We Are Family

Rhianwen is VERY thankful for hot apple cider, oh, and that Clemson won against USC.

We had a great time with the T fam for Thanksgiving. Boy, did we eat WAY too much (with perhaps the exception of Alden although he had his nights). What really did us in, was that there were trays of desserts left over from Aunt Clara's wedding that were too tempting to refuse. Even Rhianwen snuck a few with her 2nd cousins.

Alden was very thankful for the walker that we got to borrow from the church nursery. He had tons of fun playing with the toys on the tray, moving, and bouncing, and pretending that Grandaddy was a horse (I guess).

"This is the part where you pull me."

We had a fun time seeing Great Mama and PaPa. We heard lots of stories about when PaPa played college football and about Great Mama's mother. It's just so fun to hear them share so many memories. I can't believe how much they can recall! I can't do that now. If you asked me what happened in even my most important volleyball game, I would have been like, ummm, well....we lost the state championship...yeah...can't remember how though.

Alden got in his first peer-to-peer wrestling match with his 2nd cousin Matthew who is 2 months his senior. Matthew appeared to have the upper hand for most of the match, but Alden ended it decisively by pulling out the spit-up-on-my-2nd-cousin's-foot trick.

Catching their collective breath (I TOLD you he can sit up on his own!).


Bummed that our 2nd cousins had to leave. (I just like the picture :)

We also got to enjoy some cozy fires in the fireplace although Uncle Averett instilled such a wild fear of them in Rhianwen that it took us a full day and 2 fires for her to trust that it wasn't going to hurt her by being in the same room. She adores Uncle Averett so I guess what he says goes. We also got to go pick out some new goldfish for Grandmama's big fish tank, read lots of stories, played Candyland Bingo (yes, Christopher, in your opinion it probably would be lamer than Candyland itself), wrestled with the giant Bear again, and generally lazed around.

Snowbear has found her rival. Grandmama always leaves a bed-present for each guest in her house. This time Rhianwen was the recipient of a very cute stuffed monkey affectionately dubbed BoBo from the book HUG. Daddy let her choose between it and Snowbear when she went to bed, so now they have a bit of a rivalry going on. Most days BoBo wins now. I kind of feel sorry for poor old Snowbear. Ah, for the good ole days.

Not the new monkey, but a fun one none-the-less.

We've been trying to teach Rhianwen respect/manners. So, we are having her say "Yes, please", "No thank you", "Yes sir/ma'am", and not to say "Huh?" when asked a question etc. It really does help her attitude in many cases, and it also helps us understand what she is saying instead of trying to decipher a muttered/muffled, "Mmf". As a result, we've realized that we should teach by example, and boy do we have bad habits! "Huh?" is the primary phrase in our vocabulary with perhaps the exception of "He/she was like..." We also hardly ever say "Yes please" and "No thank you" to each other, so now we're retraining ourselves. Of course, then there are those times when Rhianwen runs through the house yelling, "WAAAAAly! Where are you?" or "Eooowyn! Where are you?!". Yep, that would be learning by example too. Well, I think though that Rhianwen has caught on to the whole manners thing. If asked if she would like more of something, she would proceed to turn the tables on us and ask each person at the table if they would like more of such and such...example: very matter of factly "Grandmama. Would you like a biscuit?" This took quite some time at Thanksgiving given that we had a house filled to the brim with family. So there were many "No thank you's" said.

The car ride was interesting. Alden isn't one of those babies that just sleeps in the car. He's more like one of those babies who gets mad about being contained if he doesn't want to sleep. He did pretty well, but Rhianwen got a little fed up with him when he was yelling and she wanted to nap. If she's in a good mood, she'll sing the ABC's to him. If he just keeps being loud, she'll start over more loudly. Most of the time it doesn't work to get him to be quiet. I have no idea why she decided it would help, but I think it's adorable.

Mr. Eggplant on his cart pulled by his trusty turkeys.

We are desperately wanting to get Rhianwen potty-trained...notice I did not say trying. I wish she could be trained without all the work on my part ;0) Some days when I have to change yet another gross dipe, I cry. Really. I know it seems silly, but maybe one day you will understand if you haven't been there already. When she's quiet and playing...expect a big one. At that juncture, we often ask her if she's pooping. She'll often respond, "No, I'm peepin." Meaning she's peeing. You gotta smile at that.

Alden had his 4 mo. well-visit yesterday. He's 15 lb. 9 oz. (gaining steadily and in the 65th percentile) and 26 in. (90th percentile). He was WILD when the doctor came in, jumping and spinning non-stop. The Ped said, "I'm surprised he's able to put on any weight at all with all the energy he has!" He really gets that way when he is overstimulated and tired. He's also discovered that he can roll and play with toys, so putting him on his back to play is again interesting to him something for which I am thankful since I was running out of ideas.

"Who? Me?"