Thanksgiving Leftovers

We had another great Thanksgiving at my parents house. The babies ate everything I gave them, and I was so proud to have children that actually ate. They ate peas, corn, corn casserole, broccoli cheese casserole, dressing, chicken and dumplings, sweet potatoes, Italian cream cake, and banana pudding. JR ate corn, a roll, and a plate of Cousin Caleb's reindeer cookies. Speaking of Cousin Caleb, can you believe he's only 6 months older than JR? And we thought JR was big. College football scouts, the line starts here.

A House Divided

People sometimes ask Jason and me how we handle our "mixed marriage". To be honest, it's never even been an issue. We enjoy going to football games if we happen upon tickets, and we've been known to watch big games on TV, but there's no big riff come Thanksgiving. As you can see, both UT and A&M got equal representation from the Ingersoll homestead. The only comment Jason made was, "Why did you dress mine in the UT shirt?" (Out of habit I still take Kyle and he takes Reed when we are together.) And being the caring and fabulous wife that I am, I didn't say a word about that cute Colt McCoy or Texas beating the pants off A&M 49-6!

Is It Time For Turkey Yet?

We celebrated Jason's birthday last night and we're heading up to Lovelady to celebrate Thanksgiving. I'll have a full report when we get back.

Baby Talk-Fun New Game

Kyle: So I saw where Mommy blogged that she doesn't think our game of "open and shut the TV cabinet doors" is so much fun.
Reed: But I know she just has to LOVE our new favorite game of "run off with the Christmas tree ornaments" that we've been playing since the tree went up.
K: She won't let us crawl around downstairs because she's afraid we'll pull the tree on top of us.
R: Ya know, Kyle, we probably would.
K: Of course we would! How cool would that be?
R: But since she won't let us crawl, we try to talk her into letting us cruise around in the Tijuana Taxi as much as possible.
K:And as you can see, the Tijuana Taxi is the perfect height for getting right up to the Christmas tree...AND....

K: picking out just the right Christmas tree ornament, you can see I'm making my selection very carefully.

R: I'm more of a snatch and run man myself. I grab whatever I can and then take off. Look at me go!

K: I'm always on the lookout for my favorite Santa. I pick him every time. I love you, Santa!

R: Dude! You can't chew on Santa! Have you lost your mind? He's in charge of the presents, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't want your baby slobber all over him!

Santa, My name is Reed. It's my brother, Kyle, that chews on you. Feel free to contact me if you need further clarification, I certainly don't want any kind of a mix-up on Christmas morning!

Oh So Sweet!

It was my turn to watch JR's class at church today so Kyle and Reed were the last ones to be picked up from their room (I had to wait until all the kids from JR's room were picked up before I could go get them). Since there wasn't a crowd of women grabbing up their babies, the nursery worker and I were able to chat for a minute. She starts telling me how the babies were good and how they had fun playing and then she says, (Now I'm warning you, here comes the "oh that is so sweet" part of the story) " Kyle really looks out for Reed."
Me: "Really?"
Nursery Lady: "Oh, yes he kept an eye on him at all times. He always wanted to know where he was in the room. If any of the other babies got close to him, Kyle would come over and get in between them. He was very protective."
Oh, yes. My heart melted. And even after all the pacifier stealing, Kyle is still looking out for his brother!

Army Ants

When JR was 10 months old, we were already living in China and I remember that he would watch TV. I distinctly remember him watching his Count With Me Sesame DVD in the hotel at 3 A.M. the first night we arrived...love that jet lag. Kyle and Reed are so much different than JR. My mom says "they're like army ants, they just take down everything in sight!" And they really do. They'll stop and watch Sesame Street for about 2 minutes, and then it's on to something else. As you can see, I caught them watching it the other day. You'll also notice I have an ottoman pushed in front of the TV cabinet. That's because they completely ignored all their toys and only played the super fun game "open and shut the cabinet doors and pull out all the DVDs". Kyle's now favorite game of "swing the big doors and duck my head as the door goes over it" is also a big hit...literally. It's a huge "hit" since Reed doesn't always know when Kyle's playing and doesn't always know when to duck! Of course I'm not upset that they prefer playing to watching TV. Here's the way I see them most days, standing at the table scanning the room deciding what they're going to "take down" next. And even though their little TV watching butts are super cute, I'd much rather see (and then chase) those little smiling faces!

A Storehouse of Knowledge

Here's yet another "entertaining" driving to school conversation I had with JR:
JR: Mommy, I want a Halloween birthday party.
Me: JR, Your birthday is in May, Are you sure it's a good idea to have a Halloween birthday party?
JR: Yes, My birthday is May 29th, so is Claire's. I want a Halloween birthday party and I want to play spooky games.
Me (sleepy and frustrated with Houston traffic): JR, I really can't mess with your birthday plans right now, can we just focus on the holidays coming up?
JR: But I want to mess with it!
Me: JR, We've got Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. Can't we talk about those?
JR: Last year Caleb (JR's cousin) brought reindeer cookies to Thanksgiving. I hope he's bringing reindeer cookies; they look like Jack.
Me: What? Who's Jack? (I'm trying to think of a cartoon with 'Jack the Reindeer'.)
JR: Jack from Jack in the Box. The reindeer cookies look like him.
Me: Oh, okay.
1 second passes
JR: Mommy, When I get the Master Lee belt (Master Lee is his taekwondo teacher) everyone is going to call me 'Master JR'.
Me: (I laugh) Yes, JR, I believe they will.

JR got his report card yesterday and one of his teacher's comments was, "JR is a storehouse of knowledge". It's conversations like that that make me positive there is really no telling what is going to come out of that child's 'storehouse' everyday.