Turkey and Whatnot

We had a great Thanksgiving with lots of family and food. As far as the main event goes, I will be very honest and confess that I scheduled Thanksgiving dinner for 3:00 in the afternoon when the boys were napping. They had two dinners plus several other meals with our visiting family, and I decided that after cooking all day, I wanted to enjoy one meal without worrying about feeding little ones and cleaning gravy fingerprints off my shirt. It worked out well because we had great conversation, enjoyed a glass of wine and the dinner and then the boys woke up in time to come down for dessert.

We now have a tradition running for a few years of having a team of me, Grammy Julie and Grandma Francie to tackle the cooking. We make extensive notes on what worked well and what we want to re-work for the next year. This year's new additions to the menu that were hits were both from Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa) cookbooks--butternut squash with sage and pancetta and then pumpkin roulade for dessert. Both boys enjoyed a whole piece of the roulade, which was a jellyroll made out of pumpkin cake and marscapone cheese filling. Yum!

The picture is of David enjoying his first Thanksgiving dessert.

11 months going on teenager & Uncle Roger's birthday

David is eating like a horse lately. I remember when AJ was this age going through the same growth spurt and once ate three substantial breakfasts throughout the morning and still wanted lunch. The other night we went to dinner for Uncle Roger's birthday, and David ate four pieces of pizza by himself. He has been a little bit cranky lately, and I think it is a combination of getting his pointy canine teeth and being hungry all the time.

Speaking of Uncle Roger's birthday, AJ was glued to Uncle Roger's side once he heard there was going to be a birthday cake with candles and ice cream. You can see from the pictures that he was right up front for the action to make sure he did not miss out on his piece of cake.

I'm a person!

One of my favorite concepts that AJ has caught onto lately is the idea of distinguishing people from different things, like dogs and cats. The other day we had this conversation:

Me: "You can't have two of those, buddy. It's one per person." (Silence while he thinks this over.)

AJ: "I'm a person?"

Me" "Yes. Who else is a person?"

AJ: "Mama is a person."

Me: "Yep. Anyone else?"

AJ: "Dada is a person."

Me: "Yep. What about Honey Sue?" (our cat)

AJ: (pause as he thinks) "Yes? Honey Sue is a person?"

Me: "No, Honey Sue is a cat!"

AJ: (Laughing) "She's not a person! She's a cat!"

Since then we have had several conversations a day about who is a person and who is not. His favorite is to say Uncle Will is a person! But his dog Wrigley is not!

Birds of Feather Flock Together

Our tool-loving birds of a feather, Papa and AJ, recently flocked together to make a bird feeder from stratch. My favorite part about these projects is seeing how proud AJ is of them after they are done. He will tell me over and over that AJ and Papa built the bird feeder that will feed all those hungry birds, and his little chest puffs out with pride just thinking about it. Over the weekend we were in the kitchen at my in-laws house looking out on the new birdfeeder when AJ saw his first bird perched there pecking at the feed. "Look! A bird! He's a hungry bird getting some dinner! AJ and Papa built that feeder to feed all da birds!"

The other new thing about this project is that David showed some interest for the first time, and AJ was a bit possessive about it being his bird feeder that he built with Papa. I am trying to figure out whether it is better to teach AJ that he has to let David share in these projects with Papa or to let AJ just enjoy the one-on-one attention.

Chocolate cupcake = happiness

The boys' Uncle David came by today with chocolate cupcakes. This is one where a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Reprieve

After some miserable weather this fall, we were given a reprieve this weekend in the form of two perfect fall days. Living in Chicago, we knew we needed to get the boys out to soak up the sun because there may not be another 70 degree day for literally six months. I get depressed just thinking about it! So we played some ball outside and went to the park and for a couple of walks and played in the leaves. Anything was fine as long as it was outside in the glorious sunshine. AJ even built a birdfeeder with his Papa...outside. When AJ asked me if he could watch Thomas the Train, I had the same response as other moms across Chicagoland--"You can watch Thomas for the next four months while we are stuck inside in the snow and cold. Today we are going to be outside!" I know people often say that living in a place with perfect weather every day is boring and the four seasons give you something to appreciate. I get the idea of appreciating something that is fleeting, but I think I would really appreciate 365 days of weather like today.

Trick or Treat...Can I Fix Your Door?

So after last year's debacle when AJ did not want to wear his costume, I took a note from my friend's page and decided that it would be a good idea to come up with a costume this year that involved everyday clothes plus a few extra props that he could carry around if he felt like it. The natural fit was something with his beloved tools, which led to Bob the Builder. AJ has reached a point where he can talk about something that will happen in the future and get that it is coming but is not today, and for about two weeks when we discussed Halloween and how he was going to dress up as Bob the Builder, he was pretty psyched. Even more psyched when we discussed that people would give him candy if he rang their doorbells and just said trick or treat. When we talked about how he would carry around his tools, he got the idea that Halloween involved a pah-ject when he would fix things, and he came up with the idea that he was supposed to ring doorbells and offer to fix people's doors for candy. "Trick or treat...can I fix your door?!?...Then I'm gonna bam! bam! bam! on their doors with my hammer!!" Points for enthusiasm, but I am not sure if the neighbors would appreciate all of the tiny dings in their doors.

The highlight of Halloween for AJ was getting to interact with our next door neighbor, who AJ calls Mr. Bwuce. Mr. Bwuce is the cool guy who is a professional musician by night and who loves to fix things around his house during the day. This is pretty much AJ's dream job--banging on drums and messing around with tools all day--super-cool. AJ obsesses about Mr. Bwuce and talks about him often, especially after spotting Mr. Bwuce up on top of his house patching his roof--"Mr. Bwuce was up high on top of his house!!! He had some tools up dere!" Once last summer when AJ was getting ready to take his nap, he spotted Mr. Bwuce in his backyard working on something on a table with a vice, or as AJ called it at the time, his bice. AJ laid in his crib for about an hour that day, talking to himself about Mr. Bwuce and his bice being completely unable to fall asleep for all of the excitment. So a large part of AJ's anticipation about Halloween was that he now had a legitimate excuse to talk to Mr. Bwuce--he was gonna ring Mr. Bwuce's doorbell and do his shtick about trick or treat and tools. So imagine AJ's utter delight when Mr. Bwuce's nice wife invited us in to their basement to see the real, live Mr. Bwuce practicing with his drums, vibraphone and marimba. AJ was simultaneously delighted and completely speechless about being in the presence of Mr. Bwuce.

David was an adorable little elephant wearing the most adorable Halloween costume ever handmade by his Grandma Francie. It was first made for AJ when he was four months old, so the 10 month old David was just barely able to squeeze into it. He was definitely not a saggy, baggy elephant.

We were lucky to have the boys' Grandma Julie fly in for Halloween on a last-minute good deal plane ticket. Hoorway for e-saver fares! We are all waiting on pins and needles to meet my sister's baby who is due tomorrow and scheduled to make her appearance on Tuesday at the latest. I promise to post picture ASAP. This will be the boys' first girl cousin. We are also waiting with anticipation to see our very first cousin, Baby Johnny, who is going to make his Chicago debut later this week.