Thanksgiving 2016!

I know it's been two months since I've posted. I'm still getting used to this working thing. So, please be patient. I do think I'll get back to the point where I can post once a month instead of once every two months. Maybe.

For now, let me just tell you about our Thanksgiving this year.

It was relaxing and fun. Not a lot of time outside, but just a little to work up an appetite after the Macy's parade. Grandmary was with us, and we all enjoyed the family time.

Sophia wore herself out practicing goalie in the park. So Erick generously carried her back up the hill.

The rest of our weekend was more of the same time of relaxing and fun. We got up all the decorations, and put our tree into our newly orange room.

Sundays at the Art Museum are Family Fun Days, so we try to go there when it works out. This Sunday they had the chance to decorate ornaments for their tree and ours. I couldn't think of a better way to spend a chilly Sunday afternoon in St. Louis.

Tomorrow, it's back to work and school. Just like every other family in this stage, we're all a little melancholy. We have a longer break to look forward to, of course, but it feels like it might be a long month. Hopefully I'll have the chance to tell you something more in the meantime!

Happy holidays!

Let Down

My body let me down. Although I really shouldn't say that. I got through the majority of this month with my health, even a workout thrown in now and again.

I'm sick now. A cold or something nasty. It hasn't kept us from having a good time, though, for the most part. Mary came over for our Thanksgiving Dinner from Dierberg's. Yummy as ever. This morning, we headed to the farm where Sophia takes lessons so she could get in one extra, since she's been sick too.

It was chilly but worth it.

Now Christmas is up around here. I'm finally starting to feel in the Christmas spirit just a tiny bit. Erick and Sophia take such sweet care of me when I don't feel well. It makes me that much more grateful for them.

Maybe now that things will potentially resume some normalcy, I'll have a chance to blog more. I'm not even sure what I'd write about, but I'll give it some thought.

Hope everyone's holidays are off to a beautiful beginning.

Great Start to the Holidays

We have already had a fantastic start to our holidays. If the rest of this season is anything like the start, we are in for a really good time. 

Last weekend, we went to Springfield to see my family. While there, we visited Silver Dollar City during my favorite time of the year there. The Christmas lights are the perfect way to really get into the spirit.

Sophia had a wonderful time with my parents.

And during the Thanksgiving holiday, she had a wonderful time with Grandmary.

Thanksgiving morning, we went to watch the Thanksgiving parade downtown St. Louis. It's chock full of great high school marching bands. Here is Sophia snapping along to one of the passing songs.

Today has been a full and fantastic day, too. Shopping this morning, but not till we had hung out for a while at home. Once we got home, we decorated our apartment for Christmas. Here is the teamwork to get the star on the tree. We have so much fun.

Here's our apartment all decked out in its Christmas apparel.

The rest of the day was spent as the beginning - relaxing. Our plan for tomorrow is more of the same. Erick and I bought Jenga last night, and it's been the hit of the day. I expect we'll be stacking and dodging a lot this weekend. Hope everyone's holiday has been filled with food and laughter.

The First Thanksgiving

almost...

Last night, the Kindergarten cohort of Captain hosted a Thanksgiving Feast, which included performances by our children dressed as Wampanoag Native Americans and Pilgrims. They got to choose for themselves how they dressed.

This whole unit, which has been the entire month, maybe even before Halloween, has just been so much fun to hear about. Sophia is way into this thing. I hope she hangs onto this interest in history. The story itself is so compelling that I don't blame her for bursting through the door in the afternoons just aching to tell me some additional nugget that she learned today. I'm going to miss hearing about Squanto, Massasoit and Samoset now that it's all over...

Anyway, last night was a great time. The food, which was the whole Thanksgiving deal, was surprisingly delicious! I loved hanging out with Sophia's classmates and their families.

Erick got a couple of videos of the songs, so if we get those into accessible form, I'll be sure to share!

Thanksgiving Adventures

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Erick's mom came to spend the holiday with us, and enjoyed the perfect balance of relaxation and excitement.

This is our second year in St. Louis for Thanksgiving, but our first trip to the downtown Thanksgiving Parade. It was a chilly and windy morning, and we did wait for quite a while for the parade to begin.

 

But it was quickly worth the wait. Sophia waved at everyone as they passed.

 

And she got up close with several of the parade participants. All in all, it was a great parade morning.

 

Our second and most exciting adventure was last night when we went to see Mamma Mia at the Fabulous Fox Theatre. We had bought tickets for Mary's birthday in October, so we've been looking forward to this for a while.

 

Sophia just loves getting dressed up for a big evening out. She was sweet and excited and so much fun to see the show with.

 

We all followed Sophia's cue and got fancy for our night at the theatre.

 

At the end of the show, everyone was on their feet, and Sophia was dancing in the aisle - once she caught her breath from the excitement.

 

It has been a wonderful start to our holiday. I spent the day today not feeling too great, but we still managed to get our decorations up before I took a nap. I can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store for us!

