happy thanksgiving!

We had a very relaxing and incredibly yummy turkey day!  Just take a look at that bird. No, seriously.  Look at it.  

It was the most delicious turkey we've made so far!  The hubs and I saw a billboard advertising fresh, free-range, preservative-free turkeys and we ordered one.  Memaw helped me round out the sides - green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, stuffing, cranberry salad, corn maque choux, and Memaw's homemade bread.  

For dessert there was pecan pie, pumpkin pie, and a lemon jelly roll.  And hot apple cider to drink.  My word.  

Does it get better than that?  I think not!  Britton was excited to help Memaw with cooking this year, and she filled all the cups with ice and iced tea.  And Barrett woke up from his nap right on time, and ready to eat.  It snowed all day, beautiful fat flakes like a snow globe, and yet the ground was warm enough that it never stuck.

Sadie and Boomer ate their turkey, then headed to the couch.  They didn't want PawPaw being the only snorer during the Cowboys game!  

The penguin wanted to snuggle too

I love Thanksgiving, and when it's simple like it was this year, I love it even more.  We didn't stress ourselves out, we focused on easy sides and a fantastic turkey, and hung out all day.

mini dictator

Barrett wanted yogurt as his snack on Saturday morning.  Simple enough.  But, as he is apt to do, he wanted to feed himself, which results in yogurt all over his shirt (and hair, and the table, and the chair...).  The hubs took off his shirt so as not to spread yogurt to the entire family room, and Barrett wandered over to his rocking horse.  I walked into the room, took a double-take, then instantly I saw it.  I was overwhelmed with this feeling of deja vu all over again.  It all seems so familiar.....

Yep.  That's the image I was thinking of.  My son resembles Putin, atop his horse and oddly enough shirtless.  

Do I look like a Rushkie to you?

Later, Barrett might have been a little cold, so he added the hat.  Because, well, the hat makes up for not wearing a shirt.  Putin could learn a thing from this boy - a beautiful smile goes a long way!

fall festival 2014

Yes, it's been more like winter around here lately with the freezing temperatures and snow, but Britton and Barrett's school brought out their annual Fall Festival today.  And man, they did not disappoint!  Britton's class went first, and they performed some absolutely cute songs.  Britton's class has been practicing since early October, so every kid knew every song.  And the turkey hats were a cute surprise!

They also performed a song in Spanish, and sang "What a Wonderful World" while doing the sign language for the lyrics.  

Then they ended with a Thanksgiving poem, and some major enthusiasm!  This was the first time that Britton had actively participated in the Fall Festival, without turning away from the crowd and going mute.  The daycare director made a point to tell the hubs and I that she noticed Britton's lack of shyness, and how happy she was to see Britton coming out of her shell.  Yep, we were quite proud too!

After the babies went, it was Barrett's class's turn.  The kids were dressed up as pumpkins, and all made it onto the stage without a meltdown.  I fully expected that once Barrett spotted us he would come running, but nope, he stayed with his class.

Really, at this age, there isn't much singing from the kids, so the teachers sang the songs while the kids watched them.  One kid in particular, J, thought he'd be a ham and strut around the stage.  And I'm sure another kid started crying.  But that's what makes these presentations so entertaining!

Barrett sat calmly and bopped his head along to the songs.  I think he may have even smiled for a hot second!  His class was all pretty chill about the whole thing - no stage fright for this crew.

a great daisy

Sometimes Britton will watch "Max and Ruby." Oh, the voices irritate me to no end, but there is a storyline Britton loves where Ruby is in a "Bunny Scout Troop."  So, Britton asked if there are Bunny Scout Troops in real life.  Nope, but there are Girl Scout troops!

I sent in the interest form and waited.  And then I got contacted that they were forming a new Daisy troop in our town, and seven girls had signed up.  But........wait for it........they didn't have a leader. No one would do it.  And Britton looked all sad that maybe there wouldn't a troop.  So, I volunteered.  Jessica assured me it would be a lot of crafts and quite easy, and I decided to just go for it.

I may have gotten a little excited.  I hit up the uniform shop like it was going out of style!  I was instantly transported back to when I was a Brownie, eons and eons ago, and how exciting it was to earn patches and do crafts.  Britton wanted the vest (there's also a tunic now) and the skirt, and I may or may not (I totally did) get the beanie.  

Anyone remember the Girl Scout Promise?  I couldn't believe that I did remember!  And it was a little surreal teaching it to (now up to) nine little girls, including my own.  

Britton was really excited for our first meeting.  I didn't want to give away all the surprises, just because she happens to live with her leader!  I got all the girls blue daisies and tied on their troop number patches.  The girls, and their moms (and one dad), were so excited!

barrett: 18 months old

Check out this boy - all of a whole year and a half old.  He's so ready.  It's like the last 18 months have been holding him back, keeping him in check, but now that he's gotten to the gate, man he is off.  Barrett explores every crevice of every room, he runs when walking will do, he smiles big, he cuddles hard, and he is just happy.  

