large snowflakes fall outside. All traces of it are gone now, thanks to the sun and fairly warm ground. That's good, because the first week of November is a little too early for my winter wonderland.

Happy Halloween!

Brendan was thrilled Tuesday morning that Halloween was finally here. He'd been waiting a long time. Case in point: He's been wearing his Spiderman costume, which he first asked for last summer, nearly every night since Grammy bought it for him two weeks ago. He'd wear it more if we let him.

Brendan and Ryan clean out the first pumpkin. They both did a great job, even Ryan who enjoyed dumping the seeds into the bucket.

Brendan shows off our carved creations, plus one pumpkin that he decorated with markers.

Monday night we spent an hour carving pumpkins. This activity is still a little frustrating for Brendan, who isn't quite old enough to carve. But he enjoyed scraping the pumpkin guts and drawing on his own pumpkin from school.

Halloween morning, Brendan was eager to throw on his muscle-enhanced Spiderman costume, which he wore to school for the annual Halloween Parade, in which employees in the Wayne County building (where KidSpace is) hand out candy to all of the kids. The parade is followed by a class party. Brendan brought ghost- and pumpkin-shaped cookies that he and Grammy made during her visit.

Brendan gives us a Spiderman pose. He LOVED being a superhero.

Ryan was fascinated by all of the costumes and looked adorable dressed as a pumpkin.

Our lil pumpkin checks out his trick-or-treating stash.

Halloween evening, we made it home in time to get in a little trick-or-treating. Ryan only visited a few houses, as he needed to get to bed. Brendan joined the neighbors -- Morgan, Austin, and Karlyn -- to make the rounds. They were out for 90 minutes! Needless to say, Brendan was worn out (and cold) by the time they returned.

The boys trick-or-treat with the neighbors. From left: Karlyn, Ryan, Morgan, Spiderman (er, uh, Brendan), and Austin.