Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving, mostly because for me, it's a low-key, low-work holiday. Christmas lasts for at least a month. Even Halloween lasts for weeks with all of the carnivals, costume parties, etc. Thanksgiving is just one day. There is no pre-Thanksgiving party. You get up in the morning. You cook. You eat. It doesn't seem that special.

But yet it is. For me, it reminds me of my grandfather. I'm not sure why. It is the only holiday that we typically spent at my grandparents, so that might have been part of it, but there is more.

I think part of it is that he really appreciated a good meal. He enjoyed Thanksgiving, and was always incredibly grateful.

It's too bad Thomas never got to meet him, but since he passed away in January 2009, and Thomas was born in February, I'd like to think their souls passed somehow. Here he is, enjoying his first great-grandchild, Anne Marie.

From great grandparents

HALLOWEEN! and no camera

It is so sad to be cameraless on Halloween. I am going to re-create Halloween tonight with my brother's camera, but for now I will just tell you I had the cutest little Rapunzel and dinosaur ever. You don't have to take my word for it- Anne Marie won second place at the Boo at the Zoo costume contest, and Thomas won fourth. Anne Marie was adamant that we not miss that contest. She said, "I REALLY want to walk on stage!" Ah, that girl.

Working Mommy Wednesday

 


Share a blog or website that you’ve found meaningful and rewarding to visit (if it's Pinterest please share why this has become such a raging fad).

I don't know if it's meaningful, but there is one blog that makes me laugh every single time I visit.


http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/

This thing is really funny, and probably the most normal-sounding mom stories on the Internet.

As for Pinterest, I really like looking at the pins of my friends. Then I pin things, but never go back to look at them. Maybe someday I will use it more/better.

Crying

What was the last thing your child cried about? Write a blog post about the problem in the voice of your child.






I don't know if it's the age in her life, or if she is just a teenager in a 4-year old's body, but my dear Anne Marie cries ALL THE TIME. Sometimes, it's totally legitimate:

From Emily Juggles

Other times, like this morning, it's not so much.Thomas was feeling particularly grumpy, and so he shouted, "SISTER, YOU ARE NOT IN THE CAR!"
I would like to write it from her perspective, as the prompt requests, but I have absolutely no insight into the 4-year old psyche. She knows her brother is sometimes a 2-year old ball of stark raving mad. Why does she care if he says she's not in the car? I will never know.

Working Mommy Wednesday

How do you carve out personal time for yourself?

The short answer is, I don't sleep. My kids usually aren't asleep until 10- by then, I want to do more, but what I end up doing is watching TV and checking e-mail, then sitting in a coma until about midnight or so, then collapsing until work. It's pretty lame, really.

Any ideas?

Working Mommy Wednesday- Holidays

The last quarter of the year is full of amazing holidays.  What is your favorite?  Halloween, Thanksgiving, Talk Like a Pirate Day or Christmas?

We love them all!  Anne Marie and I are so alike in that respect. Every time she hears an event advertised on the radio, the first thing out of her mouth is "Can we go?" She (and I) doesn't want to miss a thing. I'm a little crazy about it. It kind of freaks me out that I might not be able to take the kids to both our downtown trick-or-treat and the zoo trick or treat. And, although I complain about the fact that Anne Marie's t-ball and soccer land on the same night, I also get a small, min-rush from having to rush to make both.


For photos, however, Halloween beats out Christmas and Thanksgiving, hands-down. Thanksgiving always means pictures of people eating, and Christmas is often in pajamas with wild hair sitting near a tree. Here's some funny ones from last year:

From Halloween 2010

A duck and a butterfly. Here's Anne Marie, showing off her wings.

From Halloween 2010

Game Face

From T-Ball

This girl has her game face on. Also, when did she get to be six feet taller than other kids her age?