Stories and Happy Thanksgiving!!

(scary faces before Friday night's Wizard of Oz performance)

It's Thanksgiving! Quite possibly my favorite holiday. Because I love food.

Oh how I love food!

Nona and Grandpa Howard rolled into town last night (my mother-in-law and her husband) and we spent all afternoon and last night making pies, raspberry pretzel jello (laugh if you must but it's a Thanksgiving staple in my family), cranberry sauce, and other preparations. I got up early to make the rolls and thought of a few recent stories about the kiddos I'd like to post. After all, it's Thanksgiving and I'm enormously grateful for them.

Franny has recently become a huge fan of Scooby Doo. The other day we were in the car and she said, "Mom, are centaurs real?" I said, "No honey, they are just pretend." Franny: "But no! They're real! Velma said they are real." I could not believe my ears. Velma has more credibility than me? Preposterous! I said, "Well, who are you going to believe, me or Velma." Franny didn't answer that question. Probably a wise move. This morning, though, she started in on the same line of questioning. Finally I just told her that Velma is a fictional character herself (not in those words- it was more like, "well Velma's not real!") So Franny said, "I think maybe she's real AND pretend." Hmmm....

I've been inadvertently teaching Sophie how to say bad words. Not like bad words, but things that are inappropriate for a 3 year old to say. Like, "piece of crap" and "son of a b" - (I actually only use the initial b, not the actual word). She loves to make us laugh and she is a master at identifying adult phrases and repeating them for comedic effect. I was driving the car and talking to Ashley one day and in response to something she said, I exclaimed, "What the crap?!" Apparently I had forgotten where I was and who I was with. Sophie said, "What the crap?!" I laughed and said, "Oh honey, you can't say that. Mommy shouldn't say that either, but you definitely can't say that." She starts crying while I'm still talking to Ashley and when I ask her what is the matter she wails, "But Mom! I want to say 'what the crap!'"

My mom used to warn me all the time when Franny was around two that this would happen. I don't know why I didn't believe her. I always thought it was funny that when a kid is acting up, Grandpa Howard will say, "Oh, she's just being a wiener." I adopted that epithet for my kids when they were being naughty, and can occasionally be heard saying, "Oh Franny, stop being a wiener." Well, one day we were at the park and one of Franny's friends was having a hard time and I heard Franny say, "Oh, she's just being a wiener." It sounded so funny!!

Yesterday I was driving Sophie to preschool and this was our conversation:
Sophie: "Mom, do you like the Humpty Dumpty song?"
Me: "Yes I do! Do you?"
Sophie: "No."

She's also been telling me that she doesn't want a baby sister. Yikes. She seemed all for it in the beginning. Apparently I was mistaken in thinking that once a kid passed the age of three, it wouldn't be a problem for him/her to welcome a younger sibling to the group. Maybe it depends on the kid?

(taken last year at Thanksgiving)

We have a word in our family for passing gas. My mom HATED the word "fart." It was not allowed in our house. Now I hate it to and the word we use is "boof." Sophie thinks it's really funny to say, "boof in your pants!" and spank us all on the rear. Last night Louise (Nona) and Grandpa Howard took us out to eat and Louise was commenting on what nice manners the girls had as they shared a big glass of fruit punch. Here's how their little conversation went:

Sophie: "Daddy can we share?"
Franny: "Here you go Sophie!"
Sophie: "Thank you!"
Franny: "You're welcome."
Sophie finishes drinking some of the fruit punch and hands it back to Franny. Louise comments on their nice manners. Franny says: "Thank you Sophie."
Sophie: "You're welcome." And just as I'm smiling to myself with pride at the well-behaved children I'm raising, Sophie follows up with a loud and boisterous, "BOOF IN YOUR PANTS!"

I guess I should be glad she didn't spank Grandpa Howard on the rear!

Have a great Thanksgiving and eat lots of delicious food!! I'm trying out some new recipes. I never got around to posting them beforehand but I'll get them posted so maybe they will benefit someone next year!