Jolly Old St. Nick

We didn't really celebrate St. Nick's Day as kids, but Ellen's family did and I always thought it was cool. I even had one or two St. Nick's Day gifts show up on my door when we lived together. Being that Pete and I each have a healthy amount of German blood in our veins, it seems an appropriate tradition to start in our family. So last night Henry set his slippers outside his bedroom door. This morning, when he awoke at 5:33, he immediately wanted to check to see if St. Nick had left him a treat. I convinced him to stay in his bed until 6:00 (he now has a digital clock in his room) and then he bounded out to find a little chocolate santa and a penguin toy. Being the awful mother that I am, I made him wait until after his nap to have his 'Nick treat". Being the wonderful son that he is, he let me nibble on Santa's boot. We had planned to also use this day to make pfefferneuse, but that plan was derailed by the late arrival of the Sears guy coming to do a free oven check-up. I guess peppernuts can wait until the weekend (as we have other big plans for tomorrow). Now Henry wants to know if he can have another "Nick Day". I'm not quite sure how to reconcile "one St. Nick's day a year" with Santa coming in a few weeks....if it's confusing to me, it's got to be confusing for him!

In other news, Henry also demonstrated a new "exercise" for me today. He said "Mom! Let's exercise!" I probably said something like "Okay, you go first". Anyway- here's what he showed me....and allowed me to get on video. The first time he did it I laughed out loud.

Photo Make-Up Session

There were no photos yesterday, so I'm making up for it today...
Here's our tree when we first put it up on Sunday morning. Notice the little elf underneath. He was very excited for Daddy to "cut the string off!!!!"
And here are the two, checking on lights.
Monday night, after we found out the baby isn't breech, we celebrated at Dave's Italian Kitchen. It always makes us miss Evanston. Here are a few images from Dave's, all decked for the season (you can't much tell, but there's a string of colored lights running behind the bottles lining the room):


Linus. Just because she hasn't been feeling much love lately. We got a bunch of snow last night. About 6 inches. Here's a view of our backyard. You can see that we never quite got around to putting away the patio furniture this year.
I did some frozen meal stocking up today at Trader Joe's and Oh My Goodness.....get your hands on some of these!!!:
And here's our tree, still only partially decorated. Pete and Henry were supposed to be working on it while I made dinner tonight. Any time I looked in Pete was on his Blackberry or looking at some other thing from work.
Henry was hard at work decorating, though. Here's a close-up of his technique:
Just in case you can't tell- that's about 8 ornaments, all hanging from the same spot- off the light wire. The boy certainly has his own vision.
And for those of you who are keeping up- today was a good day for Henry at school!

Toddler and Baby News

Pete and I spent last Thursday through last night feeling pretty anxious because our midwife thought that this baby might be breech. We were very pleased to learn from an ultrasound last night that the baby is in the vertex position. No need for an external version like we had to have with Henry! The ultrasound tech also took measurements to estimate the size of the baby. She thinks it's 6 or 7 lbs. right now. It will gain a half to a full pound a week from here on out. So it's likely not going to be any small baby. No surprise, that. However, Kathy (our midwife) also thinks (from certain indicators) that the baby is more likely to come early than late. But one just never knows. I'll probably teach Pete to update the blog so that when the baby comes you can see some immediate photos.
Henry did tell us at one point that he thought the baby was coming before Christmas. Our official due date is December 31st. We could use the tax break at this point. And I'd like to see the baby in the cute little holiday socks that Aunt Joyce couldn't help but buy us.
Henry has also been helping prepare us by throwing everything at us that he possibly can. He had the never-ending cold a few months ago. That wrapped up with ear and eye infections. After Thanksgiving he developed another cold, which didn't last too long, but spurned some vomiting on Friday night. Sunday night he decided to try out a body rash. All of that on top of a new, but serious, separation anxiety any time we drop him off at pre-school, has really made for some fun times. Oh, and today when I picked him up he had not only cried for the first couple hours, he also grabbed another kid because he didn't want him playing with the red dinosaur. I don't quite know what to do with all of that. He loved the place for the first few months! He likes his teacher and we talk about all the other "happy parts" like singing and playing with the toys. We've read The Kissing Hand and he takes his blankie and Dory. I even tried a sticker chart to 'encourage' him to cheer himself up. Any other tips?

Poinsettia and Comet

We usually like to chop down our own Christmas tree if we're able to. But Pete's had a sore back for a couple of days and I can't do much heavy lifting. Plus, we had some nasty weather come through yesterday so we wanted to do things easy and close to home. And when Sharon told me about the reindeer at a local nursery, our decision was made.
Here's the little 6-month old reindeer that was there. Her name is Poinsettia. Look at her darling little antlers. I love those tiny little things!
Henry really liked the "prickly" reindeer the best. He's sort of blocking it in this photo. It had little pinecone eyes and a pinecone tail. The tail almost looked a little bit like it could have represented something else, but this is a family blog...
And here's Comet. He was tired. It's hard lugging those antlers around so early in the morning, I imagine.
We also got a lovely Fraser pine, which is making our house smell like Christmas. I'll share pictures of that once we start decorating. Right now it's sucking up water and trying to determine what its final shape will be.

