Turkey Days

Sorry for the delay in getting the Thanksgiving photos up. I have no excuse; we've actually had a very relaxing weekend. Jack and Sadie got the thrill of dressing up and entertaining guests by tearing through the house on Thanksgiving, but they had to wait for their turkey until Friday because it wasn't out of the oven until after bedtime. Turkey was a hit, and has been a constant at every meal since though. I've even turned them onto one of my holiday favorites: biscuits with turkey and gravy. Sadie experimented with putting turkey down her shirt. Jack focused on how much turkey could physically fit in his mouth. Sadie and Jack don't lack for creative outlets at mealtime.

Moffet's

We took the kids to our favorite restaurant on Saturday, Moffet's Chicken Pie Shoppe. Man, the chicken pot pies at Moffet's are good. The kids enjoyed the chicken pies, but pupusas are still their favorite food. Their taste buds must just not be refined enough yet to appreciate a good old fashioned chicken pie. I'm sure they'll come to love Moffet's in good time. They're going to have to - it's one of the only restaurants where the waitresses don't recoil in horror when we walk in.

Bath time

I think this photo speaks for itself.

First Words

I figured that I should follow up the H1N1 post with some more positive news.

Sadie and Jack have been talking for a while now, but J. and I have debated what counts as the official first words. Both the kids said "Dada" pretty early on. "Dada" and "Mama" were followed by "Hi" and "Bye." The kids even went through a phase of being into the exclamations "Wow" and "Ut Oh." But I've always thought that a child's first word is really the first non-proper noun that they start using because it tells you about their personality. The first non-proper noun is a manifestation of what they find most fascinating - what they are eager to tell others about.

Sadie's first non-proper noun was "Bellybutton." Sadie loves her bellybutton. She loves to show it to people. She loves to check that it's still there. She loves to tell you about her "beh-beh," as she calls it. Sadie also now likes to point out "ki-cat," "das," and "ba-bies" (not to be confused with "beh-behs").

Jack has also become fascinated with his bellybutton, but he chooses not to verbalize his affection for it. We're still waiting for his first non-proper noun. Or at least, I'm still waiting for it.

H1N1

Swine Flu has hit our home. Jack woke up last Sunday morning feeling terrible and suffering from a 104 fever. He had two pretty rough days on Sunday and Monday, but has been improving steadily since. Today he seems about 70% himself. We saw our pediatrician yesterday and he said we're out of the woods - Jack is beyond the phase where there would be any complications from the flu.

Sadie also got H1N1, but only a very mild case of an intestinal virus. It doesn't seem to be slowing her down one bit. I think she's much more bothered by Jack being the center of attention. She's even tried a fake-sounding cough a couple of times when we've been focused on Jack.

The good news is that Jack's immune system seems be getting better and better at fighting off illness. Our pediatrician was very happy that the flu didn't cause Jack to develop bronchitis. We're crossing our fingers that we might get a few month respite from the pediatrician's office some time soon.

HomeWalk

Jack, Sadie, and I did the 5K HomeWalk to end homelessness on Saturday. Here we are at the finish line. As you can see I did the heavy lifting, including carrying the mighty-heavy Jack in my arms for a chunk of the walk. The kids were good sports though, and that was much appreciated. Thanks to incredibly generous family and friends we raised $440 for the walk! I also organized the Skid Row Housing Trust team for the walk and we had more than 50 people join our team and we raised over $2,800.

It was exciting to have Sadie and Jack join me in my work around homelessness. I hope that ultimately they will develop an appreciation for social justice work and be proud of their mama for what I do everyday. It make take a few more years of bribing them with tasty snacks to keep them happy at this annual walk, but someday I hope they do get excited about the cause itself.