In Which We're Back To Business As Usual

I don't have much to report today!  Eden had a half-day of school due to it being the end of the semester, so I spent the morning doing as many chores as I could, and then the afternoon running various errands and carting the children around to physical therapy and swimming.  Traffic was bad enough that we didn't get home until after nine.  Connor immediately crashed, and Eden went to bed early because she was so tired.  

So it looks like other than the unusual half-day today, things have pretty much gotten back to normal around here, which is a relief.  I'm taking the kids to the lunar new year celebration and the Asian Art Museum up in Seattle this weekend, so I'm trying to get caught up on as much as I can around the house before Saturday so I can go with a clear conscience.  Hopefully it won't be too crowded for Eden; this will be the first year I've taken her and she's not a big fan of crowds.  I know Connor will enjoy it; he absolutely loves the lion dance and the taiko drumming, and he's been plenty of times in previous years.  

I'll probably pack some ear plugs for the Little Miss and we'll give it a go!

~Jess

In Which I'm Back To Business As Usual

Hello!

The holidays are over, Jer has left for California and the kids are back in school, so it's time for me to quit my own vacation and start writing again.  It was so, so nice to have Jer here, and while we miss him a ton, I'm glad that he'll at least be closer now so we should be able to see him more often.  I'm already planning a field trip down to see him as soon as I can!

I have what are probably the only children anywhere who were actually happy to go back to school from Christmas break.  Towards the end of the vacation, Eden mentioned about eight times a day that she wished it was time for school now.  I've got two kids who like their routine in a major way, so I probably shouldn't be surprised.  Goodness knows I wanted them to go back to school too.  I love my children to pieces, but I also love my alone time.  Sweet, sweet alone time.

So everybody celebrated when Monday rolled around!  I spent the first day the kids were back to school doing nothing but napping.  I took about a three and a half hour nap, and it was amazing.  Then I spent the second day doing nothing but getting together with friends.  I finally went back to work doing things I actually needed to do today, and just in time because the house is starting to disintegrate at a rather alarming rate.  But I really had to have some quiet time and social time first!

~Jess

In Which I Get No Sleep And We See A Parade

Last night Connor woke up at 11:00pm and stayed up until 5:30 in the morning, so I wasn't exactly coherent most of the day.  I did get a bit of sleep as he didn't wake up again until 9:00am, but I was still pretty spacey.  I took the kids over to my parents' house in the afternoon and took a long nap, which turned out to be a pretty good idea. 

It's currently past 1:00am and the little guy shows no signs of sleeping any time soon, so we may be pulling another all nighter.  I suspect he may be cutting a couple of molars, and that may be the problem-- he's been stuffing a lot of things in his mouth lately, which is unusual for him.

So needless to say we didn't do much this morning, but after my nap this afternoon the kids and I headed over to the Santa parade downtown.  It took us quite a while to find handicapped parking, but we finally found a spot and walked over to the very start of the parade, where we found a good spot on a corner.  Both the kids were fascinated by all the floats lit up with Christmas lights, and Eden couldn't believe that everyone was passing out candy.  "It's like Halloween!" she said in delight. 

We also saw a couple of kids in wheelchairs playing in the high school bands.  When Eden first came, we told her that if she wanted to learn an instrument and play in the marching band she could, but she didn't believe that people with disabilities would be allowed to play in public with everyone else.  So she was really, really excited to find out that we were telling her the truth.  I was very glad she got the chance to see them and confirm once again that there are opportunities out there for people with disabilities, but it made me a little sad too to see just how surprised she was about it. 

So overall the parade was a success, but we had to leave early because it was so darn cold outside; it was in the teens and still dropping when we got back to the van, and even with a bajillion blankets, hats, scarves and gloves they both were getting way too cold.  So we headed back early, ordered some pizza and got ready for bed in the (as it turns out overly optimistic) hope that Connor would sleep.

Oh well. 

~Jess

In Which I Discover The Best Game Ever

So today after school and Eden's physical therapy, I drove the kids to the mall to take pictures with Santa.  They have an amazing Santa at our local mall, and this was Eden's first time to take pictures with any Santa, since the only one we saw in Thailand last year was terrifying.  No, seriously-- he was a twenty-something year old Thai man with white pancake makeup on all over his face and the backs of his hands, with a fake beard that was pulled halfway down his chin and an outfit that was obviously stuffed with toilet paper.  He looked like Insane Clown Serial Killer Santa.  Good times.

