Thanksgiving(s)

This week was full of all sorts of Thanksgiving festivities for the whole family and we celebrated the heck out of this holiday. Good thing I absolutely adore turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie! It all began on Tuesday, when Ellie's school had a Thanksgiving feast. I (was) volunteered to cook the turkey, so Luke and I took on the task on on Monday. (Luke was really not that much help). On Tuesday morning, I took Ellie into school, then came back to the house to carve the turkey and make gravy (because it's much easier to do without a two year old under foot) and then turned around and took it back up to school (all the while carting a sleeping Luke with me). It was a little hectic, but in the end it worked out well. I was supposed to stay and help serve the kids but there were already a ton of helpers and not much room for all of the extra people so Luke and I were dismissed.

Apparently Ellie had a fabulous time and even tried lots of foods that she doesn't normally eat. When she got home, she told me that she ate "turkey and ketchup" and then she said she had "carrots and ketchup". I thought that it was completely disgusting that they would even offer ketchup to eat with turkey and carrots, but it turns out that "ketchup" was actually cranberry sauce. And man can my girl pound down some cranberry sauce! I think we found her new favorite food.


On Wednesday, Luke and I cooked yet another turkey (this time with the help of my parents and both Luke and I weren't much help) and went to the Thanksgiving feast at the school where Marty and I work. (Ellie went to spend the day and night at Oma and Opa's house.) Everyone at work was very excited to meet Luke, and Marty and I showed him off proudly (many of the students commented that they'd never seen a baby with "orange hair" before). All of the students and their kids were there eating and dancing and laughing, so it was loud and chaotic...but Lucas slept through the entire thing. For about three hours he snoozed while he was being passed around from co-worker to co-worker in rooms with tons of people and blasting music. He certainly did not get the light sleeper gene!
The kids with their second cousin Cassin
On Thursday, Marty, Luke and I headed down to my Aunt Lanny and Uncle Floyd's house where we met up with Oma, Opa, Ellie and my dad's side of the family. Ellie once again indulged in lots of cranberry sauce and she also tried both the apple cranberry pie and the pumpkin pie. Both of the pies had dairy in them, but she seemed to think that the resulting rash was worth it. Many of the members of my family got to meet Lucas for the first time, and Ellie got to play with her second cousin Cassin which was really fun.



On Saturday we had our final Thanksgiving celebration of the week, this time with Marty's family. We had a lovely evening hanging out and Ellie had a particular blast spending time with her cousin Abby, whom she completely adores. On the way home on Saturday night, Marty said to Ellie "Did you have fun at Thanksgiving at Gram and Granpas house?" and Ellie responded "I had pie!!"

I think that says it all.

Hair and Noses

As I have mentioned (and as you have seen) Elise has been "follicle challenged" pretty much since birth. A few months ago she started growing hair like wildfire...in the back (she still does not have enough hair on top to make a pony tail or to hold back with a barrette). Unfortunately the hair she was growing was growing first like a mullet and then like a straggly rat tail. Marty and I discussed cutting off her rat tail, but I have to admit I was hesitant to do so. When your child only has a very limited amount of hair and everyone constantly thinks she's a boy it seems mean spirited to chop off what little hair she actually does have. In the end, Marty finally convinced me that it would be better for our child to have no hair than to have a rat tail. He was right, but I now understand the old men that are bald with pony tails i.e. Michael Bolton. When you have little hair on top it's hard to part with what's working for you in the back.

Anyway, a few weeks ago after bath time, Marty unceremoniously chopped off Ellie's rat tail, thus giving her her very first haircut! I must admit, it does look much better - she looks less like a redneck and it brings out her adorable curls. People think that she's a boy just about the same amount that they did before (all the time) so it doesn't really make a difference on that front. I don't think she'll ever be recognized as a girl until she gets a pony tail or a barrette, no matter how much pink she wears.

Speaking of boys, Lucas has developments in the hair department as well. Actually it's not developments so much as it is hair loss. Lucas was born with a full, thick head of reddish-blond hair that has now begun to fall out at an alarming rate. It's not that I am finding tufts of hair in his crib or in the drain of his baby tub, but his hairline has receded to the point where he looks like a middle aged man and it's thinned out to the point you can see his scalp. Just when I thought we were going to have a child with hair! He has also developed a mean case of cradle cap (in his hair and eyebrows!!) which may be what's leading to the hair loss. Luckily it doesn't seem to bother him.

