Thankful for Second Chances

Thinking back to last Thanksgiving, Rhianwen was still itty bitty, and we were still having insurmountable breastfeeding problems. Although Thanksgiving last year was wonderful with my mom cooking the entire meal (not to mention the best turkey ever), we missed out on having a big family get together and missed out on enjoying a relaxing time. I'm so glad that Thanksgiving Holidays happen every year :) This year we spent the time at Wally's parent's house. And what a time for us all! Rhianwen fell head over heals in love with Grandmama and followed her all around the house saying, "Mama, Mama!" So sweet. It was nice to have a break from being the one who is followed too!


Playing in the leaves with Grandmama.

This year we again got to make "Mr Eggplant", the centerpiece for the Thanksgiving meal. Yes, this is yet another strange but enchanting tradition of the T side of the fam. You take an eggplant, and make a face out of a carrot, cranberries, raisins, and apple peal. You make arms and legs out of string beans, and USUALLY, you put him in his sleigh or chariot pulled by turkeys made out of pine cones and feathers. BUT this year, we broke from tradition and Mr. Eggplant was riding a fearsome beast aka goose gourd.


Mr. Eggplant looking spiffy in a lemon bow tie.

His fearsome stead.

The T's.

A whole basket of gourds to play with!

Rhianwen enjoyed shooting some basketball (ie being held up while dropping the ball through the hoop), long walks, swinging in the new red swing that Grandmama and Grandaddy bought for her, being read to by everyone, eating delicious food, seeing the chickens and dog, and of course watching Clemson beat USC! She even mimicked some of the Clemson v BC replays shown of Cullen Harper by falling to the ground and landing on her shoulder over and over again.

Taking a walk with her new winter hat and coat.

Getting a story and smile from Aunt Clara.

Helping Uncle Averett move his truck.

"Dr. Robeson, I presume."

Back at home resuming half-way moved in activities.

If you thought she looked like me....

Wally 18mo....adorable as always!
More similar than you thought?

I came across an old picture of Wally while unpacking and I just had to scan it for the blog. EVERYONE says,"Oh, she doesn't look a bit like Wally. She looks JUST like you!" But I think if you look, you can see him in her as well. Especially if you compare his baby pics to hers when he was a little plumper :)

Rhianwen has been kissing up a storm lately. She kisses us, she kisses Snowbear (her favorite bear that she sleeps with in the crib), she kisses kitty cat, she kisses family pictures, she even kissed the Prime Minister of Turkey today (well his picture in WORLD anyway). So I just had to post a video of this kissing extravaganza!

Thankful for Sweetness

With Thanksgiving around the bend, I have been in that sort of excited about life and family mood (at least for the last half of the week). The first half I was more in a "if this baby doesn't get back to normal I am going to lose it!" mood. Rhianwen at the beginning of the week skipped all naps, was very clingy, and fussy. At one point I had a bit of a breakdown and told Wally I should never have become a mommy b/c I was just ruining Rhianwen by showing her my bad attitudes and selfishness. I'm thankful that God perseveres with even me! The last half of the week, Rhianwen seemed to be feeling better (she really is still cutting at least 3 teeth at once), taking better naps, and was the sweetest funnest little oo. For devotions we have been reading out of her Bible story book, singing a song, then praying for a member of the family. We pull out Rhianwen's 2 picture albums that have all of her great grandparents, grandparents, aunt, uncles, and parents and ask her who she would like to pray for. Without fail, Rhianwen will reach for her yellow photo album, and whisper softly, "PaPa". She'll open it on her own to the page with PaPa, point to his picture, and say, "PaPa" again. Even though she's only met her PaPa (Great Grandpa on Wally's side of the family) a couple of times, she really wants to pray for him! Tonight she even gave his picture a kiss :)

Pointing to her PaPa.

It's been getting colder and colder here. Soon, we're going to have to break down and buy a real winter coat. We've gotten away with using a fleece so far, but we can tell winter is on its way! We went for a walk around our neighborhood and realized we don't have any toddler winter hats that fit Rhianwen. So we pulled out a gray hat of Daddy's. You can see a picture of it below along with some goggles we thought finished the affect (she only wore that hat on the walk, don't worry).

"I've heard of mommy-daughter outfits, but coordinated Daddy-Daughter duo? This is a bit much!"

Lastly, the grandparents are begging for a video. This may bore everyone else. It's just a video of our talker at the table. If you listen closely, you'll hear her say Whizzit, Eat, various animal sounds, and toddler sentences only she can understand.

If I Went Senile

This is a list of things I would repeat over and over again if I went senile right now:


1. You can play with it, but don't eat it.

2. That is not a toy.

3. Where's your sippy cup?

4. All good things must come to an end.

5. Are you hungry?

6. Be gentle.

7. I think you need a nappie nap.

8. That is trash.

9. Spit it out.

10. I smell a poo-poo.

11. I luu u u u UUUUv yoooooooooooou! (getting higher in intonation as you get to the end).

Questions and Lines

Rhianwen is now asking 2 questions most of the day: 1) Whizzit? (translated Who is it?) and 2) Whazzit? (translated What is it?). Reading books has turned into lots of pointing and question asking. Sometimes she even repeats what we say. When daddy walks in the door, Rhianwen will hear him and go running down the hall excitedly saying "Whizzit! Whizzit!" It's a great way for him to be greeted every afternoon. We often have a tickle time each day that Rhianwen loves. We will say, "Tickle Tickle Tickle!" and between laughs she will say "TckaTckatcktck!" It's amazing how quickly she can pick up on things. She's quickly showing us that we can no longer call her baby. She is definitely a toddler and not just because she is walking and talking! She loves dressing up. Her favorite things to wear are the pink gloves (as pictured in the previous post), a scarf I found while switching out summer clothes for winter that was the first crocheting project I ever finshed at the age of 10 or so, and her new but roomy raincoat.

"My motto is: always be prepared."

Graduating to toddler status has its downsides. Although climbing is a ball, it can lead to some frustrating injuries. This week we had more than our fair share. The first came as Rhianwen was sitting on a box she had climbed on. For some reason she decided to lean off of it, pitched forward, and bumped her head on the chair in front of it, leaving a long line on her forehead. Then later, she got dizzy from spinning around in circles in the kitchen and fell into the family room bumping her head on the floor (enter bruise number 2 on the forehead to the left of the line). Then later, she was leaning on the exterior door unbeknownst to me. I opened it and she fell into the doorframe (daddy who was in the house at the time was not quick enough to catch her).

Here is line number 1 before all the other mishaps of the week but after getting up from a nap.

We took Rhianwen to a playground today, and instead of being happy to go down the short slides designed for people her age, she climbed to the highest tube slide (at least 10ft tall), swung her feet onto it, and went down belly first as many times as we would let her. Daddy would stand at the top and I would greet her down at the bottom! Our little oo is a toddler through and through.