Thanksgiving 2011

My fam always spends Thanksgiving in Pensacola, but since things have been so busy lately, we decided to stay home and have Thanksgiving with just us (and my brother). I love this time of year, I love the days off, the eating, music, shopping, basically everything. And, I am so thankful for the many blessings in my life.

We planned our Thanksgiving menu about a week ahead of time and got about half of it on Sunday. I was off Wednesday and Z's school was open (score), so I was able to go get the other half of our ingredients then. It wasn't until about 4 that we realized we didn't have dinner for that night, so I went back to Publix Wednesday evening (with Z) and picked up the ingredients for baked ziti. That was not so fun, but the ziti was great, and even Z ate it (which is rare). Nick had bought Skyrim for the Xbox and he surprised me with a Nintendo 3DS, which I now am thinking was a distraction for me so he and Faris could play Skyrim for hours at a time and I would be occupied. But, I appreciated it, and I played my share. We were trying to recreate Thanksgiving 2 years ago because we played a lot of Mario and Z slept though the night for the first time. It was marvelous, and I think we came really close.

So, on Thursday morning, I made a monkey bread recipe that I saw on Pinterest and Nick started on the (15 lb.) turkey around 12. It was supposed to be fresh, but we found out that the inside was a little frozen. Nick had to run hot water through it, but eventually got it ready, stuffed it and put it in. Well, I think we underestimated how long it would take it to reach the correct temperature, and how long it would take to make the 5 sides we wanted when they could only go in one at a time, because we didn't get to eat until almost 8 o'clock! And, even then, we had to cut the turkey off the top and sides because the insides weren't done. There was going to be no more waiting, because we were all getting a little testy by that point, but it turned out great and oddly enough, it didn't take much for us to get really full. We had pumpkin pie (frozen) and banana pudding (homemade, thankyouverymuch) for dessert. They were delicious!

After we ate and cleaned up, Nick and Faris played 'the game,' I fell asleep, and before we knew it it was midnight. I suggested they get out and get into the Black Friday madness because they were already up, and they probably would spend the rest of the night playing that stupid game if they didn't get up and go do something. They went to the Target/Best Buy/Game Stop area, and found that apparently people were not in the Christmas spirit. Nonetheless, Nick found a good deal on a TV and bought himself the Nintendo 3BS Zelda version (I'm not kidding, people). I totally approved both purchases.

He still got up at a decent hour and we did drop 'n go at the Y for Z and did more shopping at the Summit. Although we didn't really buy anything, it was nice to get out by ourselves. Then we went out that night to the Galleria while Faris played Skyrim stayed with sleeping Z. Speaking of sleeping Z, he slept great the whole weekend! He went to bed around 7:30, woke up at 8, took great naps and was generally a pleasant little Thanksgiving companion! We got a lot of sleep too (at least I did). I finally ripped the boys away from 'the game' got to start decorating the house on Saturday. We watched the Iron Bowl while we trimmed the tree, and Z actually helped.

All in all, it was a great weekend! We enjoyed the quiet before my WHOLE FAMILY will be here during Christmas and New Year's! We haven't all been together in SO LONG, and I can't wait, but I can tell you one thing, quiet it will not be. (Hopefully, I will take more pictures then, too).

Four Letter Word

Lately we have been hearing a lot of a certain 4 letter word around our house. The S-word? The F-word? No, the M-word: "MINE." Typically considered a harmless word, when utter uttered no less than 74,000 times a day, this word becomes infuriating! I'm not even going to speculate on where he might have learned this forceful exclamation of possession (a girl in his class), but I'm just going to say that I don't like it. And, I don't really know what to do about it either.

I understand that possession, i.e. Mama's pants, Baba's shoes, Zaydo's milk is an important concept to grasp, but geez does it have to be "My i-pag!, My Chee-O's!, My choo choo tain! My hair!, My nose!?" My nose? I mean, I'm not trying to take it from him or claim that it belongs to me! He usually takes claim of a body part when I am messing with it or cleaning it. I have been trying to combat it by saying, "No Zayd, we share!" Then he smiles sweetly and says "Share!" Sometimes, he'll hand it back to you, sometimes, he won't. Probably doesn't get it, but maybe one day that will stick.

You know, I just don't want him to become entitled and think he has a right to have anything and everything and that it all belongs to him. I guess the possession stage is just that, a stage. Hopefully, it will pass and we will learn something from it.

The other day he threw something (another ongoing problem), and I looked at him and said "Zaydd!" And he paused, looked down, then back up at me and exclaimed "TineOUT!" I said "that's right," then he said "go!" and he went. I had to stop myself from laughing. We have a designated little corner that he stands in for about 15 seconds then he runs back in for a hug and forgiveness. Again, not real sure how effective our method is, but it seems to be working for now.