Gram and Lucas
Last week, both Ellie and Luke had colds. They were both in pretty good spirits despite not really being able to breathe. (I, on the other hand, got their cold and was completely miserable.) If you do not have a child you don't really understand what it is like when a child has a cold. You see a child with a runny nose - whether it's fresh or crusted - and you think "that is so gross - why don't they wipe that kids nose?!" I know that you think this. I thought this too. And then I had a child and now I get it. You DO wipe the child's nose. A bazillion times a day. But 1 nano second after you wipe it, there is more. And 70% of the time (or more if you have a particularly feisty child) wiping your child's nose it is an out and out battle. And the frustrating thing is that it's a battle you can never win because even if you DO get a good wipe, the clean nose only lasts for a few seconds. Then it starts all over again.

Ellie has started to want to wipe her own nose (often voluntarily on her own), which is nice, but it usually just means that she just sort of wipes the mucus across her cheek and it makes more of a mess than if her nose just ran uninterrupted. And we are grateful when she actually picks up a tissue to complete the task. In an effort efficiently tend to her faucet nose, she'll do quick wipes with her hand, her sleeve or - my personal favorite - my clothes. Preventing this from happening takes a lot of nagging and still doesn't make much of a difference. Having a toddler with a cold certainly keeps you on your toes.

But having an infant with a cold is interesting too. His nose doesn't run, he just gets very congested. And unfortunately not being able to breathe through his nose gets in the way of his two favorite activities - sleeping and eating. I feel so bad for him when he has to take little breaks while eating so that he can breath through his mouth.

He'd gotten 100% better (completely congestion free for several days) and then the other night in the middle of the night (of course) he woke up at 2am so congested he couldn't breathe at all and struggled for a little over two hours. I tried everything I could think of to ease his congestion, and in the end I am not really sure which of the 50 things I tried actually worked but he eventually was able to breathe again and got back to sleep. In the morning and next day (and since then) he hasn't had any other congestion issues so Marty and I are wondering if maybe that severe congestion was unrelated to the cold he had last week and perhaps instead some sort of allergic reaction. The only thing I'd had that was different from the usual was that that night I'd shared a beer with Marty. But the jury is still out as to whether it was a reaction or just a random two hour congestion. If he does have an issue with beer - well that is certainly something I can avoid and hopefully he'll be avoiding until much, much later in life anyway.
Oma and Opa with the kids
I have a feeling that these first colds of the season are only the tip of the iceberg of a long winter of lots of illnesses for all of us! So many nasal adventures to come...

P.S. Luke update and more Ellie hilarity

P.S. Luke Update: Things are pretty much the same in Luke's world. He is still going 3-4 hours between feedings at night and 2-3 hours during the day. Like everyone else in the family, he's been congested this week, but the illness just seems to make him sleep more (if that's possible!) He's been smiling more and even sort of laughing but not that hilarious baby laugh yet. This week he officially outgrew his Newborn clothes and moved into 0-3 months clothes. He's getting longer and definitely feels like he's put on weight. Still no sign of allergies, though like Ellie he does have super sensitive skin that seems to react to harsh detergents and soaps. I was already washing his clothes in Dreft, but now I am also washing all of our shirts in Dreft too because our detergent was making him rashy from laying his face on our clothes. Figures, because we just started being able to use ALL Free and Clear with Ellie, but now we're back to buying the super expensive detergent. It's worth it though!


P.P.S. Ellie Hilarity: Anyone that has lived with me probably knows that I like to make up nonsensical songs to describe what I am doing as I am doing it (especially in the kitchen) or sometimes to sing answers to questions instead of talking. I can't carry a tune or anything, but I love sing-talking! Well, apparently this is a genetic thing, because Ellie has taken up this ridiculous habit.

On Wednesday night, while I was patting her back right before bed she sang this little ditty which is sure to be a Billboard chart topper one day:

This is my Mommy
She had my brother in her tummy
I love my little brother Lucas
Mommy feeds Lucas all the time

Ellie reading to her "little brudda"

Toddler Wit and Wisdom: Volume Two

We think that our daughter just might be headed for a future as a stand up comedian. She is constantly cracking us up. Here are a few things she said in the past few weeks:


On Halloween, we were walking around the neighborhood in costume (Ellie was a dragon) and Ellie was very interested in the other children that were dressed up. We passed a little boy in a skeleton costume and she said "That's scary." I said, "You think his costume is scary?" Ellie replies, "He's scary. Ellie is adorable."


We always read a few books before Ellie goes to bed. Like most kids, she likes to hear the same stories over and over again, so she knows most of the words by heart. We often ask her to finish sentences to "help" us read. We were reading her current favorite, Ferdinand, and got to the last page which says "He is very happy" which she has "read" to us dozens of times. One night, Marty asked what it says on the last page and Ellie looks at it as though she was reading it and says "I love me."