Anyway, the Santa at the mall isn't like that at all, and he apparently is such a nice, relaxing Santa that he puts Connor to sleep.  The little guy started drifting off about halfway through the photos.  When he wasn't nodding off, Connor was staring fixedly at the giant blue-lit snowflakes on one side of the set.  He paid zero attention to the photographer this year.  But the pictures still turned out pretty cute, and I'm glad we went.  In the evenings it's not crowded at all, and the photographer probably took thirty photos of the kids.

So other than Eden using her "super cheese" photo smile and Connor trying to nod off, the kids were pretty well behaved.  That ended the second we hit the parking lot.

Connor immediately started making that yelling, set-your-teeth-on-edge noise where he manages to hit two dissonant notes at once.  Eden, on a sugar-high from the complimentary candy canes and overexcited from her first successful Santa encounter, began yelling "jingle bell" over and over in an offkey, sing-song voice.  Don't ask me.  She stopped this only long enough to ask me what would happen if she cracked her head open in the parking lot and to tell me that when I peered at the pictures through the translucent bag I "look really old, like old lady."

I tried turning on the radio in the car to calm them both down, but unfortunately it was turned to Christmas music and the song that came on was "Jingle Bell Rock," which instantly encouraged them both. So my car sounded something like this:

Radio: Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock
Eden: JINGLEBELLJINGLEBELLJINGLEBELLJINGLEBELL
Connor: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Radio: Jingle bells swing and Jingle bells ring
Eden: JINGLEBELLJINGLEBELLKITTYCATJINGLEBELL
Connor: aaaAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA
Me: ....(beating my head against the steering wheel)

This is when I discovered a secret weapon.

See, it turns out that apparently in Thai Orphanages they don't play The Quiet Game.  So my daughter has yet to learn that this is not, in fact, a legitimate game and is instead a sneaky way to get peace and quiet for five minutes.  In addition, Eden has a serious competitive streak.  So when I suggested we play an exciting new game in which the first person to talk loses, she not only stopped jingle belling for the remainder of the car ride, but all the way through dinner preparation and halfway through the meal-- a good solid forty minutes of blissful silence.  And much to my surprise, Connor actually played along too-- he stopped yelling the second I said "Go" and didn't start up again until we arrived home and he got mad about how cold it was outside.

So I have apparently discovered the best parenting tool ever.  I just have to remember to use it sparingly so that the novelty doesn't wear off!

~Jess

In Which We Have A Happy Thanksgiving, And I Hope You Did Too

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I did the vast majority of my cooking yesterday, so today was all about relaxing.  No, seriously-- when my neighbor stopped by with a delicious pumpkin pie around noon, he caught me still in my pajamas.  I was dedicated to relaxing today.

So we watched a movie, and strung more cranberries, and played games, and just generally lazed around until our friend from church arrived and it was time to eat our American-Thai fusion Thanksgiving dinner.  The really nice thing about it was that it didn't make you super full, so then it was possible to eat way more dessert than normal.

We played a few rounds of Chicken Foot (a dominoes game that's a Texas staple and which we are bound and determined to introduce to the entire Pacific Northwest, mostly so we have other people to play against) and then called it a night.  All in all it was a lovely day.  Looking around the table, it was easy to see that I have a lot to be thankful for.

I spent the rest of the evening getting out Christmas stuff, since tomorrow we'll be setting up our decorations.   I can't believe it's that time already!

~Jess

In Which We Cook All The Things

The kids had a half-day of school today, which I spent picking up a few Christmas presents so I'd have something to wrap and put under the tree on Friday, when we start setting up for the holiday.  Then I picked up Connor, dropped him off at the house to hang out with my mom, and went to the doctor's appointment I was supposed to go to on Monday.

After I had respite care for Connor, and while he hung out in the living room listening to Irish fiddle tunes, drawing on his iPad and charming the nurse, Eden and I spent pretty much the whole rest of the day either cooking or making crafts.  I showed Eden how to string cranberry garlands for the Christmas tree (yet more sneaky fine motor skills therapy) and she worked on that while I tipped the green beans and grated unripe papaya for the som tam.  We're having a nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner this year: som tam (green papaya salad), coconut sticky rice, cranberry-orange relish, a vegetable dish that our friend is bringing and a Japanese-style bourbon pumpkin cake, which is made with mascarpone cheese and a whole bunch of frothy egg whites.  So it's kind of a vegetarian Asian fusion Thanksgiving, which works for me.

My biggest problem today was not wanting to eat all of the food as it came out of the oven instead of waiting for tomorrow.  I'm very proud of the amount of restraint I showed-- particularly when it came to the pumpkin cake.  Of course, it helped that the cake had bubbled over and I was forced to cut off and eat all of the pieces where it had puffed up on our baking stone.

But they totally don't count because they weren't part of the main body of cake anymore, so I can still be all self-congratulatory about not stuffing the entire thing in my face the second it came out of the oven, and also I have the added advantage of knowing the cake turned out beautifully.  Now I just have to keep myself from telling everyone it's terrible and they don't want to eat it so I can have it all myself.

Anyway, I don't have much else to report!

~Jess

In Which We Have ALL The Thanksgivings

So Connor finally went down at three in the morning yesterday.  Then he spent all of today telling me he was really, really tired.  You and me both, little guy.  So this will be short tonight, because I'm headed to bed the second the night nurse is here!

We had another super busy day today; church and practice for the church play and stomping around in the church attic looking for the costumes for said church play (we still haven't found the angels-- how the heck did five angel costumes go missing in an attic the size of my bathroom?) and then cooking in preparation for our pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving celebration.  We're actually having three Thanksgivings this year, between the big church potluck and the one with my parents and the one we're doing at home on the actual day.  Basically the entire month of November is just an excuse for me to cook massive amounts of food.

Speaking of which, it's going to be a tiny Thanksgiving for us on the actual day this year, and I'd love the excuse to cook way more food than I can currently justify.  So if anyone's in the area and looking for a place to celebrate the holiday, come to my house.  Seriously.  Just shoot me an e-mail.  The more, the merrier.

Anyway, so we hung out with my parents for a while and ate delicious things, and then we watched a bit of football and chatted, and then we headed for home.

So overall it was a pretty good day, though probably a bunch of other stuff happened and I don't even remember it because I'm so tired.  Whee!

~Jess

In Which Connor Stays Awake And We Try Some Down Home Cooking

It's nearly one in the morning right now; looks like Connor's seriously considering pulling an all-nighter.  It doesn't happen as often as it used to anymore, but it does still happen.  Unfortunately it's the weekend for our night nurse too, so it looks like I may need quite a bit of coffee in the morning.

Connor spent some quality time with the grandparents today while Eden and I went out for a while.  We ate some lunch and then tooled around the mall for a couple of hours.  It was fun getting the chance to spend a little bit of time with my girl, even if we did have to go into every shoe store known to mankind.  This kid loves looking at shoes.

After that we swung by and picked up Connor.  After his quiet time, we piled back into the car and headed for the grocery store, where I picked up the ingredients for the jambalaya I planned on making tonight, as well as fixings for the pumpkin pie and the green beans I was making for tomorrow.  We're having a slightly early Thanksgiving celebration with my parents this year, which was nice because it meant I didn't have to fight my way down the aisles like I would have if I'd been doing this shopping the day before the real Thanksgiving.

Anyway, Eden and I cooked a big ol' pot of jambalaya together tonight.  She's really interested in cooking, but I think she was fed up with the whole mess after about fifteen minutes of stirring the pot.  Basically in jambalaya (at least the kind I make) you end up stirring everything for about half an hour total before you stick the pot in the oven and bake it.  "Why we not get the kind in the box?" she asked.  "It easy."  Luckily she changed her mind and decided it was worth all the stirring after she tried it.  She's developing quite a taste for Cajun and Creole food; I think it's all the seafood and spice that she appreciates.  Oh, and the sausage-- the kid is in love with andouille.  We've got plenty of leftovers (it's pretty impossible to make a small batch of jambalaya) so it's a good thing she likes it!

Connor spent the time we were cooking hanging out on his rocking horse.  He's borrowing a full-sized hobby horse from his therapy center-- one of the kind you don't see made any more because kids kept getting their fingers caught in the springs-- that's been modified to provide extra support.  Not only is it great practice in torso control for the little guy, but he also absolutely loves it.  It's difficult to find toys that will motivate him to work hard in physical therapy, so this is a sneaky but effective way to get him to do some work.  He seems to be feeling a lot better and was pretty perky today.

Now if I can just get him to go to sleep!

~Jess

In Which I Buy Tree Trimmings And Connor Runs Out Of Steam

I took the opportunity today while the kids were in school to go out and pick up some of my Christmas trimmings for this year.  This will be Eden's first Christmas home, and I want to do it right!  Of course, it made me want to put up all of my decorations now, and it's still too early.  This will be Eden's first Thanksgiving too, and I should probably wait until she's experienced all of the holidays before I start skipping over them.

Connor had a bit of a rough day; he didn't have any seizures, but he threw up all of his meals at school and at physical therapy he did an amazingly realistic impression of a sack of potatoes.  Not only did the kid not attempt to work on any of his normal exercises, but he was actively trying to lie down every time we sat him up.  He spent the entire trip back home alternating between signing "tired" and "sad," and when I gave in and put him down around five in the evening he was out in less than five minutes.  Part of it may just be the season; we're getting into the time when it's dark outside at a depressingly early hour, and goodness knows it always makes me want to hibernate.  I hope he's not coming down with something; maybe it was just one of those days.

Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow!

~Jess

In Which We Do Our Best To Balance

We had a super, super busy day today!  We had church, and then while Eden practiced for the Christmas play, Connor and I ran home and made some asparagus for a potluck, which happened right after practice was over.  We stayed until nearly three in the afternoon, and then went home so the Little Miss could finish some work on a school project.  Then we headed out to get her a new backpack, since the holes in her old one have gotten two big to cover with duct tape.  This is her third backpack this year; the kid's hard on the things!  Hopefully this one will be sturdy enough to last her a while.

Connor had two seizures today but otherwise seemed to be feeling pretty well.  I think these were probably of the 'every two weeks or so I must have a seizure' variety; I swear he schedules the things.  If he starts getting sick we'll know otherwise, but so far so good.

We had to choose between going to the potluck and going to the annual Loi Krathong celebration at the local wat.  I let Eden decide what she wanted to do this year, and she opted to go to the potluck since it was indoors and it was raining and very cold outside (the festival is held outdoors).  I suggested that we have our own celebration at home if she didn't want to go to the festival, but she said she would rather not.  It's been tough trying to balance activities with the Thai community here with the other many things Eden has going on; I want to make sure she has those connections, but I also don't want to force that sort of thing on her and right now she's not all that interested.

I think right now she's more concerned with fitting into our immediate community, and she's put making connections with other Thai Americans on the back burner.  I suspect she sees being Thai as being 'different' from most of the people around her, and she wants to focus on blending in as much as possible.  I hope, however, that she'll eventually want to take part in events with the the Thai community again.  I won't push her, but I'll keep presenting opportunities and letting her know that our whole family enjoys participating in Thai cultural events and holidays.  We'll be traveling back to Thailand in a couple of years to visit; maybe that will spark an interest for her again.

She's retaining all of her Thai with no trouble though, which is a very good thing.  We want her to be able to travel between Thailand and America and feel like she can fit in wherever she is, and language is such a fundamental part of that process.  I've read so many essays about how many internationally adopted children who lose their native language later feel that they don't fit well in either America or the country of their birth, and while there's no way that we can completely avoid this issue we'd like to make sure Eden is as comfortable as possible balancing between her birth country and her new nation.

~Jess

In Which I Practice My Yodeling Skills And Connor Sees A Sermon

We had a busy, busy day today!