Also, in preparation for potty training and so he won't be freaked out by poop, I tell him "Good job, Zayd!" when he poops. Well, now when I'm changing him he says "Good job, Zayd, poopoo." He also tells himself good job when he climbs into his chair by himself. He also, says "Aw, sweet" when he hugs you. He is becoming the great imitator.


I have not even picked up my camera in about 2 weeks. Sorry, but I'll get back to it soon.

Things, Lately

Well, things lately have been busy! I know I know everyone is busy, it's annoying and a bit cliche, but it's true! Nick and I have both been swamped at work (you know when my blogging is reduced that my work is increased), and to top it off Z was sick this week, the horror. No really, when Z is sick it's like a major family crisis, all family members are involved!

He woke up Monday with a fever of 100.8. We considered that low-grade, motrined him up and sent him to school. Don't judge me, we had no choice! My mom was out of town, and we both had mucho going on at work. Well, imagine my surprise when I got a call at 3 that Z had a fever (this time 102.9), dang it! In my defense, you know he got it from one of those children who's parents did the same thing we had to do. Yeah, I know not much of a defense. We're bad people, just get it out of your system.

So, I had to quickly finish up here, and run over to school Motrin in hand to rescue my sick baby. He was pitiful, pitiful I tell you! His cheeks were on fire, eyes red with dark circles around them and mopey as could be. It was sad. We decided it was a sore throat because he kept covering his mouth and saying/whining "mouthhhh."

Thankfully, I got to bring him straight home and snuggle with him, and he spent the next day with Nunna at our house. He was over it by Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Thank you Lord!

Now onto other things, the time change really messed us up. I, for one, think the government shouldn't mess with the time. I mean, seems a little out of their pay grade if you ask me. Z went to bed earlier to correspond with a normal time, but woke up in the middle of the night, crying you ask, no, singing. I'm serious, the child sang songs at 3 in the morning. In my half-dazed state, I could make out "twinkle twinkle" and "all aboard the choo choo train" (a favorite tune of his). We rarely, and I mean rarely go in there anymore, I mean he has to be crying like full on for more than a few minutes, and he really doesn't do that. Clearly, if he were ever going to, then Sunday night should've been it, because the next morning was when he had the fever. Would the singing have clued any of you in? Didn't think so....

We usually hear him singing or talking to himself in the morning too, and that's how we know he's up. I can't believe it, but he hasn't made his way out of the crib yet. We are planning on converting it to a toddler bed soon, but I have to admit the sense of urgency is just not there since he hasn't figured out/gotten the nerve to climb out, yet. I do, however feel it could be any day now.

He cracks himself and us up on a daily basis with his funny words and faces. He's really super lovable (most of the time, I mean, everyone has their moments right). We are disciplining with timeout, which is only effective sometimes. He also sends himself to timeout on occasion. Whenever he gets into something he shouldn't or spills something, he says "Zaaaayda!" Which is exactly how I say it. So, I do think he understands when he does something wrong.

We now have the routine of reading a book to him while he's in bed. It is usually The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which he has basically memorized. Then, we have to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while puppeting the hand motions on his 2 winnie the pooh's, and he joins in with his elmo. Then, he lays right down and knows it's time. That's not to say that he doesn't cry sometimes or stay up playing, but usually he knows that the routine means it's time to sleep.

Some funny things he's saying lately are
fire truck, which sounds like "a fiyer teee-RUCK"
"How 'bout??" then he fills in the blank with a food or song or animal he wants to make the sound to
When he hands you something, he says "Cake you, ya welcome"
He calls the TV, "teebee" and when he doesn't like something that's on, he says "no, no teebee"
He loves to request a show, then when it starts, he says no to it. We did this about 10 times when he was home sick.
He loves going downstairs and upstairs for that matter. We have taught him to go down the stairs on his bottom, so he goes to the basement door and sits on his bottom and waits for you to come open the door and go down with him. Of course, we have to go down on our bottoms too.

Sorry, no pictures in this post, I'm running out of room!

Trick or Treat!

We were so excited to take Z trick or treating this year. We were out of town during Halloween weekend last year, besides the fact he was only 1, so we missed it, but we weren't going to miss it again this year. We loaded him up in the wagon and headed over to the street one over from ours, that where all the action takes place, because it's the flattest and the longest.

Z loves "canny" and "chocate," but I wasn't sure if he would get the whole concept of trick or treating. I think he got it by the end, because he was saying "more, more canny's."

Don't you love how many uses we've gotten out of this Thomas outfit? I know I do!

Our very first house.

He was loving the big spiders on this house

Going through the loot

 

He just gave these tootsie pops one lick, then he was on to the next. I think Z's first trick or treat adventure was definitely a success!

In other news, I had my first EVER trick or treaters! We left a bowl of candy when we went, but then when we got back we had some musketeers and superheros ring the doorbell and much to my delight shout "trick or treat!" My heart smiled!

We never had any trick or treaters growing up because of where we lived, and Nick and I lived in a condo when we got married, so it has been my dream to hand out candy and it was fulfilled this year!!