Happy Thanksgiving

Alden slept through Thanksgiving last year, so he was very surprised and excited to be a part of the festivities this time around. He got a little mixed up though with Thanksgiving and Christmas, I think, because he woke up very early. When I picked up Alden from Mother's Day Out last week, they asked me if he ate a lot at home because apparently he eats his food at school and then starts on everyone else's if lunch isn't over. I guess my child loves food, so this was the perfect holiday for him!

Starting off our day eating Apple Pumpkin bread. Later in the day, as his cheeks and face became redder and redder, we discovered that Alden is allergic to pumpkin. This is really not surprising since I turned red all over when I ate pumpkin while I was pregnant with him. The hairdresser told me that it meant Alden would be allergic to pumpkin. I thought she might be a bit looney on that one...maybe not.

Here is the great thing about inviting Grandpa to Thanksgiving...he cooks dinner! Here is some good advice: When you get married, make sure someone in your husband's family went to Culinary School...then, go ahead and book the maid for the following day to clean up the mess! Alden was fascinated by Grandpa cooking and wanted to help out with all the vegetables. I guess that Mom cooking everyday is not nearly as exciting, or maybe that says something about Mom's cooking.

Alden sitting down for this Thanksgiving meal. Our first ever meal in our new dining room. Dad made Alden eat in his high chair over a towel so he wouldn't mess up the new rug or chairs. He looks a little overwhelmed at all the food in front of him. Either that, or he is hoping that none of us want to eat any of it!

Our Thanksgiving feast. The absolute perfect amount of food for us, Grandpa, and Uncle David

Alden with his very own baby sterling silver for the occasion. He dug right in despite the fact that it was meat and vegetables, not his favorite foods. Maybe we should get Grandpa to FedEx vegetables every week from California since Alden eats them when he cooks them. You know that he is loved, though, because Grandpa made some sweet potatoes (A-man's fave) just for him!

No matter what, though, the roll is always, always the first thing to get eaten!

Notice the food beginning to be missing from the plate in this photo. Alden was so excited that we had to have the knife and spoon in our hand at the same time! Another note, the cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, creamed corn, bread, and stuffing are starting to disappear. Note that the green bean remains untouched...as it will for the remainder of the meal until he decides to "gift it" to Mom or Dad and get it off his plate.

We went straight from the high chair to the crib. After dinner, the turkey set in quick. We asked Alden if he wanted to take a nap, and he replied, "Bye, Bye." I think that said it all. He fell asleep in record time for a long winter's nap.

We woke up on the wrong side of the crib! Fussy and crabby. Being the fabulous parents that we are, we decided he needed a few bites of apple pie to brighten his afternoon. I am not sure that was the best idea. Between that and a visit from Uncle John, Toni, and Grumps, he was wired! Uncle John is on the receiving end of an Alden tackle. I think Alden gained the upper hand here.

Alden learned some bad habits from Grandpa. I am not sure when Grandpa climbed into the oven to cook with the measuring cups, but somewhere his grandson picked it up. This is a new trick that will be very short lived...as in Never Again!

My favorite thing that has happened in a long time! All the eating from Thanksgiving wore my little buddy out. We took him out for pizza on Friday, and the poor little guy could barely stay awake to eat. However, the cheese pizza was so good that he couldn't seem to stop eating for his snooze. He would literally take a bite, chew, doze off, wake up, and take a bite and repeat the process. Okay, so maybe the preschool teachers are right about him!

Thanksgiving being over...let's move on to Christmas! The new tradition in our family is figuring out how to con Pops into coming over to help put the tree in the stand. When the Christmas tree came home on the car, we were beside our little self with excitement. For the first time, the word "tree" was used for the tree instead of "giraffe." The tree combined with the use of the step stool was just too much to resist. Alden had to help out!

Getting just a little closer.

As always, he finally gets his way and gets the stool all to himself to check out the tree

Not really sure what to think about the needles and sticky of the tree.

When the tree went up, the baby gate was moved to block off any access to the tree, presents, or decorations for baby. Alden walked up the stairs to find out he suddenly had access to the kitchen. He spent the next ten minutes running back and forth to the new gate placement fascinated that it had moved and very confused.

Ahh! The taste of freedom!

Our FIRST trip to see Santa. Santa was terrifying. Tears, screams, and many calls for "Mommy." Yes, we tried to get in the photo with him, Santa tried to give him a candy cane, but he would have none of it. This is the best of the photos. I have never seen him look like he wants to escape something so badly!

Our SECOND trip to see Santa was much more of a success. We started to cry when we saw him and clutched Mom with a major death-grip. But, this time, we spent a few minutes getting to know Santa better (an advantage to going at 10:00 on a Monday morning). Santa patted his arm and sang a couple of verses of Santa Claus is Coming to Town. The little music lover started to melt a little at the serenade and finally relented to at least sit in his lap, with our security doggie, Lucy, and get our photo made. We are still not smiling, but at least we are not running away!

I made a mistake. One day, we were trying to find things to entertain my toddler when I suggested that we look at giraffe pictures on the computer. Now, every time the computer is in the room, Alden points to the computer and says, "Giraffe, giraffe!" That is what the computer means to him. If he even spots a computer, he climbs, begs, scoots, runs to get to it to see the giraffes. When we weren't fast enough, and frankly turned our heads for thirty seconds, he went after the giraffes himself.

Just a funny: We love to get the mail everyday and play with the envelops and catalogs. While Mom was fixing snack, Alden flipped through Harry and David. This continued for the entire catalog and then he went on to the toy catalog. He talked to me about it the entire time, nonstop babble, just hanging out flipping through catalogs! He never ceases to amaze me.