thanksgiving...

Scott and I have been talking a lot lately about how blessed we feel. We have friends and family who are going through MAJOR stuff, so this Thanksgiving, when Scott has a steady job, we have an amazing, healthy little boy, we have one more little one on the way who I know will also blow us away, we are madly in love, and we have a beautiful home with plenty of food in it, we can't help but step back and be thankful. Even in the hard times, God is good, but it is nice to have a moment to breathe, look around, and only be thankful.

In the days before Thanksgiving, I tried to do a few activities with CJ. I was originally going to use these handprints of CJ's to make the feathers on a pine cone turkey, but he wanted to play with them, and the math teacher in me saw a great sorting activity. I think three colors were overwhelming. Next time, when I actually do a sorting activity with him, I will also have colored paper to put the same colored object on. But for an impromptu activity after a messy breakfast (thus why the shirt covered with oatmeal has already been taken off!), it wasn't bad.

We started off ok...

but he really wanted them to all be in ONE pile, not three.

Then we made place cards for Thanksgiving lunch. He loves stamping his hand. He knows just what to do now, and it is so nice not to have to fight his little fingers apart!

We also painted pine cones we collected from our yard. Like I said earlier, my original intent was to make turkeys, but we nixed that, and just had fun with some paint...

And after the fun of the pine cone wore off, we just painted. CJ is doing so much better at getting the paint on the paper as opposed to all over himself and in his mouth. He's such a quick learner.

I totally regret I didn't get ONE picture of actual Thanksgiving day! I can't believe it. We had a great time. Three of our friends Scott works with who didn't have family in town came over as well as Granddad and Grandpa Dick. CJ went to sleep with just me and Scott in the house, and woke up to a full house. He was a little overwhelmed at first, but quickly warmed up to all the guys. We had a yummy dinner. Scott hates turkey, so I made sausage stuffing and covered it with bacon, and he at least ate a little. :) We had way too much food, and to stay off a food coma after lunch, Grandpa Dick took CJ for a stroller ride, Granddad helped me clean up the kitchen, and Scott, Ryan, Jason and Lawrence put up Christmas lights. It was a nice day, and we were glad to have family and friends with us.

The next day, CJ wanted to take Granddad and Grandpa Dick to his favorite park. Oh what fun we had!!!

First Grandpa Dick got dragged around the jungle gym by his finger...

Then Daddy convinced CJ to slide. Last time we went to the park he really wanted to slide, but for some reason he was scared before he did it. This time it only took one slide before he realized it was GREAT fun...

And then he was ready to do it all by himself!

He even got brave enough to do the big twisty slide. The one he started out on was not sufficient after one trip down the super cool and fun twisty slide. He would come down laughing and smiling and sign and say "mo, mo, mo" as he ran back to the stairs for more sliding.

We also had a breakthrough. CJ actually enjoyed swinging. From birth he would last less than three seconds in anything that swings. I think he sat in his infant swing for a total of 2 minutes, and every time we go to the park we try swinging and tears and screaming for mommy quickly follow. But check out this happy little swinging guy...

Then we got to pet a dog and make a new friend...

who thankfully took a picture of all five (six if you count baby) of us.

We had a great long weekend!

fancy clothes...

Let's face it, I know you don't look at our blog for pictures of Scott and me, but this post is all about the grown ups. :) Sorry no cute pictures of the little guy...

Last weekend, Scott's parents came and babysat so we could go on 2 dates! Whoo hoo! First, since Scott's unit just got back from deployment, they had a welcome home ball. It was fun to meet people, and I'm always a sucker for military tradition. I love the color guard, and because Scott is part of a Cavalry unit, there were other things like a garter ceremony and grog bowl that I won't go into, but they were fun none-the-less. It was fun to get all gussied up, and I even though I am 34 weeks pregnant and HUGE, I think we made a cute pair. (I really think Scott looks cute in his hat!)

Then on Friday, we got to have another date. It was opening day for Harry Potter, and even though it was hard to wait for a 7:20 showing, we met some friends for an evening show. We are nerds, I know, but I'll own it. :) It was a nice to get away, even though it was just for a few hours, with just my honey. We know that in just 6 short weeks life is going to change (for the better of course!), so we took this chance to take a breather and enjoy each other.

new accessories...

Who says boys can't accessorize?

CJ has loved putting these "lots of links" on his arms like bracelets. My friend Lauren has this painting of a South African woman with the traditional necklaces that stretch out your neck, and every time he stacks these on I can't help but think about it. The best part is watching him fling them off when he is done with them. It is quite a production that always makes him smile and laugh out loud...

love it...

