Thanksgiving

We have enjoyed the four day weekend with nowhere to go and nothing to do besides enjoy each other's company and good food. There was certainly plenty.

Thanksgiving morning, Liam helped Gabriel make some french toast. It was a good start to the day.
I filled the turkey with turkey with chestnut stuffing. It turns out that shelling the chestnuts was a time-consuming ordeal. Even Liam helped Grammie and Gabriel get it done. Gabriel is reading over my shoulder as I type. He says, "How'd you get a picture of me smiling while doing that?"

The feast.

After the meal, Liam and Linda played woodland dress-up with the rosemary sprigs.

Our little sprite.

And of course, there was pie.

It was a good day.

the lighting of the ozarks

Saturday evening, we went down to the Fayetteville Square for the "Lighting of the Ozarks." The yearly Christmas parade is always opened with turning on the thousands of lights coating the trees around the square. It's beautiful every year.

Liam had no idea what was going on at first. Why were we just standing around in the dark with everyone else in Fayetteville?
But his reaction when those lights turned on was defintely worth that squirmy wait.

He loved the lights.

He loved the parade.

It was a good night.

what he does with Daddy

Saturday morning, I was busy helping my mom make a cake for an open house at her work, which meant Gabe was "in charge" of Liam.

Liam loves every little bit of Special Daddy Time that he can get, especially when Gabe has been out of town like he was last week.

Usually they do things outside, or play legos, or wrestle. Each other's company is simply enough. But Gabe wasn't feeling especially motivated for any of the usuals. I suggested he and Liam color with markers.

This is not what I had in mind.

little tiger

Liam and I were surprised today by a packge from Tio Andres and Tia Molly. Liam gets just as excited about these kinds of things as I do.

He's saying box, box, box...

Oooh!
A tiger costume!
Liam loves playing dress up and then looking in the mirror. This costume won his approval right away. It's even good for nap time.

Thank you, Tio Andres and Tia Molly.

arts and crafts

I haven't been good about blogging lately. Between the general exhaustion of growing a baby (while chasing around a toddler who does not like me to be on the computer) and a keyboard that only types some of the letters sometimes with no rhyme or reason (making the simplest of sentences time consuming and frustrating) blogging just hasn't been much of a priority.

Liam has been really interested in arts and crafts lately, much of that having to do with his new craft table I found in a dumpster.

Yes, in a dumpster.

I painted the top with chalkboard paint, and we keep sidewalk chalk (perfect for toddler hands and slightly less breakable) in the cupboard on top.

Liam loves having a table just his size.
Sage spent the day with us last Thursday. He and Liam painted hand-turkeys together. It was a big mess and big fun. Thank you, washable acrylics...

Sage was not thrilled with wearing the smock. But once we got it on, he was happy with the paint.

The table is also good for playdough (homemade, of course). Liam had a lot of fun making a spiny caterpillar with toothpicks.

He is a lot to keep up with, but we are settling into a balance of somewhat structured activities with lots of time in the rocking chair with a good book or two or three. And he has been doing great entertaining himself with duplos and puzzles.

ninja, bat, duck

We had three days of Halloween activities, which meant Liam could wear three different costumes.

Thursday

For the special Halloween story time at the library, Liam went in his ninja costume. I taught him to say "hi-yah," which he continues to repeat at random moments.

I forgot to bring my camera, but just imagine the world's cutest little ninja. That's the picture.

Friday

Time for the bat costume.

I took Liam downtown in the wagon for Siloam's annual downtown trick or treat. The street was blocked off from traffic, but it was congested with LOTS of people instead. Liam came home with lots of candy, although along the way he ate

• a tootsie pop
• a now n' later
• a dum dum
• 2 tootsie rolls
• a twizzler's pull and peel

Let's just say he was a very happy bat.

Back at home, Liam's balloon popped. He was stunned. Not because of the noise. Because he couldn't find his balloon. He just kept repeating "uh-oh" and motioning to the now empty rubberband around his wrist.

Saturday

For Halloween officially, Liam was a duck. This was his favorite costume. He had a huge grin from the moment he saw it, and he gladly wore the hood all day.

We spent the morning in Fayetteville, stopping at the library, the Little Bread Co, the Farmer's Market, TerraTots, and ONF. Everyone liked the little duck...

Liam definitely liked Halloween!