The title says it all.
Like many, I was very thankful today for my wonderful family, their sunny attitudes while we cooked good food, and for the fantastic meal that we shared. Unlike many, I had the additional pleasure of being thankful that I was one of the four people present at our Thanksgiving table who does NOT watch sports! None of us are fans...of anything. So happily, we spent Thanksgiving playing up a storm with Alton, including an impromptu band dance party with the instruments that Grammy and Grandpa brought up from their house to give to Alton. (Grammy and Alton dancing, Andy on drumsticks, Grandpa with the hittin' sticks, and the dogs, um, keep rhythm with their tails?)
The scene reminded me of one of my siblings' and my all-time favorite holiday movies: Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.
We blasted Alton's "Music Together" cd and impressed his grandparents with his hand-clappin' and jingle-bellin' prowess, and led the band in a rousing rendition of "The Crawfish Song" and "A Ram Sam Sam."
Then it was time for dinner! Alton patiently waits for everyone else to make it to the table (Under the water pitcher is his Turkey placemat! But we moved that distraction for the eating portion of the evening).
He apprehensively takes a bite of mashed potatoes...
...and the verdict is interesting.
I don't think they were what he expected.
Now the stuffing, however...
...is a very enjoyable dish!
But hardly compares, after all, to the apple pie. Happy Thanksgiving! Boggle, boggle!
P.S. The triple chocolate pumpkin pie wasn't too shabby, either.
What's more embarrassing than your parents blogging your every move to their family and friends? Having them blog about the first time you "went" in the potty. But we can't help it, because we're so excited. Potty training has not begun in earnest at our house, but we do have a few toilet accoutrement for him to start easing himself into the idea. One of these items is a little potty chair in our downstairs bathroom, which Alton picked out for himself at a children's store with me. I was looking at bathroom stools (heh, not that kind) and he went over to the potty chair, placed it in the middle of the carpeted aisle, took off his shoes, and sat down on it, saying, "Poo-poo!" It was hilarious, but he was obviously interested, so I conferred with Andy and we elected to purchase the little chair.
Grammy and Grandpa Rhyne are in town visiting us for Thanksgiving right now, and after Alton's dinner Grammy was wiping off his hands when Alton suddenly said, "Poo-poo!" Now, we know that he understands that this means he has the urge to go (and obviously associated it with the little potty chair when I was in the store with him), so Andy asked him if he wanted to go sit on the potty chair. Alton acquiesced, and Andy pulled off his little overalls, onesie-snap shirt and diaper to go sit him on his little blue chair (that was the color he picked). We all just played it cool, letting him sit there as long as he wanted, checking to see if he wanted to get up...and after a minute or two, he made a #2 deposit at the bank! We all smiled and clapped and cheered for him, and he grinned back at us and seemed quite pleased about all that had transpired. He got big hugs and kisses from his proud father and mother, who then went off to give him a bath and blog about the occasion, respectively.
Alton has taken his train obsession to the next level, and now sees train possibilities everywhere. This morning we were up in his playroom and I went downstairs to get snacks and such for him. When I returned upstairs, I was met with this sight on the opposite side of the baby gate.
It was like finding a crop circle. Or that scene from Poltergeist, where they come in the kitchen and all the chairs are stacked on top of the table. Alton was back in the adjacent playroom, looking through books and things, as if the train blocking entrance to the upstairs landing had nothing to do with him. The tractor, construction trucks and taxi are all from his Fisher Price Little People collection (in which he also has an actual train), and although he has certainly tried to "link" these things up before, he has never lined them up together in imitation of a locomotive with such precision before.
The taxicab at the end was nudged slightly out of place by Minerva's paw, stage right. But you can see that not only are all of the little cars and things touching (there are no magnets or anything keeping them that close together--this was all Alton), they are organized in order of height (the taxi actually does have a lower profile than the two little men I call Dozers). Um, wow. We already thought Alton was a genius, but perhaps now it's time to get him some more challenging toys? Rubix cube in the stocking, perhaps?
And one more close-up shot so that you can see how exactly the Dozers' forklifts are lined up with each other.
