Thankful

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with my parents and Tyler yesterday. The turkey was scrumptious, everyone was full of good cheer, and we went for our morning hike. This year I'm thankful for my family, especially my husband who is currently hanging Christmas lights in the rain, my health, my job, my home, and that a new government administration is taking office in January (hopefully, our economy and the health of our nation will be stimulated by new ideas).

What's cooking

Initially, I was to do all the Thanksgiving cooking, but plans have changed, which is fine. Cooking 3 dishes is enough when there is a toddler underfoot. So I'm preparing pecan pie with cranberry sauce, regular old cranberry sauce, corn pudding, and rolls. The rolls I made a week ago and are in the freezer, so they don't count towards today's chaos. Ethan and I have already made one emergency run to the grocery store (I was short a third of a cup of corn syrup for the pecan pie). Ethan has been bribed to play by himself with a mylar balloon. It is 11:30 and all I've made is the pecan pie. I'm hoping some elves or Aida wash the dishes in the sink so I can start on the cranberry sauces.

I swear I feed my child

Ethan is definitely a toddler (stubborn, willful, funny, demanding). Most of the time Ethan and I just hang out at home and read stories, play, and do chores. He is a breeze when we are at home or when we go grocery shopping. It is times when we need to do something out of the ordinary that I am suddenly reminded that he is a toddler. On Sunday the whole family got dressed up and went to the mall to have a family picture taken for holiday cards. Well, Mr. Ethan wanted nothing to do with having his picture taken. There were tears and attempts to make a run for it out of the store. Luckily he has a tell before he makes the dash. He gets this huge grin on his face and then races off. As I tried to coax my child to sit still, it struck me how I had this preconceived notion that we would have our picture taken and Ethan would sit where I wanted him to and smile on command. Hard to believe I'm still naive after being a mommy for 20+ months. We managed it though. At the end of the picture taking, I noticed Ethan with a plastic Christmas garland. Then I noticed he was trying to eat the berries off the garland. By the time Josh pried the garland out of his mouth he had bitten off two berries, which Josh made him spit out. Maybe he was hungry or just trying to exert some control over the situation. But I swear I feed him.

Hair cut

Before

After