I spent this morning at the local Thai wat, where they were celebrating a festival called Thod Kathin (ทอดกฐิน).  This is a holiday that heralds the end of the three-month Buddhist Lent season.  I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but I somehow ended up in the middle of a crowd surrounded by people carrying alms bowls, silk parasols and wire trees covered in money.  I was carrying a saffron monk's robe, processing around the wat to the sound of Thai drums and yodeling at the top of my lungs with the other women while being pelted with hand-folded paper bows and coins wrapped in aluminum foil. 

I am now officially convinced, by the way, that all holidays should include yodeling as part of their repertoire.  Yodeling makes everything more fun. 

Anyway I was a little nervous about going at first; there were people attending from as far away as Oregon.  I wasn't sure I would see anyone I knew and I would be pretty well completely lost as far as what to expect.  Normally I'm downstairs in the library studying Thai; I don't participate in the religious ceremonies at the wat as I'm not Buddhist, so I don't know very many people at the temple.  Luckily I found my Thai teachers pretty quickly and some of the other students as well, and they were gracious enough to let me tag along with them and to explain what was going on to me. 

It was interesting sitting and listening to the speakers around me-- most of whom were conversing in Thai-- because I could pick out the occasional word but otherwise was completely lost.  I imagine this might be a little bit like how Ellen might feel when she gets here and is surrounded by English speakers, though her English is probably considerably better than my Thai is right now. 

Anyway, it was a very enjoyable experience and I've now officially survived my first Thai holiday celebration.  I'm so glad that we have such a vibrant Thai community here and that they've been so welcoming and open hearted.  I can't wait to try out my yodeling skills with Ellen next year!

I left before the ceremonies inside the wat began and headed back home to relieve our respite care worker and get ready for church.  Sundays are full days in our house around here.  It's the first week I've been able to go for a little bit because Connor goes with me, and the past couple of weeks he's been either sick or recovering from a seizure so we've stuck close to the house.  When the minister saw that Connor was attending this week, in addition to speaking the sermon she also signed it as well!  She's fluent in ASL, which is similar enough to SEE that Connor seems to get the gist of most of what is said.  Granted, Connor is way more interested in the music than in the sermon right now, but what six year old isn't?  It's still pretty fantastic, and as he gets older he'll probably pay more attention. 

After the obligatory after-church Connor Fan Mobbing that I've come to expect (I swear the kid attracts grandmothers like bees on a beer can) we headed for home.  We got there at about seven in the evening, and the little guy promptly crashed. 

It was a very full day!


~Jess

In Which We Have A Lovely Fourth

Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

Connor had a much better day today.  He was still a little clingy and whiny, but we discovered that he's cutting a front tooth so that might have something to do with it.

Early this afternoon I heard a fire truck going by outside.  It seemed to be taking a ridiculously long time to pass, so I started wondering if maybe the fire was close by.  I peeked out a front window and realized that it was the annual neighborhood parade!  Jer scooped Connor up and we dashed outside to watch the fun.  Connor carefully waved to the fire truck, the police cars and motorcycles, the cars broadcasting music, and all the kids riding by on their decorated bicycles.  A policeman came over and gave him a sticker, which he gravely accepted and then went back to his important job of waving at every single person.  I'm pretty sure he believes the parades are put on especially for him.

It's too hot outside for him to participate in the summer parade, but since he's got his tricycle now maybe he can be in the Christmas parade!  He might have more fun watching though-- he'd probably be upset if he didn't have the opportunity to wave at Santa riding by on the engine.

The rest of the day was pretty fantastic too; we ate a lovely meal outside with our neighbors down the street, and then this evening I drove into town and picked my parents up from the airport.  We're so happy to have them visiting a few days!  We started the drive back right at sunset, and got to see some truly spectacular fireworks going up on both sides of the highway all the way home. 

That gives me an idea-- I think that next year I'm just going to load the kids in the car, put some patriotic music on and drive up and down I-5 rather than try and battle a crowd finding a spot to watch just one show.  I bet we'd see a lot more that way; the highway gives you a pretty good view of the surrounding landscape, and I'm pretty sure we were watching four or five different towns' worth of fireworks tonight during our half-hour trip home. 

That's not even counting all the ones we saw going up from the housing areas, and there were a ton of those. It's well past the end of all the structured shows and it still sounds like World War III out there right now.  Our house has pretty good soundproofing, too.  We've had a wet summer and there aren't exactly any burn restrictions in this area, so I think everybody went a little hog wild this year.

