What Happened to November?

Somewhere between Halloween and getting a Christmas tree, I believe there were 30 days of blur that become increasingly forgotten each and every year. However, considering the fact that I managed somehow to take 500 pictures, we were clearly doing something I would like to remember.  For starters, we took the boys to see Disney on Ice. I actually thought it was great. First, Alden tried and HATED cotton candy which is no skin off my back, and second, it was not just about princesses. I left thinking it was very equitable. I mean, we saw Peter Pan but there was Tinkerbell and Wendy and then there was The Little Mermaid that also had Sebastian and a bunch of clams.  I have found out since that I am a boy Mamma who just doesn't get it. I hear that it was very lacking in princesses and that Tinkerbell and Aerial do not count nor do the three slow dances that I napped through between some dressed up girl and a guy. I thought it was great, but apparently, it was a major girl disappointment. I sort of liked the alligator eating Captain Hook myself.

Harrison got cuter.

And so did Spencer. I went to pick him up from Sunday School at church and could not find him. This was not the outfit I was looking for.

Miraculously, there has been a major turn in brotherly love around here. To mimic the old Sally Field quote, "They like each other! They really like each other!"  I don't know what happened, but we all woke up one day and Spencer and Alden are friends. No one is drawing on Harrison, but instead, Alden talks in endless baby talk and Spencer gets extremely worried if he is not in the same room that we have lost him. One night, I literally sat rocking the baby and listening to a pretend fishing trip with Alden and Spencer for almost 45 minutes where no one cried or screamed or got bitten.  And it has happened more than once!

I am thoroughly enjoying the actual conversations between the two of them and even the mischief they are creating as a team. They are still brothers and do their fair share of fighting, tattling, and destruction, but we have come a long, long way. And it only took two years and 8 months!

Alden has taken the role of creative director and Spencer just happily follows his lead to whatever imaginary land being visited.  Now, Spencer is great at playing by himself and Alden simply cannot play by himself. He hates to be alone. Alden is a pretty sharp little guy and has figured out that when Spencer doesn't want to play, he just has to throw some sort of choo-choo into the game and, pardon the pun, Spencer jumps on board. I think he has learned bribery from his parents. 

                                     

Back to my life with boys, we are starting to become really interested in critters. It started with the "rodent" in the garage that turned out to be a chipmunk.  On Halloween, I was visited at my kitchen window by a possum and then, I kid you not, the very next night, a rat.  Joey bought a rat zapper and called the Critter Control.  This is fascinating to Alden. He checks to make sure the light has not come on the zapper all the time and is fascinated because he has imagined that Critter Control will arrive in a helicopter to get the possum and take it to his Gewah and Pop's house. I don't care how they get here or where they take it, but I do wish my husband would not wake me up in the mornings to show me his bag of dead rat he caught.  When I wasn't pleased about him posting dead rat photos on Facebook for all of our friends he says, "I know how a cat feels. You bring home a mouse and they just shoo you away." Oh, mercy! 

                                      

It's the most Pinteresting time of the year! I was in charge of desserts for the Thanksgiving feast at Alden and Spencer's school.  I went to my favorite source to find ideas. This was the most involved project ever! I feel like I am now officially a parent after making tee-pee and turkey cupcakes. They were all supposed to be tee-pees, but I couldn't figure out how to make all of them cook right and ended up getting just enough for Alden and sending my mother on an emergency Piggly Wiggly run for me on her way home to make 11th hour turkeys for Spencer. I hear that somewhere between making them and school, the tin foil fell on the turkeys and they were just squashed chocolate with some candy corn. Again, mercy! Next time, I am signing up for the green beans...except that I know that I won't.

All the kids singing "God Our Father" before dinner.  I so wish I had videoed. I decided it was tacky to video people praying and then realized I was the only mother that thought that. Good thing I've got a couple of spare kids coming along:)

Alden was a trip with his Indian feathers. Gotta love the hair!

Grandpa came to visit for the week of Thanksgiving. We loved having him here, and Joey took the whole week off to just hang out with his family. 

I can now answer the question, "Where did Spencer get his hair from?" I swear that Spencer is a little Tom. He looks just like his Grandpapa.  

Grandpa brought Christmas!  Spencer received an entirely new train set.  In Spencer's world, there are never enough choo-choos or choo-choo tracks. The funny thing is that he is in love with it, but wants to keep it in the box. I keep putting it out and he keeps cleaning it up and just looking at the picture. Then, he wants it out again. I am an expert trackman. I think I have already put it together 15 or 20 times. 

But I will do anything for that little conductor.  He is in love.

Grandpa also scored big with Alden's dinosaur T-Rex costume.  True to form, he started climbing the walls. My prayer every day is that Alden does not break a bone during his childhood. Stay tuned for the outcome.

While Grandpa was here, we took him to the zoo. 

