Leftovers

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a relaxing morning at home. Then we went to a local park in the afternoon. There were lots of people and families out for a walk (before the big meal, I'm guessing). We enjoyed the fall colors and Ephraim happily scooped up some leaves for our nature collection (to go with all the rocks and pine cones and now-dead flowers). Gabriel enjoyed running on the grass and climbing the giant rope tower. (I'm just sad I didn't bring my camera. My phone is terrible at pictures. We'll have to go back for better photos soon.)

On Sunday we left Thanksgiving at my parent's house early because the kids were so sick. The next day, Ephraim fell asleep at 4pm (not unusual if he decides to take a nap), but he then slept for four hours! So around 9:30pm he was hungry. I got out a plate of food including some leftover turkey that my parents had brought over. He loved it! He usually just eats carbs. That night he only ate the turkey. (Funny to note that tonight he only ate lettuce.) He's a happy little guy!

My next goal is to take some great pictures of Gabriel!

Happy Thanksgiving!

After school on Tuesday, I got out the construction paper and we made turkeys. Each of the boys is pointing to his own turkey and pointing to you saying, "You can be a turkey too" or something like that.

We had a very relaxing Thursday. We all slept in, played around the house, watched a few movies, went to the park and saw soooo many people taking walks and playing, and came home to spaghetti with ground turkey meat sauce. Friday and Saturday the boys will be away with Heather (Paul is going full time now) and that extended family for Thanksgiving. While they are away, I am excited to make a few Christmas gifts (we'll see how they turn out). They'll be back Saturday night, and Sunday we'll have a Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and brother. Happy Thanksgiving!

Toothless

Gabriel lost his first two teeth exactly a week ago! The two adult teeth have been coming in for a while, then the two front ones got wiggly. I wanted him to lose them at home so we could save them for the Tooth Fairy, so I made him work on them every day. Last Thursday, I see him biting and sucking on his sweater sleeves when I pick him up from school ... and there's a tooth missing! It must have fallen in his classroom somewhere. Oh well. We wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy explaining that. Later that same afternoon, Gabriel and I were on our way to the doctor's office (he is fine). I had a small bag of M&Ms as a reward. As he was eating the candy, he thinks he swallowed the other tooth! So he lost his first two teeth and I have nothing to show for it. (As a side note, Gabriel got a tiny TinkerBell snowglobe from the Tooth Fairy. Sadly, Ephraim dropped it the next day. No more snowglobes for us!)

Yesterday, as I was pulling dinner out of the oven, the power went out of the whole city block. The kids froze while I scrambled for the flashlight and candles (thank goodness those got unpacked!). We had a blast eating by candlelight, telling stories surrounded by candles, and brushing our teeth with the brightest candle on the bathtub. The highlight for me was when I grabbed our shoes and jackets and ran out to the backyard to look at stars. No streetlights or porchlights made for a spectacular view! ... Of course, that part lasted about two seconds for the kids as they decided to explore the backyard in the dark instead. But we had a great time. The power went back on just in time to hop into bed.

A happy memory: Ephraim fell asleep early in my arms on the couch tonight (not unusual). I put him to bed and Gabriel and I watched the end of "Mirror Mirror" (a Snow White story). During the credits, she sings a song to dance to so we got up and danced. It wasn't enough for Gabriel so I found an old mix CD and put it on. We danced and laughed for a good 15 minutes! So much fun. Such a sweet boy!

Wizard of Oz

Can you tell we just watched the Wizard of Oz?

Ephraim dancing and then hamming it up for the camera. (Please ignore the extremely messy office in the background.)

School Pictures

We got Gabriel's Kindergarten school pictures back today. Not his best smile, but still my super cutie pie!! (grandparents, your copy will be sent in the mail soon.)

We got a new funny person-shaped lamp when we first moved here. Gabriel didn't like it until I turned it into Link (see pic)! Gabriel is telling me he likes it "thiiiis much."

Yesterday Ephraim took all his big boy underwear out of his drawers and started playing with them. He began by just putting them on over his pants. Then they became handcuffs and a hat too. So silly!

Link, Fill Up Your Hearts

We just passed exactly three months since we moved to this new house. Gabriel has been sleeping on his mattress in my bedroom almost all that time. It has been a really hard time for him, so I allowed it. I've been talking to him about moving back (especially now that it is colder, I'd rather he not be on the floor). He said over and over that he hates his room. So I tried redecorating it and things seem to be better.
Since he was Link for Halloween, we decorated his room with a few Zelda things I cut from construction paper.

Gabriel dressed as Link for school. I don't think anyone recognized who he was suppose to be, so he was a little disappointed, but very proud of his shield. Most of the boys were ninjas with a few superheroes of Batman and Ironman. Oh! And I wanted to record that Gabriel now has a second tooth coming in next to the first one (on the bottom). His two bottom baby teeth are wiggly, but he doesn't like pain at all so he doesn't wiggle them.

Meanwhile, Ephraim is a handful at times. I'm hoping it's just a phase exaggerated by his personality, but I feel the need to curb his perfectionism. For example, he was stabbing his noodles with his fork, trying to get as many on there as he could. He had a meltdown when one fell off. He must have been tired. And he normally refuses sauce on his noodles, but the other night I saw him lining up his noodles perfectly in a row (see pic) and then he asked for sauce on them. Weird! Things have to be just right for him. He also insists on doing more himself. (I know that's part of his age, yay.) If these two things don't happen, he breaks into meltdown sobs.

I wanted to take just one picture of what I'm up against every day--blankets, toys, shoes, food crumbs, bowls and wrappers from snacks, books, etc. I'm trying to get the kids to help me clean every evening before bed, but when surprise visitors come in the middle of the day (like a roofer coming to give an estimate on my leaking roof), the house is embarrassing. But hey, now you can see what the living room looks like in our new house. :)