NOVEMBER 2020!

Being that it's 2020, we went ahead and set up our Christmas tree and holiday decorations within a week of Halloween. Why not bring in the cheer, amirite??? Ben enjoyed hanging ornaments and helping me make a paper garland. Now we have an adorable tree with a cluster of his favorite ornaments at the bottom, which is the absolute best :). Holiday music is on in the car and we've already gone for several rides around the neighborhood to see lights!!!

Nora has reached a ton of exciting milestones this month. She was able to get herself on all fours in early November, so we knew she'd start crawling within a few weeks. She pulled herself up to standing for the first time on her Pawpaw's birthday. On Thanksgiving Day she started crawling (perhaps motivated by the smell of pumpkin pie???). As far as eating goes, she's branched out to pureed foods, which she totally loves. She also loves the sound of a guitar - she likes to "play" Craig's acoustic guitar. Lastly, she had her 6 month checkup with the doc, where she measured in the 96th percentile for height!!! She's definitely a big baby, but not quite as chunky as Ben was at this age.

Ben is always a source of entertainment. One of his favorite activities is making up songs, which he's been really in to this month. He's started to calm down a bit when he gets frustrated, which has helped establish a bit more of a peaceful household. His memory is sometimes astounding - he remembers very specific events from 1-1.5 years ago! I don't know why this surprises me, but it does :). Ben LOVES Nora - he's always on the lookout for her well-being and happiness. He makes sure she doesn't get any toys with small parts and likes to entertain her. She returns the favor by pulling his hair when he gets his head too close to her (poor kid!).

This month we took the kiddos to the local farmers market where Ben tried 'poffertjes' (Dutch mini pancakes), Craig got some gluten-free goodies and I got some much-needed specialty, small batch (and all that jazz) coffee. We also took them on a drive-through dinosaur exhibit where Ben was too scared of the dinosaurs to roll the car windows down. Nora didn't have the same instincts and wanted to get out of the car to pet them. Thankfully Ben wasn't too scared to take a picture with a dinosaur at the end of the tour :). We also took the kids to our local park where Nora got to play in sand for the first time. She's funny when she encounters a new texture - she kicks her feet around as fast as she can while sitting. She does this in the bath and when sitting on grass, too. I wish I had a video of it, but sometimes I'm too entertained to think about getting one.

Thanksgiving was very relaxed this year - we cooked all the staples at home by ourselves and watched football. Ben's favorite were the canned black olives (he's easy to please). The gravy was AMAZING this year, so we were sure to drown everything in it :). We had a socially-distanced coffee and dessert outside with Nonna, Aunt Debbie and Uncle Joe the next day (thank goodness for mild Phoenix Novembers!!!). It was the first time Nora met Debbie and Joe. She was a bit skeptical at first, but warmed up quickly - she was most interested in what everyone was eating. Ben entertained us all by racing his bike around the yard and hitting baseballs - he doesn't need to warm up to people anymore :).

Ben-isms:

• Asking what things will be like when we're "bones".
• Telling me that he was sad that he didn't have a uterus and couldn't grow a baby.
• Mixing lots of absolutes and generic terms. Example: "Mom, you shouldn't tell me everything or anything ever again!!!"
• Role-playing and story-telling with absolutely anything. Example: making a bucket and shovel "talk".