Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We spent most of the day at Aunt Vicky's house. She hosted a lovely meal and everyone had a great time. We started off the day running a 4-mile "Turkey Trot" which then gave me permission to eat everything in sight for the rest of the day. Will ran around outside (the equivalent of at least four miles) wacking someone else's snowman with a stick and Reina stayed inside looking cute and entertaining grandparents. Here she is with Grandma Hansen. And here she is with her Pop-Pop. The Broncos played tonight and Vicky's color scheme was blue and orange. Very appropriate! I never had a chance to take the picture but Glenn and Pop-Pop wore the same shirt. They must have planned it beforehand!

Reina had a few bites of turkey and some sweet potatoes. Will ate too many appetizers so he barely touched his actual meal. The rest of us stuffed ourselves on really good turkey (it had bacon in it!), green bean casserole, cauliflower au gratin, and all the rest of the trimmings. Missing this year was Mom's famous Hansen family jello salad. It's been banned from Vicky's house. It's truly a weird concoction and someday I'll post the recipe here. Here's a preview - it has jello, cream cheese, celery, walnuts and I think mayonnaise.

Will was too busy today for me to get a good picture of him so I'll post this one instead. This is from his first Thanksgiving. We spent the weekend with Glenn's brother Mark and sister-in-law Maria in Omaha. I'm not sure why he was wearing a cowboy hat but he had a great time! Finally, Glenn and I are beginning to wonder if we are raising a hoarder. When we put Will to bed, his bed holds a few blankets, pillows and maybe a stuffed animal or two. When I go in a few hours later to check on him, this is how it looks. It's like a "Where's Waldo" puzzle, except it could be "Where's Will." Can you spot the fishing pole, hammer, truck, silo, TWO firehats and a gun? Extra credit if you can find the fireaxe.

This year, I'm very thankful for my wonderful family, both here and scattered around the country. I'm so blessed to have a great husband in Glenn and two kids who are more than I ever thought I could hope for. I have a nice house, a great dog and a few football teams who bring me happiness on a Saturday or a Sunday (or sometimes even a Thursday). I have wonderful friends and feel very thankful tonight. I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!

Glubs

A year ago, I worried about Will's language development. At the time, he was a man of few words and those few words were fairly undecipherable for people outside of his inner circle. These days, I cannot get the kid to stop talking. Will has opinions about everything and drops in a new word practically every day. His pronunciation can still be a little tough (glubs = gloves) but at least you can ask him questions to find out exactly what he's saying. Here are some phrases that we hear WAY TOO OFTEN:


Mama, I need you for a second!
I wanna tell you something!
Baby - go sit in timeout!
I don't want your help.
I don't want to go school.
I don't want dinner.
I don't want bath.
seeing a trend here?

Will is a lot of fun right now. He loves to sing and talk about a myriad of rescue vehicles (firetrucks, police cars, ambulances, helicopters). He's adapting pretty well to his new preschool class and hasn't had a potty training accident in more than a week (gasp!)

Reina had her 9-month check-up last week. She weighs 18 pounds (55%) and is 27 inches tall (45%). She's healthy and pretty much the smartest baby girl in the Rocky Mountains (my medical opinion). She's trying her hardest to pull herself up on the furniture and she desperately wants to play with Will's toys instead of her own. She's a delight and I fully expect her to start speaking in complete sentences within a week or two.

Reina Eats a Lemon

The following is an Aunt Vicky Production:

Reina is given a lemon . . .
Reina gnaws on the lemon for a really long time . . . Mean daddy takes the lemon away . . . Brother tries to get in on the lemon action and Reina is not impressed nor does she want the stupid cereal that is offered in lieu of the lemon. The preceding was brought to you by Aunt Vicky, who is responsible not only for taking the pictures but handing her a piece of lemon in the first place.

Pictures and random anecdotes

Here's Reina at our church's Halloween party a few weeks ago. I know, I've already posted a billion Halloween pictures but this is such a typical look for her that I had to include it. While she's usually pretty happy, she also has a serious side and you can almost see the wheels in her brain turning. Or maybe she's just tired of Halloween and wearing her fairy princess outfit.Okay, back to cheerful baby. This is how Will came down the stairs for breakfast this morning. Wearing his firehat, carrying his fire extinquisher, gun (aka gun-gun), giant foam sword and a doctor's stethoscope. He asked me to help him put all of his "stuff" (his words) up on his chair. Last night he went to bed with the firehat, gun and a Thomas the Train backpack. Will is a very busy kid. Speaking of gun-guns, this picture is sure to warm her Daddy's heart. Think we should submit it to the NRA? Don't worry, it's not a real firearm - just the pellet gun that we bought for Will's first birthday party. Yeah, I feel wierd just typing that sentence. Clearly she loves guns but hates having her face washed. Or wearing socks. Speaking of posters for the NRA - here's a picture of Will and Glenn when Will was 8-months old. That is a real firearm. Glenn was in the middle of hunting season and Will was helping. Finally, a little picture of sibling togetherness. Reina can stand up in her crib if we set her up that way - she can't quite pull herself up and I have no idea why I am encouraging her to do so. Life is a lot easier right now. I give her a couple of weeks though - this kid wants to do what the rest of us are doing. Will's trying to give her a kiss in this picture. He's been very nice to her lately. I watched the two of them playing together before dinnertime a few nights ago and it just melted my heart. I know I'll have years of yelling, crying and "Mom he/she's bugging me!" in my future, but right now it's very sweet to see their relationship start to develop.
Reina incognito.

Here are a few milestones from our weekend. Tonight, Will told me for the first time that I was being 'mean.' You just can't hear that enough as a mother. Yesterday morning, I was lying on the couch (with flu-like symptoms) and Glenn was in the shower upstairs when I heard the downstairs toilet flush. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom thinking that Will was goofing around and probably flushing the remote or my car keys down the drain when he comes walking out pulling up his pants. Yup, he used the bathroom all by himself. Shortly after that, he asked me for the car keys so that he could go meet his friends at the mall.

Halloween pictures

Here's a picture of Glenn's jack-o-lantern masterpiece of 2009. It's called "Lucy in repose. Or what she looks like when I wake her up at 3:00 a.m. to tell her that Reina is crying." Happy Halloween Toddler. Will's probably trying to negotiate how little dinner he needs to eat before trick-or-treating. At the end of the night he informed me that he wanted to "go home and eat my candy all gone." Nice try, buddy.

Reina looking cute and elfin princess-y. We took her to the doctor on Saturday morning and found out that she has another ear infection. The only clue was that she had two really bad nights of sleep in a row. No fever, no crankiness during the day, just a bad couple nights. I'm so worried that her mellow personality right now is going to translate into a craaaaaazy teenager in 13 years.

Here's the kids and their trick-or-treat friends, the two little Ashby girls. We took several pictures and this was the best one. Taking a picture of four smiling kids is a futile effort.

Will had a great Halloween. Once he figured out that there was candy involved, it was tough to get him to end the night. Hope your halloween was just as fun and candy-filled.