Thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving travel was pretty enjoyable for all this year - here are some of the highlights of Pallas & Tayne's lessons learned from the road:

Waiting for a Thanksgiving dinner isn't nearly as hard as waiting for your sister to be old enough to warrant a kid's table.

It's easier to steal a snack if someone else distracts Grandma.

The Nintendo DS is not only a fun distraction; it can shield you from the paparazzi.

Shopping the post-thanksgiving sales early in the morning isn't so bad if you bring home something great like a cozy new blanket.

Listening to holiday music can give you all sorts of good ideas like "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree."

Baby sisters and their Dads need lots of sleep; travel is exhausting for some people.

It was a busy but wonderful holiday, I for one can't wait for what the rest of the holiday season has to bring!

Thanks a lot kids!

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is almost here! With all the havoc of the impending holidays, I wanted to get together a blog about what I was thankful for; personally, I find it’s good to reflect on things like that before the stress and chaos of the holidays, travel, and general “family fun” make you question the sanity of your choices, long for solitude and sleep, become “this close” to using language you wouldn’t want little ears to hear, and generally just wondering why you thought having kids would be worth all this. Strangely though, before I even started to pull my thoughts together I found I was pretty much reading them in an article written by someone else – I liked it so much I thought I would share it here. Before the holiday stress gets to you, may it help you remember why little ones, imperfect though they are, are worth the trouble…Oh, and if we happen to be visiting you this holiday season, may this article help you remember what little ones are like (wink, wink) – We promise to remind them of their best behavior, but you know kids…
“A Parent’s Thanksgiving List” by Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard
Published in LDS Living Magazine, Nov/Dec2007 Issue

I’m grateful my children demand I talk to them when I don’t feel like talking, feed them when I’m not hungry, and change their diapers even when I’m all dressed up and ready to go somewhere special. I don’t think I’d discover the world outside my own needs without them.

I’m grateful my children haven’t learned how to hold back their tears when they’re sad, laughter when they’re happy, or screams when they’re frightened. They constantly remind me that emotions are for sharing.

I’m grateful my children have broken nearly everything in my home and used a crayon or ink marker on the rest. They’ve taught me that things aren’t important, but people are.

I’m grateful my children start out small and helpless so they don’t become aware of my incompetence until they’re teenagers. By then, we’ve both grown so accustomed to each other, we somehow manage to make it through the rest of life together.

I’m grateful my children get their pants dirty, pick their noses, burp without saying “excuse me,” and quarrel in public so I’ll never be able to get too arrogant, proper, or judgmental of other people’s children.

I’m grateful my children sometimes call me names like “weird” because sometimes I am “weird,” and it helps keep a person humble to be told they’re “weird” when they’re acting weird.

I’m grateful my children occasionally miss the bus at the precise moment I’ve stepped out of the shower, contemplating the well-planned, organized day ahead of me. Experiences like jumping into the car after throwing on whatever’s handy and racing to school have a tendency to loosen rigid plans into something better known as spontaneity.

I’m grateful my children always need new shoes, piano books, prescriptions, haircuts, fieldtrip money, tuition, food, toothpaste, and underwear. That way, I don’t have to waste my time thinking about a new sofa. It’s difficult to get wealthy and think about luxuries when you have to buy toilet paper and milk by the truckload each week.

I’m grateful my children know how to play. My five-year-old asked me to come downstairs so he could “teach me how to play” with his plastic animals. While Jacob demonstrated the subtle techniques for sinking a rhinoceros into couch cushions while pretending it was quicksand, I realized my young son was right. I really do need someone to “teach me how to play.”

I’m grateful my children question my every command and giggle when I get angry. It’s difficult to feel too powerful or self-righteous with kids around to remind you of how funny you look when you’re pointing your finger.

I’m grateful my children insist I hug, kiss, rock, or put my arms around them often. Otherwise, I think I’d forget how the sense of touch is so healing.

I’m grateful each of my children is unique when the same strange, inexperienced mother raised them. Somehow they don’t seem to let me ruin them much.

