Happy Thanksgiving

Here are the highlights from this year's Thanksgiving:

• Not having to travel anywhere.
• Milo telling his teachers, without any prompting, that he is thankful for his little brother Calder.

• A fabulous, delicious meal that I did not have to cook myself -- Justin, you rock!
• Uncle Ben visiting all the way from London!
• Help in the kitchen when it is time to clean up -- special thanks to Gram!

• New York bagels hand-delivered by Uncle Ben.
• Sunny 70-75 degree weather in November.
• Uncle Spencer's childlike, complete joy at visiting the zoo with us.

• Feeding the lorikeets and hearing the Simang monkeys howl at the zoo.

• Riding the carousel with Uncle Ben and Uncle Spencer.

• Calder practicing walking with Gram and Oom-Poppa.
• Riding Uncle Ben the horsey.

• Two child-free hours of tax-free, Christmas/Chanukah shopping Friday morning.
• Fresh baked bread.

• Walking through the lovely and charming streets of Charleston on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
• Time spent together as a family.

Blast Off

You'd better watch out! Thanks to Gramma and Granpa, Calder has his very own rocket ship on which to blast off into the wild blue yonder. After having it for about a week now, Calder is no longer too scared to sit on it and seems to like it quite a bit.

Who Do You Love?

Every night before bed I ask Milo who loves him and every night he replies with a long list that sounds something like this: "Mommy, Daddy, Calder, Gramma, Grandpa, Oom-Poppa, Grammy, Hannah, Auntie Alli, Uncle Ben, Uncle Spencer . . . ." Tonight I shook things up a bit by asking Milo who he loves and his immediate response was: "Hannah." Justin asked who else and Milo said, "My butt!" followed by intense giggles. After a little more coaxing from Justin, Milo added "Mommy" but quickly dissolved into giggles. Well, then.

We've Had A Breakthrough

For the first time ever, both boys sat TOGETHER while I read them stories. Typically, although Calder enjoys reading books to himself, he rarely will sit through one of us reading him an entire story. But yesterday, Calder managed to focus on not one, but five, stories. Granted, he bashed me in the head with a dinosaur board book a couple of times, but I took that as his way of telling me that I needed to read that particular book next. And, mid-story, Calder also climbed over Milo and me, inciting Milo's shrieks, so that he could sit on the other side of the sofa, but he remained sitting on the sofa and listening to the story. This is just amazing folks!

Calder Started Walking!

Just a few days shy of 15 months old and Calder took a few steps today!



It all started last week at the children's museum, where Calder walked around pushing a shopping cart at the child-sized Piggly-Wiggly supermarket.



We quickly bought him a walker/push wagon to aid in his new endeavor and, with a little encouragement from Dad, Calder toddled around a bit this evening!


(All of these pictures are from our visit to the children's museum.)

Auntie Alli Got Married!!!

This past weekend was Auntie Alli's and Uncle Dave's wedding in Durham, NC. Milo was a smashing ring bearer and, by the reception, was hamming things up for the photographer. Milo was particularly fascinated with Auntie Alli's poofy dress and tried a number of times to climb under it and remove the pretty flowers and sparkles from it. Auntie Alli was a beautiful bride and she and Uncle Dave looked pretty happy.



Calder only participated in the bridesmaids' luncheon and photos before the wedding and wasn't too happy about it all. Calder much preferred his time with Suzanne (my friend since age 12) and Craig, and their lovable dogs.



Here are some more photos from the lovely weekend.