GIVING THANKS

If you were celebrating the holiday this past weekend, I hope you were surrounded by some yummy food, good company, and lots of joy. We spent Saturday preparing our contributions to the dinner: apple crisp (and ice cream), sweet potato casserole, caesar salad (bagged...), and of course, stovetop stuffing. Although we dearly missed our families back in Ontario, we had a wonderfully mellow, but perfectly complete Saturday night Thanksgiving dinner with our Beauval family. There was plenty of laughter, full bellies, sleepy children, and leftovers to be had (which on our part, were had quickly and joyfully). I couldn't help but think of Joey from Friends as I ate my turkey dinner, thankful to be wearing maternity (or Thanksgiving) pants.

On Sunday, Mark, Thaddeus and I enjoyed spending the whole day with one another, which included a Thanksgiving walk in the sunshine around Beauval. It wasn't exactly a walk in Gatineau park, but we sure do live in a beautiful place. The weekend left me feeling very, very grateful.

In other news, I have been feeling for a while now that Thaddeus may be nearing the stage where he will go down only for one nap a day. Well, today marks the beginning of that stage, although I don't know if I'm ready for it! Over the past month or so he has been quite easy to put down for a morning nap, but not quite ready for an afternoon nap. It was definitely beginning to be a bit of a struggle to get him down the second time. So this morning, I finally bit the bullet and decided to push his morning nap as long as I could. Piece of cake, Hallelujah!!! Mind you, we are in the city right now and we spent the morning at WalMart and Value Village (side note: I totally found a Thyme Maternity winter coat for $20!!! I am over the moon!) so I think all that excitement made it easy. We had a quick lunch back at the hotel, and he was out by 11:55. It's almost been an hour now, and I'm hoping I'll get a solid two out of him. Then we'll push through to bed time. So far, so good! Hopefully he'll have a great night's sleep and tomorrow will be just as easy. Here's hoping!

Have a happy Wednesday!

AUTUMN CRAFTING

Making crafts with a 15-month-old isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. While he is slightly more interested than he was last month, I must say I do look forward to the day when a hand will stay still long enough to trace it, paint isn't ingested, paper isn't ripped and the crayons stay at the table. But, 'tis the season, and it's special in it's own way. Thaddeus' attention doesn't usually hold long enough to finish a project in one go, so we are always going back and adding on. A true artist's work is never finished! It also takes a little imagination on my part to complete something like this autumn  hand-print wreath.

I first took out a few pieces of fall-coloured paper and we scribbled on them with some crayons. That was one day weeks ago! Then, we happened to visit daycare one morning when they were doing an apple print craft. We managed to make a few apple prints, but settled with hand prints for the most part. Out of those hand prints, I was able to trace and cut out more hand prints from our coloured paper. Because trying to trace Thaddeus' hand on a piece of paper was pretty much impossible. Cheating perhaps? Hmm, I'll go with resourceful.

And then of course, I did the rest. I cut out his hand prints and glued them to a ring I made out of cardboard. It would have probably been easier to use a paper plate, but I didn't have one. Turned out great though, I think! I'm sure I'll be putting it up for years to come.

We've also been doing quite a bit of colouring. We don't have a printer, and I need to get to the library to print out some colouring pages! For now, I make them myself with a black sharpie. It works! I'm also hoping to pick up some paints this week in the city so we can start experimenting with those as well! Next up though, I plan on making some play-dough, and some salt-dough Christmas decoration. We'll see how that all goes!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a great start to a short week! :)

HOLDING ON TO FALL

October keeps hold of some of the last precious moments of fall here in Beauval. I would not be at all surprised if the first days of winter are upon us by the end of the month. We are making most of the sunny, snow-less days and preparing for the long winter ahead. All the winter gear has been organized in our front closet and mudroom, as we are now adding a layer or two when we venture outside. Our spare bedroom is half way finished being cleaned out and the next step is to arrange all the furniture to make room for baby number two. 

We've been talking to Thaddeus quite a bit about the baby growing in my belly, and he seems to be catching on. He probably understands more than we think he would. We are all loving Baby On The Way and What Baby Needs by Dr. Sears. If you are expecting a new baby and looking for some good reads for your children, I highly recommend these books. They are full of helpful information for children of all ages!

Lately, Thaddeus has been falling asleep for all his naps on my belly. He always asks me to "open" (lift) my shirt so he can see baby sister. He loves to rub his hands over my belly and snuggle his cheek on my warm skin as we rock together in the glider. Now that he has felt her move a few times, he has been asking me throughout the day if "baby move?", and to be honest, I sometimes make my tummy jump on purpose because he gets so excited! But I think it also helps him understand that there really is someone in there. It really is the sweetest thing. 

I can't say enough how much I am enjoying this season of life. It's really busy, and I still feel some fear creep on me every once and a while, but overall I am having a blast. I am so blessed and I love my growing family so much. Plus, it's really nice that the past few days have actually felt like fall. After my last post about how October was my favourite month, it snowed. Thank goodness it has warmed back up again, even if just for a little while. I also got my David's tea order (thanks M!) this week and my morning cup of Pumpkin Chai tea has seemed to make things even better. I've been letting it steep extra long, because the smell warms my home and my heart. Oh fall, please don't go too soon!

"O hushed October morning mild, 

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; 

Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all. 

The crows above the forest call; 

Tomorrow they may form and go. 

O hushed October morning mild, 

Begin the hours of this day slow. 

Make the day seem to us less brief. 

Hearts not averse to being beguiled, 

Beguile us in the way you know. 

Release one leaf at break of day; 

At noon release another leaf; 

One from our trees, one far away."

 -   Robert Frost, October