Baby's first Thanksgiving

Ahhh - 4 days off in a row and a fabulous holiday. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. I'm most especially grateful for Mike (super dad), Miles and Hadley. One morning Miles was into hats and liked wearing daddy's. He then subjected Sister to his stocking cap. Luckily our girl is a good sport.

On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my parent's house. It was an exciting day - Hadley's first Thanksgiving!

While the rest of us enjoyed the most juicy turkey, Hadley sucked on a baby feeder filled with organic banana. After a rocky start with the rice cereal she doesn't seem to mind sucking on a banana out of this little mesh bag. Maybe next year she can gnaw on a turkey leg.

We celebrated the day with a lot of extended family. Don't these two look like trouble?

Corey and Miles are great little buddies these days. There's never a dull (or quiet) moment when these guys are together.

Then there are these two little cuties - celebrating their first Thanksgiving together.

They're the next two in this rowdy bunch. I love their Thanksgiving outfits (I couldn't resist buying Hadley a corduroy dress with a turkey and bows on it). I think Had's was feeling Bradyn's hair here. They were having a moment.

The whole gang.

After a wonderful holiday (I am feeling much better and no one else is sick...for the moment) we enjoyed the rest of the long weekend and prepared for Christmas. Mike and Miles put lights up on an outside tree.

Miles and Hadley actually play together much more now.

We hung out with my family more on Friday. Is there any holiday with better leftovers than Thanksgiving?

After all of the activity I think that most of us didn't even get out of our pajamas on Saturday.

Sunday we started decorating the house. Miles has been hearing about Santa here and there but we haven't really talked about him too much before this weekend. Out of the blue he asked "What's Santa?" I said, "He's a man who lives in the North Pole and brings good boys and girls toys on Christmas." After a pause Miles said, "Nooooooooooooo!" I know - it's almost too good to be true!

While some families venture out into the woods to cut down a fresh evergreen tree we headed to the new Menards and picked a tree out of the lot.

We did a lot of decorating with reminders every few seconds to "look with our eyes, not our hands." I've got to say, this isn't our most attractive Christmas tree this year but 2 broken ornaments later it's still standing and at least we all like the glow of the lights and smell of the pine.

Our big 6 month old experienced many firsts this week. She also visited the doctor for her 6 month check-up. She's still a healthy and growing girl. Here are her stats:

• Height: 26 inches (55%)


• Weight: 16 lbs 6.5 oz (70%)


• Head: 16.8 inches (50%)

This week we are going to try oatmeal and avocado. She's not very keen on eating and usually pretty sleepy during our dinner time so we might have to have her teachers at school feed her. We'll see how this week goes first.Our stockings are all hung - I loved adding Hadley's to the line this year - and everyone in my family is tucked into bed.

Work to live

I've been reminded that I need to work to live - not live to work. The huge conference a few weeks ago zapped me of energy and I've had a bad cold and severe fatigue since because I haven't taken anytime to slow down. I'm now officially sick of being sick - I just don't feel like a good mother when I'm so tired all of the time and can't smooch my family. So, to fight this thing I'm going to work from home tomorrow, take my vitamins, go to bed early tonight, and hopefully with the upcoming long weekend get back to normal. This blog, like my energy supply these days, will be short.

On Friday, the kids and I had a pajama day. Hadley briefly rode Miles' tractor but as most 2nd children know - what are Miles' toys are Miles' toys and what are Hadley's toys are also Miles' toys. Luckily Hads is pretty laid back about the whole thing.
We really just spent the day hanging out together.


Hadley still hates rice cereal. We're going to attempt banana this week but I'm not feeling overly optimistic because as soon as the spoon get near her little mouth clamps fiercely shut.
Snow! Miles test drove his new boots and snow pants as we went for a sled ride around the neighborhood. I also made a mini snowman with raisin eyes which he stomped on. A couple of cute notes about Miles this week - his favorite color is now orange. He always wants to eat out of his orange bowl (if we tell him that it's dirty we need to prove it by opening up the dishwasher so that he can check on his favorite orange bowl). He also has been waking up each morning and from naps at home saying enthusiastically "the suns awake! Mommy, come here. Look! The suns awake!" If only I could muster that same energy and spirit at 6:00 am. It makes me smile each day and I look forward to going into his room to help him welcome the day and look out the window.
Hads is pretty much sitting up by herself now and there's no toy she can't reach by rolling and squirming until she can grab it and put it in her mouth. She's also been making motor sounds with her mouth which usually signals me that she's hungry. She also says things that sound like "hi dada" and makes a gargling noises that I can't even do if I tried.

