Thanksgiving Day

We spent our first Thanksgiving day alone ever today. It was a little sad, but very relaxing. We started peeling and cutting before LR even woke up this morning, so we managed to get a lot accomplished by 8:30am. The twins played together very well while we planned the menu and tried a new method of cooking the turkey. (I completely overcooked the turkey thanks to Missy locking the oven at some point which turned it off. By the time I noticed, it was 155 degrees inside the oven. Then I let it cook way too long after that before checking it with a meat thermometer. *sigh*) Very dry turkey, but it'll make fine soup tomorrow. The legs I broke off before the breasts went into the oven and cooked them by boiling them for a few hours in olive oil. Sounds strange, I know, but they came out very nicely, especially when you consider what I did to the larger portion of the turkey. So today I'm thankful that Blade is a foodie and convinced me to try something new - he saved Thanksgiving.

After we ate we took the kids out for a walk. They managed to find our neighbor's cat. Coincidentally, it was Superman's cat. (If you read the Halloween post, you know who that is.) The cat is very affectionate - Missy even managed to fit in a hug. J Frog did not want to give up the chase, but the cat eventually tired of their attention.

J Frog's Progress

Family often ask me how J Frog is doing now. He's started to pick up words like "up" and "wash." He's still delayed and in Early Intervention, but is improving. Most often people ask me if he's walking since I spent so many months worrying about it, but here he is, walking in his favorite place. Thought I'd share.

Halloween 09

One of our community groups put on a huge trick-or-treat event in our town center. It seemed like everyone with children under 10 showed up. We started in the town common and because it was an unusually warm fall day, we didn't insist that Missy wear her Minnie ears or that J Frog keep his elephant head on. LR had a mask for the spiderman costume, but he was worried that people wouldn't know who he was, so he went without it. Missy's costume was actually a hand-me-down made by Grandma Nese for Aunt K about 20 years ago. It's held up really well and the dress fit her nicely. Thanks, Grandma Nese and Aunt K!

The sidewalks were packed and the kids loved going in and out of all the stores marked with orange balloons. LR collected more candy than he knew what to do with since there were only a few steps in between each store doorway. Much easier than going between houses at night! What a great haul! The first doorway offered lollipops, so the babies were set in the stroller for a little while, but eventually Missy wanted to get out and try her hand at trick-or-treating. She even learned how to say "thank you." J Frog eventually got into the action a bit and walked into a few stores with Marian to raid their candy supplies.









At CVS, LR learned about taking just 1 thing from each bucket.






Then we ran into his friend, Superman.







and our other friend, The Hulk.







What is that?







Seriously, guys... what is this?










Ah, I've got it now. Next!












J Frog grabs a handful.












In the evening, we switched Missy into her warmer costume, a butterfly jacket. It was adorable. We only spent 30 minutes out, but it was a great evening and they seemed to really enjoy it.