Happy Thanksgiving!

The Weinberg Three had lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday. In Milo's words: "his fort" (i.e., the jungle gym in our backyard). Calder told everyone at school he was thankful for "his Mama and I like Dadda too." Zola's probably pretty thankful for her super big brothers. And frankly, they ought to be pretty thankful for such a sweet, easygoing little sister.

This Thanksgiving the Weinberg Three were especially thankful for having had all of their grandparents, as well as their Uncle Justin, here in Columbia to spoil them. The Thanksgiving holiday was a whirlwind of fun and good food, including Lego building with Uncle Justin, a scooter ride with Oom-Poppa to Five Points (and a hot cocoa stop), copious cookies courtesy of Gramma, riding Uncle Justin like a pony, arts and crafts with Grammy (she made little books for everyone), playing with Oom-Poppa's iPhone light saber, storytime with Gramma and Grandpa, walking our dogs with Grandpa, and trips to the zoo (with Calder's first pony ride!) and the State Museum.

We had so much non-stop fun that this afternoon, after all our company had started their homeward travels, the Weinberg Three all took three hour naps. Woohoo!

Why Are You Turning Around?

Today we took a family road trip out in the South Carolina countryside. Because of the poorly marked country roads and Google Maps' less than ideal directions, we made a number of U-turns on our trip, prompting Milo to ask repeatedly "Why are you turning around?" You might not think so, but this grates on one's patience after a while, especially when there's also a screaming baby in the car (missing her morning nap makes Zola very angry).

Almost forty minutes later than we'd planned we arrived at Grits and Groceries, our first stop of the day. Our brunch was highly worth getting lost for, as well as the half-hour wait once we arrived. While we waited we visited with the goats across the street and the boys sipped hot chocolate and munched french fries compliments of the chef. Our brunch was delicious and before long we were on our way to Split Creek Farm, a goat dairy.

Today Split Creek Farm held a holiday festival. The boys enjoyed watching a blacksmith make an old fashioned nail (which Milo got to keep!), sampling fresh goat cheese and goat's milk yogurt, throwing sticks in a campfire, chasing chickens around the farm, and especially petting and playing with the adorable baby goats, who licked Milo's fingers and nibbled on Daddy's pants and Calder's coat.

Finally, because no Weinberg family outing seems complete without frozen confections (thanks, Justin), we visited the '55 Exchange at Clemson University. The boys (all three) loved the university's creamy ice cream. Yum!

It was a lovely day despite the chilly weather. Spending an entire day together amidst or perhaps despite of all the normal day-to-day craziness, especially right before Thanksgiving, is a nice way to remember all those things you are thankful for.

Ten Months Old

Today Zola is ten months old! So far Zola has spent her day doing some of her favorite things: eating carbohydrates (bagels, ciabatta bread, orzo pasta, and Baby Mum Mum crackers), sharing said carbs with her favorite dog Beacon (at least she didn't try to eat Beacon's food today), crawling around the house (still ever so dainty and deliberate), pulling up to standing on the stairs, practicing two of her favorite words (brother and dog), trying to play with her brothers' toys (read anything tiny), cracking into cackling laughter thanks to her brothers, and giving Mommy, Daddy, and her baby doll big squeezy hugs and open-mouthed kisses. Yum!

She Talks

For about a month and a half now we've been wondering if Zola's really been meaning the words we think we've been hearing come out of her mouth. Well, now we've gotten confirmation that she's probably been saying words such as "Mama," "Daddy," "brother," and "hi." The other day I was feeding Zola in my room with the door shut. All of a sudden I heard the jingle-jangle of our dog Beacon's tags and her pawing at the door to come in. Zola stopped nursing, turned her head, pointed to the door, and said, "dog." Okay, it sounded more like "daw," but I think she's on the right track! Who knows what other things she's been saying that we just can't yet understand. And seeing how early she's starting to talk, that might be a good thing. If she's anything like her brothers I can expect to have my ears talked off regularly, now by three little peanuts.

End of the Soccer Season

On Saturday the boys had their last soccer games of the fall soccer season. Both boys also had parties with their teams to celebrate. Here are the top five highlights from the games and parties:



5. Calder actually playing (part) of his last game, chasing the ball and running along with his teammates, and, get this, even making contact with the ball. He got to do two corner kicks!

4. Milo and Calder snuggling under our picnic blanket in order to both keep warm and hide the fact that they were gorging themselves on snacks during Milo's game while Milo was "on a break" from playing.



3. Milo running over to me on the sideline, during the game mind you when he was not "taking a break," to tell me that the excessive amounts of Pirate's Booty that he scarfed down were enabling him to "keep up with Maggie," his team's star player.

2. Not one but TWO broken soccer trophies. Yes, that's right folks. They didn't last more than a day in either case. Thanks to Milo, on Saturday, Calder's trophy took an unfortunate trip through the air causing the decapitation of the little soccer player statue. And, again, thanks to Milo's general klutziness, today he dropped his trophy immediately upon receipt while trying to high-five his coaches, sending his trophy into multiple pieces. Well, then.

1. Smiles from the boys and a general sense that they'd like to play soccer again in the Spring.

Nature In Our Garden IV

Leapin' Lizards! We've spied these cute little lizards all over our garden before, but today one was sitting right in the middle of our front stoop when we opened the door to go outside. Certainly before you could shout "Leapin' lizards!" Calder had deftly snatched the little critter from the side of the house (yes they--both the lizards and Calder--move quickly) and the boys had a little friend to keep them company. For about an hour the boys took turns holding (probably more like torturing from the lizard's point of view) the poor lizard, whom they named "Leif the lizard," until Stockholm syndrome set in. Before we had them let Leif go, Milo was walking around with Leif on his hand or arm, without the lizard making any attempts to escape. Ah, those charming Weinberg Boys.

Scaling New Heights

Sort of. Just now Zola climbed her first step on our staircase! I watched from a few feet away as she pulled herself up on the first two stairs, going from her knees to her feet and then, once she started lifting up her legs, I scooted over to spot her from behind. And there she went, gracefully, deliberately, and oh-so-daintily as ever. I didn’t wait to see if she was going to attempt a second step. I swooped her up right away, as I noticed that she smelled pretty bad. Knowing how much my girl hates a poopy diaper, I guess Zola was trying to get upstairs to the changing table.

Zoo Fun

Public school is off today and tomorrow for Election Day, and so today we headed to the zoo with our good friends Maya, Gracen, Cooper, Evan and Juliana. The kids had a blast. Once we go to the zoo, that is. Getting them to put on their own shoes and jackets so that we could actually leave the house was painful, for all parties involved.

Anyhoo, once we were at the zoo we fed the lorikeets, twice! Those birds were hungry.

We watched the five new baby lion cubs wrestling and tackling each other. It was super cute and reminded us of how much we like to tackle and hug and kiss one another. We saw the new baby flamingos too, which were so gray and fluffy. We also rode the train up to the botanical gardens and back, saw the bird show, spotted "Nemo" and "Dorie" in the reptile house, and climbed all over the animal statues strewn throughout the zoo.

And, Zola rode the carousel for the first time and loved it!

Hello Florida!

We've got a future grandfather in training here. After I took the photo, Milo went inside and put on some white socks with black shoes. Please note the pen dangling from the pocket of his travel vest. Yeah baby--you're already sporting both of your grandfathers' style!