Oh well; we used to live right next to the army firing range, so it's nothing I haven't heard before!  And I enjoy watching them, though I have no desire to participate.  We've got enough things going on in this household without adding accidentally setting the yard (or ourselves) on fire to the list!

~Jess

In Which We Take A Holiday

Thanks to all of you who sent Jer and I well wishes about Memorial Day; we appreciate it!

We spent most of the day quietly at home enjoying some family togetherness, though since Jer had a holiday I did take advantage of that and asked him to hold a ladder while I replaced a couple of the spikes and ferrules on one of our gutters.  That and a bit of laundry was about all the work that happened today though, which was nice.  I took some time today to reflect a bit on just how blessed I really am.

Of course I did spend some time tromping around barefoot in the grass, which was enough to set off my allergies again.  I've really got to start remembering that I can't do that sort of thing right now.  It's annoying for me because I don't generally have allergies, so I'm not very good at remembering yet.  I'm sure after a few more glorious cases of hives my memory will quickly improve.

Connor discovered a new way to play with his ball today; he decided that banging on it with his hand wasn't fun anymore so he started banging on it with his foot.  He didn't kick the ball or anything; he grabbed his foot and used it like a hammer to hit the top of his ball (which is partially deflated to make it easier for him to grab).  It was a creative use of his foot, to say the least.  Then he demanded wild praise, and clapped for himself when he didn't think I was giving him enough.  I think he's got me pretty well trained.

Oh well.

~Jess

In Which We Celebrate Another Easter With The Sniffles

Happy Easter, everyone!

Since we once again spent this Easter being horribly sick as a family (this is the, um, third year in a row I think so it's sort getting to be a tradition) I didn't take any pictures, as we are all-- me in particular-- looking particularly festive with our bright red noses and chapped lips. 

So instead you can enjoy the only picture Connor has ever taken with the Easter bunny.  He was a week old and also asleep so he couldn't protest, and also this one at least didn't have the full face mask on.  That's the only reason he isn't yelling his little head off. 

The one at the mall this year did have the giant mask, though he was sans the four-inch long teeth in an effort to make him slightly less menacing.  He made up for the lack of terror-inducing teeth by holding really, really still to lure children in by posing as a giant stuffed animal and then making sudden lunging motions when the kids were within range.  I think it was probably because he could barely see in that thing and could only tell there were children there once they were about three feet away, but it was basically every nightmare you ever had as a child of your stuffed animals coming to life and eating you.  You could hear the children screaming from halfway across the mall.  The only way the parents could get them to sit on his lap was to bribe them heavily with candy. 

So anyway, we stuck to the house, went through a ton of tissues and throat lozenges and focused on the much more important non-Easter-bunny-related aspects of the holiday.  Happy Easter, everyone-- hope the bunnies didn't get you this year!

~Jess

In Which It's 2012, Can You Believe It?

Happy New Year, everyone!

It's very late, so I'll just have to fill you in on how the day went tomorrow morning.  In the meantime, I hope that every one of you had a truly lovely evening. 

Sláinte!

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Back To His Usual Antics

It's pretty late right now and I'm tired, so this is going to be a short blog post.  Not that I'll actually be going to bed; Connor feels well enough now that he's decided to resume his glorious sleeping habits, so he's currently singing to himself in his room.  He's also making what we call his "Silent Raptor Of Doom" noise.  Basically it's an airy hiss-- kind of like if a velociraptor was roaring at you very, very quietly.  It's one of his favorite noises to make.

Anyway, we'll see what he looks like tomorrow, but I'm fairly sure I'll be sending him back to school, which I'm sure he will be pretty excited about.  Connor absolutely loves school, so he always gets antsy when he's on the mend and still isn't allowed to go.  Of course winter break is coming up really quickly, but at least we're going to get him back in for more than one day between Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Speaking of the holidays-- at some point this week we plan to take Connor out to view the drive-through light park near our town.  It's the largest Christmas light show in the Pacific Northwest, with two miles worth of lights, and Connor goes absolutely nuts over it.  It's one of his favorite things to do during the season.  We try and go on a weekday because the wait to get into the park on the weekends is pretty insane.  I'll let you all know how it goes.

