Distraction

A little background on this story: "Wee-Ooo" is the sound a firetruck makes. Also, Little Man is not allowed to stand on the seat of his bike.

Little Man was showing Grandma his trick of standing on the seat of his bike. He looked over at me to get my reaction, and I gave him a disapproving look. He cquickly said, "Wee-Ooo Wee-Ooo Wee-Ooo." It was clear that his toddler brain said, "Quick! Change the subject!" and the first thing to come to his head was "Wee-Ooo."

Be Thankful: Everything is a Phase

Here's hoping this is a short one.

The past few days Little Man has been absolutely ornery. Having tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants, biting, pushing, and hitting me, refusing to look at our Thanksgiving guests, wanting to eat anything except what you put in front of him, etc. My mantra: Everything is a phase, Everything is a phase, Everything is a phase. T. wants to blame it on me, but my mom is here and she said that Little Man is worse than I was at that age. Perhaps two strong-willed people should not get married and create more strong-willed people.

But, we survived Thanksgiving despite Little Man and the food was good even if the baby wasn't.

T. insisted on having a Jell-O mold. Ew.
Mm, pretty turkey.
I noticed that no matter how few or how many people you have, the amount of work is still high. There are so many dishes that you expect to have on Thanksgiving. We also had: mashed potatoes, potato stuffing, butternut squash casserole, country green beans, cornbread casserole, gravy, cranberry sauce, Jello mold, pumpkin pie, and chocolate pie.

Our group: Grandma, T's co-worker and his wife, and us:Little Man enjoyed the meal for about 10 seconds, as well:
And, Daddio got a new toy:

Football Weekend

Second-to-last home game this weekend, which was also Band Day. They used to do Alumni Band on homecoming but figured out that it was boring to play "Moonlight and VPI" 1,000 times, and the Alma Mater. So now it's a separate day.

My friend Erin came into town for Band Day so I broke my vow of only marching in the Alumni Band every 5 years, and did it with her.

It is a cold weekend. Friday night we went out for pizza so we got to really suit Little Man up for the first time. He's Ralphie's Brother, from A Christmas Story!

Randy:
Little Man:
Because we were playing the Duke Blue Devils, Abi, who wasn't even here, insisted that all tailgate foods be blue or devil related. The one's for you, Abi:On Saturday Erin and I went onto campus for band practice and an alumni tailgate.
Dave in his gameday pants.
Erin and I are SO EXCITED to be back in the band.
Ryan "Stack" Clark's mom, aunt, and uncle were there. Stack was killed in the 4/16 murders at VT, and he was a member of the band. Even while in college he was involved with the local Habitat for Humanity. The band has decided to honor his memory by raising $40,000 and building a Habitat house. Here Dave conducts an arrangement of "Amazing Grace" in honor of Stack.The Alumni Band got to march into the stadium behind the current band. We were on the sideline before the team came out and got to be band tourists.

Erin and Marissa with beloved defensive coordinator Bud Foster. Here's hoping they don't get to say, "here we are with Bud in his last season at Tech."Back when we were students, the band entered the stadium through the same tunnel that the football team does, and everyone hit the same Hokie Stone that the football team does. They don't anymore, but after the team came out we hopped in the tunnel for a quick Hokie Stone photo op. The lovely lady who took our picture neglected to include the Hokie Stone in the photo.

Me and Erin, raising our hands for no apparent reason.Whatever, Bud Foster, you can go, but we get to keep Dave, band director extraordinaire.It was a good thing we had a trial run Friday night, because Daddio was in charge of suiting up Little Man for the game on Saturday.
I think he enjoyed the football game, but it was hard to tell because he had this expression on his face the whole time.
He didn't completely freak out during the fireworks, he just told them "no." And I think he actually enjoyed yelling with the crowd. He said "Go Hokies" and "Yay Hokies" and "Oh No, Hokies!"Daddio and Little Man lasted through halftime to see me march, then retreated back to the house. Can't say I blame 'em.

Bathtime

Bath pictures are always cute, and useful later in life like when he's running for office.He's concerned here because we were singing "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed..." and we got to the part where one falls off and bumps his head.

He's telling Daddio about something on TV. Probably a truck or an airplane.

For Those About To Rock

This weekend we took a trip to Washington, DC to see AC/DC in concert. I know, I'm an enigma. But it's one of those bands that T. says you have to see before you die (or in their case, you have to see before they die). And, as luck would have it, my cousin and his family just moved to the area. I mean JUST, they closed on their house days before we arrived.

My cousin's wife and my other cousin (I know, it's confusing, enough with the cousin talk) were kind enough to host us on their busy weekend, and to take care of Little Man so T. and I could go to the concert.

We were able to meet up with a college friend and his girlfriend for dinner and the concert. It was a great concert - they're a bunch of old guys, but they sounded terrific. It was a great crowd - really into the concert but not obnoxious. And really diverse! There were people and outfits that fit what I expected AC/DC fans to be, but there was everything else, and lots of complete families with teens and pre-teens.

Here is the best picture I got with my cell phone. This is during "Back in Black," known to me as Chipper's song.The red things in the foreground are flashing devil horns. My cell phone camera can zoom, but I don't know how. Anyway, this guy was wearing a white turtleneck, an AC/DC shirt over it, tucked-in, and devil horns. His co-workers would be shocked.

I was there to see "Shook Me All Night Long," and the didn't disappoint. If I were an MLB player, that would be my at-bat song. And, in an amazing coincidence, it was playing in the OR when Little Man was born. The kid was born to rock.

However, he doesn't like snow. I took him outside tonight to get a picture in the first snow. This is what happened.



He looks cute in his winter gear, we just have to wear it inside.

Conversations with Little Man

The one that warms my heart:

"Thank you Mommy." He says this spontaneously, almost every time I give him any food or toys. You can do whatever you want, son, as long as you keep with the "Thank you Mommy."

The one that doesn't warm my heart:

T. is on the way home from daycare with Little Man. He was talking with him about going home.

T: Do you want to see Daisy?
LM: Daisy!
T: Do you want to see "M"? (They're coming for dinner tonight)
LM: M!
T: Do you want to see "I"?
LM: I!
T: Do you want to see Mommy?
LM: No.

Airplane

Little Man would like to tell you about his latest obsession:




Also, he surprised us with a few phrases he knows that we don't think we taught him. Daisy sneezed and he said, "Bless you, Daisy." Later he passed gas and said, as always, "Poop." But he followed it up with, "'Scuse me."

Blog Catch-Up: M's Birthday

Did I ever tell you about M's 3rd birthday party? No? That was a month ago? Oops.

Well, M. turned 3. And since his birthday is just a couple of weeks before Halloween, he had a costume party. None of the kids are in costumes in these pictures, Little Man having a costume on earlier in the evening is my excuse for him not having pants in any of these photos. It also explains B's attire. She was a cloud.

I have no excuse for my photos all being out-of-focus. Seems to be a problem lately.

M. got lots of cool stuff, which became a bit of a problem when all three boys wanted to play with the new stuff at the same time.

We got M. this fantastic cape! It looks better in-focus.
I don't remember why he was crying under the high chair, but this picture pretty much sums up the mood after a while. M.'s great-grandfather couldn't handle the whining and said, "Have we done our duty? Can we go home?" We beat a path shortly after him, packing up the kids, taking them to our house, and putting them straight to bed.
The little boys take a turn at the cool new train set.
My what a cute boy you are.

Breast Cancer 3-Day: Day 2

*** Several new posts today, so scroll down!***

We awoke in the warehouse nice and early Saturday morning, and headed out to set up Pit Stop 1. The walkers took a bus back to camp to eat breakfast, and the starting line was at camp that day. We could've also gone back for breakfast, but we unanimously decided that we'd eat the Pit Stop food and be able to sleep later (4:00!).

Here we are setting up one of three pink tents for our Pit Stop:The sun broke through that morning (prompting cheers from the walkers). Again, after we finished taking down our stop we went and helped with lunch.What are these people doing? They're dancing. There was a DJ at lunch, and apparently some of the walkers had extra energy!

You see a lot of fun costumes from both the walkers:and the Crew:Saturday afternoon we had some free time so we set up our own impromptu cheering station. There are official cheering stations where friends and family of the walkers set up and cheer the walkers on. We set up an unofficial one and were able to see many walkers without their ponchos finally.
Friday night when we were at camp in the mud and muck and pouring down rain, they told us we'd sleep there Saturday night. Yeah right, I thought. But the sun was warm enough for long enough on Saturday to dry it up sufficiently.

Remember I said that in the evening the flags are posted at camp?
When I walked 2 years ago, there were around 2,000 walkers and 1,000 tents. This year there were 3,400 walkers. And the tents are PINK now!It's a tradition that when the last walker comes in, s/he raises the camp flag (which says "One Day Closer") on it, symbolizing that camp is back together again.
The walkers were treated to a dance party until 9:00, but Mom and I hit the hay at 8:00 (of course we were also treated to the dance party music). The alarm was going off at 3:45.

Next installment: Day 3 and the Closing Ceremonies!

Halloween

I've never been in favor of Halloween alternatives (I'm an old fashioned girl, trick-or-treating is the way to go) but for the toddler set, those alternatives are appreciated!

Our first stop yesterday afternoon was Daddio's work.So young, so much greed (see the little pumpkins in the background? M and I's daddy works there, too).

I don't want a desk job for the rest of my life!!!

Our downtown business association also does a trick-or-treating event. It was mobbed with kids, toddler, babies, and dogs in costume.

I. turned out to be a naturally gifted trick-or-treater. We let him hold a wrapped candy bar thinking he it'd keep him occupied but he wouldn't be able to get at it.But this was not the case. He gnawed through the wrapper like a mouse until he got to the good stuff.After the downtown trick-or-treating, we walked up the hill to a local church which was having a "Trunk-or-Treat." Members decorated the trunks of their car and you could trick-or-treat around. Very cute idea.
Yay, Halloween fun!We planned to take him around to the neighbors we know, but didn't even wind up doing that bit. We stopped by our church which managed to make Halloween very biblical but was generally a disaster for one Mr. Little Man who was DONE with Halloween by that time.

Then we ate dinner and goofed off here.

Pumpkin Carving

Thursday night we carved our pumpkin. I thought Little Man might want to decorate his own pumpkin
while Daddio did the dirty workbut soon Little Man moved on to other pleasures (food).He wanted to eat the guts of the pumpkin ("Pizza!") and even said "Please," but we intervened with popcorn.

He did supervise the operation, and did a quality check on Daddio's work.The end result (and I found another use for my head lamp from the 3-Day! Here it is on battery-saving, red light mode):