I'm So Thankful - Pt. 1, 2 & 3

Several friends of mine are creating a List of Thanksgiving. It's just one item a day from Nov 1st to Nov 22nd (Thanksgiving Day) to help give a little perspective as we move into the holy-day season. It sounded like a good idea so I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Here's mine, thus far:

Jack & Grandma Brenda

Nov 1st

I'm grateful for a small moment this evening. While running through Target, Jack was caught off kilter and almost ran into another couple. Without any parental instigation (because I've actually never told him to say this), Jack said, "'scuze me!" 

I'm thankful for two reasons. First, it was another example of how freakin' adorable my kid is. I know I'm slightly biased but pretty sure he is the best little man ever. Also, it made me feel like I'm doing alright with the whole parent-thing when my smart little guy sees & mimics polite behavior.

Nov 2nd

I'm thankful that my son gets excited to eat homemade applesauce. I'm thankful because it's a fairly healthy treat, especially compared to the garbage we were doling out two days ago.

Also, I've never been much of a homemaker, but since Jack I've found myself doing more homemaker-like projects. Gardening. Baking bread. Making dried fruit from apples & pears that I picked. I'm even planning a birthday party with some homemade decor (coming soon to a blog near you!). All that to say, I'm thankful for the ways I've grown being a mom.

I promise not all of these are going to be about Jack.

The Seahawks' Russel Wilson & Brian
Brian looks po'd about the last loss.

Nov 3rd

I'm thankful for my husband's job. For those of you who don't know me well, I'm not an army lover (unless it's the end of the month, as Brian likes to say). Brian works ridiculously long hours. He leaves home long before any sane person would be rousting (5:30AM), and he's lucky to be home by 6:30PM. As a commander, Brian must respond to calls and texts at all hours of the day & night. Sometimes this means late-night, last-minute treks to the base (usually because idiot soldier was arrested).

But I need to remind myself to be thankful. Brian is supposed to be deploying with his brigade this month. But last minute, the colonel asked Brian to be the rear commander, which means he is in charge of the soldiers who are unable to deploy. And like in the Bible, the ones left behind tend to be the screw ups. (Okay, so that's not how Jesus would have put it. Nor are all the soldiers trouble, but give a girl some creative license).

Anyway... back to being thankful for Brian's well-paying, pain-in-the-neck job. He may have to work a bit over the holidays, but at least he's not in a foreign country with kevlar strapped to his body. Brian will have quite a few late nights over the next month, but at least he'll be around for Jack's birthday.

Trick or Treat

At two-years-old, Jack doesn't understand Halloween. He's not allowed candy, but he did like his striped pajamas tights. I couldn't convince him to say "trick-or-treat" or "Happy Halloween," but he did say, "thank you." So, I think we did pretty well for our first year.

Coloring at the church's HarvestFest

Jack O'lantern

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Hurry up, Mama!

Jack is Twenty-Three Months!

Daddy & Jack play hide and seek.
Thanks for the great photos, SuLee!

Our life is currently all about trains. When Jack wakes up in the morning, the first thing he says is, "choo choo train?" Needless to say the adults in the house can often be found humming Thomas the Train's theme song.

We also like to watch Sesame & Super Why, which the adults in the house like a little better since it helps with learning the alphabet and letter recognition. Another thing Jack loves (that maybe our neighbors did not) was when Mama wrote the ABC's in big letters across our front sidewalk. We'd never have guessed that it wasn't going to rain for 81 days, but that gave us lots of time to practice finding our letters.

Jack's Sidewalk Alphabet

It's amazing to see how quickly Jack is learning. He says 2-3 word sentences - my favorite being his sweet, "please, mama?"

Below is a video from when cousin, Lucy, came to spend the night.

Grandparents: Jack needs warm footie pajamas in 24M or 2T, educational toys (leapfrog?), or play kitchen supplies.

Jack is Twenty-Two Months!

Jack likes eating a whole apple all by himself... And, I do mean the whole thing. Where's the core, Buddy?

Jack loves Super Why & Sesame. Yes, we let him watch TV. Don't judge me. I don't know how else to get a break so I can make dinner!

Jack loves trains and airplanes. He will enthusiastically announce their arrival whenever he sees or hears one nearby.

Jack loves to be outside, especially if it means playing in the water or throwing dirt in the air. Going fast. Or, climbing something dangerous.

Son, I love how stubborn independent you are. I love that you get so excited when you see letters of the alphabet, and how quickly you're picking up the ABC's. I love that even though you are all boy, you still stop to give your Mama some loves.

Garden Medley

I've discovered a Furber Family Favorite, totally by accident! We have lots of zucchini and cherry tomatoes from the garden right now so I decided to use both for dinner the other night. If you're garden is overflowing with these two, check out this recipe!

Sliced Zucchini
Chopped cherry tomatoes
Capers
Olive Oil
Feta Cheese
Crushed Garlic
Salt, Pepper, Oregano

In greased baking dish, layer your zucchini. Sprinkle top with remaining ingredients. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Easy peasy!

Beach Babes

West Coast Sea Glass needed some new pictures of our cool jewelry, which makes for a wonderful excuse to head to the beach in the middle of a workday. Jack happily tagged along with beach bucket & trowel in tow. When it came time to head home, Jack could barely walk his pants were so sodden with beach water, but I'm pretty sure he still thought it was worth it. And, the old folks from a nearby retirement center got a kick out of the toddler running around in a thermal and sandals.

Jack didn't love the loud trains but clinging to Mama helps.

We brought a bucket of toys to add to our fun.

Who needs toys when you can just sit in the freezing Sound?

Why did I just say that?

Kirby, The H.S. Years
Isn't she adorable?!

Does anybody else ever say really stupid stuff? Maybe it's because I'm a little too honest... The joke in my family is that I'm the honest daughter and Kirby is the strong daughter. For whatever reason, my Mom had it backwards for awhile. She would ask Kirby, "Does this outfit look OK?" Instead of lying, Kirby started telling Mom to go ask me

(Tangent: Kirby on the other hand is the PNW equivalent of an Amazon woman. By that I don't mean that she likes internet shopping, though that is also true. When she was on a mission trip in high school, she carried two, full five-gallon buckets uphill for most of a day. Another time, while hiking through Peru, Kirby got some blisters but didn't want to complain. When she finally showed her guide, he essentially had to do surgery on the side of the road because her blisters were super infected. She's a tough cookie.).

Sometimes I say really stupid stuff and I wonder if I came with a filter. One of these days, I'm really going to get myself in trouble.

Sisters, Ivy & Winnie

For example, there was a day when a bunch of teenage girls were at my house to hang out with Kylie. I noticed one of them had a tag still attached to her hat, and before I finished thinking out pops, "is that a black thing?" Now, lucky for me two things happened. First, Ivy just laughed because she knows me well enough to know that my question stemmed from honest curiosity rather than a prejudice. And secondly, Ivy agreed that it was a African-American trend.

Jack saw our neighbor's daughter outside and so he went toddling next door. While we were there, Jack makes a beeline for her brick stairs, which of course have loose bricks. I didn't really want Jack to play on them because he was still working on just walking smoothly so I made a comment about how he's making me look bad because he always has some bruise on his face. After an awkward silence, I remembered. "Oh, my neighbor works for CPS...."

Jack & Charlie, Fall '11.

More recently, I attempted to get in trouble with my son's doctor. Jack was getting a prescription for another ear infection, and Dr. Overstreet shared that honey can actually sooth sore throats better than conventional medicine sold in the drugstores. With a totally dry face, I told her that I just like to give him a spoon of whiskey instead because it puts him right to sleep. After another super awkward pause, I said that I was kidding and luckily she believed me.

Feel free to share your embarrassing moments to help me feel a little better about myself!