They were worn out. I think Daddy and Grandpa made us skip naps and go to bed at 9:00 every night. Not what we are used to. We were on the go!  Alden collapsed by the rhinos. Too much fun.

Sweet boy.

Alden has convinced Joey to get him a Powerade from the vending machines every time we go to the zoo. Daddy loves to start all of this stuff and then when Mommy has to take them to these places all the time, I have to follow through on his "traditions" or I have major meltdowns on my hands. It is the small things I love about my husband.

I carried Sweet Baby Harrison in his little pouch.  Poor Spencer kept saying, "Hold me," but I can't always carry two at once. I told him that he would have to let Daddy help him this time. 

Now I realize why he wanted Mommy to do it.

What would a trip be without a visit to the Bass Pro Shop.  When we got out of the car, Alden was in awe. He told us that he was going to grow up and marry Finley Grace, move to Texas, and work at the Bass Pro Shop.

We did a little off-roading. Hope they enjoyed it because they will never be on one of these and it actually have gas and move.

We had no idea that the wonder of Christmas would already be at the Bass Pro Shop pre-Thanksgiving. It was such a fun surprise. The boys waited patiently to ride the carousel.

Spencer found an electric train and that was all she wrote for him.  I hear that Santa is planning to bring him one for Christmas, so he was rather pleased to see him enjoy it so much.

The train was much more exciting to Spencer than a visit with Santa. We were unprepared and they all acted extremely strange around him. Overwhelmed I guess. No smile. No wish list. Nothing. We are planning on trying this little visit again a little later.

We took the easy way out for Thanksgiving this year. With only three adults, two of them on Paleo, and two kids who would rather have grilled cheese than turkey, why cook sweet potato casserole for me?  So, we went out to eat and let someone else do it. Surprisingly, even though it was "fancy"the kids did wonderfully and it was an entirely peaceful and delicious meal.  We were surrounded by people which made it seem like a big family Thanksgiving after all.

I have learned to always have entertainment on hand.  Well, I know this lesson, but half the time never remember to pack that or the sippy cups. I am lucky on some days to have a diaper in the diaper bag.  I had gotten Spencer a book of trains for Christmas. At the last minute I threw crayons and coloring books and a book of trains. The best thing that has happened to me in a long time is that Alden likes to color. This is brand new, but he is now one of those people (aka, his mother) that likes to color every white space on the page. I only have to hang on to one set of shirttails climbing the back of booths now at restaurants.  Spencer hates to color so much that for the first three months of mother's day out, I thought his teacher was sending home blank coloring sheets for homework.  They were his classwork that he ignored! Hence, pulling emergency Christmas gifts out of the closet. Since Spencer, as usual, refused to eat one single bite of food because it was not a cold cheese sandwich or a cookie, I had to entertain him the whole time. Telling him that his friend, who happened to also have a reservation for the table next to us, was better behaved did not work.  The train book worked for most of the meal but then we had to go to making silly faces.

                                      

The best we could do. This position is Baby Harrison's little version of hell.

One day, Spencer and Alden went fishing with my parents.  He fell in a small bit of very shallow water at the bank's edge and my mother had him pulled out before he could even realize what happened.  He got wet and she took him home and changed his clothes and all was well. Spencer asks all the time to hear the story of "Spencer falling in the water." He loves to hear that he had to take off his wet super hero shirt and put on his Thomas shirt. We thought it was just funny until we started to get around water.  Now, in his defense, Alden has had a history of falling in random water: the shark pet tank at the museum, the pond at the Botanical gardens...but Spencer seriously just freaks out when he is even close now. He says, "No Aldy, No! Don't fall in the water!" He runs over and grabs his clothes to save his life from the eminent danger of the fountain or Bass Pro Shop rivers.  It is simply hilarious!

I am afraid of three inches of water, but he will dangle from a pole with only three inches of glass separating me from a 100 foot drop onto the city. Logic?

They really mean for us to climb the Crepe Myrtles and step on all of the landscaping. That is what it is there for, right?

Taking in the view with Papa Grande!

Burning off the turkey cookie.

As I say, no naps, no rest on this visit!  We head from lunch for a little wardrobe change and off to the park for some soccer and energy release.

The pose.

Spencer was on the lookout, as always, for the random passing train.  Since it was Thanksgiving day, I was a little worried he would be very disappointed.  Luckily, he wasn't. He watched the whole thing pass by making sure that we knew that it was a diesel train.

While we played soccer. Well, while I held a baby and Daddy and Grandpa and Alden played soccer, Spencer had no interest in the actual ball. He just ran around and around in circles laughing. This child is going to be on a team in about five months. Should be some interesting soccer games. However, this time we are prepared for three year old soccer. It has taken three seasons with Alden, and he will now kick the ball but still puts it in the wrong goal. I need to study up on some kind of "Soccer for Dummies" book. I am kind of wishing I had paid better attention in P.E. class.

Why does he look so grown up?

There he is! Thanks you for being a little boy for just a while longer.