Barrett is interacting on a whole new level with us.  He tries communicating, uses his sign language and words, and loves when he succeeds.  Some of his wants are obvious - the boy always wants to go outside.  That's a given!  He wants to do everything that Britton is doing, might want to do, or maybe once in the past did.  Britton goes for the scooter, Barrett wants it.  Britton sits on the hubs's skateboard, Barrett can't stand another minute without the skateboard.  We lucked out with the age difference, though - Britton is five and doesn't much care either way.  She'll let him have his turn.

Barrett loves little Hot Wheels-type cars, books, stacking blocks, and balls.  We read stories before bed every night, then I hold him up so he can turn off the light.  Light switches - that is this boy's new love. He'd flick it off and on over and over and over again if I would let him!

Barrett sometimes eats well (pizza pasta), sometimes not at all (barbecue chicken), and some things that he likes today he won't like tomorrow (broccoli).  I remember Britton being the same way, so we ride it out.  We don't have Barrett's 18 month wellness visit until December, so I have no idea on stats.  But he's quickly growing out of his 2T pants, and has moved on to a size 7 shoe.

Likes:  playing outside, looking at books/having them read to him, drawing, sitting in a lap, clapping and celebrating every little thing!

Dislikes:  being changed, getting clothed, being made to return the stamps/markers/crayons to the table

the tooth fairy is coming to town!

Britton lost her first tooth tonight!  That poor tooth has been holding on for dear life, and the constant movement left Britton's gum purple and swollen.  But she could not get that tooth to let go.  At dinner, the hubs mentioned that PawPaw had tied a string around the hubs' loose teeth to get them out.  I countered that my dad had simply tricked me by pretending to want to see how loose my teeth were, then just yanking them out of my mouth!  The anticipation was much worse than the actual removal - I never felt a thing.  And we decided, telepathically of course, to try the same course of action on Britton.

The hubs got a hold of that tooth, and it fell into his hand.  Britton was so relieved to have it out and not causing her anymore discomfort.  Plus, she now gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy!  Let me tell you what - her classmates are not helping out on that front.  One girl got $20 for her tooth.  Another kid got a stack of toys.  To reset Britton's expectation, I mentioned that while normally the Tooth Fairy leaves a quarter, maybe Britton would get "a whole dollar" for her first tooth.  Luckily, I happen to have $5 in my wallet, so that should just excite her to no end!

Here's the tooth, next to Winnie so you can see just how tiny that thing is.  Luckily, we had previously bought Britton a little tooth-shaped box for her to put her tooth in underneath her pillow, because I can't imagine (I mean, imagine for the Tooth Fairy, of course) how someone could even find that thing in the dark, trying desperately to not wake up Britton with my swearing.  

school pictures

For the last two school picture sessions, Barrett has shown up in the sibling photo as a crying mess.  Look at that poor splotchy face.  But then Britton is all smiles, so who knows what is going on here?  And while they have almost four years between them, he looks to be the same size as Britton in this photograph.  

 

We're so lucky to have these photographs, so that one day, years from now, I can pull them out for his graduation/wedding/special occasion slide show and embarrass him!  Barrett will smile for my camera every time I pull it out, but put that boy in front of a green screen and he'll have none of it.

Is it a bad sign that they didn't even give us a packet of his individual shots?  This photographer must be dialing it in, because in Britton's shots she's pulling out the JC Penney catalogue poses.  Classic yet sassy.  It's funny that no matter what changes from generation to generation, school pictures will endure!

63 months old

What do I say about this little girl who refuses, despite my pleadings, to stop growing up?  She's got a loose tooth, and that thing is holding on by a thread.  Can she really be old enough to have loose teeth? Britton is sometimes frustrating, as all kids are, and I honestly want to lose my mind when she refuses to go get socks because they are all the way upstairs.  But then she turns around and hands Barrett the toy she's playing with, simply because he's being a pill about it.  I love when she does that - when she's better than she has to be, when she gives more than I expect.

Britton has been "trying on" food preferences.  One day she decided she doesn't like milk anymore, another day she declared she doesn't like noodles.  We keep feeding them all the same thing as usual - Britton is more than aware that in our house, you eat what you like, but there's not more options than what was made.  I feel like my mom every time I say, "This isn't a restaurant!"  It's funny - more and more these days I hear myself say things, then realize that I sound like a real adult, a mom, a person in charge.  It's ridiculously jarring.

Britton's last soccer practice is this Saturday, and her first Daisy troop meeting is this Thursday.  The cold weather is coming, and it's coming fast, so I'm hoping to come up with some brilliant plan about keeping these kids entertained and active in the winter.  I'm all ears for suggestions!

This weekend Britton had two birthday parties to attend - one was an art party and the other was a dance party.  Here is Britton modeling her (ever-so-slightly-too-small-because-I'm-not-buying-a-new-leotard-for-a-party-that-she-won't-wear-again) leotard and leg warmers.  So serious, so poised.  

Likes:  building train tracks, playing with Legos, going to the library for new books, hearing stories about me and Aunt Jessica when we were kids, art

Dislikes:  being made to change out of her "comfy pajamas," drinking milk (unless it's chocolate milk)

Dislikes: