Show and Tell

Another thing that Daddy neglected to mention until the night before the Mommy and Child Thanksgiving Lunch was that it was a celebration of everyone's heritage and we were supposed to bring in food that represents our heritage and do a show and tell with our child about our heritage. Considering ourselves to be American mutts, Ben and I weren't sure what to do about this.  We decided to print out a world map and color in England, Ireland, Germany, and Sweden (to our best recollections, where our families had come from at some point in the distant past). I also gave Dexter a couple of Euros to show - he was excited that one had grooved edges and looked like a gear. Being an avid and expressive dancer, we also coached Dexy on how to dance an Irish jig (he totally got into that!) and we both ended up dancing in front of everyone. Most of the other Moms and kids brought flags.  Our show and tell was definitely the most dynamic of the bunch.

How to Prepare a Thanksgiving Turkey

The teacher handed out a booklet she had put together containing each child's answer to her questions about how to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey.
She asked:

Where would you get the turkey?

How would you cook it?

What would you season it with?

What would you serve with it?

The teacher also asked each child what they were thankful for and asked the Moms to identify their child's response.  I should have guessed that Dexter was the one thankful for "pumpkins".

Thanksgiving Festivities with Blue Buddies and Their Mommies

Dexter's class had a Thanksgiving lunch at school this week. I had known about it for a couple of weeks and was aware that we needed to bring a side dish. I had even bought the sweet potatoes and apples for Ben and Dexter to make.

I hadn't planned to attend (I'm usually at work until early afternoon on Thursdays and I had to present at a conference in Chicago later in the afternoon) but Ben informed me the day before the event that it was a Mommy and Child party. Luckily, it was mid-day and fit right into my schedule.

I was so happy that I went! The children sang songs and wore the "costumes" they had made. It was adorable!

Veteran's Day at Cantigny Park

Last weekend, Ben and Dexter finally made it to the train show. Afterwards, they went to Cantigny Park where Dexter got to climb on tanks on Veteran's Day. When he came home, he told me all about it. "The tracks were like ladders!  I couldn't reach but Daddy helped me up and then I climbed up like a ladder!"

Just Above the Mean and Extreme Outlier

Ben and Dexter have been huge supports to me this first quarter of graduate school. Ben has picked up a lot of the housekeeping and Dexter-watching slack. Because of this support, I was able to study for my Quantitative Methods midterm and scored just above the mean for the class. I was thrilled to not have embarrassed myself on that one! I also killed on my midterm paper with an almost perfect score.  I was thrilled to have impressed the Chair of the Department with that one! Different standards for different skills.

Election Day

We all got up and voted before the crack of dawn (Ben and I were the fifth and sixth voters at the polling place). Dexter got into the spirit of the day and was a real hit with the early morning voters.

Train Show Gun Show Arboritum

A couple of weekends ago, Ben took Dexy out to a train show about an hour away only to discover that we had misread the date and there was a gun show that day. Ben decided to take Dexter to the Morton Arboritum where, although there were no leaves on the trees, there were amazing "tree houses" that Dexter got to explore.

 Turns out they had an unexpected adventure and a great day.

Playing well with others.









Getting zen.

Pump It Up

Dexter went to a friend from school's birthday party at a jumpy place called "Pump It Up". The party went from 6pm to 8:30pm and was a 20 minute drive from our house. I wasn't sure how well Dexy would handle it - he's used to being in bed around 7:30. 

Ben went with him and said he was "pumped up" the whole time and when he came home, he was the adorable, goofy, overtired I was hoping for and not the insane, irritable overtired I was fearing. He brought home some shots of Dexy playing basketball and going down the big slide Dexter-style (feet first, on belly).