Both kids are healthy for now - so let's hope it stays that way!

The first bite

Our house is a little less destroyed then it was last weekend at this time - laundry is actually put away (mostly), leaves have been picked up and we're all on the new daylight savings schedule. The weekend was busy and fun. Miles can now open his own granola bar wrapper, open all door knobs, is obsessed with turning on and off the lights (he's always turning them off when I'm trying to change Hadley's diaper), and the little strongman rolled the real lawnmower all the way out of the garage and into the yard by himself.

Our sweet Rose turned 6 months old this weekend. I can't believe a half a year has gone by since she was born. Where has the time gone? Last week she had her first ear infection so has been on antibiotics. Even when sick she's still the same, sweet baby.

This weekend we celebrated Daren, my Godson's, 3rd birthday. Miles, Hads and I made a trip out to the Lemke ranch where we had a great time playing with toys, visiting the animals and eating cupcakes. Here Miles feeds his first chickens.
And Bronco the goat.

Miles couldn't get close enough to the goat. He wasn't hesitant around any of the animals and was running around just like one of the Lemke crew. Although I don't have pictures we also got to feed pumpkins to their 3 pigs.

It was a fun afternoon of celebrating.

Happy birthday Daren!

The most important first of the week was Hadley eating solids for the first time. I don't have to write a long narrative about this great event because the pictures tell the best story.

Hmmmm, I'm not so sure why mommy and dada are strapping me into this chair and acting so excited.

I guess I'll just be a brave girl and see what comes.

Ok, first bite - a little shocking but not too bad.

Mommy I want to hold the spoon!

Yeah, I'm not a fan of this organic rice cereal.

It's confirmed. I really don't like it.

We were happy to experience this exciting first food with our little daughter. Even though she wasn't overly thrilled with it we'll continue with rice cereal for a few days before moving on to something much more exciting like avocado or banana!

Happy 6 month birthday sweet pea! (After several failed attempts at getting Hads to sit up straight, smile, not suck on her toes and not crumple the sign this is the best picture of the group.)

Tonight we had dinner with my parents and the Sievers and the new game for Miles and Corey was to re-purpose the lawnmowers as riding toys. They then talked grandpa into giving them rides up and down the hall.

So, I'm not sure if the rice cereal upset her stomach or she's teething but Miss Rose is crying so that's the end for this weekend.

Back home

Every year I'm one of the leads on a team that coordinates a huge conference at the Hilton Minneapolis. I just got home today and am exhausted. This year I was lucky enough to have my mom and Hadley stay with me at the hotel so that I could continue to nurse while working long hours at the conference. She was Miss Popularity at the hotel. New with Hadley - besides being super cute Mike and my mom both witnessed her get up on all fours briefly. Here my little snugglebug lounged in the king size bed.
Although I didn't really get to see him this week, Miles and Mike did come to the hotel to visit grandma and Hadley. Here Miles is just like mommy - conference badge around his neck and cell phone in hand.

I brought this huge bunch of balloons home for Miles and he spent a good part of the morning running up and down the hall with them. Reunited at dinner tonight Miles kept amazing me with the things he was saying. Here's a sampling of his sentences:

• I'm Miles Bennett Gray.


• I want to see where the moon is.


• I want my privacy.


• Good dinner mommy.


• I asked him if he was glad we were eating together as a family. He responded, yes, let's big hugs.


• I see Miles in the mirror. (looking at his reflection in the window)


• I told Miles he had one more minute at the dinner table before it's time for bath. He yelled to Mike - start the bath! Get the water! I asked, are you bossing daddy? He replied. Yes.