Im a Fan of Tryptophan

It’s so Nice…Let’s Have it Thrice!
Well, Thanksgiving hit us once again. Three times (not counting the early dinner with Great Gma Young). We had the first dinner with my folks. Reesie slept through most of it though. She did wake up a few times long enough to get some oooohs and ahhhhs from the family. Henry found a Burger King paper crown and wore that most of the time. He ate practically an entire can of black olives from his little fingers and spent a good deal of his time playing with Grandpa Brent’s trains, his obnoxious singing fish and watching Frosty the Snowman. He also ate pumpkin pie with whipping cream. Not the most nutritional meal, but hey, it’s the Holidays. Reese got her first try of rice with her formula. Yum! She loved it.

After we pried Reese out of Grandma JoAnn’s arms, we gathered ourselves up and drove up to Morgan to celebrate at Grandma Granny’s house. Henry didn’t want to leave Brigham City too much, but after promising him he could ride his bike with Cousin Lexa at Granny’s house he was more than happy to oblige. We were the first ones to arrive at Granny’s, but the crowd wasn’t far behind us. Reese was held by just about everyone, especially Uncle Jake whose about to become a Grandpa in a few weeks. Henry decided it was time to eat and loaded up his plate and ate potatoes, turkey, stuffing and whatever else Cousin Lexa was eating. He said he wanted to be just like her. The rest of the night was a blur with Henry and Lexa (age 9) riding their bikes, playing on the swing set, four wheeler riding and playing Uno. Pretty sure Henry was cheating.
Saturday, Jeremy and I fixed our own Thanksgiving dinner (which we usually do in late October and call it “Dry Run Thanksgiving”). Since we had it later this year, we called it Thanksgiving: The Trilogy and invited Karly over for dinner. She hung with Reesie while I tended to Henry who had come down with a knarly cold Friday. As usual, Jeremy outdid himself on the bird, but Henry and I had to leave in the middle of dinner to get him to the insta-care. Turns out he has an ear infection. Poor little guy. He was more than happy to be at the doctor’s office though.

Wishes Do Come True

Saturday night, Henry and I broke the wishbone from our turkey. Henry was victorious and we asked him what his wish was. After a brief pause, he announced that he had wished for cheese and butter. So we gave our little dairy fan what his heart most desired....a piece of cheese and a pat of butter.

Sweetness and Mischief

Sweetness is Her Name
Oh, my! Could Reese be any sweeter? I submit that she could not! And, I don’t mean sweet as in the general description you hear about most newborns, I mean sweet as in that is actually her personality! She has the best disposition, just chill, mellow and content. I wonder if she gets that from Tim or Keely? Maybe both?

Reesie just loves to look into your eyes as you feed and hold her. She loves to have her hair stroked and enjoys her baths too. She does the cutest little “ahhh” expression when she recognizes me or Jeremy. She opens her mouth a little and raises her eyebrows as if to say, “Ahhh, there you are.” I thought I even caught her smiling once, but I couldn’t be sure.

Thumbs Up

Tonight, Wednesday just before Thanksgiving, Reesie had a bit of a sour tummy. Her burps were acidy and she was for the first time fussy for longer than 2 seconds. Jeremy held her in a Superman position and just walked around the house with her. She didn’t let him sit down with her, but preferred to be on her belly, suspended and touring the house. Later, I fed her and was holding her as I lounged on our bed, talking to her while she drifted off to sleep. She positioned herself in a way that her right hand was up near her face. I then heard the sweetest, most satisfied little sigh and as I looked down I could see her sucking her thumb. She was so happy! I watched her for about 20 minutes when she suddenly let out a huge burp. She gave me a little content “gas smile” and drifted off to sleep. Awww, even when she doesn’t feel the best, she’s practically perfect!

Clothes Horse Alert?
Reese’s two favorite things in her room right now are her Ikea flower night light (so cute) and her closet. I kid you not. The night light, I totally get. Henry even loves it. It’s so fun and lights up her room with this calm pink glow. When we feed her at night, it’s positioned perfectly so she looks at it just over our shoulder.

