Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving was very relaxing this year.  Last year I had everyone over to our house and LOVED it because I am some sort of a masochist, but this year it was nice to make a couple of side dishes and then enjoy someone else's cooking.  I have been feeling craft lately so I made felt turkeys out of Gideon's handprint and turned them into magnets for the grandparents.  I also made a couple for myself to put on a wreath.  I think I might do it every year so as to make a (slightly creepy?) turkey hand wreath:

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is the Macy's parade and since it was my morning to get up with the child I made cinnamon rolls and mimosas then Giddy and I settled in to watch the awesomeness that was the parade's 86th march to Herald Square. 

mmmm mimosas...

My little drummer boy

After the parade we all got dressed and headed over to Mac's parents' house for food, football, and fun.  Gideon adore's CC and JJ's house, partially because he adores CC and JJ and partially because it is a wonderland of toys.  They recently added Christmas inflatables to the list of awesome things at their house; I was surprised Gideon consented to leaving at all.  We took some family pics before we left.  They were really an exercise in toddler wrangling but I think they turned out all right.

We left the Edward's house around dinner time to go over to my mom's for pie.  Gideon was pretty much done with the day so we didn't stay long and once home he went straight to bed with us following not long after.  It was definitely a nice day.

Plaid Pair

This is how I like to spend my Saturdays:

AGAIN?!?!?

Guess who got the stomach plague again?  It really isn't fair.  This time daddy got it first and I really hoped Gideon would be able to avoid it but around lunch time he started acting weird.  I stripped him naked, picked up all his toys, and rolled up the rug just in time to avoid to much damage from Gideon Vesuvius.

Taken before it all went downhill:

The child was violently ill throwing up something like 12 times in 2 hours.  Worst night of my life.  

This family has had enough.  If you are someone you know feels remotely ill or has so much as seen someone remotely ill, then leave us alone.

Costumes

I went out to Target and Walmart and hit the Halloween clearance in order to fill up Gideon's dress up trunk.   The results have been pretty damned adorable.

Assignments

One of the funniest (strangest) things that Gideon has done lately is assign us all specific hats that we MUST wear, all the time.  So yeah, this was dinner tonite.

I am required to wear a giant sombrero, siiiiiiiigh.

Ta Da!

Today I was inspired by my buddy, The Pajama Mama, to let Gideon loose in front of my webcam.  This was the result*, **:

*edited down from 15mins to 6ish....you're welcome

** Please ignore my messy house and annoying voice/laugh

DST is a DB

We kept Gideon up past bedtime in an effort to ease him into Daylight Savings time.  I think it really helped but sheesh was he tired.

Rawr

Our neighbor came over Halloween afternoon and brought Gideon a present with candy, bendy straws, and stretchy dinosaurs.  It was a total surprise and completely made mine and Gideon's day.  I got out the package of dinos this morning but thought I might do the dishes before opening them so I could supervise Gideon better.  The creatures were all stretchy and I was afraid he would think they were food.  While I was in the kitchen I started hearing growling sounds coming from the living room.  It was Gideon holding the package of stretchy dinosaurs so the dishes were put on hold so we could play with our new friends.  I think all that Dino Dan is paying off because Gideon now makes some fairly realistic dinosaur sound effects.

Happy Halloween

Yesterday was Halloween, and in case you didn't know, it was only something like 3 hours long.  How else do you explain how quickly the day disappeared?  It was dark, it was light, it was dark again in the flap of a bat's wing.  Gideon and I started the day with Gramma at storytime.  If kids wore their costumes to the library they got a free book so storytime was packed with miniature ghouls, fairies, and robots, as well as a robust assortment of Disney characters.  Gideon wore his skeleton pajamas and got down Dance Macabre style (take that gangnam style)

Once we were home I made a mad dash to A. clean my house and B. put up the Halloween decorations that have been sitting in my study for 3 weeks.  Don't get me wrong, we totally decorated outside, but inside we had been slacking.  I hung up some bats, strategically placed a skull and even filled up the old spooky hand cauldron with candy before it was time to start getting ready for people to come over.

yep, I decorated Chloe

Mac and I totally dorked it up this year in true Trekkie style

Of course Gideon is the captain, since he runs the show around here

 

For the last few years our BFFs the Norris's have come over for Halloween which has allowed us to get dressed up and trick-or-treat even before we had a child of our own to harass and embarrass.

Can you believe that this child,

is now this child?

(BTW this child is amazing, she said please and thank you, and had an abundance of patience for slow adults and even slower toddlers; such a joy to be around!  And she CRACKED ME UP with her excited and periodic exclamations of "Meow!"  She is very method.)

The last couple of years my mom, sister, and niece have also joined us.  This year they brought Grampa Rock with them too!

This child,

has suddenly become this child,

Or rather this child,

 I mean this child,

She is one on-the-go little girl, which makes her  my favorite little wiggle but a little hard to photograph

This year Mac's parents also joined in on the fun of walking long distances in the dark and all of us old folks did our best to keep up with the kiddos.  It's funny because initially we laughed a little at ourselves for having a 3:1 child/adult ratio but we were pretty grateful for it once we got out there.

It was a night filled with pizza, candy, costumes and maybe even a little magic (but don't tell Justin) and it was over before I knew it.

That is one exhausted starship captain

At the end of the night Mac and I sat in the quiet house and had a hard time going to bed.  Next year the child will actually say "trick-or-treat" for candy (instead of just inside our house while practising) and he may even run off ahead of us instead of being carried around all snuggly and sweet.

He is no longer this baby,

and he won't be this toddler,

he will be our little boy.  I can't believe it, I can't wait, and I kind of want it all to slow down.
   

Super Gideon

Super Gideon is feeling much better today and has therefore been super busy

It was a loooooong night

Gideon is no longer taking Bethanechol.  We tried it for three days in hopes that it would help his reflux but the third night may have been one of the longest of my life.  His tummy was bloated from gas and he cried for hours, only stopping for a few minutes after a toot or burp.

Hello 4am, you suck.

Of course right around 3am Gideon's runny nose turned into croup.  Did I mention it was a long night?

This morning I called the on call pediatrician and he suggested I go to urgent care for the croup and recommended Acute Kids.  I will not be using any other urgent care if I can help it, this place was awesome!  Hand painted murals of knights, dragons, castles, and princesses covered every wall and the staff was kind, helpful, and polite.  The doc gave Gideon a dose of steroids and we were on our way, having only spent maybe 20 mins total from walking in to walking out.  Epic.

Right before we left for the doctor a delirious Gideon treated us to a song and dance show:





Later Gideon was feeling a million times better so we went out front to play a little.  Then he remembered he was sick and quickly became exhausted.  Poor kiddo really wanted to play but his little legs were giving out so we went back inside.

Spooky Halloween baby

Gideon was too sick for Gramma's Halloween party which was extremely disappointing and which means none of us have gotten to wear our costumes yet!  Finger crossed that Giddy will be well enough for trick or treating Wednesday.

(Lucky for us Gramma and Grampa surprised us the next day with chilli, cookies, cupcakes, and party favors.  It was almost like we were actually there!)

Fine art

I got pretty ambitious today and decided we were going to paint for real.  FOR REAL.

I prepared the table very carefully with plastic, tape, wipes, paper towels, and extra paper.

Then I got together a variety of paint supplies including apples and potatoes for stamping, cut up sponges, yarn, and leaves.

I let Giddy explore the bowl

He wanted to explore the apple further

Then he got down to the business of painting

Apple fail

yep, he took a bite

I think the objects were too much so we moved on to straight up hand to paper painting

Then he was DONE

Bathtime!

All clean!

Final works of art