And lastly, I’m grateful for the gift of children in my life. God willing, I’d like to fill the rest of my days with those interesting people who call me Mom (yes, and sometimes “weird”) but eventually “weird grandma.”

A Cowboy needs a horse, Tayne - not so much...

Well Tayne has been enjoying the nice weather, and so have I, so much I'm behind of blogging his stuff! Saturday he got to go to a Fall Festival at the YMCA & he even got to ride a pony!
Well, ok – he really didn’t care about riding the pony, in fact after the bounce house he was pretty much ready to call it quits and head over to the splash pool, but Troy insisted and our little cowboy endured long enough for a few photos, but that’s about it
– it's pretty clear that the allure of the wild west seems to be lost on this beach lovin’ kid. As a bonus for me though, it looks like somebody won’t be asking Santa for a pony this year!

I'm Done With Her.

Thought I'd try something different - So here's a short video of Big Brother Tayne helping Pallas...





Since I'm not totally optimistic that everyone will see the video, I'll describe it - basically it's just a little video Troy took of Tayne feeding Pallas a bottle. I think it's cute because first Tayne asks, "Do you think she is done?" (the answer to which is obviously no, because he's only fed her for like 20 seconds) then after a little bit more, he looks around and says, "I'm done with her." That's pretty much how it goes, all the time, but hey - a little help is better than none!




It's been a rather silly day around here - blame it on the warm weather I guess - mid to upper 80's in November - that's a bit much even for Houston! It's good to get outside though, Tayne was showing Pallas the yard and taking her to check the mail (since she's been getting a lot of that lately he thought she might want to see the "inbox") - I got a few cute pictures of the two of them, I think they are fun because it looks like Tayne is trying to send her out with the mail - I guess that's what reminded me of the video -The pictures look like he's saying, "She's been fun and all, but I'm done with her..." Luckily, in reality he's still really into doing everything with her & helping her when she's upset. What a great kid, and an awesome big brother!
Uh, it should go without saying, but if Tayne does manage to send you that baby, I'm gonna want her back...

Hey good lookin' -What's cookin'?

What's for dinner?
A friend of mine sent me these 1970's era Weight Watchers recipe card pictures and descriptions and I thought they were too funny not to share. i've arranged them into a hypothetical party menu - just the kind of thing to make you glad I'm not in charge of cooking for Thanksgiving this year!

We'll start off with a drink :
Slender Quenchers -These are the saddest diet beverages ever.
The one on the right is skim milk and orange pulp. The one on the left is made with water, sherry extract, and two beef bouillon cubes.
No, really. Well, there's also celery in it. Oh, and SELF-LOATHING.

Then on to your choice of snack :Polynesian Snack - Would you like Polynesian Snack? With beautiful flower?
Where is fork? Is Snack for to eat with hand? You like canned bean sprout? And buttermilk? And pimiento? And fruit piece? Mix all together? No? Oh. Maybe Snack is not for you.

OR:

Hot Wrap Ups -it's not easy being green; There's lettuce. There's pickles. There's capers. There's lime. There's parsley. There's celery inside. Chives, too. It's green. All green. No other guiding culinary principle except... green. It's a meal! It's an obsessive disorder! It's both!

Moving on to the fish course:


Snappy Mackerel Casserole- Well, as adjectives for mackerel go, you could do worse than "snappy." Snappy! So snappy you need three glasses of cranberry juice to wash it down! So snappy they've placed it in a special roped-off area! Don't get too close to the casserole! 'Cause it'll SNAP at ya! Ha! Ha! SNAPPY!
Fluffy Mackerel Pudding- Once upon a time the world was young and the words "mackerel" and "pudding" existed far, far away from one another. One day, that all changed. And then, whoever was responsible somehow thought the word fluffy would help. Oh, and eggs, too.

Fish "Tacos"- "Tortillas?" What are those? Mexican food is easy to make! All you need is toast and quotation marks! I so do not understand the props here.