The closet thing though, that has me a little worried, but secretly excited! Whenever I sit her up to burp her, she lifts her head to take in her surroundings, but her focus stays on that closet, which is usually open. Now, I will concede that her closet is colorful and filled with beautiful clothes for Reese. This mix of color most likely catches her interest visually. But isn’t it fun to think that she loves to look at clothes already? I prefer to think it’s the latter.

If You Love Something…Set it Free or Lock it Out
Childproof locks on doors and gates? Ha! This is nothing for my soon-to-be three year old. Monday, I picked Henry up from school and his afternoon teacher informed me that he had escaped through a gate during afternoon recess outside. She told me “one of the children” opened the gate from the inside of the yard and a few of the 2-year-olds made it out into the parking lot and the sidewalk. Of course I was alarmed and I explained to Henry in front of his teacher that he wasn’t to go out of the gate. The next morning Jeremy dropped him off and I asked him to talk to the morning teacher (who we know a little better) to get more explanation. Boy did we get one! It seems our little angel has figured out to pick the child proof gate and open it up from the inside. Mind you, this is a task that the teacher said is difficult at best with two hands of a grown up. They watched him pick it to be sure it was him, and sure enough, our little man has street skills and can pick a lock…and fast! Of course, they said they would have to figure a new method of securing the gate, but the school is placing an extra teacher at the gate during recess time to deter Henry from picking the lock.

Now to my lock it out portion of this entry. Last week Henry was a little disruptive during his gymnastics class. Needless to say, we had to leave a little early and he was not at all pleased. I heard how mad he was at me (although to his credit, he said “I upset with you, Momma”) and how unfair it was that he left early. Once we arrived home, I pulled into the garage, got him out of his car seat and went around to get Reese out of hers. I told Henry to go inside and take his shoes off. I should have known something was up, when he looked at me and then took off running into the house and slammed the downstairs door to the garage. I then heard a click. I knew all too well that was the sound of Henry turning the deadbolt to the door to the locked position. I ran to the door holding Reese in her car seat. Yep. Locked out. I could actually hear Henry running up the stairs and down the upstairs hallway! I banged on the door and told him to get downstairs now! I even called our home phone and once the machine picked up, I told Henry to get downstairs and open the door. His footsteps were just as loud and fast as he ran down the stairs and opened the door for us. He slowly opened the door just a crack and peeked out, smiling. He looked so cute, I couldn’t be mad at him, but we did have a long talk about not locking doors. (P.S. I did have keys to the door, but I wanted Henry to know that if he locked me and his sister out, he had to let us back in!)

Holy Crap...It's (WAS) Halloween!

Funtivities
Our family was busy this Halloween season. Let me walk you through the weeks, days, hours and minutes leading up to Halloween night….

Black Island Farms:
Attended: Twice
Rating: Super Fun
Highlights: Henry nose diving head first down a slippery slide made from bales of hay and rigid plastic, Corn Sandbox (unpopped popcorn kernels), Corn Cannon (just what it sounds like) and a giant inflated jumping pumpkin.
Lowlights: Having to leave.


Syracuse Pumpkin Walk:
Attended: Once (with our neighbors)
Rating: Very Fun
Highlights: Fun pumpkins carved into all sorts of designs, going with the Shafers and Henry wielding a flashlight around like a lethal weapon.
Lowlights: Haunted “tent” with clowns and according to Henry “a scary monkey”.

Dinosaur Park:
Attended: Too many times to count ( Even Reesie went once!)
Rating: Way fun
Highlights: Free candy, dinosaurs and night, spooky dinosaurs and spooky dinosaur sounds.
Lowlights: Trying to come up with new and inventive reasons to tell Henry as to why we can’t go the Dino Park every day

Trick-or-Treating:
Attended: Many, many houses in the neighborhood, several aunts, Grandparents and school
Rating: The coolest
Highlights: Candy, Reese's first Halloween, Henry as a cowboy, watching Henry run down the sidewalks yelling “tick or teat” to strangers, Paige as “The Werewolf”, Aunt Karly as the devil and Henry answering the door for two hours straight handing out candy to other children.
Lowlights: none.