Well, November came and went and was generally cray cray. The weekend after Lukie's birthday I zipped off to the Twin Cities with three girlfriends for a mommy's getaway weekend. Which is now on the calendar as an annual event. The timing couldn't have been better and we all needed a little getaway. The weekend was summed up by us all being grateful that the only tushies we had to worry about for 48 hours were our own. Imagine?!?
The weekend after that, Matt started de/reconstruction on the world's ugliest half-bath. Buh bye purple walls, cracked toilet, and 80's lighting. Helllllllllooooooooo chrome and marble. Well...hopefully by Christmas helllllooooooo chrome and marble. Who's the lucky little elf who will receive the highly sought-after yellow faucet for Christmas??
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| you better hope you've been nice this year! |
So while daddy started in on the bathroom, I did my best to keep the kids well out of the way. It was a great weekend so off we went for a little time outside. Turns out, Boo Boo loves the trike. Sure he can't reach the pedals and has come precariously close to toppling right off of it, but most of the time he hangs on pretty well and enjoys spending his time trying to get the bell to 'ding!'.
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| mom, have you seen this? it's the coolest |
The weekend after THAT, was of course Thanksgiving. We loaded up the family truckster Wednesday afternoon and hit the road to Rochester. The kids were pretty good until the Dells but it was dinner time so that was understandable. But the worst part of the drive - that segment of hell between LaCrosse and Rochester - was indeed unpleasant. Lukie would not sleep and wanted nothing more than to get out of his seat. Genevieve complained that he was keeping her awake; I wedged myself between the two of them in the backseat to try to console everyone; Ralphie was drooling on everything in the trunk; and Matt was happily staring off into space, pretending he was on a tropical island with a cocktail and a swimsuit model. All in all, it wasn't the worst drive we've ever had.
And even though they were all hopped up on adrenaline upon our late arrival, the kids actually slept well Wednesday night (which, btw, was the end of that). Thursday came and GG was all ready to help prep the bird!
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| making him fly |
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| if you won't let me touch the bird, i shall grab whatever else is in reach. |
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| teaching her young |
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| sticking her arm in the cavity to shove the butter in there. it got a big 'ewwwwwwwww!' |
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| ready to roast this gobbler |
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| headed to the playground while the bird cooks. what a gorgeous day! |
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| crazy driver |
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| watching everyone prepare | | |
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| yeah, this looks like only good things can happen |
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| drinking out of a real glass and feeling very grown up |
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| bon appetit! |
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| boo stalking daddy during his annual post-thanksgiving-meal-flop |
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| i'm full too, daddy! |
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| annnnnnnnd...........this is where matt explodes |
In addition to the general massive spoiling of the children, the real benefit to traveling to Roch is their chance to be as loud as humanly possible
with permission. Enter Uncle Grant:
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| luke's omnipotent tongue might be his attempt to be all gene simmons |
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| little girl, ready to rock |
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| noise! |
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| big finish |
Lukas took the opportunity over the weekend to learn a few new tricks. First, how to take years off my life:
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| hey mom, is this ok? um no, it is not. |
Second, how to go down the steps backwards (an actual useful trick).
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| off i go - toodles mom |
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| doooooooooooown i go |
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| peek! i surprise you! |
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| the only thing better than thanksgiving dinner is thanksgiving dinner and cupcakes. |
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| she jumped for like half an hour at the festival of trees. happiness for all involved. |
Meanwhile, we had some Mandatory Family Fun on Friday night, posing for family pics. It's been probably close to 20 years since we've done this, so yeah, it was time. The photographer came to us and kept saying things like "Ok, on two, I want you to say 'Turkey!'" which was benign enough. But then he got to "Ok, on two, I want you to answer this question....one, two, does Jesus love you?". Grant and I were trying not to snort and I was trying to say "yes!" to get the kids to smile. Ugh. Friend, know your audience mmmk? As I told Grant, overall it was only like 70% awkward. So: success!
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| coming to a christmas card near you |
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| lukie sums it all up |
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| winner winner! |
So a few other November notes. Besides learning to do the steps both up and down, Lukas has changed SO much in the last month. He's now working on his 14th tooth. That means he's gotten one every other week for the last seven months. Which explains a lot. He is now a champion walker and loves to 'run' towards me and Matt if we outstretch our arms. Which is of course the best. We've been blissfully bottle free for a few weeks...I swear if I never wash another bottle it'll be too soon. His new favorite game is that Tupperware shapes ball, and he has an absolute FIT if we don't give him his own utensils to use at meal time. He's actually getting some traction with the spoon too. Future chef? He's starrrrrrrrrrrting to use a few 'words'. He can say 'night night' and makes the appropriate sounding grunts to tell me what sound the dog makes or what a baseball is. He can follow commands like 'blow a kiss', 'swing your arms', or 'brush your teeth/hair', and is starting to be able to point out objects in books when I ask. He loves to play this little game where we put him on the bed and pretend we're going to get him, and he just flops backwards into the blankets and laughs like he's the funniest thing ever. What a difference a few weeks makes!
GG meanwhile has decided to skip the rest of her childhood right before our eyes. She recently requested taking
showers which I find to be a really big deal. We let her shower on "hair washing nights" and she really thinks she's hot stuff. But I still force her in the tub with L a couple nights a week to continue soaking up the cuteness. She's now regularly using slang as part of her vernacular which is hilarious. Specifically in reference to her favorite summer hit, Call Me Maybe, everything is now 'so bad'. Mom, I have to pee so bad. Mom, I really need a snack so bad. Mom, I want to watch TV so bad. She also speaks her own language and makes up her own words
a lot. Then she will translate for us. She says she's speaking French, Spanish, or Italian. Best of all, that little squirt is learning how to really try to manipulate her situation. This conversation now happens frequently:
Mom/Dad: Genevieve, sit down and finish your dinner/clean up your toys/wash your hands
GG: But MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM/DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD
M/D: WHAT?
GG: I just want to hug you and say I love you.
M/D:
silence
Foiled again.
Clearly, she is buttering us up for Christmas. We have stuff going on every weekend this month - so more to come!