The Flavor of Snow

It really is true. Snow tastes delicious. On Thanksgiving Day, we had a brief and exciting little snow storm. We got out and ran around in it. Sophia required our participation in running up and down the street with our tongues out. The rest of us decided to keep our eyes open, but Sophia thought she got better results with her head completely back. Of course, when she put her head completely back, the snow got in her eyes if they weren't closed... Lucky for Grandmary, she was here to participate in the spectacle.

Now we're all hoping for some snow to test out a great hill just a block from our apartment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday today, celebrating and eating, eating and resting. That's what we've done. Lots of fun and relaxation. As I type at a computer in a room full of windows, I am feeling very grateful for many things. I am thankful for this apartment. It is hours away from where I expected to be this Thanksgiving, but it is already starting to feel like home. I'm thankful for the heat and electricity that I sometimes take for granted. I am thankful for the many friends I have made who are willing to go through the pain in the ass of having a friend in St. Louis. I'm thankful for Skype. I love seeing the faces of my friends in Seattle and look forward to regularly seeing the faces that have made up the background of my recent life. I'm grateful that Erick has a job that pays enough for me to stay at home with Sophia. I am so thankful that Sophia is almost always a joy to be around. I'm thankful that Erick's job also pays enough for Sophia to go to preschool in the Spring. Family, friends, conveniences, my soul - these are all things that I am thanking God for today. The list is a lot longer than most attention spans, so I'll call it good.

I am thankful for words. Beautiful, ugly, powerful words. I am thankful for you.

Restful Weekend

Our weekend was so relaxing and refreshing that it's hard to believe we've had a sick kid for a few days.

Thanksgiving Day we drove to Kansas City and back to spend the day with Erick's mom and extended family. It's always fun to reconnect. Sophia loves her family. She hated leaving, especially because there is a boatload of kids there. Lexie, in particular, makes for a very good partner in crime. Lexie turned three in July, and the two of them are as cute as they are ornery. Wish I took my camera.

Friday, Sophia was still just a little coughy, but all together doing fine. So after nap, we took her to Grandmary's house and had a long luxurious date. Dinner, movie, shopping. Perfection.

Then, Friday midnight, or is it Saturday, regardless, she woke up with croup. Now, I haven't blogged this fact because I didn't want to jinx anything, but now it's broken, so I can tell you. The winter of 2007-08 was awful. Two pneumonias, too many croups to count, colds constantly. She was on breathing treatments at least twice a day. Last year, however, Sophia didn't go to the doctor once (aside from the burn). We haven't used the nebulizer for breathing treatments for over 18 months. Until Friday. She's been on several breathing treatments a day now.

 

No more croup, just a continual cough. I hope to get in to the doctor today to be sure there is nothing extra that we're dealing with.

Seriously, though, in spite of, or maybe because Sophia was sick, we had a fantastic weekend. We stayed at home pretty much constantly. In our pajamas. Yes, Sophia's are Spongebob.

 

We got takeout for supper because we didn't want to be the ones with the coughing kid. We played and played. I remember now that Sophia is quite possibly even sweeter than normal when she is sick. We got so many cuddles and kisses and hugs. She was a big time Daddy's girl but she still prefers her mama when she needs some comfort or to sleep an extra little bit at nap.

It always helps our weekends when the Tigers win. But when they win over the Jayhawks to keep them out of a bowl, it makes our weekend, week, month, etc. Sophia watched the end of the game with gusto. I had to hold her for part, and as I wandered away, she said, "Mom, I wanted to watch the Tigers."

 

I just loved this weekend. It's a shame that Sophia wasn't feeling well, but it didn't seem to affect her fun at all. I could do with some more weekends that we do as little as we did during this one.

Grateful is an Understatement

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Rarely am I without words. When I try to put a name to all of the things that I am grateful for, my mind tends to black out with overpopulation. That's an easy way out, though, so here I go. Just a drop in the bucket.

I find myself most frequently grateful for Erick. Sappy, but true. There are no words to describe how grateful I am for the fact that when he isn't home, I know he wants to be. That's not to say that there aren't times that he leaves to have fun or work on relationship with friends. At those times, we're both grateful for other reasons. But, even then, I know that he is happiest when with his family, and for that I am so very appreciative.

I'm so glad that he and I tend to agree on politics, religion, music and TV shows. On the former two, we have enough opinions that differ to make for good discussion and constant learning. Because if we agreed about everything all of the time, I wouldn't be very grateful at all. Then I'd have to go exclusively elsewhere for all of my heated discussion, and that just isn't any fun.

There are many, many more things about Erick for which I'm grateful, but I'll save those for another day.

As I listened to Sophia scream for the first twenty minutes of her "nap," I realized just how grateful I am that she still naps. That's all I'll say about that one since it may be over anyway.

But I am incredibly thankful for the fact that when I am away from Sophia, even on a rough week, I miss her. I'm grateful, mind you, for the opportunities I have to get away, but it is nice to know that I always look forward to being home. Feeling her ever longer arms wrapped around my neck. Nothing makes me more grateful for those moments than the ones I have away.

