Thanksgiving

a.k.a. Don't Worry, No Baby Yet

a.k.a. There is No Longer a 20 lb. Turkey in My Fridge, Just Leftovers



We had a lovely Thanksgiving with friends. The turkey was done on time (I had some anxiety about this), all the food was delicious, and we had great company.


The lame part? We only took two pictures the entire day!

One of the raw turkey:


And one of W1 and L1 ready to help with the cooking:




The most exciting part? The police officers and their dogs searching our street for the idiots who robbed the Domino's Pizza around the corner.

a small equation

(if you don't care for pregnancy specifics, click away, click away!)




3 cm dilated + 80% effaced + 4 more weeks until due date = kinda uncomfortable*




In other news,

L1 recently started referring to himself by name. Except that he pronounces it with an Sh sound at the beginning instead of an L. Unbelievably adorable.

W1 and L1 have a new pastime. They run around the dining room table while holding up their shirts and pounding on their bellies. And yelling. If they start applying war paint, I will begin to worry.

I recently finished a book that did not portray President Harry S. Truman in the best light. So, since I have been meaning to read the Truman biography by David McCullough, I just checked it out from the library. And nearly got a hernia lugging that thing out to my car. Now might not be the best time to start a 1000 page book.






*According to my OB, baby girl will make her appearance "in the next two weeks". Cross your fingers that it will be next week. If not, what am I supposed to do with that 20 lb. turkey in my fridge?

On a rainy day like today,

we all find different ways to amuse ourselves.

W1 and L1 do a surprisingly good job of keeping themselves busy and mostly out of trouble.

The only major mishap today is that they both (independently) fell halfway down the stairs. Mostly a bumpy slide on the backside with an abrupt stop at the end, but scary, nonetheless. Of course, they were both wearing only socks, and our stairs are quite perilous.

I managed to amuse myself by getting a lot of cleaning done, not raking the leaves (because, yay!, I had the perfect excuse!), eating some of the chocolate chip pumpkin cookies I baked yesterday, and taking a nap while W1 played at a friend's house (thank you!).

R1, of course, always has plenty to keep him busy at school. In fact, I'll have to ask him if he even noticed that it was raining at all...

Lately,

it has been unseasonably warm. Allowing us to finally:

Rake (some of the) leaves, and then sit in them.


Prune the tree (you know, the one that had branches resting on the power lines to our house. You'll have to ask R1 how fun that was.).


Prune the raspberry and rose bushes.


Sit barefoot and eat the very last piece of Halloween candy.


And, speaking of Halloween, we never posted a picture of W1 and L1 in costume. W1 was a knight, and L1 was a dragon. Which, depending on the day, pretty much describes their relationship.

And there was very nearly real bloodshed trying to get a picture of the two of them together.




A note to self for next year: Don't explain in specifics how a weapon is used.

W1 might be a little disappointed, come Dec. 21

We have been trying (with varying degrees of success) to prepare W1 and L1 for the arrival of their baby sister in December. L1 is mostly oblivious, but W1 seems to understand that we will have a new baby in our house. At least, that is what I thought until we had the following conversation:

To preface, we were talking about his friends who have baby sisters, and W1 got a little mixed up in the words.

W1: L1 a baby sister?

K1: No, L1 is your little brother. He is called your brother because L1 is a boy.

W1: Oh.

K1: And we call your baby sister a sister because she is a... (attempting to prompt W1 to come up with the right answer)

W1: Black?

K1: (fumbling around trying to figure out what he means, we haven't talked in terms of race before, and how do I answer this...) Ummm.

W1: (seeing that wasn't the right answer) Purple?

K1: (relieved) No, because baby sister is a girl.

W1: Oh.



Now I'm not entirely sure what he is expecting.



P.S. We have talked many times about the differences between boys and girls (in very general terms, mind you), and he seems to get it...

Even our trees procrastinate

Today was leaf clean-up day in our neighborhood. W1 and L1 were entertained for at least 30 minutes by the leaf blowers, tractors and dump trucks working in front of our house. (And I was able to make good progress in the book I am reading for book club!*)


Here is a close up of the tractor:


Oh, and the tree you see in that picture, the one with all the green leaves in our front yard? We have another one like it in the backyard. Our delinquent trees are always just a little too late for the leaf clean-up. Their trick is to wait and drop their leaves the night before the first snowfall, thus making them impossible to rake. Saves some work in the fall, but makes the lawn pretty disgusting by spring.

Time to rip them up and plant new ones.

Or move**.



* And book club is tonight. See, I procrastinate, too.

** I only say this because in all likelihood we will be moving when R1 graduates. We don't usually make drastic changes just because of our landscaping.

A little too accurate

Earlier today:



W1: Mom, you a cow?

L1 (in the background): Cow!



He somehow peered directly into my mind and found out exactly how I was feeling. (i.e. large, awkward, and slow)


Hopefully, in a few months, he will instead ask me if I am some sort of slender, graceful animal, like a gazelle or something.

But, it's more likely he will stick to the familiar barnyard animals.



I'm doomed.