Terrific Tuesday

We had a terrific Tuesday last week!  The day started, as always, with school, but in the afternoon, rather than doing "Mama time" or craft time or snuggly-reading-time, four of us bundled up and headed out for a sneak peek at our smallest family member.

Trusty Neighbor Carroll (nope, they aren't Quakers - we just like the title) took care of Mighty Mouse because we really didn't think Mighty would be too interested in sitting in a waiting room, then sitting in a dark room watching a screen that made no sense to him, and then sitting in a car for the ride home. Lots of sitting involved for a boy who lacks understanding of the coolness aspect of what was going on. Instead he spent his time showing Carroll lots of tricks like how he plays the piano, what his favorite books are, and his light-speed travel around our house.

While Mighty was tucked at home, the rest of us enjoyed seeing the "littlest brother", as he is now prayed for at night.  Especially cool was seeing his tiny little hands with his ten tiny little fingers waving right at us. When the tech switched the machine to 3D, we could see him covering his ears with his hands! So sweet!  Apparently we are already a bit loud for his taste!  We also got to see his little feet with all his little toes. At some point I will fish the cd of pictures out of my purse and share some of the pictures - especially the hands and feet are really clear along with his cute little profile - but tonight I just wanted to get this note on here so that someday I remember what we saw of "littlest brother" at his 20 week ultrasound. Obviously the best part was finding out that everything about him seems to be forming and growing just the way it should be.

Particularly fun were the moments where he seemed to "wave" to us and also when we saw him open his mouth, stick his tongue out, and then sort of "chew" his mouth closed. We might be loud enough that he covers his ears with his hands, but apparently he is already working on joining in our conversations, right?!

Well, after the fun ultrasound, we did end up getting in some snuggly-reading time at home before heading out on our annual Light Parade adventure. We finished up reading A Cricket in Times Square which quickly became one of my favorite children's books EVER. We're planning to read lots more about Harry Cat, Chester Cricket, and Tucker Mouse over Christmas "break".....even though I cried at the end of "Cricket" when Chester went back to Connecticut.  Anyway, it was a wonderful way to wrap up the afternoon. 

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick arrived (just in time to see me crying over Chester Cricket's departure!!!) mid-afternoon, too, so the girls go to show Grandma some fun (read: horribly ugly and weird-looking) sea creatures they'd found in some of our ocean books (we're in a Geography chapter on oceans right now).

Then - when the temperature had dropped sufficiently and the winds had picked up enough to whip at our noses - we headed out!

Before Mike and I even got to the street with little bundled-up Mighty Mouse, Miss Mouse had scored herself a light saber!! I think I was probably even more excited about it than she was, and my excitement went a little off-the-chart when Sunny scored one (with Grandma's help) later in the parade! Seriously, I would have paid good money to have a light saber fight with my sister, though I'm not really sure she's into that.

Mighty started out the parade on Mike's shoulders until it became impossible for me to keep his mittens on (more impossible for me to keep putting them back on because I couldn't reach his hands, to be exact). His little nose demanded my nice scarf, too. I'm not sure he was too impressed by our dressing him in a woman's scarf, but he didn't protest too badly, probably given the extremely cold night.  After about 20 minutes, he and Mike retired to the van and had their own "man fun" there while the rest of us froze and collected copious amounts of candy while "oooo-ing" and "aaaahhhh-ing" over the brightly-lit floats.

Sunny waved her little mittened hand quietly but steadily through the entire parade.

This picture is for my sister - the horses are dressed as camels (see their humps?) and the miniature horses are sheep!!!!  This was the cutest group ever!!!!  I was so sad that Mighty missed them; I would have loved to see which animal sound he chose to make for miniature horses dressed as sheep!

I took these pictures two weeks before the Light Parade, but I wanted to show Sunny's hat because at one point in the parade, a gal came over and offered (in jest) Sunny her whole bag of candy in exchange for Sunny's hat. What a way to make Mommy (the hat creator) proud!! Sunny seemed to know the lady was teasing (I was also proud of that fact!) and seemed quite pleased that her hat got such a compliment. She didn't think twice about turning her down, obviously, since we were overflowing with candy already. Seriously, all of the adults, plus Miss Mouse, had pockets full of candy; I had two bags with a can of pop in each that were both so full of candy that I was dropping candy out of them; by the end of the parade, we made a satchel out of one of the three t-shirts we snagged and poured candy into that, as well! Apparently the end of the parade route is the place to stand to snag lots of candy - and four toothbrushes - and two containers of floss - and three t-shirts - and two cans of pop!

Notwithstanding the fact that Miss Mouse and I had to soak our frozen feet in a warm bathtub when we got home, it was a marvelous time. I'm so thankful Mike was able to be there and hang out with his little boy so that we could all have fun (Mighty really liked the part of the parade he saw). It was great for Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick to join us, too - what great memories!