As for the entrees:

Chicken Liver Bake- Enjoy it with the ashes of a loved one. Or maybe what's left of the chickens are in that urn. Maybe the chickens were your loved ones. But chickens never love back enough. And that's why you have to KILL them. And eat their livers ritualistically. And then they're a part of you forever. Forever.

Frankfurter Spectacular- I had no idea frankfurters could be so spectacular. Wow!
I would almost be willing to upholster a whole pineapple with pork product just to be able to say I was serving Frankfurter Spectacular. Say it with me: Frankfurter! Spectacular! Why would you even want to eat this? Why, when you could keep your mouth busy for hours just by repeating the life-affirming phrase that is "Frankfurter Spectacular."

and for a vegetarian option:

Bean and Mushroom Salad- I hope that you can see that this is a jellied salad. Do you see it glisten? Do you require a close-up to understand that these beans and mushrooms and pimiento strips are one solid, glistening mass? And see how the Ceramic Mushroom Family has gathered to show their children what happens to bad little mushrooms!






If you still have room for dessert why not try :

Snacks on a Stick - My guess is they tried being consistent with the plural at first, and then decided that SNACKS ON STICKS sounded too disturbing. Like Apocalypse Now food or something. This is frozen coffee, people. Yeah, it almost sounds kind of good, until you freeze a whole bunch and take them out and look at them and hit a few of them together and hear them go thunk thunk, and say, "oh forget this," and drop the whole tray on the floor in disgust.

Ummmm....

And special thanks to Wendy McClure for the cards and descriptions -too funny!

Enough baby -What's with the Hair!?!

Ok, Pallas - you're a cutie and all, but we are starting to wonder - What's with the hair?

The holidays are coming soon, just how soon Tayne is fond of telling me every time we go into Wal-Mart where they have started keeping a countdown of “shopping days till Christmas” and if that’s not your cup of tea, they also have a sign proclaiming the number of days “till flexible spending benefits expire” – hum, maybe I should get new glasses… But the real dilemma is those pesky holiday family photos we will have to pose for soon and what to do with Pallas’ hair?! It’s cute she has some, and it’s fun to play with, but it’s not really in a good spot to add bows or ribbons, and bows or ribbons to the side only draw attention to the fact there is a weird stripe of hair smack in the middle of her head. I’m sure we’ll resolve the dilemma with a cute hat (ah, sweet damage control – the hat covers all…) but that still leaves the question of just exactly what kind of a look is Pallas, or nature going for here if we left things alone? Sometimes she looks like she’s going for a 1980’s big hair thing –sort of Vanna White in her letter turning heyday; but other times we wonder if she’s going for a peacock thing –just the bit on top, and she really has the sound ( http://encarta.msn.com/media_461538253/Peacock.html ) down pretty well for never having heard one (at least to my knowledge). We’ve decided to put together a composite photo so you can decide for yourself – enjoy that hair fluff while you can, we’ll probably try to cover it up or minimize it in future photos -I’m sure she’ll thank us for that when she gets older!

Turning 21

So what is the magic of turning 21? Monday Pallas turned 21 days old, but you would have thought it was 21 years old with her "Girls Gone Wild" attitude - my usually easygoing baby started off the day with that time tested philosophy-No good party starts 'till after 12(am) - at about 12:15 she decided he she wanted to be awake and suitably entertained all night/early morning. The day proceeded from there with all the typical "turning 21" behavior; drinking so much she had to be carried nearly unconscious to her bed, more than the occasional "reversal of fortune" (as they say in competitive eating) leading to outfit changes galore, grumpily "sleeping it off" only to wake up ready to go drinkin' again - learning nothing from the previous cycle and ready to repeat the process all over again. What a wild child! All kidding aside though, she does seem to have decide she wants to eat double what she was eating in the evening, which allows her to sleep at night for a longer stretch- Good? - I guess..i. While this seems like a positive step, unfortunately for me it seems to be some sort of deal she and Troy have worked out between them because the feeding/changing she is now sleeping though is the 11pm feeding that Troy was in charge of so I could nap a little before the night feedings kick in – I don’t know who’s sneakier here dad or daughter, either way I can see I'd better start keeping a closer eye on the two of them…

How Tayne likes to spend Saturday afternoons...

