Thanksgiving (very late)!

I really can't believe it's mid-Janurary and we haven't even talked about our Thanksgivings! We spent ours in New Mexico and in summary (for those of you who like to just look at the pictures and skip my wordy-ness): it was fantastic, delicious, and relaxing. 

The Thursday before Thanksgiving, big E got his cast off, just in time for him to be able to walk on the plane a few days later. Except, he wouldn't walk. "It's a little stiff," he'd say and then scoot around as he'd grown accustomed to doing. Lisa even took him back for a reexamination after a day of no progress. Everything checked out and all we could figure was that the stiffness was really throwing him off. 

It wouldn't have been much of a problem other than the fact that we were due to travel to New Mexico for the holiday. Oh, and did I mention that I was driving with the dogs and Lisa was flying (alone) with both kids? So E walking would've been very, very helpful. I had nightmares of Lisa on the jetway with a screaming baby J in the front carrier, struggling to collapse the double stroller, and E rolling around on the floor.

  

When the actual moment of truth came, it wasn't as bad as could be, though not ideal either. A nice man (a father of four himself) helped carry E to the seat while Lisa folded the stroller and dealt with J's needs. After that, things seemed to go smoothly with books and iPads to entertain. 

I'll leave it up to you to decide who had the short straw: Me and a 34 hour / 2200 mile round trip drive alone with two dogs or Lisa with a non-walking 2-year-old, a 9-month-old, and a 2 hour direct flight from Oakland. 

Anyhow, the dogs and I had an uneventful trip out and a very welcome sleep at Shaun & David's place in Flagstaff. After 12 hours in the car, the dogs LOVED romping around with Loki, their Husky-cousin, in the big forested backyard. A nice little preview of Nana & Papa's Doggie Mountain Resort (DMR for short). 

Once we got the whole family to NM, it was great. For the first few days, the wind blew to near biblical levels -- so hard that the pictures on the walls rattled constantly. Most days the big event was getting into town and seeing / eating with GG. We cooked a lot and prepared for Thanksgiving, but generally just enjoyed the downtime spent with family. 

Actually, a lot of E's & Papa's downtime was spent discussing / researching trucks. It all started the first day when E asked to see Papa's flatbed truck. Papa responded that it technically wasn't a flatbed, but a semi-truck. E blinked at him. "But has a flat part for the jeep or something on it. What do you call it?" Later that day, Papa disappeared for a couple hours. Later, he presented E with a packet of internet printouts classifying the different truck configurations. And while Papa may have proved his point to a 2.5-year-old, I'd say E had the final laugh. Upon pulling out one of his toy flatbeds (an actual one). "This is a Semi." He laughed. "This is a flatbed, but I called it a Semi."  

At one of our lunches out with GG, E was eating some french fries. Nana told him a story about how one time I got catsup on my finger and bit down on it very hard, thinking it was a french fry. E listened intently, but didn't say a thing, and the conversation moved on. Less than 30 seconds later, E burst into tears, clutching his finger...which was covered in catsup and a deep set of teeth marks. All I can fathom is that he heard the story and tried the punchline out on himself. 

The night before the holiday, Shaun, David and Loki made it to the DMR. For those counting, we hit 6 adults, 5 dogs, and 2 little kiddos under a single roof. Actually, it wasn't as chaotic as it sounds. And really, it was lil'J and her new found ability to crawl coupled with her obsession of grabbing EVERYTHING and then putting it in her mouth which was the biggest handful to deal with. 

The morning of Thanksgiving, Lisa took J over to GG's house so they could help make the pumpkin pies. J was a perfect little baby except for at the most critical moment in baking. Lisa had the oven open and was carefully adding the pecan topping when she saw J making a beeline to the small kitchen trashcan. As Lisa tried to step away from the pies to get the baby, GG told her that she'd handle the baby. Lisa asked what GG could do from her walker, but GG was already off. From what Lisa describes, it was a slow moving race to the trashcan. Both parties arriving at the same time. Lisa desperately tying to get the topping on the pies. J reaching to the rim of the can. GG holding steady to her walker, saying, "No, no, no." J pausing, looking up at GG with great interest -- and no understanding. "No, NO, NO!" The trash spilling all over the floor and baby. All I can say is that I wish I had been there to see it. 

Thanksgiving dinner, miraculously, went smoothly. The food: the best to date. The company: merry. The kids: well-behaved. We even managed a full family photo, including some with all pups. The only pox against the day came late when we were cleaning up and I saw Nana & Papa whispering in the kitchen. I was about to ask what happened when Papa looked up and the question died halfway out of my mouth. 

One of his incisors. Completely gone. 

Evidently, when gnawing on the turkey leg at dinner, he felt one of the drumstick's ligaments snap. He kept chewing with no pain. He finished the meal. It was later that he realized it probably wasn't a ligament earlier, but his tooth. E found the whole turkey / missing tooth thing fascinating and now, whenever he's asked (by say, the flight attendant) about Thanksgiving, he tells the story of Papa eating turkey and losing a tooth. 

E eventually started walking by himself, thanks to two brilliant ideas from Nana & Papa. The first was him pushing GG's walker around the house. The second was a bribe to go to Target, walk around the toy department, and pick out his own "Got well" present. By the Saturday following Thanksgiving, he was able to walk onto the plane by himself. The rest of their trip (and my drive) home was smooth skies. 

J is doing really well, too. Crawling has opened up a new world of trouble for her to get into. Add that to the discovery of pulling herself up...and we have our hands completely full. Her 9 month doctor's appointment went well. Basically, she's growing and developing like a champ. Her stats: 18 lbs and 28 inches. 

Some other fun stuff: E is very into the "rhyming game," meaning that hours are spent with us saying, "Scary Gary," and "Purple Durple." He came up with one all his own, "Kitchen Bitchin'," after which we made the mistake of smirking at each other totally awkwardly -- so now he brings it up each time we play. 

Also, the other night I took him walking around the block with the dogs and we ran into one of the neighbors. The neighbor told Cody, "You're a good pooch." E busted up and shook his head. "Cody's not a pooch. He's a doggy. You messed up." Luckily, I don't think the neighbor quite understood the whole conversation, but I had to suppress a laugh myself.