Yesterday was First Advent.  Our Advent wreath is buried somewhere in the depths of the storage closet.  David is going to go on an expedition to locate the Christmas storage boxes, but for yesterday, we had a lone candle without the wreath.

Davey loved lighting the candle. (He didn’t actually light it, but he did blow it out!)

For a moment, he sat there and looked at it. (Apparently there’d been chocolate in his recent past.)

Then, just as I always did throughout my childhood years, we sat on the couch and listened to Christmas songs.  At least I think I sat still and listened to Christmas music.  Davey did too – for awhile.  Then he decided to dance to celebrate.  (I didn’t get the best shots in the dark.)

He called the candle/music/dancing “our great idea”.

So today he said to David many times:  “When can we do our great idea?”

And when we sat down again tonight to look at the candle and listen to Christmas music, he said, “Didn’t I have a great idea?”

The boy who wears no pants (for maximum ease of potty training) was just as animated tonight!

Happy First Advent!

We’ve had such a nice day.  Lunch with friends at a hot dog place.  “Mustard’s Last Stand”!  Great name.  Then Ben & Jerry’s.  It was a nice time with them (our friends – although we did enjoy Ben and Jerry as well!).

Then I got to go knit for a couple of hours with my friend.  Also great.  Chai Latte at Starbucks and lots of knitting and talking about knitting.   She also gave me the yarn to test knit a pattern for her.  I’ve always wanted to be a “test knitter”!  I am going to be making the cutest hat.  Here’s the yarn! (Cascade 128 – I’ve been wanting to try this yarn out!)  I can’t wait to show the progress on this neat hat.  She’s started an etsy shop – check it out! (She’s planning to put this pattern up for sale too after she gets it finished up.)

We also got Davey a couple of new games.  We played some Chutes and Ladders.  He enjoyed the first game that we all played, but then on the second:  “Daddy, I’m bored”.  So they switched to Ants in the Pants.  A very fun game!

Finally, I made salads tonight for supper.  I love to marinate chicken in olive oil, lemon and garlic.  It’s so good and great on a salad.  (Don’t forget the feta cheese and avocado! Oh and to cook the chicken.  I just cooked it on the stove in a little olive oil.)  Anyway, Davey was on his chair watching me chop.  Either David or I said, “Davey try some of those cucumbers and red bell peppers!” (Never actually considering he might do it.)   I was chopping them up, and he was scooting them around.  He casually started eating some cucumbers and then he tried the bell peppers.   He actually chewed and swallowed some of them. (He did spit some out after some chewing.  That’s ok, I figure he did get a little bit of nutrition from them.)  David and I watched avidly.  We were enthralled.  We were surprised.  We were agog.

That kid always surprises us. 🙂

I learned the neatest new technique last night.  I had a heck of a time getting it figured out, but once I did, I had a major “I feel like a real knitter moment”.

I can’t reveal the project because it is one of my secret projects, but I had to blog about this lateral braid.  The person who designed this project was inspired by a another project by Nancy Bush where she used this Estonian technique.  (At least I think it is Estonian.)

See that sideways looking knit?

I’ve never yet had an urge to design a pattern, but I really think I want to figure something out with a big chunky lateral braid running around it.  Like on a hat or something.   Guess I need to put that on my list.

I ordered the yarn for David’s sweater yesterday.  Unfortunately the main color is on back-order.  This is really going to put a kink in my David-imposed deadline of January something or another.  (2014)

David and Davey are playing.  They “played” chess a little while ago.  This involved setting up the pieces, scooting them around, and then they were done. Here’s a shady photo of Davey playing away.

Here is where I asked him to smile for me.  I think I can see his tonsils.

Happy Friday!  We were happy to have all day together!

Lunch is over.  It was delicious.

A Thanksgiving feast for sure.

Oh wait.  That was Davey’s lunch.  He also again talked up not being able to wait to have PIE!  Then, “Mommy, no thank  you.  I don’t like that pie.”

Here we go.  Maybe this is better.  David can build quite a plate.

Davey did help me cook last night.  Mr. “Expressive Hands”

Happy Thanksgiving!  I am going to go rest and be thankful now.

We’ve got everything ready to make our Thanksgiving dinner.  Davey and I may start a couple of things this afternoon.  I forgot all about deviled eggs!  Have to have some of those.  I want to persuade David to make a pecan pie.  He went through a pecan pie making phase back in 1997, when we lived in Seattle. Time for another one.

Today, David happened upon Davey watching a little tv while resting against a comfortable backrest.

I think Timber was ok with it.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Davey took his first class at the Little Gym today.  He had a great time.  He did a somersault!  (A marvel to me – I am so ungymnastically inclined that it is embarrassing.)  He ran around, he climbed, he rolled, he jumped, and he loved it!

Almost as fun was that for the next 45 minutes after class, he played with a 5 year old boy (actually 5 and 3/4 – the little boy explained to me).  They played and played and played.  I talked to a nice mom and learned more about the area.  She told me about some great activities in the area that  we’ll be able to do with Davey.   I was also very excited to learn about a Montessori program that is part of the public school system.  Yay for that! (Preschool all the way through 12th grade if we wanted!)  So that was very fun for me.

Now it is time to go get our ingredients for our Thanksgiving dinner.  I decided there is just not enough room in our little kitchen for a turkey, so I took the easy route and got a turkey breast at Honey Baked Ham.  They are so good, much better than I would make.

Our menu is going to include some Pioneer Woman recipes.  I want to make her cranberry sauce.  I am also going to make her sweet potato casserole, although I think it could technically count as a dessert.  I will attempt to make dressing, and then of course it would not be Thanksgiving without the green bean casserole.   I think that’s about it since it will just be the 3 of us, and one of the 3, I won’t mention any names, probably won’t touch any of it!

