T-Day Wrap-Up

Since Thanksgiving was a week ago, and I've now officially divested my fridge of anything that could be considered a 'leftover,' maybe I should actually write about it.

We had, as you can see, a houseful of Blinns. My parents drove out on Tuesday night, arriving in time to watch that night's episode of NCIS (I thought it was
just okay but I enjoyed the shoulder holster and the Real Genius reference), and left on Friday morning. It was a whirlwind trip, but we still had time to go on Steak 'n' Shake - we went on Wednesday night since my mom and I were full on sick of cooking at that point - and even squeeze in a visit to Hancock Fabrics. Matt and my kids and my dad and sisters went down to the Childrens' Museum on Wednesday and Mom and I stayed home to cook and bake and generally mess up the kitchen. (I also found the time to list a bunch of stuff on eBay - I've finally figured out how to use that site so I've been clearing out some of the piles of stuff I've accumulated in my basement over the years. The fact that I get money for it is just a nice little bonus.) Also, I discovered that the Guacamole Steakburger is the fall-apartiest steakburger ever, but it's delicious, as is the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake.

Mike and Many and Miles came up on Thursday morning while Matt was at Turkey Bowl, and there were plenty of cinnamon rolls to go around. We pretty much feasted from one end of the day to the other, what with crackers and cheese and sausage and veggies and deviled eggs and then the feast really began. The turkey was done around 4:00, which was perfect timing - if it had finished before the Packers/Lions game was over, I don't think anyone would have touched it. My personal big accomplishment was making yeast rolls from scratch for the first time ever ( with only a little help from my mom) (okay, and some assistance from Molly) and they were really, really good. A little pie to round the whole meal out and some Christmas music while cleaning up the dishes, and I'd have to call it an enormously successful holiday.

All About Amy

Amy had what I'm deeming her 19-month checkup today. She weighs in at a hefty yet adorable 25 pounds, and I forget her height and head size but she's right on track for that. She also got a bunch of shots and I swear, the look she gave me afterwards was heartbreakingly hilarious - Mom, how could you do this to me? But even that should be more or less done with, since she won't have too many more immunizations scheduled, and she'll be better able to understand it when she does. Actually, Porter was really funny in the dorctor's office this morning: once we established that he wasn't having a shot (both he and Betsy got the H1N1 through the schools, and it was a mist) he informed me that Amy wasn't going to have one either. I don't know if this is because he didn't want to see her hurt (Porter has his moments of being a really solicitous and loving older brother, like when he and Amy went to Egypt while I was making dinner last night) or if he just didn't want to hear her cry.

Anyway, Amy is now or will soon be immune to a whole host of nasty-but-largely-forgotten childhood diseases. Yay! She's also forgiven me for the thigh jabs. Our doctor's office has just added a nurse practitioner who doubles as a lactation consultant, and that's who we saw today, so I had a nice chat with her. I was slightly embarrassed to admit that my daughter is nineteen months old and still nursing, but she was impressed (or at least nice enough not to call me a freak). For what it's worth, the High Octane Mom Juice seems to be agreeing with Amy, since she's healthy, adorable and fat. Anyway, I told her that my goal is to get Amy off the sauce before her birthday, and she agreed that it probably wouldn't hurt to keep nursing her until winter cold/flu season is over, which is a point I hadn't even thought of. So, that gives me a little while to figure out how I am going to handle the Weaning Angst.

Mine, not Amy's.

We also chatted about Amy's speech development a bit. Now, I noticed about two or three months ago that while Amy had plenty to say, she wasn't so much for actual words. I'm perfectly willing to chalk that up to any manner of causes (her explosion of gross and fine motor around 13 months probably had a lot to do with it) but I also consider speech, hearing, and communication in general to be important enough that I don't mess around. So I called First Steps who came in and did an evaluation, and almost to my surprise they said that she did have a mild speech delay, so Amy's been getting speech therapy twice a month. The nice thing about speech therapy for a one-year-old is that it basically consists of a nice lady coming to our house with a huuuge bag of toys and giving Amy her undivided attention for an hour. Boy, that's really hard, right?

Anyway, Amy's had about four or five visits from Nice Lady With Toys, and I swear it has actually made a difference. Amy's gone from saying "hi," "bye-bye" and "Daaaaa" (her name for Daddy - it's not so much what she says, as how she says it) to having probably twenty or twenty-five words. Her Top Five right now are:

1. NO

2. Mine (Hmm, is someone the youngest of three kids?)

3. Bite

4. Daddy (she still doesn't know how to say my name, although Matt says she does, but if she only says it when I'm not around then it doesn't count)

5. Baby (Let me tell you, this child is fixated on dolls. She's either carrying around one of hers or one of Betsy's. I decided to go ahead and give her a Bitty Baby for her second birthday instead of her third. And because I'm AWESOME, I found one at a church sale for five bucks last weekend.)

So, that's my little girly in a nutshell. She continues to be the center of attention and probably will be for a long, long time. Actually at the moment she is trying to play Duck Duck Goose with me - this consists of saying "Dah? Dah? Dah?" and randomly patting my head, then running away. Then we're going to go to Meijer and see the fishies and I am going to bribe her with juice to let me do the grocery shopping.