Sam is back! The morning after Thanksgiving, Sam bravely re-appeared at our house with a gift for the boys to usher in the Christmas season. There has never been a house that needed someone to watch for naughty behavior more than this one.

Everyone got a new set of Christmas pajamas, bathrobe, and slippers to accompany tickets to The North Pole Express train ride. Sam also brought them a new Christmas movie and Christmas book.  Another reason to love my husband: Alden finds his dinosaur shoes and says, "Where did Sam find these?!" Joseph looks at the big box I had wrapped everything in and says,"Looks like Zappos." Really, Dad?  We had to have a sidebar about how "Santa's magic workshop" is a much more appropriate answer.  H

Well, in true egocentric four year old fashion Alden watches his new movie about the animated Elf on the Shelf and is ticked off that his elf is not "real."  He knocks him to the ground and is mad about how he didn't bring him the right gift and he isn't flying around the room. I didn't take to kindly to my four year old already not believing nor did I take to kindly to my hard work being thrown back in my face. So, at naptime, Sam flew back to the North Pole with all of Alden's presents. And now we have an impact: Alden wakes up, everything gone. We re-watch the movie and read the book for him to find out that because he pushed Sam that Sam lost all of his magic and was sick at the North Pole. Santa was not happy and took back the presents.  Following the movie's advice, Alden is so very sad now and we all sit down and write Santa an apology note and ask him to send Sam back and make him better. So, the next day, Sam came back home with the gifts and was drinking a little maple syrup to give him back his energy. Belief has been restored.

He has been up to many things so far. He took a ride in the jeep with Batman.

He TP'd the playroom.

He went fishing for goldfish crackers.

He flew around in an airplane. Now, we get to Sam problem number 2. Spencer.  Try to explain to a two year old that you can't touch the elf flying in the plane or sitting in toilet paper or drinking sugar or he will lose his magic. He looks at us like, "What?" and touches him anyway. Alden now freaks out at this (because his mother brainwashed him in a cruel North Pole joke).  I don't want to have to write letters everyday, so Santa finally sent us some medicine that we had to go through the CVS drive through to pick up (thank you CVS lady for your help in that).  For a few days after that, Alden would run around saying, "Hey Spencer, touch Sam!" just so that we could give him his gold glittery medicine.  Santa had to take the medicine back to help other elves, and now that we have no safety net, Alden has screamed at Spencer so much he knows not to touch him. I don't have a photo of Sam eating his cookies and milk because Spencer pulled a dining room chair all the way to the kitchen, climbed on it, and ate the photo op. He turns around with chocolate on his face and says, "I didn't touch Sam!"
                                   
Reading to a book to a group of friends.

Took a climb with Spiderman.

Another Spencer incident.  Sam made snow angels with flour.  Spencer couldn't help but mess around in that as well. Anything on the kitchen counter.

Sam went missing and we caught Spencer licking the flour off counter.  He says, "I like it!" He only eats about four things, but he likes plain flour! (Side note: He is watching my type right now and says, "That's Spencer and the flour! I liked flour, Mama, I liked it.")

He drew faces on Alden.  Alden says at night,"I wonder what Sam will do tomorrow?" Since we have about 20 more days of Sam at our house, Sam is wondering that himself. Good thing he has a Pinterest account.  But, he is happy to know that he is appreciated by that little boy.

In the month of November, as much as we tried to keep him our tiny bundle, Baby Harry kept growing up on us. Harrison is a healthy little four month old now.  He weighed in at 15 lbs. 4 oz. at his checkup slowing him down a bit to the 50th percentile. However, at 25 1/2 inches long, we are still a tall boy in the 75th percentile. Not surprisingly, he has joined his brothers, father, grandpa, and remainder of his paternal side of the family with a giant 95th percentile head. The amazing news is that four times I have been told that he looks like me, even by that same side of the family, which has amazed me. No one has ever, ever told me my child looked like me before!  He smiles all the time, loves to suck his thumb, is trying hard to sit up but refuses to roll over. We are blowing raspberries and sticking our our tongue and making a huge mess kicking all of the bath water all over the floor. He tricked me by sleeping ALL the way through the night for three days and then reverting to newborn phase for two weeks solid after that waking up every two or three hours thanks to a silly old cold.  Daddy and Mommy fight over who gets to hold him all the time and we refuse to let him move into his own bedroom yet because we like him hanging out with us. He is, therefore, following all stereotypes associated with the "baby"of the family.

Now that December is upon us, we are gearing up for Christmas lights, train rides, parties, presents, family visits, and more sugar than my children can dream.  But, I am also bracing myself for four weeks with all three kids all day long all by myself during school break. I am not as worried as Finely Grace should be, however. Despite their plans of marital bliss in Texas, Alden took the class pets and the cute girl up the street to see Peter Pan for the holidays.  I guess I can put off my plans for checking Pinterest for rehearsal dinner ideas for just a little while.