A Belated Happy Thanksgiving and Weekly Update

We started the Thanksgiving week off by attending a holiday light parade downtown. Last year I went with Regan and Baby Alex (who can no longer be called by that nickname!) and Alex's Grandma. We stood outside for over an hour waiting for the parade to come by, and we nearly froze to death. The babies were great - Miss Mouse was in her fluffy snowsuit, in a front-carrier, tucked inside my jacket toasty warm. Alex was hanging out in his stroller in a snowsuit. Regan, Vanesa, and I, on the other hand, were nearly frozen solid by the time the silly parade went by! We still had a great time, but I learned a lot for this year. Unfortunately, Alex and his family weren't able to be there with us this year on account of a nasty cold from which he was just recovering.


Anyway, first, it was fun (as well as helpful!) that this year Daddy was actually able to attend the parade with us! On a Tuesday night, it is often more likely that he is at work than attending a parade; so we (the Mouse and I) ecstatic to have him with us! We headed downtown and had a bite to eat right after Daddy got off work. We were able to find a parking spot not even a block off the main parade route! After eating, we had just enough time to run back to the car, load the Mouse into her backpack, and find a front row spot (well, we were behind a few people in lawn chairs) before the parade started rolling by. Perfect timing for an absolutely perfect evening - hanging out in the chilly, but not frigid or even windy, weather, watching bright floats pass by - as a family! Daddy and I attended light parades for holidays past in Lisbon and the lighted train celebration in Enderlin, and Miss Mouse and I enjoyed last year here. But there is nothing like all being together to celebrate and to have the opportunity to watch our baby's face light up as bright as the floats (okay, so Daddy didn't have a good look at her face, but he heard her loud and clear as she demanded "more! more!").

Ooooooooooo.......

Enjoying the parade - the backpack has to be one of the best inventions ever!

This was one of Miss Mouse's favorites; it was horse-drawn. It was actually one of three horse-drawn floats plus a group of riders on horses that had lights draped on them. Our little horse-lover wanted many, many "more".

It's hard to read, but this one says "Santa's Water Treatment Plant". Odd, eh?
Another float

Our Mouse is growing up! Notice the "church shoes", floofy clothes, long hair (the bangs are curled, by the way), and barrett. She's developing into quite the little lady.

I'm not a totally terrible person when it comes to sugar. I let her have one beater from one of the batches of sugar cookies we made for Thanksgiving. It took her 45 minutes to lick most of it off, and half of it went on the floor, as she said, for the "birds". But she had a grand old time and got very dirty (which she can now say!).

Remarkably, they turned out fairly well and tasted good, too! Sugar cookies are definitely not my strength, and decorated ones have traditionally been my nemesis. This time, though, they turned out much more like my in-laws' (who make delicious sugar cookies) than mine! Oh, and just so I'm not known as getting too "soft" on the sugar issue - Miss Mouse was told that they were for older kids and grown ups at the Thanksgiving party (though she did have some pumpkin pie - and promptly had a sugar-rush-and-sleep-deprived-induced-tantrum).

We had a nice Thanksgiving begun by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a little bit of dog-show-watching afterwards. Miss Mouse and I stayed home while she napped; Daddy went to the Thanksgiving party we were invited to (he offered to stay home with her, but he knew most of the people at the party better than I- so it made more sense for him to go). After Miss Mouse woke from her nap (actually, I woke her up at 3 after a two-hour nap just so we could get going to the party...waking a sleeping baby usually seems to be a mistake, especially after she was up from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m. with a tummy-ache the night before....will Mommy ever learn???), we strolled down to the party, too. Daddy's boss and his wife had invited several families over, so there was much visiting, food, and merriment. We had a nice time. Miss Mouse enjoyed playing with their new Brittany puppy, Zoe....until Zoe bit her. Zoe is losing her baby teeth and chewing on everything and everyone in sight - not so much fun for a small child. We attempted to get Miss Mouse to pet her on the tail-end, but the closest the Mouse would get to forgiving her was to look at her sympathetically and say "niiiiice". We explained that Zoe was using her as a pacifier and that she is a baby and doesn't know better. I think the Mouse accepted that, but she still didn't want much to do with petting the puppy after that!

After about 3.5 hours there visiting and playing, I could tell it was time to go and could also tell it was not going to be an easy departure. Sure enough, the poor Mouse with her sleep deprivation and sugar-high threw an absolute fit. I had to retrieve Daddy from video-gaming in the basement to help get her in the stroller. He was sure he could get her coat and hat on with no problem....at first....until he got them both on, turned his back for a second, and then turned around to see both the hat and coat thrown onto the floor where they had started out in the first place :) Talented Mouse we have. At some point, I think when she had crawled and wedged herself behind a chair in the living room, I got the giggles because she was just totally out of control - nothing we were trying was working (trust me, two of our hosts were trying along with Daddy and me!) - and it seemed the best choice was for us to chuckle (not letting her see it, of course), relax, and wait for it to dissipate a little. Or, we could have started scolding her, giving her time-outs, teaching her absolutely nothing at that point. Trust me, she's had several time-outs, and they work very well for her (they broke a Mommy-hair-pulling-spree and seem to be working well to control fits at church). Given the state of the Mouse at that point, we chose to laugh off her fit, explain her sleeplessness, and scram. She screamed all the way home. Didn't even care a bit about Neighbor Ken's lights that he had just put up! On the bright side, about ten minutes after arriving home, Miss Mouse was settled back into her normal self, reading books with us, snacking on cheese and crackers. Closing out Thanksgiving Day 2008, we were thankful that "our Mouse" returned and sent the "other Mouse" packing!

Ready for church Thanksgiving Eve.

No one has taught her to pose like that!!!! What a little flirt! She is modeling her new training pants which she finally agreed to try out on Saturday night. She promptly peed in them, but she agreed to try on another pair and did quite well for about half an hour in them (at that point she had to get her bedtime diaper on, but the pants were still dry). Now she doesn't want anything to do with them, but it's a start, eh? She's been admiring them but refusing to try them for over a month, so at least trying them on for a period of time is some progress!

Last night when Daddy got home from pheasant hunting, we took a long drive around town to look at Christmas lights. We only saw the tip of the iceburg, I'm sure, as far as what is out there for displays, but we had a great time. Miss Mouse was quieter than I thought she would be (I had expected squeals of happiness), but whenever we passed several houses without lights, she would ask for "more! more!". She also responded in the affirmative when asked if we should keep looking for lights and if she was enjoying them. She was pretty disappointed to come home! I think we'll have to make Christmas-light-looking a regular event through December now. Thank goodness for gas prices being a bit lower!

This morning, Miss Mouse and I enjoyed the snow. She calls it "No!" and seems to love it. Neighbor Ken gave her a sled ride yesterday while I shoveled (don't worry, we had all of 1/2 an inch on the driveway; I just didn't want it to turn into ice before Daddy had a chance to do it); she apparently remembered how very much she loves sleds! We shopped this morning and used some of Mommy's birthday money to get a bench for the entryway; it still needs to be picked up from the store and then stained (more work for Daddy! Mommies aren't allowed to use stain when pregnant), but it was pretty exciting to find what I was looking for at a much lower price than I had anticipated! Miss Mouse enjoyed the snow all morning, from outside the house and then from inside, too, with her little face pressed up against any window she could reach.