Super Stuff on a Monday

So very THANKFUL for a truly fantastic Thanksgiving week, full of family and friends and fun!

1)      We made our annual pilgrimage to the zoo on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  (We go to the zoo much more often, but we went last year the day before Thanksgiving, and the zoo was almost deserted…it was great!)  The weather was beautiful, and we had a great time hanging out with our animal friends.  I love the simple pleasures of a trip to the zoo!

2)      On Thanksgiving we worked with the kiddos to make a “Thankful Tree”.  The trunk and branches were traced from their hands, and I had planned for the adults to write what the kiddos were thankful for on leaves.  Baby A insisted on writing her own leaves!  Of course we had to spell everything for her, but she did an amazing job!

3)      We took the girls to the nicest restaurant in town on Friday night.  I was a little nervous, but they did great!  We all enjoyed a delicious meal, and no one pulled the tablecloth to the floor…or set a cloth napkin on fire…or broke any glasses.  Success!!!

4)      Daddy decided to work with the girls on phone manners.  They did pretty well with “This is she,” and “May I take a message, please?”…but the hilarious thing was hearing them try to make the “Brrrriiiing!” of a ringing phone.  B, in particular, had the funniest guttural growl.

5)      The girls were acting very silly before breakfast one day.  Unsatisfied that he wasn’t joining in the acrobatics in the den, B said, “Daddy, you need to do something silly!”

6)      It’s amazing what a box (or two) of new crayons can do for our household.  The girls love to color these days, but when they have nice sharp crayons, they can go at it for hours, it seems!  The girls invited Daddy to join in the fun, and – much to their complete delight – he accepted their offer.  I had to laugh at the colors he chose, but the girls didn’t mind a bit.

7)      The girls do their best hide-and-seek when Daddy is orchestrating the game, but they were trying to play by themselves one morning.  They just can’t resist talking to each other.  B might be searching for A: “Sissy, where are you?”  And A would say, “I’m not supposed to talk now!”

8)      The girls had their first pomegranate this weekend.  B liked it, but A was downright smitten.  She was double-fisting the seeds as quickly as Daddy could clean them.  I think she would have eaten an entire pomegranate if we’d let her!

9)      We were reading in the den one day, and at random, B said to me so sweetly, “Mommy, you made me feel better when you read to me on my blanket when I was sick.”  (I am tearing up just typing that!)

10)   We bought “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” over the weekend.  After we read it through once, B said, “You can read it again and then I’ll try to learn to read it.”  I didn’t realize she made such a concerted effort to memorize books…although she does do a crazy-great job!

11)   Daddy took the girls for a ride on Sunday morning.  They came back for a potty break, and then we were all heading to lunch.  While I was with B in the bathroom, she told me very excitedly, “Mommy, Sissy has a big story to tell you when you get in the car, about her living in a pond!"  Apparently they’d been making up tall tales as they rode.

12)   And so many quotes!!!

B, after lunch out on Wednesday:  “I can feel this going into my intestines.”

A, seeing B doing something she wasn’t supposed to:  “No, Sissy.  Mommy and Daddy would not appreciate that.”

B, seeing A practicing writing B's name:   "You are the sweetest sissy I have ever seen."

A, while working on a puzzle of the United States, planning where she’d like to go:  "I want to start in Louisiana, and then go to New York, and then to Kansas, and then we'll come home to Kentucky. And then we'll go to Washington, and California, and then Nevada. And then we'll figure out what we want to do next."

A, commenting on a broken hanger in my closet: “The hanger lay broken on the floor.”  Her syntax (which I later recognized from a book) cracked me up!!!

[Looking at my list, it’s very clear that Daddy was on vacation for five days, huh?!  We got to spend a lot of great, relaxed family time together.]

...and now I'm so excited to kick off the Christmas season with my baby girls.  I just know this is going to be the best year yet!!!