As you can see from my recent post, Alton loves to carry things to and fro, commandeering ordinary non-toy objects for his use and finding spots in which to squirrel them away. Over the past month or so, one of these favorite spots has been a dresser in our front entryway, affectionately known as his "office." We bought this dresser to use both as a catchall table when we first walk in the door (for keys, cell phones, diaper bag, etc.) , and additionally as a means of keeping certain things out of Alton's reach (like keys, cell phones, diaper bag, etc.). It was an added bonus that it is equipped with a cabinet on one side in addition to regular bureau drawers--a handy place to keep shoes near the front door, maybe!
Maybe not. The cabinet, with its attractive silver knob right at just the right height, quickly became a favorite refuge for Alton and his "things." In addition to laying objects on Minerva's bed for safekeeping (not sure why...an island of calm in the expanse of the living room?), he began on a regular basis to open the cabinet door and tuck items into its little niche. You can see that Pooh Bear is often in need of such amnesty.
One day I emailed Andy at work to let him know that the "office" currently boasted a catalog, a fire truck, a train, three miniature pumpkins, a bucket, a wooden pull toy, and a sippy cup. Andy suggested that we should equip the place with some oak paneling and framed college degrees.
Soon thereafter, Alton noted that the bottom to the cabinet was at an extremely convenient level for him to sit upon, and it became an oft-used seat for leisure activities such as reading...
...or taking pictures with his camera.
(Yes, that's an old Polaroid. And yes, I'm the last dork on the face of the earth to know that they don't make the instant film any more.)
But the best part was when he realized that if he was in need of a little privacy, he could go inside, sit down, and "shut" the door behind him. Every great mind needs solitude at times.
(Remember to click on your favorite pictures to view the full size, high quality version!)Today we decided to go for a drive. Our original idea was wine tasting, as it has been quite a while since we have gone and there are many wineries around here. As we reviewed the wineries we wanted to go to, we gradually came to the conclusion that we wanted to go to McMinnville - located almost an hour south of us. I realized that this is the location of the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of the Spruce Goose. We had heard about the museum, but we had never had the opportunity to visit. So our plans were shifted and settled on going to the museum to let Alton (and Daddy) oogle at airplanes, getting lunch at a small bistro or similar that we assumed was nearby and then driving home.
We made it to the museum and we all had a blast. I was completely taken with the Spruce Goose (we've all heard about how enormous it is, but it really isn't the same unless you've seen it). Alton happily walked around pointing out the helicopters and different things that he found interesting. Katie and I did our best to herd him in the right direction and point out all the different airplanes, military jeeps and other attractions that were around.
Mommy helps AJ touch the propeller of a P-51A Mustang.
We soon found ourselves at the "kid" area. Where kids of all ages could play with all kinds of aeronautical goodies.
AJ got to sit in a helicopter:
He got to work the controls of an airplane:
And he got to sit in the cockpit of a small prop-powered plane sized perfectly for the little man:
(the wood item in front of Katie is the stairs put in place to get in the plane)
Alton was particularly taken by the small, wooden airplane "cars" that were around that he could sit on and motor around.
And, of course, there was the Spruce Goose. These pictures don't quite do it justice. Although you can go inside, you can't go to the cockpit. There's a $50 tour that lets you sit in the pilot's seat for a picture. :)
This is the best shot I could get of the whole thing.
There are 8 engines on this thing. 4 per wing.
The front. This plane was designed as a "flying boat" and that hole in the hull just beneath the door is for the anchor. 
What they let us see of the inside. The man is fake. The beach balls were apparently used to aid with flotation during construction. The red bottles are (were) for the CO2 fire suppression system. This is facing the rear of the plane from about where the platform is in the previous picture. 
After the museum, we stopped off at the Sokol Blosser winery. Alton padded around the tasting room while Mommy and Daddy took turns at the tasting bar (the other was running around with AJ).
Since it had been a long day, lunch was now way overdue. We headed back north towards home and stopped at a small bistro we saw on the way in. It was quite good and it was a great end to the trip.
AJ slept the entire ride home and then some. We can't wait to go back and explore the airplanes (and the neighboring space museum - which we didn't go to this time) with Alton again. 
