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Pretty much the only time I ever go shopping for myself is when my sister comes to visit, because I hate picking out clothes for myself. Abby loves picking out clothes so I let her lead me around by the hand twice a year and tell me everything I need to buy. Today was our designated shopping day - Joel and Mike dropped Becca off at Joel's parents' and took Ben and Charlie to see Madagascar 2. Abby and I spent six hours at the mall. I got makeup, two pairs of boots, a dress, two pairs of jeans, three shirts, a coat and a purse. I also got my ears pierced (again, I had them pierced before but hadn't worn earrings in a few years so I had them done over again).
It was a very exhausting shopping experience since Abby shops by outfit... so she picked out a dress for me and then dragged me all over the mall looking for a pair of boots to wear with it. Then picked out jeans and shirts and dragged me all over the mall again looking for a pair of boots to wear with those. Very inefficient. I am very tired now and my right ankle is killing me. I seem to have sustained an injury somehow. But I am happy with all of my purchases so it was worth it.
Last year I spent two or three solid days preparing for Thanksgiving, with the help of my sister and sister-in-law. It was totally exhausting, because in addition to hosting Thanksgiving (for the first time) for a dozen people, I had a two month old baby and was still pretty sleep deprived.
This year was a lot easier. Less people for one thing - 7 adults and three kids. Also I ordered all the side items -- stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, etc -- from a local meal assembly center. I picked them up yesterday and all I had to do today was put them in the oven. And cook the turkey, which I brined overnight in a mixture of vegetable broth, apple juice, and spices.
Consequently there was not a whole heck of a lot to do today. Abby, Mike and Charlie arrived this morning and we spent a lot of time hanging out outside. The weather was very nice (sunny and around 60) and lots of our neighbors were out enjoying the day while their turkeys cooked also. So there was an impromptu gathering in the cul de sac, where the kids ran around and played and the adults chatted. Charlie kept taking off down the street for no apparent reason, but other than that it was very enjoyable.
We also got Dad to download Skype and got a video chat going, though we couldn't time it properly to wave at each other during our Thanksgiving meals. Maybe next time.
Below are some pictures of Ben, Becca and cousin Charlie playing in the back yard this afternoon before dinner.
Doodle and I are practicing with the one-and-only hairstyle she can achieve so far. She is practicing not screaming and thrashing around while I am doing her hair, and I am practicing doing her hair while she is screaming and thrashing around. More specifically, this morning we practiced putting a bow in her hair so that she can wear one with the Thanksgiving outfit I have picked out for her. I think I managed it fairly successfully despite the screaming and thrashing.
Joel went back to work yesterday after his kidney stone surgery, and he also had an appointment to get the stent that was placed during surgery in the bladder/kidney passageway removed. That seemed to go fine until he got home and started having terrible kidney stone -esque back pain: Apparently again a misinterpretation of the doctor's words about "some discomfort" for the first 24 hours following the removal of the stent. He seemed to be feeling better this morning and went back to work again.Ben had his second occupational therapy session and "interpretive results" conference, which was just as I suspected... his fine motor coordination is below average in two out of three measures, and normal in a third. His hand, arm and shoulder strength is also weak which may be an underlying cause of the problem. She recommended two sessions a week because our insurance only covers 60 consecutive days of treatment from the time of the evaluation (don't get me started on that). So far we've got Tuesdays at 9am nailed down but still need to figure out when the second session will be. In today's session he worked on upper body strength (pushing himself down the hallway while lying on a scooter using only his arms), fine motor strength (working a big piece of putty around to find the beads and coins hidden inside - he LOVED this), and fine motor precision (copying shapes on a dry erase board - much more interested in erasing than in drawing).As a sort of related aside - which I relayed to the OT this morning - Ben brought home a cut out of a turkey the other day. He told me he had asked Spencer to cut it out for him, because he couldn't do it. Spencer had done a fair job, but had accidentally cut the feet off. He also told me he had wanted to color in the whole turkey so that no white was showing, but his hands had gotten tired so he got one of the other kids to finish most of the rest of it for him. Then this morning while struggling to get his gloves on (no it is not cold enough for gloves he just likes wearing them) he commented that his classmate Aaron knows how to do gloves and he asks Aaron help him with his gloves before recess. So apparently he is delegating fine-motor related tasks to other kids at school. The OT had a good laugh over this.
Among other errands today, I took Ben hat shopping. I had promised him he could get a new winter hat, because he seemed very unsatisfied with the one that he had. I took him to Children's Place, where he tried on every hat in the store and found none satisfactory. I took him next door to Gap Kids, where he again tried on every hat in the store. This time I paid closer attention to what he was doing, and realized that he was putting every hat on and then pulling it down over his face, and then saying "Nope... that won't work..." I finally wised up and realized that Ben's search for a hat was not fueled by a desire to keep his head warm; rather it was fueled by a desire to have something to pull over his face while playing superheroes on the playground with his friends. So I took him across the street to Wal-Mart and let him pick out an Iron Man ski mask. I've got one very happy four year old, now.
Joel seems to be feeling a lot better. His pee still looks like cherry Kool Aid though. I think he's going to call the doctor in the morning to find out if that is normal at this stage, still. He's watching Tropic Thunder in the other room right now. I was watching it with him but then I realized that I have zero interest in war movies, even when they are comedies.
Becca reportedly took two steps at day care today. I was not able to get her to duplicate her efforts at home.
Tonight at bedtime Ben told me he loved me so much that on my birthday he wanted to get me "beautiful red and yellow flowers." Then he added that if I were to get mad at him (any time between now and my birthday I presume, which is in July) this offer of flowers would be off the table. I took the opportunity to explain to him that everyone gets mad at each other sometimes, and that when we are mad we need to talk about it and learn from it how to behave so we don't make each other mad. He listened carefully, nodded his agreement, and then continued to assert that no flowers would be forthcoming if I were to get mad at him. At least I tried.
