What is the Heck?

Before Thanksgiving Ben and I went on a (much-needed) cleaning frenzy. Today, while Ben and Dexter were in the bathroom, Ben said, "Mommy and I sure cleaned the heck out of that bathtub, didn't we?" To which Dexter replied, "What is the heck, Daddy?"

No Holiday Oatmeal

My Bologna Thanksgiving Photo-Op

As if it wasn't already hard enough to get a good picture of Dexter and Ian, we decided to try to get My Bologna into the act. I think Elissa actually managed to snap a photo of the boys with My Bologna in between!

Cake Faces

Ian and Dexter thoroughly enjoyed two servings each of chocolate cake!

Thanksgiving Helpers

Elissa, Jason, and Ian joined us for a low-key Thanksgiving dinner.  I had informed Elissa that she could wear whatever she wanted but that I would be wearing my pajamas (it's been such a stressful few months that I just wanted a day in jammies!). The night before, as Ian was picking out his clothes for the next day, he asked where his "fancy" shirts were. Elissa told him, "You don't have to wear a fancy shirt. Jiffy said you can wear whatever you want." Ian thought for a moment and said, "I think Jiffy wants me to wear a fancy shirt."  Elissa said, "No, really, you can wear whatever you want. In fact, Jiffy said she's going to wear her pajamas."  Elissa said the surprised look on Ian's face was priceless.  Thanksgiving morning, we also gave Dexter the option of wearing jammies all day and he refused.  Seems like everyone but Mommy has sense enough to put clothes on for Thanksgiving. But none of them were more comfortable than Mommy throughout the day.

As is tradition, we cooked the turkey on the grill and made stuffing. Elissa brought some delicious roasted brussel sprouts and cauliflower and a fabulous salad. When Ian, Elissa, and Jason arrived, we had the boys "mash" the potatoes and "make" the cornbread. The food was delicious - I think it was the best tasting Thanksgiving meal we have ever pulled off (thanks to help from our friends).

Mashing potatoes - engrossed and cooperating.

Tired and distracted - Elissa finishes the job.

Mixing and plopping into the muffin tins...








and mini-cake pans.

Luckily, each boy chose a different shape (circles or squares) when it came time to put the muffins into the tins.

"I Don't Eat Oatmeal on Holidays"

After this morning's walk, Ben made oatmeal and offered some to Dexter.

Dexter: I don't eat oatmeal on holidays.

Daddy: Oh.

Dexter: (long pause) Is tomorrow a holiday?

Daddy: No.

Dexter: Then I will eat oatmeal tomorrow.

Dog Coffee at Starbucks

When Ben, Dexter, and My Bologna take their morning walks, sometimes they pass a house on a corner that has a path that runs along side of the house from one street to the other street. There is a "for sale" sign at the house and Dexter likes to drive his big wheel along the path, up to the sign, order a coffee into the sign, and drive to the end where he "picks up" his coffee. The other morning Ben asked Dexy if he got him a coffee and Dexter informed him that he only gets "dog coffees at this Starbucks".

Nice White Shirt, Dexter

Evidence of Dexter's meal remained on his shirt prompting one of his teachers to say, "Nice white shirt, Dexter," to which Dexy replied, "Yes."

Pilgrim Dexter

 Dexy had no problem eating his pasta and broccoli but he refused chicken parm and the sweet potatoes he had made with Daddy. After eating his pasta, Dexy asked me if he could have pie and I told him he needed to eat his broccoli first. He said, "How about I eat one broccoli?" I said, "How about you eat three?"  And he said, "OK" and proceeded to eat the broccoli on his plate.

The other Moms were staring at us in disbelief. As one woman said, "I can't believe that worked!  I can't get my kid to eat anything," her son turned to her and said, "I want to eat broccoli." The surprised look on her face was priceless! She got him some broccoli and he ate every bite. Dexy enjoyed his apple pie for desert.

 

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).

Designed By Dexter

This year, Dexter drew the faces of the pumpkins and Ben and I carved them out. One of them wasn't very structurally sound (huge eyes and mouth holes) but it held up through Halloween night!

The Big Show

Dexter enjoyed handing out candy to trick-or-treaters before Mommy got home from school.  He wasn't too sure he wanted to go out trick-or-treating and miss all the action on our front porch. But once he got suited up, he was excited to go out. It was only about 15 minutes before I opened the door to find a little green flying dinosaur shouting trick or treat with a handful of  little strangers.  After I handed out the candy, Dexy proceeded to walk right through the front door!

This was the first year that My Bologna didn't go out trick-or-treating - his Darth Vader costume remained in its plastic bag. He seemed pretty sad about it.

Halloween Party at School

 I had to miss Dexter's Halloween party at pre-school because I had to lead a class discussion in my Social Community Interventions class Halloween afternoon. Ben was surprised that they also put on a little Halloween show for the parents and they all did crafts together. Luckily, Ben took lots of pictures and remembered to give me good details about the interactions.

 Upon arrival, all the kids checked out each others' costumes.  Most were superheros of one sort or another.






Miss Erica announced each child as they entered for the "performance".  She neglected to mention the green flying part of Dexter's character announcing simple, "And here is Dexter the Dinosaur!"

 Dexter flapped his wings as he walked to his spot.

 The kids sang a few songs. Ben didn't remember any details of this except that Dexter was the loudest when it came time to shout "BOO!" in one of the songs.

The kids put imaginary things into a big cauldron to make a witch's stew.  Each child could put in whatever they wanted. When it was Dexter's turn, he looked at Ben and, undoubtedly influenced by Ben taking pictures, decided to put "a camera" into the stew.

Dexter and Ben made an awesome pumpkin man together!

Candy Mouth

What kid doesn't love this time of year?

Jamming the Green Flying Dinosaur into the Car

Buckled in and ready to go to Safely Spooky!

The Green Flying Dinosaur's Practice Run

Daddy took Dexter to the town's "Safely Spooky" event at a nearby park last weekend. It gives us the opportunity to test out Dexter's costume in conditions similar to what Halloween night will likely be.  In the afternoon, I got Dexy to try on the costume over his coat to see if it fit (it did, but he looked a bit "Teletubby").  However, when he tried on the head, he was very unhappy with the strap under his chin.  I took some stuffing out of the head hoping it would ride lower on his head and the strap wouldn't feel so tight under his chin but he was having none of it.  That's when I got his green hooded sweatshirt, some green thread, and a needle and proceeded to sew the head onto the hood of the sweatshirt.  Dexy was much happier until I told him he had to also wear a scarf (he had helped me pick out some green fleece at the fabric store earlier in the day).  We finally got him to agree to the scarf by calling it a "dinosaur cape".

When people asked what he was going to be for Halloween, Dexy would reply, "a green flying dinosaur". Not exactly the response people were expecting.

Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

Thanks for Giving Me That Kind of Love

As I was wrapping a birthday present for one of Dexter's friends, Dexter was playing on the floor with his trailers and matchbox cars.  "I can't get the three wheeled car out of the trailer.  Will you please help me, Mommy?" I said "sure" and went over to jimmy the car out of the trailer. After I successfully removed the jammed car, Dexter smiled and said, "Thanks for giving me that kind of love, Mommy.  Now get out of the way so this trailer can bring the cars to the garage."

I was so impressed that he recognized my responsiveness to his request as an expression of love.  I was also impressed with his ability to clearly communicate that I then needed to get out of his way so he could continue his "work" (I did, in fact, get right out of his way despite my urge to smother him in hugs). It gave me a hook for thinking about my trial research or dissertation: The Role of Perceived Love in Scaffolding Agency (or something like that).  Thanks Dexy!