Pie Supper

For decades my mom's family has been celebrating Pie Supper (which in my opinion should be made a national holiday). The night before Thanksgiving we all get together. Everyone brings a pot luck soup or rolls (which means there is always at least 5 or 6 different soups or chilis) and about a zillion pies and cheesecakes. The only rule with Pie Supper is that you have to eat at least one bowl of soup before indulging in the wonderland of sweets. Since every family brings anywhere from 1 to 10 or so pies/cheesecakes and my mom is the oldest of 10 kids, there is pretty much any pie you could ever want available on Pie Supper. Our family philosophy is this: on Thanksgiving Day there are tons of wonderful things to eat... so many that you don't really have enough room in your stomach to adequately enjoy the dessert side of Thanksgiving dinner. By having the pie supper the Wednesday before we can fully satisfy our sweet tooths so we can focus on the main meal aspects of dinner on Thanksgiving Day. All in all a brilliant plan.



James loved being in a new place surrounded by so many people to pay attention to him. I tried to get him to eat some cherry cheesecake but as you can see, more of it ended up ON him than IN him. In any case, we all had a wonderful time and gave ourselves insulin overloads to the extreme. Only 363 days until next Pie Supper.

Sweet Dreams!!!

James has started putting himself down for naps and bedtime. Not in the way you'd think though. He doesn't lie down in bed and listen to soft music or hug a teddy bear or something of that sort, he gets his bottle (which I should be weaning him off of) and lies on the ground with a blanket or a pillow, attempts to do some funky modern dance looking routine on the floor until he finally falls asleep. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes and other times over a half hour. Since Andrew's had surgery and we can't go anywhere we've been watching a lot of movies. James watches enthralled until he drifts off to sleep. He's a TV addict already! Where did I go wrong?! ; ) He's so independent in his going to sleep routine that if you try to hold him or cuddle him while he's falling asleep he flails and elbows you and screams until you put him down. Is he his mother's son or what?

Walking Finally!!!

James is FINALLY walking with some confidence. He kinda keeps his hands in front of him like Frankenstein but the fact that he actually prefers to walk rather than crawl is a big step. He takes his walking very seriously too. If he falls it pretty much signals the end of his world and he is emotional for quite some time. This walking business does come with some down sides though (as we all have discovered). James has more than a few rather large bruises on his body. He keeps trying to run too. He's got it all figured out except for the part where his legs and feet keep up! Before I know it I'll have a very mobile, very fast, and even more meddlesome toddler.

James First Real Encounter with Snow!

James had his first encounter with being in snow the other day. We woke up in the morning to an unexpected 3 inches of snow and I decided to take my outdoors loving son to go play in it. I bundled him up in about a billion different layers and took him outside. He seemed pretty fascinated by the change in appearance around the yard. Then I tried to set him in the snow to take some pictures. He freaked out! He cried and sat there barely moving looking up at me like I was submitting him to some dreadful torture. I made him endure until I had taken a few pictures to document it and then brought him back inside. He did start to half crawl by the time I was done with my photo taking. It was almost like he decided that I wasn't going to rescue him and it was up to him to find his own way to safety. The funny thing was, after only 10 minutes or so inside he wanted to go back out to play. Silly child. I'm sure he'll discover just how fun the snow is before too long. If not, well, he'll have a long winter ahead of him!