Happy Thanksgiving

This year we will be spending Thanksgiving at my mom's house. I have never tasted another baked turkey except for my mom's on Thanksgiving day. Today is the biggest feast of the year for our family and I'm looking forward to it. Mom will be baking a 20 lb butterball turkey in the oven along with honey ham with pineapple slices, also salmon and shrimp this year. My siblings and I will be preparing all the side dishes like we do every year. I still remember making cranberry sauce when we were in elementary school. We still use the same recipe, straight from the back of the bag Ocean Spray cranberries.

Thanksgiving Menu 2008

Turkey

Honey Ham

Baked Salmon

Shrimp

Corn Bread Pudding

Stuffing with dried fruits

Cranberry Sauce

Sweet Potato Casserole

Roasted Carrots & Parsnips

Roasted Beets

Roasted Asaragus

Roasted Potatoes

Brocolli Rabe

Creamed Spinach

Red Apple

It's been a little while since I posted, Tyson is now 10 months old and Tristan turned 3 years old several weeks ago.

Tyson has been crawling since 6 months old and looks like he's walking any day now. He's been taking up to 5 steps at a time when tempted with his favorite/toys, remote controls or cheerios. Tristan has grown up so much since becoming a big brother. He's been potty trained for the last 6 months or so and it's become a lot easier for us since he's learned to go to the bathroom by himself. Although, sometimes he still needs help with us pulling up his underwear.

Since I'm a work outside of the home full-time mom, my kids have always been used to me leaving the house and being home alone with the nanny for up to 12 hours at a time. In the last month or two, Tristan has been asking me to go out with me in the mornings when I'm about to leave for work.

This morning, when I was on my way out the door, Tristan just woke up and came up to me saying "bring me to the supermarket to buy apples". I told him, we already have apples... I even led him to the fridge and showed him one. He said, that's a "green apple", I want a "red apple". Then he had tears in his eyes. So sad. I almost wanted to take a day off just to bring him to the supermarket.

Tristan at 14 months (2006) going apple picking for the first time

New Member of the Family

Tyson is 4 months old today. It's been that long since I've had time to write and introduce him.

Having a second baby is a lot of work, but he is absolutely wonderful to have around. It's only been 2 years but I have already forgotten the joy holding a newborn. We are exclusively breastfeeding and things have been great. What they say about second babies being easier is true... Sometimes I'm not sure if we just had a hard time the first time around, or we just got used to having baby around the house. Tyson seems to sleep better and overall a more relaxed baby. Nowadays, we tend to pay so much attention to our toddler, sometimes we almost forget there is another baby.

I returned to work a month ago, and trying to settle into a schedule to keep me sane. I wake up early in the morning, get myself ready and wake up the baby to feed him one last time before I leave the house. The nanny comes in to take over and 11 hours later, I return home from my long day at work. Thats when cook dinner while my husband watches the boys, we eat, clean up the kitchen and finally get the kids to bed. By then, we barely have a minute to ourselves, only time to shower and get some rest.

Big brother Tristan has been really good to the baby. He used to cosleep with me, but the day his baby brother came home from the hospital, we had him sleep in his own bedroom with daddy. The transition went pretty well with no fuss. We have had no problems with jealousy since I do believe we pay more attn to Tristan than the baby. I mean he is after all a 2 year old and comes to us for attention, while the baby just sits in his bouncer or bumbo. It's so busy for us around the house, we only have so much time to play with the kids. Hopefully when they are older, they will play with each other!