Thanksgiving, 2012

Well, I think it's unlikely that we'll be forgetting this Thanksgiving any time soon . . . .

Let me start at the beginning. Last Friday was Natalie's Thanksgiving Program at school. It was, as you'd imagine (and as I tell you, as an unbiased observer of such things), totally adorable. The picture quality isn't the best here, but this should give a sense of both the cute and the chaos that went into the whole thing.

Pre-performance seat hijinks:

(For those lacking vision, that's a handprint turkey on her headband. Duh.)

The show:

 Post-performance victuals:

So, you'll notice in the pictures above, Natalie has both a plate and a napkin in front of her. She actually started with an oatmeal cookie on a napkin (the picture on the right, but it looked better on the left, so that's where it is, narrative flow be dammed). She ate her cookie with no problem, and then very sweetly turned to me, took a sidelong glance at the pumpkin cheesecake remaining on my plate and said, "Mommy, let's switch plates now." Well played, kitten, well played.

In sum, adorable is hard work:

That night, Natalie started complaining that her leg was hurting because one of her classmates had kicked her. I had actually witnessed the kick in question, and while it had drawn a rebuke from the teacher, it hadn't actually drawn a response from Natalie in the moment. So, the injury didn't seem major to me. The pain came and went all weekend long, seeming to appear when she was being asked to clean up, wash hands, etc. But not really interfering with gymnastics class or trips to the park. We gave her teachers a heads-up on Monday, and they suggested that maybe it could be growing pains. We still weren't sure, and she seemed to have a pretty good day at school on Monday.

Except. Except. On Tuesday, she was worse. Not, like, a little worse, but MUCH worse. She wouldn't walk or put any weight on the leg. Mike had planned to stay home with her, anyway, since her school was closed. So he made an appointment with the pediatrician for that afternoon. When you call up and say your kid can't walk, that, um, actually generates a fairly swift response. The doctor ordered both bloodwork and xrays, both of which were normal. So, on Wednesday, Mike and Natalie went to the children's hospital for an ultrasound. Which was also normal. We were totally stumped. The kid was clearly getting worse, but everything seemed normal. Wednesday afternoon, I noticed a rash on her leg, and we called the pediatrician back. At that point, I didn't know if the rash was related, but, well, since we didn't have a diagnosis, I figured it wasn't too pesty to call again. The doctor wanted to see us.

We were there for quite some time, the night before Thanksgiving. And everyone was so kind, so pleasant, and so not-rushy. And we left with diagnosis: shingles. I know, right? Kids can get it. And they do, apparently.

And, oooh boy, compared to the things this could have been - the things that ran through my mind and the things none of the medical professionals say to you, but you suspect they are looking for - shingles is a relief. In that, you know, people recover.

Natalie is still in pain and not really walking, but we're having more moments where she's herself, so that's good.

It's not the low-key, stress-free Thanksgiving we'd planned. But sometimes the Thanksgiving you get is the one for which you're really, truly thankful.

Goat Birthday

So, the goat turned 1u,39y8,456h98j7 in goat years a few weeks ago.

After the stress of October, we were hoping November would settle down a little. Alas, both of the first two weeks of November had Mike on the road. So his birthday turned  out to be a quiet affair. We went for pizza at our new favorite local place and then came home for birthday dessert. Mike had requested chocolate cream pie after tasting some a few weeks back at a delicious place that we've just discovered near our house (bonus: it's actually really, really close!). I don't have a picture of Mike with the original pie, but here's Natalie in the restaurant in a post-pie sugar coma:

So, using the Cook's illustrated recipe, I set out to re-create that. This wasn't my cooking process, but it is a pretty cute sort of cooking-related picture, so hey....

 Anyway, here's how I did:

Not bad, eh? 

The goat also received a tortilla press for his birthday, and so far we've been treated to some magnificent tortillas!

So I mentioned that Mike had been on the road a lot. One of his trips was to speak at a university alumni event. The alumni were attending a lecture by Gorbachev, and it was the goat job to provide some insightful background and context. That left me trying to explain to Natalie what, exactly, Mike was doing. Our conversation went like this:

Me: You know how Barack Obama is our President, right? Well, Gorbachev was the leader of another country a long time ago. He did some really big, important things. And he's a very important person. So listening to what he has to say is really interesting.
Natalie: [Pause, thinking] Kind of like SuperFrog? (SuperFrog is the TCU mascot)
Me: Exactly.

For those needing a little additional visual, here's SuperFrog (he's the one on the right, kids). 