I am still thinking about dessert.  I think a pumpkin pie is inevitable, although I confess I am a fan of the Mrs. Smith.  Maybe I should try to make my own.  I could do that.

So we gotta go shop!  My trusty helper will accompany me.  If you take little Davey to the grocery store.  He will want a car cart. (That’s what we call the carts with the ginormous kiddy car on the front.)  Chances are, he will then want one of the free cookies for little kids.  Chances are also good that I am going to bonk someone or break something. (My little tribute to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie) I narrowly missed taking out 3 jars of spaghetti sauce the other day.  I worked in a grocery store.  There’s nothing messier.   Except for a plastic gallon of milk exploding.  That’s worse.  The car cart is a menace!  Davey loves it though.

I am knitting some.  I am not knitting on my Joy of Sox sock though.  I have decided to do some last minute super secret Christmas things.  I don’t know yet how many or if they will work out.  I am having a lot of fun with the current project though.

Ok off we go!

This morning Davey helped me finish making this little monster.  He was my creative director.  I put eyebrows on this little guy at first, but Davey asked me to take them off because they made him look mad.  Then he decided that he did not like this one at all, and he wants a red one. He did name this little green guy “Cutie”.

We tried to go play with the sidewalk chalk for awhile, but a massive bone-chilling cold front was blowing through.  This was not predicted that I know of.  We thought it was going to be calm and 55 this afternoon.   By 11, when the dogs were on walk #2 for the day, (they are old and need to go out 4-6 times a day) the wind was blasting and it was icy cold.

David was getting ready to run  which is why he was in shorts.  The change in weather really tackled him during his run.

Davey also spent some time decorating his car.

While David was running, Davey and I built this structure.  It was my first time.  I am not very good at it.  You run the little marbles through, and mine kept showing up at the most unexpected and wrong places.

It was fun though, and Davey helped me work it out. (Timber can always be found in the background.  14 years old, and he is still so curious!)

Happy Sunday!  We are getting ready to go “stroll” at the mall.

I was getting Davey dressed, and I asked him, “Davey!  You are getting so big!  How are you getting so big?”

He answered me, “From all the vegetables that I don’t eat.”

I said, “I think you are trying to make a point!”

He laughed and off he went.

Davey has been talking about learning to use scissors.  Safety scissors to be precise.  “Mommy, can I learn to use safety scissors?”

So yesterday I got him some.   He had a great time learning to use them.  It requires close supervision at this point, but he really started to figure out the motion, and what he needed to do. I showed him how to hold them and how to move them, but it takes some practice.  It’s really interesting to me to watch him work through it.

It took intense concentration.  I think his mouth opened every time he opened the scissor blades.

Blades closed.

The addition of the tongue indicated an even more intense concentration. (I can see Davey reading this blog someday.  “Mom, seriously?”)

Timber was hanging out nearby.  He was probably hoping I’d keep up the close supervision.

I am not sure what’s going on in the next picture.  It might be something like, “Mommy!  Enough with the pictures!”

Fun first time with the scissors.

Here’s what else I was working on yesterday evening.  I decided to learn magic loop.   Now that I have knitted in the round with 2 circulars, I think doing it with one was even easier.  And so much fun.  I like to knit little toys, but it’s tough with dpns.  Not many stitches on the needles at first, and I feel like I am juggling with toothpicks.  Magic Loop = so much fun!  I watched a good video and it was not hard at all.  So here’s my project in process.  I hope to have it done by tomorrow.  I just need to knit two little legs.

Happy Saturday.  I think we are going to go check out a community called Lone Tree.  David’s heard it is a really nice place to live.  Our fingers and toes are crossed that our Arkansas house will close next week.  Please cross yours too!

Yesterday, Davey and I made a cranberry pie.  I guess technically it’s more of a cobbler, but the Pioneer Woman calls it a pie.  I love cranberries and wanted to make it immediately after I read about it.  Davey insists that he loves pie.   We made the pie, and Davey couldn’t wait to try it.  He took one bite and walked up to me, “Mommy, I love this pie!”  Unfortunately, he had a very forced tone to his voice and he was chewing on the bite of pie like it was the worst thing he’d ever put in his mouth.  It was just a bite of crust too.  I didn’t think a tart cranberry would go over well.   Poor thing, he wanted to like the pie.

We watched the Pioneer Woman go head to head with Bobby Flay yesterday.  I love the Pioneer Woman, but we had another interest in the show.  We knew that David’s brother was there during the entire filming, so we made it our mission to catch a glimpse of him on camera.  He’s a chef who now teaches at a culinary school, so the school was somehow part of doing this “Throwdown” show.  Anyway, we looked and looked.  No sign of him.  Finally, I saw a headless person leaning against a counter.  He was in the very back.  We could only see him from the neck down, but it looked like it could be his neck.  It looked like it could have been his arm resting on the counter.  We are still not sure though.  David left him a message so that we can see if the shirt he was wearing that day matches the shirt we saw on the show.

So that was fun.

As often as I can, I like to use the blog to document specific things about Davey so I can remember them some day.

1.  Davey likes to stand on his head.  We are looking into a 3 year old tumbling class.

2.  Davey does not eat vegetables.  We are working on it.

3.  Davey loves to build.  We built with Tinkertoys for quite awhile this morning.  He still likes tearing down though almost as much as building.

4.  The other day, out of the blue, Davey said, “Mommy,  I didn’t like being in your tummy.  It was embarrassin’.  There wasn’t any furniture in there.”

That’s all for today.