Turkeys Wear Hats, Right?

Thanksgiving this year was at my house. It was pot luck, thank heavens. I put myself in charge of desserts, mainly because pie isn't my favorite so I wanted options. It was a good plan, but I executed it poorly. I did have a pumpkin and apple pie (from frozen, but no one wants to eat any kind of pie I'd try on my own). Also, I made chocolate chip cookies, homemade Kit Kat bars and lemon blossoms . Now the lemon blossoms should not have been difficult. You can look at the recipe and see that it seems easy. The problem I had was overfilling the mini muffin cups so the cakes came out not looking like this............

...........but more like this. Little mini fedoras. So I put one on my stuffed decorative turkey. Pretty dapper if I do say so myself. Enough of them did turn out and everyone seemed to like them. Bigger isn't better when dealing in mini muffins tins- lesson learned.

Oh yeah, one more thing. I never remembered to serve the homemade Kit Kat bars. They were my favorite so I'm not certain it was an accident. That's all I'm going to say.

Jake Likes To Do Everything That Hayden Does

Jake watches everything Hayden does. This is both a blessing and a curse. Lately, Hayden has noticed Jake's interest in the things he does and he's decided to teach him a few things. Jake wants to play guitar on 'Rock Band'.

He tries to teach Jake how to do puzzles.

He also has tried to get Jake to read. I just listen to Hayden talking to him. It's just too funny. Today he told Jake," Let's read about David. Do you see the 'd'? This is from the book, 'David Goes To School.'" I love that they have a relationship now. Hayden understands almost everything that Jake says (he interprets for me now sometimes). He's never mean to Jake. I don't know how much longer they'll get along so well, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Oh Jake........

(notice the proud look on his face)

Jake is now a complete and total toddler. Today, as you see above, he decided to hurry into my bathroom and graffiti my mirror with my squeeze tube of eye cream. Later, he pulled my neatly folded towels out of the laundry basket while he shook his head saying, "Oh no no no". He enjoys climbing onto the dining room chairs with a handful of Froot Loops that he throws over the railing to the family room (and dog) down below. Whenever I open the refrigerator he grabs the nearest condiment from the door and runs to the front room, screaming. He always grabs the only glass bottle within reach (he's managed to break open a soy sauce on one of his rampages). Water bottles are another favorite toy. It's so much fun to open them and jump in the puddle you create on the tile.

But despite all his shenanigans he manages to melt our hearts every day. He sings the 'Elmo's World' theme song whenever he watches Sesame Street (he more screams while Elmo sings, but whatever). He turned to Brandon the other day, smiled and said, "Hi Dada". He's awesome at putting himself to sleep at nap time and bedtime. When he is done eating at the counter, he feeds his foot. I know, it makes no sense. He just throws his foot up on the counter and pushes food onto his toes.

Jake is dangerous, active, quick and loud, but he's also sweet, smart and loving. I keep reminding myself how sweet he is sometimes while I'm carrying him out of a restaurant as he screams "NOOOOOO" at the top of his lungs. One day I hope to look back at this time and smile, but not today. Right now I'm too busy keeping him from plugging the headphones into the outlets.

I'd Just Like To Say A Quick Thank You.............

..........to my '97 Camry for not breaking down this morning as I drove Hayden to school, looking like this (and that's just the bottom half-top half was just as bad).

Pickin' the Punkins

We are in my favorite season. I love sweaters and crock pot dinners, pumpkin flavored desserts, the end of yard work, wassail, Halloween and pumpkin picking!

I Guess It's Too Warm For His Footsie Pajamas

This is how we found Jake yesterday morning. He had taken off his one piece, footed pajamas by himself in the middle of the night. That boy has skills.

Update

I love it when Hayden is off track. We just seem to be able to do so much more. We also love sleeping in and wearing pj's for much longer into the day. Here is some of what we did.

Here is a shot of Hayden and Brandon enjoying the new telescope. Hayden looked at the moon, Jupiter and the Big Dipper (Brandon would like me not to have included this shot because the flash is making quite the bald spot on his head)
We enjoyed the last warm night of the season by playing with Bandit in the backyard.

Jake thought that being outside in the dark was fabulous.

We love Baskin Robbins! It is a tradition to have their cakes for every birthday. There's nothing better than a tiny, tiny cone.

Jake is 18 months old! He's been a little grumpy the last couple of months, and now we might know why. He grew 2 and a half inches in three months. He jumped from the 77Th to the 96Th percentile. Yikes. His poor body must have just ached. He now weighs in at 25.46 pounds (44Th percentile). His head continues to be large, in the 98Th percentile (big Thatcher noggins).