The theme of November was ‘No’-vember. (Catchy huh?) After Sept and Oct, I needed to slow down. We did a whole lot of nothing. Well, thats not true, we did things – but things around here. We closed down the garden, we went to the aquarium, phil and I met for lunch one friday, we went to a Ravens game for ‘date night’. We went to a happy hour with friends and kids. I scheduled a few doctors appointments, including one for Barney. We signed Wil up for a saturday class (we took a break after swimming since we were so busy in the fall). He started gymnastics at a local place around the corner from us and he LOVES it. We spent Thanksgiving sitting around home without any visitors, getting caught up on work, and taking it easy. It was amazing. There were just a million little things that had been pushed to the bottom of the to-do list while we were traveling this fall, and it was nice to re-group. Over Thanksgiving break, we did a few things with the kids around the city — We went to the festival of the trees, the zoo and the park a lot. Even though its a little boring – I think these weeks are my favorite: no expectations, no traveling, no big plans — and in control of the day (Crazy – I like weeks where I feel in control!) November was good.
Here are some random thoughts:
TDL. Trash. Dishes. Laundry. When we lived on the jersey shore and there was a popular show of the same name, they used to say ‘GTL’ for Gym. Tan. Laundry. I have adopted ‘TDL’ for all I wish to accomplish during the day. If I can keep up on those 3 things, it was an ok day. Of course I would prefer to fit in a work-out, and get some work done, and make a decent dinner — but as long as TDL are done, then we are doing ok. The rest can can wait until tomorrow or be delivered.
Wil has been doing so much better at school lately. Im so so thankful for our preschool experience this year. His language is coming along, and we are all really working on listening to him and repeating back his words so he learns the right pronunciation and is able to communicate better. Now hes learning to talk things out, rather than have any physical outbursts when playing with his friends. We say ‘Use your words’ a lot in this household! He really loves preschool – he comes home with so many crafts and projects. Currently he’s really into coloring. He really focuses on coloring every single part of an object on his sheet. He cant color in the lines though, so its just a huge blob of color completely covering like half the page until he gets every part. See exhibit A below. I try to keep some crafts to put on the fridge, but of course, I cant keep everything and end up throwing a lot away. One day he ‘caught me’ – and spotted his picture in the trash. But luckily he thought Evie did it. (She throws everything away) and I totally went along with it! “Evie threw your flag picture away?!!? Oh Nooo” — Thanks for taking the fall, sister. The only thing super annoying about Wil right now is the constant repeating/asking for things – ‘can i have a cracker’, ‘i want crackers’, ‘mommy – cracker please’, ‘i want a cracker now, mommy’, ‘mommy – can i have a cracker now please’, ‘cracker please’, ‘mommy i want a cracker’. After every request I will say ‘we arent home yet’, ‘we’re in the car, wil’, ‘i dont have any crackers’, ‘we can have crackers when we get home’……ARGH. 3- year olds.
Evie has tons of words. And is really good at repeating you. She knows ‘mommy’, ‘daddy’, ‘wil’ (which sounds like ‘whoa’), ‘cracker’, ‘quack, quack (duck)’, ‘cheese’, ‘ninny’ (pacifier), ‘cheerio’, ‘blueberry’, and ‘Batman’ all on her own. I’m sure there are more – but thats off the top of my head. Oh – and her favorite word: ‘No’. This last month we really turned her world upside down — We have taken the pacifiers away during the day and dropped the morning nap. But she took it all like a champ! Shes still sooo dramatic and so hard to keep happy at times,though. When she goes to sleep – she has to have 3 pacifiers. One in the mouth and one in each hand. Or else its really difficult. I mean, I get it – she loses them in the night and she wants back-ups. Its infuriating to always find 3, but gosh darn it, I respect her decision. It hard to be her parent, but everything she throws a fit about, I totally get. Evie — I like you, but you’re crazy. Cant wait til the teenage years!
Here are a few pictures of our adventures in November:
Woznation 
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