Earlier this week, I needed a few minutes in the morning. I was making dinner for a friend who just had a baby, and I needed to distract CJ so he wouldn't try to crawl into the oven or pull things off the counter while I was trying to get things together. He did great for a while with watching and listening to me talk through what I was doing, but when his patience started to wear thin, I had an idea.

Scott loves to take Kool-Aid mix ins for his water bottles, and I thought CJ might enjoy playing with them. Or at least they would distract him for a few seconds. I hit on a great activity...

But little did I realize that he was doing this...

He totally sorted them into the CORRECT BOXES!!! I did find two blue ones in the bottom of the red box, but he totally did this on his own. I showed him how the blue package matched the blue box and the red package matched the red box, but the sorting was all him. I used to think he was a genius, but now I am totally convinced...

what i've been up to...

Nesting has set in. As of today, if the baby came tomorrow, all I would have to do is pop open a box of diapers to be ready to bring him home. I thought this was a great picture, but here is what you can't see:

1. I am sitting crossed legged because I can't put my feet down on the floor between the ottoman and the sofa. It was packed with clothes.
2. There is one more tub as big as the one in front of me, behind me.
3. There was a dresser of clothes in CJ's room that hadn't been brought out at this point.

So if you are thinking about getting us a baby present, I think we have clothes covered...

the hunter becomes the hunted...

I know it's hard to see, but just in case you missed it, look inside the gecko's mouth. And if you are wondering, no Connor didn't catch it. Nature playing itself out on our back porch...

beautiful days...

With the exception of last week, the weather in Georgia has been fabulous! CJ has loved playing outside, and I admit, I don't mind either. Usually in the afternoon, he walks over to the gate, says, "Go, go" rubs his belly (the sign for please), and points at the back door. And usually, we do go, go.

We have taken walks with the stroller, walked just the two of us, collected treasures in bags, and just played. Sunday afternoon, this is what we ended up with...

It was a little tricky to get him to put the things on the plate, but he got the idea pretty quickly. If you want to do this with your little one, here are a few pointers:

1. Put a lot of glue all over the plate first. If you try to glue as you go, it would be a pain.
2. No matter how much they beg, unless they are much older than CJ and aren't tempted to put their fingers in the glue, hold the plate for your little one. I let CJ hold it and he got glue all over his fingers which then got covered in dirt and made a paste that took some scrubbing to get off.
3. Let them decide what to pick up. It is hard...espcially if you are a control freak like me, but it is fun to see what interests them.

couldn't be sweeter...

I LOVE these pictures. A few weeks ago we had double company with my dad and Andy, a friend Scott works with that has been staying with us since they got back from Iraq. Andy usually stays in the guest bedroom, but we kicked him to the air mattress in the study while my dad was in town. When it was all rolled up one afternoon, it made a perfect spot for CJ, Connor and Scott to wallow around on.

And just in case you are worried...it's not a tick on CJ's forehead like my friend Stephanie thought. :) He went face first into the asphalt playing outside one afternoon. Boys will be boys!

jumping out of a perfectly good airplane...

Now why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane is beyond me. But, Scott not only paid to do it last Christmas, he also volunteered to go to airborne school over the past few weeks. He has been tired and sore, but he has also had a lot of fun.

Since the weather has been nice CJ and I have been playing outside a lot. He has connected the sound of an airplane to the sky, and he will look and look until he sees it. Here he is trying to see a plane flying over our house.

Since it was a beautiful day today and CJ has a new airplane fascination, we decided to head down to the drop zone and try to see Scott jump. Here are the guys jumping from the C-130s...

Landing...

Trucking it back in...

And seeing Scott! One of the other girls I was talking to thought her husband was running up around the same time as Scott, so when this crazy guy started waving his hands and making all kinds of noises, I just thought it was her crazy guy...but he was totally mine. :) I'll claim him though.

And here are my two favorite guys just before Scott had to head back to eat a quick lunch and jump again. CJ and I stayed a little longer and watched some more planes and had a picnic. The only thing that would have made it more fun is if Scott could have eaten with us.

more free fun...

These days it seems like CJ rarely plays with his toys. He is much more interested in imitating us doing things and exploring outside. This morning we were in the bathroom and when I looked over at him, I realized he got my deodorant out of my drawer, opened the top, and was putting it under his shirt and rubbing it back and forth. I was pretty impressed with that observation.

One of the other things he has really gotten interested in is my pot holders. Don't judge how dirty they are. I asked for more for Christmas.

"Hi!"

"I need to wear them both."

"Once I get one on, the other one keeps falling off!"

"How did mommy get one inside the other one?"

"If I shake it will it come out?"

"Different strategy...I'll pull."

"Haha..I figured it out!"

"Now back to getting them on both of my hands."

"Victory!"

He really makes me laugh with how perceptive he is. I love, love love watching him figure things out and grow.