So I'm going to go sit in bed now and telepathically will my child to sleep.  I've tried just about everything else, so it can't hurt, right?

~Jess

In Which We Celebrate Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

This year was the first in a long while that I wasn't cooking a ridiculous amount of food for just the three of us.  Instead, I made mashed potatoes and we carried them down to the home of our neighbors, who had graciously invited us to their family Thanksgiving.  There were enough folks to need two tables, which with my large extended family felt just like the holiday I remember growing up.  The food tasted fantastic, the hosts were gracious and the company just lovely.  Jeremy and I had a fantastic time.

Connor also seemed to really enjoy himself after he finished his nap.  He snoozed for a while before dinner in my arms and later then in an easy chair.  I could have done with a bit of a nap too.  The little stinker literally did not go to sleep last night; he had a 7:30am bedtime and slept until just after 10:00am.  I guess Santa and that giant Christmas tree were just too exciting!

After he finished up his nap, he perked up and turned on the charm, especially after he discovered a new favorite food: glazed sweet potatoes.  Or rather, just the brown sugar glaze-- he sucked it off the potato pieces and then spit out the sweet potato. 

Oh well.  I ate enough for three Connors, so that probably makes up for it.

So anyway, it's been a hard year for the little guy, but I'm just so thankful to see him still smiling and that cheery personality once again really shining through.  And I'm so grateful to have Jeremy by my side through it all.  Here's to family, good friends and neighbors, and all those people who make the world just a little bit sweeter.

Like you, dear readers.  A very happy Thanksgiving to you all!

~Jess

In Which We Declare A Pajama Day

Since I figured Connor would probably need to take it easy today, I declared the day an official Pajama Day.  This is a made-up holiday in which we both stay in our pajamas and don't brush our hair and spend the entire day lounging around the house and doing absolutely nothing.  Oh, and also there is ice cream involved.  Ice cream is an extremely important part of every Pajama Day.

Or really any day, for that matter.  Yum.

Anyway, you aren't allowed to do anything productive on Pajama Day.  Well, okay, I did spend Connor's nap time sweeping the floor, but I was still in pajamas and dancing to big band music and also on roller skates so it totally doesn't violate the spirit of the holiday. 

So we did pretty much nothing today, and it was great!  I think every once in a while it's important to declare a silly holiday like this one-- it's a chance to relax and really enjoy our time together.  That's not to say that we don't have other days where we sit at home and do nothing-- we definitely do-- but somehow it makes a difference when I declare one deliberately rather than feeling like I'm forced into it because of Connor's health issues. 

Yesterday's Diastat did its work well, because the little guy didn't have a single seizure today!  It was a much needed break for the little guy; by the afternoon he seemed to be feeling much better.  We snuggled, and read lots of books, and sang silly songs and, of course, ate ice cream.  I had mine frozen, and Connor had his microwaved until it was all melty because the cold hurts his teeth.  Both of us thoroughly enjoyed it.

I put on Muppet Treasure Island as a special treat, and Connor politely clapped his hands at the end of every song.  The rousing musical number "Cabin Fever" received particularly enthusiastic applause, so we replayed that scene a few times.  He particularly liked the fruit hats worn by several of the characters.  I think I need to introduce him to some Carmen Miranda films.

Tomorrow it will be back to business as usual; I'll clean the house, we'll run some errands, and so on and so forth-- provided the little guy's brain cooperates, of course.  But Pajama Day did its work well and I'm feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the mountains of housework and other stuff I need to get done. 

Hooray for silly holidays!

~Jess

In Which It Is The Fourth Of July

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

We spent ours together happily as a family.  Connor stayed up entirely too late last night (three in the morning!), probably due to the thunderstorm, so we didn't go out and find fireworks again tonight.  Instead he watched a few on television with the rest of the family while I took a nap.  He seemed to enjoy this, if the level of screaming I heard coming from the living room was any indication.

