I'm thankful for... gymnastics.

This coming week is American Thanksgiving, which is a huge holiday here. Many people take the whole week off to travel, and everyone expects you to have plans of some kind. We, of course, don't have any plans other than a dinner with our wonderful neighbours. However, the holiday hype has prompted me to talk more about what Thanksgiving is with the kids, and Madeleine especially is (I think, anyway) starting to understand what it means to be thankful. At dinner we each say something we are thankful for... the past three nights she has said "gymnastics".  She has been going to a gymnastics class every week, and she does really enjoy it, although she is still too shy to participate in any of the warm up activities. 

Steve is undoubtedly thankful for the 1939 lathe he found on Craigslist, after months of looking. He tells me that he has wanted one ever since he was a teenager and learned how to use one in high school shop class.  He has had a lot of fun taking it apart, figuring out what it needs, and finding a few parts. It isn't quite in working condition just yet, but I'm sure it would be if he had more time to work on it.

The kids had fun with this bookshelf unit that is standing on end, before we put it next to Ross' bed.

Madeleine loves playing with baking soda and dyed vinegar.  I had a few syringes stashed away, and they made the perfect tool for distributing the colours.

On this day, by the time Ross woke from his nap and got a turn, the tray was slightly less tidy.

On Veteran's Day, we all took a 30 minute ferry ride into San Francisco and spent the day on the waterfront.

About a month ago, we took the side-railing off of Ross' crib because he had started climbing out of the crib. He and Madeleine have always shared a room, but it's only been the last few months that they go to bed at the same time. Now, they both look at books before falling asleep, but Madeleine always falls asleep first. More than once, we have gone in to find Ross snuggled in next to her, and I'm sure he climbs up there after she's asleep since she is not keen on sharing her bed when she's awake. It's pretty cute, but we always move him back to his own bed.

Another big change is that Ross has been diaper-free for nearly a month now! He seemed really interested in the toilet since he wants to do whatever Madeleine is doing, so we decided to take the plunge and go cold turkey on diapers, for both day and night. He's done really well, with a few rough patches because of his desire to be totally independent and his dislike of being told what to do, but now he is usually quite happy to take a book and go sit on the potty when he needs to go. It's so nice to be done with diapers and really cute to see how proud he is of being able to use the toilet.