For the past few weeks, Khai has fallen into the role of the defiant, resistant three-year-old. While I know he’s just trying to test his boundaries and see how much he can get away with, it’s still frustrating. He’s gotten good at looking at me, no fear to be seen, and saying NO. I could be asking him to do something he loves, and he’ll say no just for kicks. Last night he would not get into the bathtub– he would not even come near the bathroom. After about five minutes of him saying, I will not take a bath! over and over, I finally picked him up and put him into the full bath, jeans and all. He was so shocked that he forgot to fight me. The look on his face was worth a million dollars… and he didn’t fuss anymore for the rest of the night. I WON!

Max and Khai got out of school early today– about 11am– due to the ice pellets and snow falling from the sky. Once home, the boys spent a lot of time staring out the window, awed by the white stuff. At one point, Khai came running in to me: MOM! There’s so many snow! There’s one hundred many snow! Max had to refute that by telling him that there were *way* more than a hundred. Probably a thousand or maybe a million.

NaBloPoMo is officially over in about half an hour… and I did it! I wrote every day! There were a couple of days there that I just really, really didn’t want to write. And then there were several days where I had nothing to write about and had to think far too hard to come up with something. Ok, that was most days. It’s not an adventuresome life I lead. Well, unless you consider potty training and the Lego-scattered-floor/minefield to be dangerous and exciting.

I don’t imagine I’ll keep posting every day (because truly, some days there’s just nothing there), though I do know that it’s good for me. The more I write, the easier it is to find the words. And sometimes I just have to make myself do it. Pants-in-the-bathtub style.

Rachel had a little laundry problem and accidentally turned Max’s undies pink. He is very unhappy about this, because pink is for girls. Also a casualty? His once-white dinosaur pajamas: now they are PINK. (Hey, Morgan! Is Zoe into dinosaurs? I have some cute pink dino pj’s…)

show them what we have, Vanna!

Max was still a bit feverish this morning but is doing worlds better by now. If the rest of the night goes well, he may even go to school tomorrow. Um, if they have school tomorrow. Earlier, it dropped 30 degrees in about two and a half hours — I’ve never seen anything move in that fast! We have had lightning, thunder, rain, some snow and lots of wind already. It’s supposed to get down to like 22 degrees. That’s perfect weather for some big blankets, hot cocoa and a stack of movies to watch.

Random: When we get a package delivered and the box is full of styrofoam peanuts, Khai gets very excited about the XYLOFOAM!

EDIT: I am being forced, at gunpoint (ok, laser-eye-point and the yelling, OMG, the yelling!) to explain that my dear sister’s laundry accident happened while she was cleaning up after Max’s first round of throwing up last night. Which I appreciate immensely. I still get to make fun of the pink undies, though.

My poor Max is soooo sick. I had to go pick him up from school early because he had a headache and fever– he’d told his teacher that his head was going to explode, so of course she called me right away. After he got home, he slept for a few hours… then the vomiting started. He is such a trooper! No complaining, no crying. I asked him a little while ago if I could get him anything and he said, “No, just some extra love.”

He’s sleeping somewhat fitfully now, but at least he’s not throwing up anymore. I hope tomorrow will be an easier day for him. It’s so hard seeing him like this– just heartbreaking.

I shopped today– having to go out and dress like an adult always makes me realize that I don’t own any actual outfits. With Rachel’s help I found something to wear for Friday’s Christmas Party Extravaganza. It is good to have her shop with me, as she is relentlessly and wonderfully honest. I always second-guess my choices and then think everything looks horrible once I put it on– so it’s good to have her kick me in the head a few times.

Looky: Make Magazine’s Open source gift guide! Genius.

It’s going to get cold this week (yaaay!) so here is a photo of Katie and I in Florida earlier this month:

So. Very. Tired. This weekend has been a frenzy of cleaning, cooking, and craziness. I love having my family around, though– it was all so very worth it. It would be wonderful to have a giant house that could hold everyone for a couple of weeks at a time. Maybe someday?

Key lime pie, round two: a success! I still have some work to do before the recipe is perfected, but it did set up beautifully. I’m willing to sacrifice a few more pies in order to get it right… even if that means I have to do several extra hours of Pilates to make up for it.

Speaking of food, let it be known that Farris Goldstein is the master of cornbread stuffing. I polished off all of the stuffing Josh brought home on Friday. Thank you!