Images from Thanksgiving...

With my computer being out of commission, it's taken me a while to get back to blogging. I've finally put some pictures on my work computer and am ready to share.
We had an amazing Thanksgiving this year. Henry, of course, turned 3 the day before Thanksgiving. We took the train to Burlington that day, were picked up by Uncle Tom (who was in from Salt Lake City) and taken to Aunt Joyce's for some birthday mac and cheese and the traditional family angel food cake.
We did a little food prep. that night and got up and did a little more the next morning. Pete caught this lovely shot of me helping Mom make the spiced apples. Eventually we made our way over to the bed and breakfast which we rented out to fit the whole family.
Alexandra and Emily had helped Joyce set up and decorate the day before. We had a total of 7 tables, and a mix of china, silver and glassware. Here's the kitchen, early, before it got too busy. My cousin Russell and Uncles Tom and Bill were working on carving the 3 turkeys. Here we are after everyone sat down. Well, almost everyone...you can see Aunt Jan still taking pictures, and my mom making sure Henry was okay.
I had my food, though. Two plates full. Everyone helped with the food. Sandy and I did the green salad, Will made butter. There were two kinds of green beans, corn from Aunt Joan's dad's farm, the traditional homemade noodles from Aunt Jan. When I saw the layout of pies I wondered, momentarily, if I should try to have the baby so that I would have more room in my belly. Here is a sampling of some of the pies. My favorite was the walnut pie Wanda made. Uncle Jim said he thought she had won some sort of Pilsbury prize for it or something....
And finally, here's the whole crew. There were 43 of us total. My mom and all 7 of her siblings, my Great-Aunt Jean from California, most of my 16 or so cousins, and their families. You can see my big belly there in the middle with Aunt Jean, and Henry and Pete behind us. Mom, Sandy and Eleanor are at the very top of the steps.
Thanks to Aunt Joyce for getting us all together! It was exactly the way a holiday should be.

So.

It seems I've run into a bit of bad luck with computers lately. My hard drive, new just in April, has failed. The Genius at the Apple store (no, I'm not being facetious, that's what the fixer-folks are called) said there was nothing I could have done to have prevented or caused the failure. So I guess that's a bit of a consolation. They will replace my hard drive, as I'm still under warranty, but I've lost months of photos, among other things. We have one last hope in the talents of a guy Pete works with, but that's a very slim hope.
That's my update.

So is Me!

Sitting at breakfast, here on Henry's third birthday, we just had this conversation:

Mom: I'm so excited to take the train today!
Henry: Mm-hm. So is Me!

We're off for our Giant Family Thanksgiving Adventure pretty soon here. My computer is a little sick, so I won't be blogging for a while. Wish me luck with file recovery!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Almost Three

We had a nice, mellow birthday party for Henry today. Just the beginning of his birthday celebrations...this boy is going to think that people just always have multiple birthday parties. Today was just for friends. We'll have family dinner on Monday night, when the grandparents and Auntie Liz and Van can join us. And then we'll have to celebrate a little on his actual birthday as well. Part of our celebration will be taking a train trip! We're excited to head down to Burlington to see lots of family!
Here are some images from the party. Sinead chose the smallest chair for herself, even though she was the oldest at the "kid" table. That's my belly sneaking into the frame to serve up some fruit salad.
We all moved to the big table for cupcakes.
Rhiannon helped to make sure that all of the candles were safely extinguished.
Here's a little bit of an aftermath shot. We had actually just moved into the family room. You can see that there was some fun with trains. You might also notice that I'm a fan of balloons.
And here Jakob and Rhiannon help Henry open a gift. Who's bigger, me or Donna? She's due this week. I still have over a month to go.
Thanks to Pete for taking some pictures and allowing me to actually be documented at the event! He is out tonight with his parents. Our babysitters were all booked, so I had to miss out on Liz's performance. I did have a nice evening with Henry though....once he got over Papa leaving. We ate another meal in the dining room and then played with his new Pla-doh farm. We had a conversation about writing thank-you notes. I suggested that he might draw some pictures of the toys he got and he talked about what he would draw. I then said "and then we can send them out!" and he got all worried and looked at me and said "but can I keep it?" Poor little guy thought I meant we would send the toys back!
Thanks to Henry's (and our) friends for a pleasant little party! I can only hope that all of his parties in the future are so nice.

Words

I've been unpacking books and repacking folders and binders from graduate school today. So words are on my mind. Here are a few moments of print that have given me pause lately:

The dessert menu from the Japanese restaurant where Pete and I shared lunch a couple weeks ago. The second item is my favorite.
The side of a box which is in our third bedroom. The box currently contains framed pictures we haven't found a place for. Its former occupant was a bit mushier.
And the poetry on my refrigerator. I don't often enough have people over who seem interested in rearranging the words. If you happen to be around during the holidays/baby time, please, feel free to compose.
And now back to my book....The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. I still like the name Willa for a girl....

