SketchBoy

So if there's an upside to spending the night in a tent while it's 25° F outside, I think I found it: all that shivering seems to have worked off like 5 lbs in 24 hours. O_o

Tuck and I are heading out with Brenden and Keegan for an overnight Father-Son camping trip. First time sleeping in a tent for Tuck. Beautiful day for it, just pray we don't freeze tonight!

"Tucker, stop being contradictory." "What's contry-dilla-tory?" "'Contradictory.' It means saying the opposite. A minute ago you said you 'really really like' your chili, but now that I'm telling you to you need to finish your bowl before you can have a banana cookie, you're saying you 'don't like chili.' You're just being contradictory." ". . . No I'm not."

Who needs lunch when the little local farmer's market is having an open house? Cider! Cheese! Wine! Soup! Kiffles! Cookies! Oh boy. :-)

It's funny, the little things that are sort of second nature to me because I am home day-to-day with the boys, but don't necessarily occur to Anna. Y'know, like not sitting down your coffee somewhere that little hands can reach it. In other news, Coltrane likes coffee!

♪ Two boys can nap at once, when you believe. Though it won't last, it's awesome, still. Who knew they'd nap at once? It sounds naive. When you believe, somehow they will They will when you believe ♫

"So, Tucker, when you get to see Santa this year, do you know what you're going to ask for for Christmas?" "Huh?" "When you see Santa, he'll probably ask what you'd like for Christmas. Is there anything you REALLY want this year from Santa?" "Um... a balloon." "Done and done!"

Today started out as one of those days where I woke up just feeling OLD. Unexplained aches and pains all over, y'know? Then I remembered it's my older brother Dave's birthday today, and that, really, he's certainly feeling the cold, heartless touch of the ever-closer creeping specter of death more than I am. Now I feel way better. Happy birthday bro. :-)

Hey, guy right outside our window with the exceptionally loud leaf-blower, thanks for waking up the baby. It was totally worth it to have those five leaves removed from our patio. >:-|

Okay, I'm in serious need of ideas on having a Christmas tree with a 10-month old who likes to pull down everything within reach. I'd like to avoid having him able to pull it down on top of himself! Solutions that don't involve surrounding the tree with a gate-fence or permanently affixing it into the foundation of the building are especially helpful. :-)

Well, apparently Cole loves Mulligatawny soup.

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Jessica, Eric, Harry, and family. Thanks for inviting us!

Thankful today for a God who loves me, the best wife ever, happy & healthy sons I get to hang with daily, and my awesome friends & family.

Feels really strange not to be the one planning/prepping/cooking a turkey today!

"Tuck, you need to finish your breakfast." "But I don't like bananas." "PFFT! Yes you do. You love bananas." "Noooooo. I really really don't." "Does that mean you don't want to make more banana cookies with me today?" "I like bananas in COOKIES, Dada."

Teething is no fun. :-\

Stopped in to Chick-Fil-A so the boys could play in the "inside park" and there was a giant Cow walking around handing out books. Drove by construction where there were probably a dozen large construction vehicles ("scoops") working away. Made a grocery run and the only cart available near where we parked was one of the car-shaped ones. Then the checkout lady gave Tucker two (ONE...! TWO...!) turkey stickers. He thinks it's the most exciting day ever.

"Dada, why David throw rock at Giant?" "Well, Tucker, Goliath was very mean, and he wanted to hurt David's friends and family. That's not very nice, is it?" "No, it's not . . . but why not just put Giant in Time-Out???"

Baking pumpkin pies for a party. The house smells like freshly ground nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and all-spice. I hope they're good!

Lest we forget...

Enjoying the calm (Colbert and coffee) before the storm (imminent end of simultaneously napping boys).

Stopped at the playground with the boys for a bit before coming home for lunch. This little boy Tuck's age kept coming over and wanted to hold my hand and have me play with him and he called me "Daddy" over and over. I don't want to make any assumptions, but I hope I just look a lot like his daddy, rather than him really being that starved of daddy's attention or something. :-\

Tuck is sitting at the window, watching the guy outside zoom around our yard on a riding lawnmower cutting the grass. I think he's convinced that landscaping might be the funnest job in the world.

Just realized that most of what I've been posting for the last couple of days was limited to local friends only. Oooooops! You other guys have been missing out on some A+ material!

Apparently it's Take Grandma to the Park Day, if you're a preschooler. (Take Grandma to the Polls Day, if you're not, I suppose.) #sahd