A Potatoes Thanksgivng

We had a wonderful first Thanksgiving as a family of four!

I had the 18lb turkey cooking by 7 a.m. before Leaha and I went for a run.  When I got back, Daniel took on Potato play while I got to work on all the fixin's.

  

We cut no corners even though it was just us and enjoyed an awesome meal!

Potatoes like the green beans best, and was not a fan of cranberry sauce! He covered his face with both hands after each bite I had him try.

After everyone took a little post-turkey snooze, we headed to Erick & Patti's house to hang out with friends from Daniel's work.  It was a great group.  Potatoes especially loved watching their son, Jax.  It was amazing to see Potatoes's developing play and social skills (see Milestones)!

On Friday, Daniel met up with some friends while I got to walk and hang out with Elena, who was in town for the holiday.  It may have rained on our walk and our boys both may have needed naps, but that didn't stop it from being the highlight of my Thanksgiving!  Once Potatoes woke from his much needed nap, we met up with Daniel for a little Black Friday shopping.  We scored a great deal on Pyrex!

On Saturday,  I chopped my hair off and donated 8 inches to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths non-profit.

Couldn't get the pictures in the right order, so here's After & Before

Because Potatoes has recently delayed his morning nap time, we were able to go to church on Sunday.  We dropped him at the nursery for the first time and welcomed in the season of Advent.

Potatoes, of course, did amazing exploring the new environment, toys, and kids in the nursery, though they said he got clingy when other kids cried.  Our first born, however, did not do so well. Zoey did not appreciate being left behind, and got into a bag of grapes while we were at church.

As grapes can cause kidney failure in dogs, I gave her peroxide to get her to throw up (so many unchewed grapes...yuck!) and then headed to the doggy hospital.  Two hours and an IV of fluids later (as well as a hefty bill), we headed home with her blood work looking great, and orders to keep her hydrated.  They wanted to do an overnight IV but I was worried that would be too traumatic for our anxious little princess.  Thankfully, she looks great today.

MILESTONES

Xander hit a lot of milestones over the break!

He stood up without holding onto anything and stayed standing for a few seconds three times!  As soon as I pull out a camera, though, the moment is over.

He is adding to his sign language repertoire, with 'up' and beginning to differentiate between 'milk' and 'eat.'

At Patti's he had his first true social imitation, copying Jax by crawling onto an ottoman and jumping into a huge pile of pillows.  This is so hard to teach, so I was thrilled to watch him do this independently!