My birthday was Sunday. My entire family came home to my parents’ house for the afternoon, and we spent the day together playing games. It was lovely. As the years pass the birthday and the gifts matter far less than the opportunity to connect with people who are important to me. (No, you may not take this as permission to stop giving me gifts.)
Noah is holding himself up on his elbows and may even be close to crawling. He turned over officially for the first time on 11/10. The following week he kept doing that thing babies do where they turn over on accident and get frustrated. By this Tuesday, 11/19, he was rolling over on purpose and chilling out with on his elbows with his head held perfectly steady for a few minutes at a time. That same evening (11/19), he rolled over, reached for something just outside his grasp, and tried to push off with his legs to get to it. What?! No. Absolutely not. I have determined he shall be held or lying in a carseat for the near future, so he will stop growing up. (That will work, right?)
Occasionally I make plans without considering actual reality. It turns out that’s what I did when I decided we would get a real Christmas tree two weeks before Thanksgiving. Turns out no one has them. Subsequently, we did not get a tree last week. I’m hopeful for this weekend, but we’ll definitely have one before you hear from me again. (Please, God?)
Our deck is completed. It is exactly what I hoped for, and I love everything about it. It gives us something to look forward to for the spring! I think we’re moving on to some cleanup work and odds-and-ends before the work on the inside of the house starts in earnest. I realize it would be nice to have a picture of the deck from somewhere other than the backdoor, but it’s rainy, so this is what you get.
Aria asked to use the potty a few days ago. She was very enthusiastic, so I set her up there for a couple minutes (she just wanted to hang out). She didn’t actually use it, but I certainly didn’t expect her to. She is starting to show the early signs of interest in potty training. The plan is to wait until she’s extremely interested, because I am not inclined to be potty trained myself – I am not planning to regularly run her to the bathroom to try to coerce her to do something she isn’t ready to do. We’re in no hurry. I read a post awhile ago from a mom of many who waits for extreme interest and then sets aside an entire weekend and gets it done. When Aria’s ready, I’m digging up that post.
In my own post the other day I said we didn’t watch a ton of movies as a family when I was growing up. My mom corrected my memory, complete with lists. I concede. We did, in fact, watch quite a few movies.
The past several years right around now we have visited my grandpa’s nursing home for their Thanksgiving dinner. It is strange this year to have nothing to attend, and I miss my grandpa. He was a gentle, loving, positive man. For many years before he passed away in June he had dementia, and by the end most signs of that person had disappeared. But I remember him well. He came to all our performances and sporting events when we were kids. For some reason he always had extra jackets in his trunk, and I would borrow one if I was underdressed for one of my brother’s evening baseball games. He delighted in his family, and decided to absorb my best friend as an adopted granddaughter, as well, because he enjoyed her. He got a kick out of my feistiness, and he never left a holiday meal without slipping some money to my mom to help with the expense. He was an ordinary man, and he left an incredible legacy for his family. I miss him. (Incidentally, today would have been my grandmother’s birthday. She’s been gone longer now, so I’ve adjusted to the absence more, but I miss her, too.)
