It’s my favorite holiday time! I get a week off work, the weather is usually not terrible, and I get to eat Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. I am thankful for so many things this year, but I am not going to list them all because I don’t want to forget anyone or anything. We ate Thanksgiving diner at my parents and it was delicious. In fact, we have been eating a lot of goodies lately, beginning with cookies Fi and I baked to celebrate John’s becoming a US citizen on November 15, cupcakes we made for my mom’s birthday on November 24, pumpkin pie and pecan pie at Thanksgiving, latkas, Chanukah gelt, an edible arrangement sent by a friend, the best Rice Krispy Treats I’ve ever had at my cousin David’s house, and of course all of Thanksgiving dinner. It’s been a whirlwind month of eating, I tell you. It’s amazing any of us can still fit into our clothes.
We enjoyed a nice week at home. Fi’s school had a Harvest Festival right before Thanksgiving, so of course she had to re-enact it at home:
Everyone sat around while Fi read a book and many animals, including an alpaca named Stewart and a miniature horse, paraded by for petting. Her little green chair is now the Harvest Festival potty, so no one can sit in it unless they have to go.
Fi also built all sorts of things with her legos. This is either a robot, a sailboat, or a bridge:
Fi drew a triangle on her mini MagnaDoodle:
She is starting to intentionally write letters on paper. Sometimes she can make a very good M or L or various other letters, but she focuses mostly on those because M is for Mommy and L is for Love (she likes to “write” I love Mommy on things). She is also beginning to draw animals that actually look like what they are supposed to be. And it seems she is becoming left handed when it comes to the drawing and writing, but right handed with other things, like scissors or throwing.
Here is a bear she drew and a ladybug:
Like a true artist, she was not satisfied with the bear and eventually modified it. I took the photo before she did that because I like it just the way it is.
We sold our couch in a yard sale in October and ordered a new one. It arrived the day before Thanksgiving. We love it:
It is so nice to finally have a place to sit or lie down. I plan to donate the big nursing chair that used to be in Fi’s room, and then in our living room for the last six weeks, to the NICU, because we no longer have room for it anywhere.
The couch came just in time for Fi to get sick and need snuggling. She had quite a fever on Friday, but it was all gone by Saturday, just in time to celebrate Chanukah with my family.
John got the lights up early this year, so we can celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas, while Fi and I hung stockings and dreidels:
Fi did something that earned her an ice cream cone as a reward:
We all have jobs at our house. We get to pick them. I like doing Locks because it means I get to put a bear on the lock.
Fi is turning our house into an imaginary preschool, and re-enacts all sorts of activities here, including reading time when we put our listening ears on, choosing a job, clean-up, and project time.
The last week was so nice and relaxing. Fi was really happy to have me at home for most of the week, and John home for the long weekend. We ate so much yummy food I can’t believe my pants still fit, and the weather was pleasant, a little bit of rain, a little bit of sun. I learned that Fi knows a lot of nursery rhymes and would probably fit right in with a group of Victorian children.
We baked Chanukah cookies:
John thought they were Christmas cookies because of the colors. What can I say? We are a multi-cultural house over here.
Fi always helps me bake. She also helps makes pancakes or crepes. She is my official egg cracker and is very good at not getting any shell in the bowl. She adds pre-measured ingredients to bowls, stirs, can roll out dough with a rolling pin, and pours batter into the pan when that is required. I love that she is old enough to help out and I’m hoping all this helping will lead her to feel confident and comfortable cooking for herself when she is older (as opposed to always eating packaged food or fast food).
Here is John with some dolls on his head:
I’ll end with a video of Fi singing some songs:
