The Turkey Bowl

When I was growing up we spent Thanksgiving at my grandfather's house. My grandfather had a big old house that seemed to expand endlessly so as to accommodate the Thanksgiving crowd. I used to look forward to Thanksgiving not for the food, but for the cousins - older cousins that I would follow around and around and around, and younger cousins that were fun to play with. My favorite memories are of drawing with my cousin Deborah for hours on end and watching The Sound of Music on Thanksgiving Eve (I never understood how or why The Sound of Music was on TV every Thanksgiving eve for as long as I can remember). And, of course, the Turkey Bowl. My dad was the only relative who had every played football, but somehow he convinced everyone that Thanksgiving was for football, so we played horrible and hysterical football every year.

This year Thanksgiving was a fun reminder of my Thanksgiving's growing up - Oliver spent the entire time following my cousins' kids around and drawing with them. While not everyone was able to make it, all told there were nine second cousins for Oliver to play with - and to adore. It was so wonderful to see the next generation of family together.

Here is Oliver with some of his second cousins.


It was also fun to see the Turkey Bowl tradition continue.


A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Projects

Oliver and Davis have been busy.

Together they turned the living room into a fort - I am sure it will be the first of many times the living room will be transformed. Oliver spent a surprisingly long period of time in his fort playing with his dogs and, apparently, having some snacks.



Davis and Oliver also installed lighting under the bookcases Davis built. Here is Oliver showing off his handiwork.

"Thanksgiving"

Davis loves turkey. When I was pregnant with Oliver the thought of turkey made me violently ill. For nine months Davis could only have turkey when I was not around. Since I couldn't suggest banning Thanksgiving Day turkey, Thanksgiving was a bit rough for me. Last year, thankfully, I no longer had my aversion to turkey. However, since Oliver was not yet eating solid foods we were unable to learn if Oliver liked turkey, or his in-utero disdain for turkey remained. On Saturday we hosted a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner and we learned - Oliver likes turkey!

In addition to, once again, learning that Oliver takes after his dad, we had a wonderful evening catching up with friends (who we really do not see often enough) and watching the little ones interact.


While our evening was fun, we did miss the Doyle's. While they appear to be having a fantastic time in Canada, we miss them and hope they will be able to celebrate with us next year.

Showdown at the OK Corral

I had to go to work early yesterday morning. That meant Davis and Oliver were on their own for a few hours before Oliver headed to Jessica's for the day and Davis headed to work. Here is the photo montage of their morning together. Photos and captions (and blog title) courtesy of Davis.

Getting ready.
Working on the boats.

Doing laundry the old-fashion way.

Mama?
Casing crows (although I think he meant chasing crows - but who knows, maybe Oliver was casing them).

Funny Man

Oliver thinks he is hysterical - in most cases he is right (and in many cases he is right, but I have to refrain from laughing because he is doing something crazy - an example - hanging from the dining room chandelier (yes, it did happen, and yes, he did manage to pull it down)). This past weekend he decided to share some of his jokes and funny business with his grandmother and great grandmother, both of whom thought he was pretty hilarious.

Vintage

Oliver is loving his vintage clothes. This kid is just itching for his day on the catwalk!

Halloween Part II: Never Take Candy From Strangers (or Neighbors)

Amongst the sweaters we brought back with us from Maine awhile back was a monster sweatshirt my brother used to wear. After taking Oliver to pick out a costume and Oliver crying (he was scared of the costumes despite the fact they were - I thought - cute and fuzzy) until we left the store, we decided we'd transform the monster sweatshirt, which Oliver loves, into a costume.

Here is our little monster with our pumpkins - note that his pumpkin, aka Mama, is not carved.

Oliver's friend Carragh came over to go trick or treating. We gave each of the little ones a pumpkin to collect their candy and started off down the street. Oliver and Carragh were excited to run up and down the sidewalk with the pumpkins - they could have done that all night. They were therefore pretty confused when we stopped their fun and coaxed them up to our neighbor's house to trick or treat. In fact, they never really made it to a house - they would just stand there and stare at the house and candy, and then turn and run down the street again.


We did manage to get Oliver to stop running for few minutes so that we could get a picture with him and his friends Maggie and Tommy.

After attempting three houses we decided to take the monster and bunny home. Once home Oliver and Carragh were very interested in trick or treating. When someone knocked at the door they would grab their pumpkins (well, Oliver usually grabbed them both) and they would run to the door. The trick or treaters had to fight for their candy as both Oliver and Carragh had their hands in bowl and they were both grabbing candy by the handful. Once the trick or treaters left they had no interest in the candy so we would put the candy back in the bowl, and then, when there was a knock on the door, Oliver and Carragh would again run to the candy bowl and begin their frenzied grabbing.

Halloween Part I: The Great Pumpkin Rescue

Oliver calls pumpkins "Mama." I am not sure why, but he does. He will see a pumpkin, go up to it, hug it and say "Mama." He does this not only when I am with him but also when he is out with Jessica and with Davis. I've asked Davis if I have an orange hue or if I resemble a pumpkin - he has assured me that I am not round and orange.

The cold, snow and rain decided to skip town for Halloween - yesterday was a balmy 75 degrees! A perfect day for pumpkin carving. We set everything up and explained to Oliver what pumpkin carving was all about - he looked at us like we were crazy.

I then took my pumpkin and cut the top off so that Oliver could see inside -

Oliver was beyond upset. I think he was scared and was, perhaps, disgusted. Not wanting to scar him and make him forever scared of pumpkin carving we decided to try a new approach - having him sit with Davis and help him carve a pumpkin.

He was interested, until Davis put a knife to the pumpkin. Once that happened Oliver announced he was "All done," and grabbed his pumpkin.

He took "Mama" and put it the back of his truck and drove it across the backyard until the truck and "Mama" were well hidden behind the rhododendron (if you look closely you can just make out the yellow truck behind the bush).


Oliver then raced across the lawn and declared victory - he had successfully managed to save his pumpkin, "Mama," from being carved.