Ok,so can you believe this is the pool at the new YMCA near our house?!

If the main play area and slides(off the other side, but I was too lazy to walk around and get a picture from over there) aren't enough -there's a giant water slide.

Over past the mushroom and the chairs there is an actual swimming pool, but this kid friendly monstrosity is the main pool area -and it's huge!
Pallas recommends the lounge chairs for napping poolside...
This is a picture from our back yard -we really are very close!
Sadly, it's Novemeber and that pool isn't heated, so things are winding down for the season this month, but come spring and summer when it gets hot again -come on over and we'll all get wet!

November is Bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-N-A-S…

It's fall again - and that means harvest time. For some people it's pumpkins or apples or potatoes, for us it's banana time!

Organic bananas anyone? For saying we didn’t do anything to our banana trees this entire year (you’ve gotta love Houston for outdoor plants –we don’t even water and the plants do fine, I can’t imagine how things would do if I took an interest in them - probably worse...) we have a pretty good crop of bananas out there. Our first bunch of the season was ready to pick today – actually it was overly ready, they were falling off the stalk as Troy and Tayne were carrying them into the house, but they were super tasty-Tayne had 3 of them before we made it into the house (since they are kind of tiny that’s really like a banana and a half from the store). Unfortunately, because we waited so long to pick them I had to mash this whole bunch up for storage – that's about 11 cups of mashed bananas! I see many smoothies and banana breads are in our future, and seeing that there’s at least 3 more bunches on the trees that will be ready soon and a tiny bunch just getting started, I see banana bread in the future of friends and family too - ahh banana bread - not only tastes great, it ships nicely...

Halloween

So Happy Together!

Just hangin' out with the other fish...
When is that sun gonna set!?!

Here are some pictures from Halloween - the camera isn't working the best for me these days, I really have to get my own instead of trying to use the one Tayne uses -he's always got it set some weird way I can't figure out (annoying kids and their ability to use technology better than adults!) The fish turned out pretty good for Tayne - I had to make something he could sit in the car in and get in and out of easily in case he got tired of it, so we put velcro on both sides of the tail so it could come off completely, and the mouth had a little bag/pocket so he could put stuff in there - he really liked that feature as well. It also worked out well that we found some material with sequins on it ($1 bin at Wal-mart no less!) so that really made the tail and fins sparkle.

Tayne had a pretty fun Halloween - we went to a community carnival where he got to play a few games & then we went trick-or-treating, which he lost enthusiasm for pretty quickly when nobody really had any candy he was interested in (here are these houses with the "good" (name brand chocolate) candy and this kid being all put out/not wanting their selections - too funny!)

Pallas slept through most of it - except when we went to visit Gavin & baby Carina (sorry you had to work Jen!) and when I sat on the floor to give her a bottle the two large doggies gave her a good sniffing - she didn't cry, but she sure didn't know what to make of that, it was a fun stop though I think we depressed one of the dogs - I don't think Roxy knew there could be other babies and I think she was a little worried that a crying Pallas would be staying there & she would be stuck with two of "them" - hopefully she cheered up after we left - just in time to bark at other trick-or-treaters and make them think twice about wanting candy from that house!

Luckily we made it home in time for Tayne to give out some of our candy (not the "good" stuff) to trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood - I don't think he could decide which he liked best, giving out candy or going trick-or treating. Then after that Troy and Tayne went through all the candy he collected and traded out for the candy we had that he wanted - although Troy did manage to get a little tricking in, after a bunch of trades, Tayne was so excited about trading Troy actaully managed to trick him into trading some skittles back for more chocolate bars -you can imagine Tayne didn't care so much for the "tricks" and thought we should just focus on the "treats" -but it's good to get a little of both on Halloween!