A Full Thanksgiving

The morning of Thanksgiving, the 3 M's traveled by train to Chicago. Mehandis loved having his own set of seats. He kept climbing up and down, looking out the windows and asking when we would see Grandpa (Grampa? Grampa?). We had a great time together with my parents. They made all of the traditional fare that I remember... plus some new recipes that we picked out. Michael's "Ultimate Double Baked Potatoes" were the standout new entry though. Mehandis wanted to get in on the cooking too, as you can see below with his little stove.

Saturday morning we headed for the circus! Wow... what a show. Complete with tigers, elephants, acrobats and it's own sound track.

Mehandis was very engrossed in the clown acts and animals. He kept pointing and saying "Wow!". He did take a little catnap during intermission which worked out great as well.

Our little guy definitely thinks Chicago is "his kind of town". He has now added the name of this city to his vocabulary! Kind of sounds like "Caillou" though.

We had a great pre-Thanksgiving celebration with many of our college friends. Michael and I got the chance to host Lite House Thanksgiving and the number of people attending seems pretty inflated, given that one third of them are now children. Our babysitter from across the street was extremely helpful with serving the second generation diners upstairs!!!

Here is Mehandis in our emptied out living room after we took out the tables from the previous night's dinner. I think he was hoping that the couches would soon return. Below are photos of friends who were unable to attend... we likely would have had to put an addition on our house if they did RSVP yes though.

Our Drama King

When I worked in birth-to-three and gave a speech-language evaluation, I would always ask the parents if their children engaged in dramatic play (playing house, rocking a doll to sleep, etc.) this would tell what level their language should be at and what exactly they are gleaning from their environment. I am now realizing that dramatic play is one of Mehandis's favorite things to do!

He loves to pretend that he sweeping with brooms and dust pans (please excuse the marks on the walls now from the broom handles), putting lotion on his baby doll and giving him good morning kisses, and putting on the oven mitt while carrying a hot pad in the other hand as he prepares his "meal". Check out his re-enactment of how Chewy eats. At least Mehandis is no longer eating the cat food!

"Fall"-ing behind

So while my scrapbooks (and Facebook) are now getting more attention I see that I have written very few blogs this fall. I re-commit to using the blog to connect with family and friends once again... in addition to helping me remember what we have been doing as the time flies by!!!

I don't have a way to upload any photos on this blog entry, but I will try to give some cute updates.

Mehandis has some new favorite words/sayings lately, including-

"picture" He says this along with a sign of snapping a picture on a camera (totally self taught). Mehandis does this when ever he is by the stereo since we took so many picture of him dancing I guess!

"apple sauce" A newly found fave food

"bib" He knows good stuff will come soon once his bib is on. Once he gets the bib, he is content for a long while just to wander around wearing it. Not the most fashion forward look though.

"a book too" It is never just "book", not sure why.

"ABC..." Mehandis and dad say the alphabet together everyday. I have to say he is pretty good at pronouncing all of the letters... except for W.

"cheers" Yep, exactly what you think.

"ah-choo" following his sneezes or when we sneeze.

"hug" :)

We are looking forward to this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Tonight Michael and I will be very busy prepping the house for our total of 28 coming for "college friend" Thanksgiving. We have 2 turkeys defrosting in the fridge... fortunately we have 2 ovens! Then we head to Chicago for Thanksgiving dinner with my parents. We will also join my parents for the circus. I am having a hard time envisioning where this will be held downtown, but am very excited for the adventure. Hopefully Mehandis won't develop a clown phobia... I know so many adults that are scared of them to this day!!!

Trick or Treat!

We need a bigger candy dish... our family has been celebrating Halloween for a week! It started a week ago today with Maira, Peter & Stefan neighborhood association trick-or-treat. In their neck of the woods the streets are closed off and the crowds come! They were right in saying that it feels like Disney World.

The following photo shows our Mr. Potato Head and friendly monkey Stefan sharing a ride.
Michael and Peter dressed in their old & tattered cow costumes and got lots of comments as well. Including... are you drinking a Spotted Cow, are you a Gurnsee or Holstein, where is the rest of the herd. I think we have enough material for stand up at next year's State Fair.

Mehandis also had a Halloween Parade at daycare. One of his best buds, Adam, is pictured below in the Mickey Mouse costume. Adam's expression is priceless.

And finally... our neighborhood celebrated Halloween last night, actually on the 31st for a change. Mehandis now has the "trick or treat" down, or at least the approximation "ti or tee", and knows to run up to the houses with the people outside. Whenever he needed a little boost of energy Michael or I would say "go, go, go" and he would chime in and run!!! He and his costume were a hit.

Some of the ladies got into the dress up fun last night as well. I nominated myself (and won) as Prom Queen... Dara then declared herself 1st Runner Up. Dominique also joined Prom Court... while Chris was the Gym Teacher chaperon.

Although the weather was great... Michael's letterman jacket helped keep me toasty warm. Our fire and friends lasted most of the night. We had a great time!!!