All the holidays

On Wednesday Aurora and I had a special Thanksgiving lunch with Clark's class at the Children's Center. The babies made potato stamp placemats and handprint cards. Clark is thankful for me (of course) and I am certainly thankful for him.

We spent Thursday at a friend's house - the same house we've been going to for the past several years - we just brought more people with us this time! My parents came along and everybody had a good time. We brought the mac & cheese and fruit salad, and the food (and company) were excellent. 

Aurora had tons of little girls to play with, and Clark spent the day doing his favorite things: napping, petting a dog, playing with a remote control, and uhm... getting carried around by little girls.

This morning I put away the Thanksgiving decor and made our little Halloween pumpkins into delicious pumpkin bread before shifting gears to celebrate Chanukah (a few days late). We lit our Menorah, listened to Chanukah music, and opened presents from Grandma Nancy.

I feel this pressure to switch gears again and decorate for Christmas this weekend, but it's all happening too fast - the holidays are just too close together this year! I'm not ready to shop or send cards or put up a tree or any of that. I'm just going to wait and decorate for Christmas next weekend. I love the holidays and want to enjoy them all, but I can only have one table setting in place at a time!

Time for your check-up

This probably isn't what you were expecting on Thanksgiving. Don't worry, turkey day festivities are coming soon! School was closed today so I decided to schedule Clark's 15-month well baby visit. He weighted in at just over 21 lbs, so he hasn't gained much weight since he started walking. He's 31" tall and while he's got some pretty impressive sniffles and sneezes going on, he's still never had an ear infection. He did get 4 shots today, which is always a good time.

I scheduled an appointment for Aurora at the same time to follow up from a UTI she had last week. The antibiotics worked! Clark had pink eye around the same time, and both of my parents have had a stomach bug so... that's been fun. What really WAS fun was taking Aurora to the nail salon this morning! I got a pedicure while she had her fingernails painted with pink sparkles and flowers.

There's a lot to be thankful for, and I have to say I'm pretty darn thankful for two (mostly) healthy kids. Even when they're snotty messes, waking up in the middle of the night fussing, they are pretty much the best little kiddos a mama could ask for.

Say Mama

The next big thing

Now that soccer's over, Aurora and her little friends have embarked on an awesome new activity: GIRL SCOUTS! That's right, Aurora is officially a Daisy. Their first meeting was a month ago, and we just went on a whim. Another mom told us we should come check it out, and before I knew what was happening Aurora was reciting the Girl Scout promise. Seriously, the troop leader sat all the girls around in a circle and asked what they'd like to do as a Girl Scout. The first girl said arts and crafts, the next said she hopes to see a cave, and when it was Aurora's turn she said she wanted to help others. What!? I was so proud, how could I say no? Besides, her best friend Presley was there. 

How cute are these girls? I hear they won't sell cookies or go camping this year, but today they all had their vests and started earning badges. Next month we're going on a guided hike, and who knows what the rest of the year will bring? Hopefully she'll get the chance to help others...

That's my boy

I feel like most of my posts (and most of our activities) have centered around Aurora recently, but that doesn't mean that Clark isn't doing amazing things! One of these days I'll take some video to show you that he's starting to talk, he's got some serious dance moves, the toothiest smile, and he's becoming fairly opinionated. He's also just moved up into the Bunny class where they nap on cots instead of cribs, eat at a little table instead of in high chairs, and do art projects!

This weekend he went to a birthday party without his sister. It was for our neighbor who just turned two, and he had a fun time! Who doesn't like games, gifts and cupcakes? Clark knows what's up.

That's my sweet, handsome, silly, snuggly boy. He can sign AND say "all done" when he wants down from the dinner table... but often he just screams and arches his back instead. He runs to get his own shoes and socks when it's time to go. He will always eat all of his bananas and might ask for more strawberries, but he'll probably throw his peas and sippy cup on the ground and say "uh oh" in the sweetest, most innocent voice. He also enjoys sitting with his "oompah" and loved exploring his Grandpa and Grandma's empty condo over the weekend.

WHAT!? Yes, my folks just closed on a little condo and they'll slowly be fixing it up in the coming weeks before they move in. Of course they stayed in Austin... who could leave this sweet boy!?

Soccer Stars

Today was the last day of the soccer season! Our GU6 Soccer Stars had a lot of fun, even if we lost every game. Okay, so you don't keep score at this age, but if we HAD kept score I'm pretty sure we would've lost every game. Aurora loved wearing her uniform and enjoyed doing drills, but wasn't really into the 3 on 3 play. She would've rather stared at the sky, picked flowers, or chatted with her friends. Today she got a ball kicked pretty hard into her gut, so it's probably for the best that this was the last game of the year. Regardless, our little soccer star sure is photogenic!

We talked about having a banquet of some sort, but schedules haven't lined up so the coach decided to give out the pictures and trophies right after the game. Yes, our silly girls got trophies just for participating! They've had so much fun that I'm sure we'll still have one last get together - plus, we've already signed up for our next activity with many of the same girls. You'll have to wait until next week to learn more...