Happy Birthday Pete!

Henry and I had a busy day! We got up in time to catch Pete before he left for work, and convinced him to go for a birthday breakfast at Egg Harbor. I'm all about their pumpkin pancake combo right now!
After kissing Papa bye-bye and wishing him a Happy Birthday, Henry and I had lots of running around to do. When we got home we started work on the birthday cake. We let it cool during lunch and napping and then Henry did the decorating. You can see here that he also helped to lick the spoons.
After gift wrapping and much dish washing, I finally managed to get myself in the shower just before Pete got home. We met his parents out for dinner at an awesome place called Matty's Wayside Inn. I should have taken a picture of my prime rib. My goodness, it was huge. I don't think I need to worry about being low on iron anymore. Here's a picture of the family. There are several things to note: A)my belly B) the homey German decor C) the stripey-sweater boys.
Here's a shot of our very friendly waitress. She's practicing to be a grandma for the first time in April. She became Henry's best friend when she split Pete's free birthday sundae so that Henry could have his own dish and candle. Henry even let her wipe his face later....after he licked his bowl.
Here's Pete with his proud parents. They shared happy memories of 34 years ago. Pete was born around 4 in the morning and Peter Sr. still went to work that morning. Some people are crazy. I'm not saying who.... (thanks again for a delicious dinner!)
Peter and Mary had to go off to choir practice, so we came home and had cake and opened presents on our own. Henry was a little bit wound up with all the cake and ice cream, but I think he's finally asleep now.
Happy Birthday Pete! We love you bunches.

What's Happening Right Now

Here's what's happening in my house right now...
Mom is sorting through baby clothes in Henry's room. She's not enjoying it. I swear, I thought she would thrive on this job....that's why I gave it to her.
Linus is trying to keep her paws warm under the heater. Did I mention we need a completely new furnace? Hooray for home-ownership!! Good thing we're so wealthy....oh, wait...
Pete is sorting through plastic containers and lids, and eating a piece of toast.
Henry is napping in our bed, but I dare not take a picture, for fear of waking him. Franklin is taking a nap on the couch. I don't mind disturbing his slumber a little bit....


Me? I'm not sure what I'm doing. I've been trying to put the bathroom together and organize things a bit in the 3rd bedroom. Mostly I put a couple things away and then just stand and look at things, not knowing what to do. I guess that's why I'm taking a blog break.

Two Halloween Videos

I'm trying two ways to share videos. The first is standard YouTube, the second is just using Blogger's video upload. Let me know if you notice any difference, or have a preference.

Here we are getting ready to carve. Henry drew a challenging template for me.


And here's Henry getting ready to go out for his first few houses, while we were waiting for Grandma and Bampa and our friends to come over.

A Very Penguin Halloween

I guess I'll start with last night when we carved the pumpkins:
And then I'll skip ahead to tonight, when Henry watched for trick-or-treaters out our door....
Then after a bit Jonah came over to do some trick-or treating...
They had a blast running up to the doors. I think they could have gone all night.
Sinead and Rhiannon are back from South Africa, so they came to see Henry. South Africa won the rugby world championships while they were there, so Sinead is dressed as a rugby player.
After pizza and caramel apple and a little It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! we posed for a couple more pictures.
We didn't even have to coerce Henry into putting his costume back on.
And now he's sacked out in bed. Before drifting off I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. Without even having to think he said "trick-or-treating!!!!"

Candy Corn Cookies

(I'm writing this Sunday night, but letting it post Monday noon- so adjust your reading accordingly)

I found this idea in some home and garden magazine that I was perusing at the library one day, while Henry played train.
I used refrigerator dough, because sometimes it's okay to cut corners....
But I turned it orange with a hideous amount of food coloring. Also added a little extra flour to offset the coloring, and almond flavoring because that's the key to good sugar cookies...even 'fake' ones. Yes....it really is that orange.
I couldn't find a candy corn shaped cookie cutter, except in a giant box of assorted Halloween cookie cutters. I already have all the basic Halloween shapes, so I wasn't going to buy the box- no matter how cheap it was. I cut these by hand, and kind of like their charming misshapeness. Also, don't they look like Doritos? Or giant Cheezits?
Here's the pumpkin guy I made for Henry with the leftovers.
Here are the final results. Tops dipped in white chocolate, bottoms in semi-sweet. Pretty cute, I think! I'll send them off to various places tomorrow. I'm not sure how I'll package them though. I've finally used up the purple Saran Wrap I've had for years.
In the meantime I have a little container of melted chocolate re-hardening in the fridge, which might make its way onto caramel apples or bananas or some other such thing for dessert tomorrow.