Thankful for Daddy

We leave tomorrow morning for Puerto Vallarta for a week, over the Thanksgiving holiday, of sunshine . All of us have had nasty colds, so I am saying we are going to bake the illness out of us...medicinal purposes ;0) Do you think we could get our health insurance to cover it?

Naturally, with travel plans comes laundry. As the three of us were folding the last load of whites. Yes all 3 of us, Devi is responsible for piling up the clean socks for sorting...the adults handle the rest. Anyway, while we were quietly finishing our chores Pat said, "I'm a master at tights...I used to be intimidated, but now I am a MASTER!" The timing was perfect. I burst into the biggest bout of belly laughter I've had in a long time. You see, I leave early for work, long before anyone else is up. I lay Devi's clothes out for her the night before and Pat dresses her and gets her ready for her day at daycare in the morning. I've never given it a second thought that Pat, a man, has never dealt with tights or nylons before in is life, let alone hair baubles or bows. I just couldn't get the picture of him struggling to put on her tights out of my mind. Sweet man never mentioned it once in over a year that he had no idea how to put them on.

This Thanksgiving...I give special thanks to daddy's who tackle ALL of life's dilemmas for their families. Good job daddy's.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. See you in a week!!

Balloons...Everywhere!!!

In an effort to save time, Pat and I threw up a few crepe paper streamers and spots of colored helium balloons here and there the night before Devi's birthday party. Who knew it would have such an impact on our birthday girl when she awoke? After a restful night dreaming piggy dreams (dreams dependent on animal featured on jammies), Devi rubbed and rubbed her Mr. Sand Man filled eyes revealing a magical party scene that wasn't there when she drifted off the night before. "Oooo...Pretty! Balloon's everywhere!" she exclaimed. It was precious.

Devi's only request for the day was to sing, so surrounded by seventeen family members and a couple of friends, we managed to oblige her with four robust rounds of "If You're Happy and You Know It". I think we were pretty convincing because she was delighted and beamed from ear to ear. A pro at nearly 7 years of age, Devi's cousin Jake helped her open her presents...his style being a little more energetic than hers...they managed to get the job done. Party hats positioned atop our heads, we belted out the birthday song, another of Devi's favorites and she heaved a huge BLOW...something she has been practicing for weeks for this big day. When asked her age, she held up a crumpled jumble of fingers, pinky crossed over the ring finger somehow and announced "TWO!". Everyone stayed for pizza and we all played with tea sets, stuffed animals and veterinarian utensils. It was a great day. She was very polite with pleases and thank yous all in the right spots...so grown up!! *sniff, sniff*

Devi with Great Grandma

With cousins Melissa and Jake

I love her funny little squat!

Kissing the "Dress Me Monkey" doll from Mom and Dad

CAKE!!!

Showing off her new charm we added to her bracelet with our friend Kris

Listening to Uncle Bill's ticker with her stethoscope

In Other News....

Gingerbread men to the rescue!!

I baked and decorated 60 Elmo mini cupcakes (demented, I know) so that Devi could take some to daycare on Friday and some to Kindermusik on Saturday to share with her friends. I stored them in a tuperware container out in our garage thinking it would be nice and cool. Friday's Elmo's seemed fine and made their trek to daycare only to be eaten by small children in love with the red furry creature and with smiles on all their cute kid faces, promptly became hyped on sugar. Exactly the point, right? The next day, as I opened the tuperware container to tray the remaining Elmo's for Kindermusik, however, the shortening in the frosting had melted!! All those poor Elmo's were in various stages of losing their little faces off the edges on the soft cakes, oozing down the sides of the ridged baking papers and puddling on the bottom. Elmo botox gone bad!!! I still can't explain what happened, but we managed to swing by the grocery store and were bailed out by a box of gingerbread men, eager to help!!

Great Aunt Rose, now deceased, whom Devi gets one of her middle names from, embroidered this quilt in the 1950's or so. Aunt Rose's niece recently gifted it to Devi. The big box arrived with a sweet note explaining it's significance and is a true treasure to all of us. Devi is quite proud of it and will one day enjoy it on a big girl bed...although we are not giving up the crib until we absolutely have too :) CONTAINMENT!!

Barnum and Bailey Visit our Kitchen!!

Our kitchen became a three ring circus on Veteran's day. I took the day from work so that we could mix all of our Christmas cookies. We freezed the dough for easy baking when we return from Mexico at the end of the month. I had the great plan to put Devi in the hip sling so we both would have our arms free. The girl has a very large arm span, I soon learned :) We made one bodacious mess and had a grand time doing it. Minus a spatula, as it now as a 2 year old sized bite out of it, the mixing managed to get done and with a 21 pound child on my hip all day it was a great workout for me!! No guarantee on the cookies...absolutely no idea if they received their proper ingredients :)

Wearing daddy's soccer shin guards!! Daddy is secretly
hoping she is a soccer stud-ette

Buzzing through Halloween

We've been Buzz Buzz Buzz-sy with the events of Halloween, leading up to last night's big event...trick-or-treating our neighborhood for the very first time! For Pat and I it was another jack-o-lantern grin from ear to ear moment. Devi had the routine down, from knocking on the door to saying trick-or-treat and even a politely added thank you at the end, she was a pro at all 4 or 5 houses we managed to squeeze in before her bedtime.

For years, our tradition has been to meet with my parents for a harvest meal to help pass the time, anxiously awaiting the anticipated darkness, marking the moment that the trick-or-treaters emerge from the the darkness and begin their Halloween trek. This year it was stick to your ribs shepherd's pie, perfect to fuel the bones for the cold of the misty night we were having. Flickering lights and drifting fog, combined with the spooky music resonating from our garage transformed our friendly all-American neighborhood into the eeriest, spookiest Hallow's eve around. The bumble bee remained unphased, however :)

Devi requested a bee costume. With a 2 dollar price tag from the local thrift store, I put the sewing machine away this year and was counting my blessing that she is still so easily appeased. Pat and I went for the obvious bee keepers...seemed appropriate and brought us a chuckle or two from the neighbors :)


A couple of weeks ago, we began to prepare for this silly celebration of autumn. We went to Spooky's farm again and picked our pumpkins. Devi was much more aware of what we were doing this year and squealed with delight when she saw "SEEDS" inside her prized squash. "Pumpkin Guts" was also another extremely fun phrase for her to say over and over as she worked up the nerve to stick her hand into the tangled web of cold orange strings. Once inside, she was fascinated by nature's way of growing these peculiar orbs.



We attended Devi's first party this year too. A Harvest Party was sponsored by the Children's Home Society where our home study for adoption #2 is being done. They went all out with crafts, fun food and Devi's first opportunity to see what happens when she uttered the words "trick-or-treat". Each office gave out cute Halloween treats. Devi, having never had candy before was totally wowed by the colorful wrapping. She also came face to face with a child dressed as Elmo, which was hilariously confusing for her and offered a wonderful belly laugh for us.