Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week and there was a lot of focus on food.  It has been my hope that Grandad and Nana do not leave our house having lost weight due to the meals they have been served.  Every few days we try to go to a restaurant so that they get some good food in them that can sustain through the next couple days of "homemade meals."  I had noticed that our Thanksgiving meal was really good and as I was telling my mom who had cooked what, I realized I had only done a little prep work, no actual cooking.  Todd cooked a good turkey.

Cooking turkey.

Sweet turkey.

Crazy turkey.

Grrr.  I eat my turkey.

Caroline has survived on turkey/chicken and sweet potatoes for a good 4 days straight.  We took Grandad & Nana to Sweet Tomatoes which Caroline aptly calls Sweet Potatoes.  She ate three there.  Three sweet potatoes.  She's only 2 years old.  That, and all the chicken from their chicken noodle soup.  On Thanksgiving, she ate another entire sweet potato and every day since she's had one along with leftover turkey.  For dinner last night she had an entire (good sized) sweet potato, turkey, cashews, an applesauce pouch, half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and ice cream.

I had told Caroline that I was going to make an apple cake that she would be able to eat (gluten free).  She talked about it a lot and was excited that it was going to be made.  I made it today and as it was cooling, she kept saying that it was her apple cake.  I made it for her.  She was going to eat it.  Everyone knew about her apple cake.  At dinner, I brought her plate to her and her first words were, "Where's my apple cake?"  She finally got it for dessert.  At first she was only interested in cutting it up.  She tried it, ate some, ate a bit more, and announced she did not like apple cake.  In fact, it was so bad that she said that she didn't even like apples anymore.  Apples.  Something she eats on a daily basis.  She's through.

Henry has spent his dinners falling apart.  He is still wanting to get up too early in the mornings to spend time with Grandad and Nana which means his evenings are torturous for him and everyone in his path.  He loses all self control and his floppy body slumps down his chair and he doesn't want to eat and he doesn't want to listen.  One night he had a 5:45 p.m. bedtime.  We need to reinstitute nap time for him if he wakes before 7:00 a.m.

The kids have loved getting out almost every day to ride bikes.  Josiah is now a biking master.  He likes to ride fast, take turns quickly, and hit the brakes even more quickly.  He now has tricks while he rides like trying to wave, standing up on the pedals, and turning quickly at the corners of the sidewalk.  Grandad & Todd were kind enough to put on a new back tire for him.  The other one was thread bare.  The way Josiah likes to hit his brakes, I should set a timer for this tire's lifespan.

Since he was riding so well, Todd and I thought we would get Henry started.  So, Todd took off the training wheels of our really small bike.  Our intention was just to get him sitting on it and walk the bike around with his feet on the ground just to get a feel for how to balance it.  At first he pretty much refused to try it.  Once he finally got on the bike, he kept trying to put his feet on the pedals, thus not understanding the skill we were trying to have him master.  I went inside for some reason while Todd stayed out with Grandad and worked with him.  Lo and behold, he started to understand and do better.  The next day, Grandad & Nana took him back out and he was doing even better.  So, now we may very soon have two bike riders on our hands.

Actually, make that three bike riders.  I swear Caroline couldn't even reach the pedals of the tricycle just a couple of weeks ago and this week, she was determined to teach herself how to ride it.  I say teach herself because if we tried to help her, she would yell, "No! Don't touch me! Don't touch it [the bike]! I do it!"  First, she learned how to ride the big wheel.  She got the pedal part down, but the steering was a problem.  Then she tried the tricycle and after a few days she's gotten really good on that, too.  Maybe all those sweet potatoes are giving her just the energy she needs to pedal these bikes along.

She barely reaches the pedals.

She puts on her own shoes and socks...

Saturday morning the kids wanted to play with playdoh.  We no longer had any, so I thought I could just make some and all would be well.  I had done it before and it turned out well, easy to use, pliable, playdoh consistency.  Well, I read the directions, mixed the ingredients, but what I did not do was time the cooking process.  It became clear that my playdoh was not cooked long enough and was too sticky.  Henry and Caroline still wanted to play with it, so I gave them a little flour each to make it less sticky.  A little flour, a little more flour, a little more flour, a little more flour.  Pretty soon, they were no longer playing with playdoh, but a dough ball.  Henry pretended he was a baker and he talked and talked about it.  He told Nana that he was making all sorts of desserts.  When he was asked how much he charged for his wares, he said "whatever money you have" and then amended it to say that anyone who did not have money could still eat for free.  Then he said he would have 1300 or 13000 coats available to hand out if someone came and didn't have a coat.  They played like this for a long time.  It was very, very messy, but sweet all the same.

It needs just a little more flour. (food coloring on her forehead)

Caroline has been praying some great prayers at night.  Sometimes they're short and sweet, and sometimes they are looooooong.  She likes to count during them and sort of give God a running commentary of her day.  This evening she told God that she didn't have her car (matchbox car) and that she asked me where her car was and I didn't know and so she didn't have her car.  Praying it up to heaven.  One of my favorites was the other night when she looked around the room and said, "I love Henry & Josiah & Daddy & Mommy & Grandaddy & Nana & TV & Batman & Robin."

It turned cold in Houston this weekend.  We finally turned the heat on for more than a day and we got our warmer jackets out.

This sweet girl has been a Daddy's girl all week.  (We find we take our best photographs at the Costco food court.)