Other activities today included the now-traditional evening golf cart ride, in which Connor applauded after all of the really big hills.  Also Jeremy and I took the waverunners out for a spin again.  The water was much smoother today and we caught some big wakes behind a few cruisers, though I kept hitting them just wrong and ending up with a nose full of water on the second wave.  There's an art to wake jumping that I haven't quite mastered yet.  Jer's been coming out to the lake and riding around on a waverunner practically every year since preadolescence, so he's slightly better at it than me.  Oh well.  I've got plenty of summers to figure it out!

I hope everyone had just as wonderful a time today as we did, and my thoughts go out to all of our fellow military families, some of whom are celebrating without their loved ones nearby this year.  Much love to you and yours!

~Jess

In Which We Have A Day Of Fun

Today was the big day of festivities out on the lake!  They do the big celebration a day early here because there are so many other celebrations in the area on the holiday proper.  Things started off with the annual golf cart parade.  We thought Connor would enjoy watching the golf carts decked out in all their finery, but since the parade was in the middle of the day and it was nearly a hundred degrees outside some maneuvering was required. 

Connor doesn't have sweat glands, and he overheats really, really quickly in hot weather.  So we planned ahead and parked a car out on the golf cart route an hour or so before the show was supposed to begin.  Then we drove down there in the golf carts when it was time for the parade, and Connor, Jeremy and I sat in the air conditioned car while everyone else watched outside.  It took the little guy a bit to perk up because the ride over was still pretty hot even with the wind blowing in his face, but by the time the parade was halfway over he had recovered and seemed to enjoy himself.

After that the little guy cooled off in the swimming pool with his grandmother and aunt while Jer and I took the waverunners out for a spin.  While the traffic on the lake was pretty sparse compared to prior holidays (no doubt due to the ban on swimming caused by the Blue-Green Algae Of Death) the water was still really choppy and we didn't go very fast today.  It wasn't the big waves that were the problem-- they weren't any bigger than what we'd see jumping wakes-- it's the fact that there wasn't a break at all between them so we didn't really have any time to recover between jumps.  I hit a couple of them just the wrong way and rattled my teeth a bit, and I think I'll be pretty sore tomorrow, but it was still a ton of fun. 

This evening the lake held its huge fireworks display!  We took chairs out to a hill overlooking the lake and sat down to enjoy the show.  First they had a small airshow with various historic planes.  Connor was completely uninterested in that, but he did enjoy watching all the boats maneuver into place out on the water in preparation for fireworks viewing.  Then there was a short break, and since it was still a little warm outside we threw Connor in the golf cart and went for a refreshing drive to cool him off.  He absolutely loves going up and down the hills and I'm relatively sure if he was able to he'd try to sneak the golf cart home in his luggage.

We sat back down in our chairs and waited for the fly over.  I was a little worried about how Connor would react to the F-16 fly over as I remembered it being really loud in previous years, but the little guy hardly even noticed the planes because he was too busy being excited about how the wind was really picking up.  I'd forgotten just how quickly the weather can change down here.  Within ten minutes the wind was so strong that all of the boats started being pushed across the lake and some major traffic jams happened down there.  Boats ran into each other, into docks, people swimming (despite the Death Algae) were left behind as their boats drifted away from them faster than they could swim. . . it was chaos out there!  Police boats formed a ring around the firework barge to prevent boats from drifting in too close and ramming it.   Soon we could see lightning out on the horizon.  It was quite the show!

Connor thought the wind was hilarious.

Luckily things mostly settled down by the time the fireworks show was set to begin, though every once in a while we could see lightning in the distance.  This is the first time Connor's ever been awake for a fireworks show, and he loved it!  He kept signing "More light!  More light!" and kept his eyes riveted on the sky.  They're able to set off the fireworks much earlier here than they can up in Washington because it gets darker here sooner.  So he didn't even really stay up much past his bedtime.  I'm glad his first fireworks show was such a spectacular display too; they really do put on a beautiful performance here.  Jer's aunt took some pretty cool pictures of the fireworks and one of us enjoying the evening, too.  Doesn't it look like we're in a wind tunnel?

The little guy is much too riled up to sleep now, of course.  There's a thunderstorm going on outside, which he's not used to hearing because we don't really get them at home very often.  Maybe he thinks the thunder is more fireworks!

~Jess