Thanksgiving 2010

Matt & Janelle's Wedding

Aren't they the cutest couple?

Giggles during pictures!

We took the holiday as an opportunity to snap a few family photos.

Miles and cousin Corey

Little buddies watching the puppies outside.

Enjoying breakfast.

Picking out a Christmas tree.

Miles found a good one!

I am so thankful for my wonderful family. I live with the funniest, sweetest most kind 2 men. I'm a lucky girl and what a lovely holiday Thanksgiving is to remind us of these blessings. We had a great and fairly healthy long holiday weekend. The Sievers family moved in on Thursday morning and we celebrated at my mom's house with extended family. The turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry salad and kolachky's were so delicious. My brother and new sister-in-law were also in town so we did a lot of eating and sitting around chatting. Friday was a wonderfully mellow day with lots of playing with the babies and relaxing. Friday night we had our annual 3-course "fundue" dinner and looked at all of Matt and Janelle's wedding pictures - so beautiful!

On Saturday morning everyone went their separate ways and out little family continued to relax, play and start to plan for Christmas. Mike brought up Miles' sled from downstairs and even though we didn't venture out into the cold with it he had a great time sitting in it, pretending to ride and listening to us sing "Jingle Bells." Miles' grandma Nickolay gave him a children's nativity set and he amazed us my quickly remembering who was baby Jesus, the angel, etc. This kid is smart! This morning I made the guys homemade waffles with strawberries and real whip cream (Miles loves real whip cream as much as we do) and he first took part of his waffle and pretended it was a truck. He made the vroom vroom sounds and drove it across his tray. Next he took another piece of waffle and pretended it was a train. This was the first time we noticed that he was displaying imaginative play in an obvious way. I love it! Fun times with family and Miles' giggles were the highlights of our weekend.

Gobble Gobble

Watching the snowplow after the first snowstorm of the year.

Marching around in his first pair of boots!

Daren and Miles.
(Can you tell Daren has 4 older siblings? This is his rock star face!)



Me and my Godson.

Just playing naked in the bathroom.

All the world is his stage.

Tidbits

It seems like a long time since I've written a longer update on the blog. Time flies in life with a one year old. A few special things with Miles I want to note:

• Just in time for Thanksgiving, when asked what a turkey says, Miles replies "gobble, gobble." His ECFE teacher, Lisa, was impressed by this feat as these are hard consonant sounds to pronounce for a little guy.
• Last week Miles wore his "I'm going to be a big brother" t-shirt to school and boy was he in for a lot of attention. I think every teacher and parent stopped by to check him out that day. The director of the daycare was so excited and exclaiming loudly that Miles actually got scared and started to cry. Poor guy - he was wondering why everyone was making such a commotion around him. His teacher reported that by the end of the day he was looking down at his own shirt and pointing at it, trying to read it.
• Another day at daycare the note home said "Miles was very silly today - walking around on his knees and talking on his phone. He also enjoyed reading books about being a big brother." This daily note made me smile.
• Miles is now officially a climber. Not only can he scale stairs but he also has usurped Ruby from her perch on the ottoman as he launches his little body on top. Once up there he's not satisfied with sitting quietly but excitedly stands up and once up can't help himself but to squeal in delight and pride. It's so cute it's hard to enforce "sitting on your bottom."
• We may have a future choir boy in our family. Grandma Nickolay taught him to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." He only sings the row, row, row part for now but sings it often in his sweet little voice while swaying his head back and forth.
• He also does all of the actions to a song that tells him to tap his toes, slap his knees, clap his hands and twist his wrists.

A week in review
What an eventful week - no wonder we're all tired this Sunday night! We made another trip to the doctor's office last Wednesday because Miles had the worst diaper rash he's ever had. His poor little bum was so sore. The doctor prescribed "Magic Butt Cream" (yes, this is the official name on the jar for this concoction ). It's a mixture of hydracortisone cream, zinc oxide and an anti-fungal cream that the pharmacist mixed up for us. We've let Miles run around naked more (he loves it so much I was calling him "Adam") and applying the cream often.

Friday night we had the Lemke family of 7 over to celebrate Daren, my Godson's, 2nd birthday. It was a fun and lively evening and Miles fit right in running around with all of the other kids. Happy 2nd Birthday Daren! Saturday Mike and I volunteered again at the annual Fraser gala at the Hilton downtown. It's fun to get dressed up and do some good for a great cause. Graham was kind enough to babysit and he and Miles had a blast. Thank you Uncle Graham! After our volunteer shift was over Mike and I ate at Vincent, a french restaurant on Nicollet Avenue. Yum, delicious! Today, we had my parents over for a lunch of comfort foods and to watch the Vikings lose (again).

Baby watch
My due date is May 13 so I'm 15 weeks at this point and feeling good. My stomach (and other body parts) are protruding more at this point then in my pregnancy with Miles. Wearing maternity clothes feels pretty comfy at this stage. My next doctor's appointment is December 2 and on the 22nd is our big ultrasound to find out if we're having a boy or girl. We can't wait!

Miles has something to tell you...

Yuck!

The stomach flu hit our family hard this week. Miles was sent home from daycare with it on Wednesday, Mike got it on Saturday morning and it hit me Saturday night. After so much yucky illness between the 2 men in the family my flu could be completely psychosomatic however the symptoms are real! I'll spare you the details. We're all hopefully on the mend and we'll catch up next week with a great post.