Also, here are Mike and Natalie flashing their horned frog signs (or at least attempting to do so!):

The weather's been strange (or, typical - whatever). We've definitely had a few cold-cold days, and frost enough to kill the garden - and hopefully the West Nile-laden mosquitoes. But we're still having warm and pleasant days in the 70s, too. I guess all we can say is that the misery of summer is definitely over! Anyway, long sleeves and long pants are definitely making an appearance these days. Here's Natalie, modeling some new togs from Bubbe:

 
Hope you are staying warm! And happy Thanksgiving to you! Next week (in theory), I'll have a separate post all about Natalie's Thanksgiving program at school.

Fall Fun

Natalie took her first field trip a few weeks ago! Her class (and the class above) boarded buses and went to a local farm. Given that this was her first field trip, no way was I going to miss chaperoning it! A lot of other parents also felt the same way; there were so many parents that the big joke was that we should put all the kids on one bus and all the parents on another! Actually, many of the parents (myself included) ended up driving separately - a plan guaranteed to save our sanity and our eardrums and get us back to work on time. 

Thus, we were quite the sight making our way down the freeway, two buses with kids all in car seats or booster seats, followed by seven or eight minivans / SUVs. That's a field trip, Texas style, ya'll.

But we eventually made it to the farm, had the obligatory potty stop(s) and started seeing, petting, and feeding the animals. Much fun was had by all!

The class was even (sort of) willing to (semi-) pose for something approximating a picture. You be the judge:

Before leaving the farm, they even got to go on a hayride!

Next up on the Fall Fun List was Halloween. Like last year, we went to the TCU dorm event. This is fast becoming one of our favorite fall traditions - the students are so sweet and put so much time and effort into their decorations, Natalie loves being on campus, and it's so cute to see all the other kids dressed up. And the candy, oh, yes, the candy (more on that in a minute).

First, time capsule back to last year:

And here's this year (same costume: when you're golden, you're golden, you know?):

Natalie is in Daddy's arms here because the dreaded SuperFrog mascot dared to make an appearance:

Our friend Charlotte also hosted her Toddlerween Halloween party in a local park. Unfortunately, the party fell on one of the truly cool weekends we've had so far (now we're back to comfortable 88 during the days, so weep no more for us, dear friends. Except, maybe do. Because, you know: seasons?). Anyway, it was chilly, but the kids had a blast!

  Group party shot, sort of:

So, I mentioned the Halloween candy. We came home from the TCU event with a fair amount of candy. And unlike last year, Natalie was highly interested in it.

So we settled on one piece a day for a few days. However, the genius of the TCU Halloween event is that it was about a week before Halloween. So by the time Halloween came, the candy wasn't quite so new and exciting anymore. Since we'd done our trick-or-treating at TCU, we'd decided we weren't going out again. Better, we managed to convince Natalie that Halloween was the night where you give away all your candy (I mean, why else would people be coming to your house all dressed up, right?). We'd bought some bagged candy, too. So we started with that - and it was rocky going with the first few groups of visitors. But after that, Natalie got totally into it and we stealthily added her candy to the bowl. And by the end of the night - who'd have thunk it! - all the candy was gone. I know this totally won't work next year, but, hey, we'll take what we can get.

Last, I attended the family and friends Shabbat at Natalie's school:

In conclusion: Fall fun - rock on with your kitty cat on:

Party like a Kitty

We had Natalie's belated third birthday party two weeks after we returned from San Diego. And about four days after her ear surgery. It was all a bit crazy, but it worked out. And we luckily had really good (if a little windy) weather - an especially good thing since I really didn't have a rain plan.

I'd been planning the kitty theme for a while, collecting various kitty crafts and kitty games that the kids could do. In the end, I'd way over-planned, and my game of painting cat whiskers on faces and then having the kids hunt for mice (cat toys! so brilliant, right?) didn't happen. The kids were just too happy playing on the play structure.

My major craftiness went towards making kitty ears for all the guests. This wasn't as quick as I had thought it would be, but I was really pleased with the final products. I filled the party bags with kitty-themed items: paw print stickers, a little plastic toy cat, a rubber duck/cat, and some goldfish crackers.

Here are a few shots of the birthday-ish girl:

(The lower-right picture is Natalie's old babysitter. We miss her very much, but she's now graduated and gone on to bigger and better things!)

Here are a few other party guests:

We had pizza and store-bought cake. Nothing fancy, just fun. And, if I do say so myself, it was fun! The cake was a big hit!

Thanks so much to all our local friends who made the day so special. To our far-flung family friends: we wish you all could have been there! Hugs!