Candy Hangover

Yeah, we have A LOT of candy in the house. Fortunately, I've been doing my best to remedy that situation, as you knew I would. The kids basically got to do Halloween twice: Ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday (And I've been wondering, is that an Indiana thing or a Mormon thing? Because I'd never heard of it until a few years ago) and the neighborhood parade on Saturday. It was a little bit cold, but the kids' costumes were warm enough, or at least I didn't hear any complaining. Betsy had the fewest layers on, but she's also the one posessed of the most intestinal fortitude (at least when candy is involved), so she wouldn't even dream of putting a jacket on over her costume.

Just to rehash: Betsy was Glinda (sewed by yours truly); Porter was Buzz Lightyear (re-used from last year, although I think this is his last time wearing it); and Amy was a zebra (a costume which has been in use in our family almost continuously since 2004). I didn't even bother trying to get a photo of all three of them together; if you've been reading this blog, you know why. But I did get some adorable pictures of each kid individually. I guess when I scrapbook, I'll just overlap them.

I think that the best part of Halloween, as far as my kids were concerned, is that their Grandma and Grandpa were here to enjoy it! Matt's parents flew out for a quick three-day visit while the kids were on fall break. Betsy had a blast doing shrink art with Grandma (she kept referring to it as 'snark art' which I find irrationally hilarious); Porter duly impressed everyone with his reading skills; and Amy made a point of being especially adorable and fetching. Grandma insisted on taking them down to Target and buying them each a small toy. (Sadly, my kids don't have anywhere near enough toys!) Betsy got a My Little Pony (I later found out that she chose Star Song mainly because the neighbor girl already has that one and she didn't); Porter chose a Lego fire chief car (to go along with the fire truck he'll be getting for Christmas), and Amy got a baby doll that can go in the bath. She couldn't wait until it was out of the package, and was hugging the bath. Girlie has definitely hit the baby doll stage in a big way.

Now, of course, I'm ready for it to be Christmas. It's not that I don't enjoy Thanksgiving. Any holiday when we get to enjoy three or four kinds of pies in one day is the kind of thing I can really get into. What's more, my parents and sisters are making the trek out from New York for T-Day. But nothing can really compare to the Christmas season! We're having our family picture taken on Friday (there's a guy at Matt's work that does them for free) so I sewed myself a fluffy skirt out of this cool retro poinsettia fabric I got a couple of years ago.

This week, I'm scrapbooking, and making some cards for some submission calls (I don't think I mentioned, I had one picked up by Cards magazine last month - it'll be my first time in that mag., so I'm thrilled) and today I'm probably going to Hancock's for some really awesome fabric of which I will shortly post pictures. Oh, and maybe I should at least think about taking the Halloween decorations down.

Before and After

Here's our recliner, which has been around forever:
I got it from my grandparents when they were downsizing, so probably 2004 or 2005. My grandmother says she's actually had it reupholstered TWICE. I had bought fabric to do same, only then the economy collapsed, and I couldn't justify spending $3-400 on something that wasn't food, diapers, or health insurance. But, I did have the fabric (which was a steal at $5 a yard) so I finally decided to try my hand at sewing a slipcover.

To wit:
I actually... sort of hate it. The pattern I used was badly drafted, and nothing fits the way it's supposed to, and it looks all bunchy and homesewn, and the only way to keep it together is with a bunch of upholstery pins which like to pop out and prevent a safety hazard. BUT. At least it matches the rest of our furniture now.

I got a lot of other stuff finished last week, too. Like Betsy's Halloween costume, which is very sparkly and girl-tastic. I also made some random doll clothes (my current obsession, I must admit) and an apron for Betsy that I cut out in, I think, 2007. I made matching mother-daughter aprons for us and since I had so much leftover fabric, I also cut one out for her in a larger size, since she grows and whatnot. The interesting thing was, something that used to take me days to sew is now completed in mere hours. Yay competence!

I should be cleaning my house before my in-laws arrive on Thursday, but I'm blogging instead. I'm also dealing with a houseful of sickies... not fun. I was rather miserable last week but all I have now is a lingering tickle in my throat, which is more of a nuisance than anything else. But poor Betsy is home from school today. On Friday morning she threw up on the bus and had to come home. I'm hoping she'll be all better tomorrow, since it's a short school week as it is. And Amy had a fever yesterday: we actually had to leave church early, but not until the Primary program was done, which was AWESOME and I was so proud of all the kids and not just mine.

But, it's not all bad around here. Look what we saw this morning:

No, that house isn't on fire. It's a RAINBOW.

I Haven't Died

I've just been doing a lot of multi-tasking.

(Isn't that picture hilarious? The best part is, Amy came up with that trick all on her own... and immediately came running to show me Just How Clever she is.)

We've been getting ready for Halloween, which is always a fun holiday. I put up the decorations a few weeks ago and I've been working on Betsy's costume:

She's being Glinda, the good witch from the Wizard of Oz. She came up with this idea entirely on her own, mind you. The dress isn't totally finished in the picture above: it still needs hemmed, and there's a lit of sparkly trim. But I'm thrilled to death with how it looks. The funny thing is, this costume weighs a TON. I made it out of good heavy satin - I think it was originally from the bridal section, and not costumes, because they didn't have the right color - and that skirt is abot a million yards wide. I have no idea how Betsy is going to handle trick-or-treating, but I'm sure she'll manage.

We went to the pumpkin patch last Saturday and let the kids pick out their own pumpkins.

It's really turned into quite the event, with games and rides and whatnot. We let the kids each pick a couple of activities that they could do.

The next big thing on my plate is the Primary music program. We rehearsed it in the chapel last Sunday; we have one more practice on Saturday and then it's SHOWTIME. And I woke up this morning with a killer sore throat... I seriously cannot lose my voice this week!