Sophia feels loved, and for that I am so thankful.

I'm grateful for modern conveniences. There's no denying it. That's all I need to say about that, I think. You know what I mean, and if you don't, I don't want to rub it in...

Maybe more than anything in my life, I am grateful that I am known. That there are people around me who care enough to pause when I pause - just to see what it is that distracted me. Because even if they weren't distracted, they know me better after the experience. I love that there are people who will listen to me ramble for seemingly hours on the finer points of theology or society or pets or furniture even when I don't have something important to say. I'm thankful for people who love me in spite of my sometimes oblivious and thoughtless ways. I work hard to be thoughtful, and occasionally I'm successful. But the people who know me love me even when I'm not. That is incredibly liberating. I think I'm grateful for the freedom to be myself. I am, on most days, entirely comfortable in my skin. That is a beautiful thing. That is not to say that I don't work hard at improving myself. I'm not perfect, nor do I strive for perfection. Most of what I work toward is to more perfectly love others, allowing them to be free and comfortable in their imperfections. I thank my God for taking pleasure in my imperfections as much as he enjoys my few accomplishments.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Weekend of Firsts

This was a big weekend for Sophia. Not only did we have a great holiday in Kansas City, Sophia had several winter firsts (at least as a toddler). One first that she had, was completely unrelated to winter. On Friday, Erick and I let Sophia watch a 30-minute show on DVD and told her it was the last TV till bed (when she does her breathing treatment). Usually, when her video ends, she comes to get me, but this time, we heard something different. Sure enough, when we went back there, she had switched out DVD's all by herself!! She was getting ready to start a new movie by herself since she knew we wouldn't help. I was very impressed with her dexterity, not to mention her observation of button sequences. She still had to be done with TV, though. I'm a tough mom.

The rest of her firsts were much more enjoyable for me. When we got up on Sunday morning, there was a fresh blanket (albeit a thin one) of snow. It was the first snow that Sophia could remember, and she was very taken with it! So we bundled her up and took her out, where she made and threw her first snowballs.

I don't know anyone who likes to play in the snow who doesn't also love a good cup of hot cocoa at the end. So, this was another first. Sophia's first cup of hot cocoa. She didn't drink very much of it, but she certainly loved stirring it!

The biggest deal came after nap. We decided at the last minute to see what Sophia would do at a movie. Madagascar 2 is out, and since she knows and loves the characters, we figured it would be a good first try. Look at this big girl!

We were really amazed at how well she did. She made it through the whole movie without a problem. A few times at the beginning, we had to remind her of using an inside voice. "What's Alex doing?!" and "Alex lost his daddy!" were pretty loud inside the auditorium. She settled down and enjoyed the show in no time. It was so much fun that I have no reason to expect a repeat performance that well for years. I'll just enjoy that one.

Needless to say, it was a marvelous weekend. We were sad to see Erick off to work this morning, but only a few weeks until we get to do it all again!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in the Kansas City area with Erick's family as we typically do. Wednesday night, we stayed with Andy, Julie and Alexis. She's about three months older than Sophia and they had some fun together. Most of this fun was had while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Like most little girls, they loved the opportunity to dance and twirl for an audience.

They got along pretty well, but they were mostly just two cute little blonds who were used to having their turf alone, so they did have their challenges.

As always, Sophia was comfortable in the big crowd of family Thanksgiving. She had lots of fun by herself,

and playing with her cousins.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as happy!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a full weekend, and it seems like we're back to regular life far too quickly. Sophia is on antibiotics for an ear infection, so that has added new twists and turns to our sleep schedule. Fortunately, she has been as sweet as imaginable, so it was even harder for Erick to return to work this morning.

We spent Thanksgiving afternoon at Erick's Aunt Lindy and Uncle Rollin's house. That was lots of fun with lots of family. The rest of the weekend, we spent on our own in Kansas City or with Erick's cousin Andy, wife Julie and daughter Lexie. We had lots of fun shopping and hanging out together.

Of course the highlight of the weekend was the Tiger victory over the Jayhawks. That's for a separate post, I think.

It was a wonderful weekend. Although, I think I could have spent more time being thankful. I guess I'll just have to make up for that this week!

Thanksgiving

I tried to think of a clever post for Thanksgiving, but I couldn't come up with anything. Like most, I'm thankful for the gifts in my life and for the love of my God, family and friends. We're traveling to Kansas City to spend the day with Erick's family. Then we'll hang out long enough to catch the MU v. KU game on Saturday. Well, Erick will catch it. I'll be in the motel room watching on TV with the rest of the world. Boo hoo. Hopefully it's just a good time with no stress. Right. Anyway, we're looking forward to our four days together as a family, although Sophia is getting over an earache.

I hope that everyone's Thanksgiving is filled with love and joy. We'll be thinking of you all.