Marty and Ellie were raking leaves outside and Ellie was helping stomp down the leaves in the bag. She thought it was fun to be in the bag, so she sat down inside. Marty put his head in the bag with her and Ellie said "I love you Daddy. Go away."


In the car, Ellie commented that the sun was in her eyes. When we turned the corner, the sun wasn't in her eyes anymore:
Ellie: "The sun went away."
Meredith: "The sun isn't in your eyes anymore, but it's still shining."
Ellie: "It's Shoshana?"
Meredith: "No, the sun is shining, not Shoshana."
Ellie: "Where's Shoshana?"
Meredith: "She's at her home in North Carolina."
Ellie: "Why?"
Meredith: "Because that's where she lives."
Ellie: "Why North Carolina?"
Meredith: "Because she wants to live there."
Ellie: "Ohhhhhh. Oma and Opa live in Delaware."


On the way to the aquarium, we stop at a traffic light about 1 mile away from our house. Ellie says
"Are we at the Aquarium?"
"No, not yet."
Pointing across the street she says, "Is it there?"
"No, that's not it." I say and Ellie thinks for a second and says,
"It's too far away."


We were getting ready to go to the Aquarium so Marty was preparing some snacks while Ellie and I were playing downstairs. We came upstairs I asked Marty what he packed for S-N-A-C-K - spelling it out because if you mention a food usually Ellie will say she wants it. So Marty tells me, "I packed A-P-P-L-E-S and G-R-A-P-E-S and "P-A-N-C-A-K-E."
Ellie says "I want some C-E-E-R-O's!".
She may not have spelled it right but she was definitely talking about Cheerios. Marty and I were pretty terrified that she cracked our spelling code talk! For a child that sings her alphabet like LMNOP is one letter, I must say her spelling skills are pretty impressive!

Week 5: Family Travels

Luke and I have pretty much been shut-ins for the past 5 weeks. Basically, it's hard to get out of the house when your baby needs to eat every two hours and you are so sleep deprived you don't want to do anything other than lay on the couch. It's even harder to get out when you only have one car and your husband takes it to work every day. I try to take a walk with Luke either in the stroller or the Baby Bjorn every day, usually taking walks up to the grocery store or the library or the post office. But the weather has been so erratic that it isn't possible to do every day, even though I have gone out on little jaunts in the rain with him a few times just to get some fresh air. Almost all of our outings have been walking because we don't have a car during the day and because we have so many things that are within walking distance of our house, we don't really need to get in the car.
Uncle Wolfe and Luke
On Saturday, we were going to attend my sister-in-law's baby shower at my parents house in Delaware (1.5 hours each way) then on Sunday attend a birthday lunch for Marty at his parents house (1 hour each way). Before this past weekend, we'd taken Luke in the car only twice - once to BJ's and once to Babies R Us (both are 20 minute car rides) - over the course of his short life. So as we approached our weekend of lots of car travel we were feeling a little nervous. As you may remember, Ellie HATED the car. She cried and cried every time we got in the car, sometimes even for entire two hour trips. It made going anywhere in the car completely miserable. Elise has only just recently begun to be a good passenger in the car, so the idea of starting over with a baby that hates the car was terrifying. What if he cried the whole time and got Ellie to revert back to her old ways?!
Next three pics: Ellie, cousin Abby and Luke; Great Grandmom and Luke; Cousin Kamryn, Ellie and Luke
But, it turns out that we had nothing to worry about because Lucas is one of those babies that seems to love the car and is lulled to sleep! For both of our trips, he slept the entire way. On the way home from Delaware he was crying when we first got in the car but then passed out the second we hit the highway and slept the entire ride. Stuff we only dreamed about when Ellie was an infant. This makes the prospect of traveling with two children in the future so much more enjoyable!

Both of our visits were great too. A lot of my family members got to meet Luke for the first time and a lot of Marty's family got to spend some quality time with him. In addition, Ellie got to visit and play with her second cousin Kamryn and her cousin Abby, which she absolutely loved. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of my brother and sister-in-law's baby in December, who will be a great playmate for Luke. We are hoping for a boy so that poor Luke will not be completely surrounded by females dressing him up in princess gear and the like.

On another note, Luke is doing a little better with sleeping at night - now he's going 3-4 hours between feedings at night, but still sticking to 2 hours between meals during the day. Lately he's been eating and going down around 11 or 11:30pm, then sleeping until 3 0r 4 am and then sleeping again until 6 or 7am. He's staying awake for a little longer periods of time during the day and is doing a little better with head control and focusing on faces and toys. He also seems a lot more alert when he's awake. In other big news, he started smiling this week! He has the most precious little smile with adorable dimples and everyone in the family is having fun trying to bring the smile out.