The museum trip was a quick one– just a couple of hours– but I think we all enjoyed it. I loved getting to watch Max and Khai’s reactions to the art. One of our favorite pieces was Albert Rigolot’s The Threshing Machine. The light and texture in this piece are incredible; it practically glows. Somehow, I always forget how happy art makes me.

Now it’s time for snog & rum. (SILK NOG! and RUM!)

Yaaaaaaay!

The key lime pie turned out to be somewhat of a disaster. It didn’t set up, even with extra cooking time… so I’ve just mixed in half a tub of vegan cream cheese substitute and half a tub of dairy-free whipped topping and put it back into the pie shell. It’s in the freezer and we’ll sample it soon. I’ll be trying another version in the morning, but there’s a batch of amaretto brownies cooling just in case we need a back-up dessert.

The reason for all of the baking? My parents are driving down tomorrow so we can celebrate a late Thanksgiving together. My dad hasn’t been able to visit since moving to Texas; I’m soooo ready to see him. We’ll be heading to the Dallas Museum of Art to catch the Van Gogh exhibit and then afterwards Dad will show off his grill skillz. Khai has requested that ‘curly sausage’ (aka kielbasa) accompany the hamburgers.

Rachel & Steve will be moving to Sherman later this week… I’m going to miss them tremendously. I have gotten used to seeing my sister every day! I’m glad their plans are finally falling into place.

We just finished watching A Christmas Story– I love that movie. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s still November.

In watching the movie, Rachel and I started wondering what Randy, the little brother, is up to now. Oh, the internet makes me happy! Here’s a site with a few somewhat recent pictures of several cast members. Wikipedia has info on the movie, and then there’s the oh-so-amazing collection of MySpace pages. Randy, Scut and Flick all have them. I’d totally hang out with Scut Farkus– he seems less bitter than the others. He’s also in the new Transformers movie!

Best nugget found today: Grover Dill (Scut Farkus’s toady) was played by Yano Anaya– he went on to play the paperboy in Better Off Dead. I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!

Tomorrow I will attempt to make a wheat-free/dairy-free key lime pie. It’s gonna be tasty…

The biggest drawback to not hosting Thanksgiving dinner is the lack of leftovers. That’s one of the best parts! We had a good afternoon in Dallas– food, full tummies & family.

This evening I let the kids stay up really late (til after 10pm!) so they could watch Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I loved that movie when I was younger– though the Child Catcher terrified me. Khai handles the scary stuff well, but Max bounces all over the place and often runs straight out of the room. They liked the movie overall, especially the dancing and (of course) the snazzy car. When they wake up at 7am, crankified and whiny, I will regret letting them stay up so late. It was fun watching the movie with them, though.

the scary Child Catcher points his scary nose at the toymaker

I’m going to go to bed now. This headache has been with me for days now and it’s just eeeeeeevil. Sleep hasn’t cured it thus far, but at least when I’m sleeping the pain isn’t as noticeable.

It has seemed like Saturday all day– maybe because Josh and the boys are home? Keeping track of what day it is has been easier since the boys started school; my first couple of years as a stay-at-home mom were pretty much full of anonymous days with no names or numbers.

I baked a pumpkin pie today (wheat-free & dairy-free… and very good, I might add) and it truly made me want to dig out the Christmas music. Josh would have killed me, though– he gets sick of it after about an hour and is done for the season. So while he’s out traveling, I’ll be playing Harry Connick, Jr’s When My Heart Finds Christmas over and over and over. There might be a little Mannheim Steamroller, Streisand and Sinatra thrown in there, as well. Here it is, Thanksgiving Eve, and I’ve already got the next holiday on the brain! I can’t help it– I love it. And it’s 982,283,698 times better with kids. We don’t even go big on the shopping and gift exchanging anymore– none at all for the adults in my family, in fact. It has shifted into just enjoying the time we get to spend together– and of course watching Max & Khai soak up every detail.

Ok. Focus-focus-focus. Tomorrow. Thanksgiving. We’ll be heading to Dallas for lunch at Josh’s Uncle Jon’s house. All of his dad’s side of the family will be there, I think; Max & Khai have pretty much bestowed Grandfather Status upon Uncle Jon, so they are excited. I’ve got to bake a loaf of spelt bread in the morning… and must remember to pull the pie out of the fridge before leaving. It seems so simple, yeah?

Here’s hoping that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving– may you all get to be with people you love. I am grateful for so much in this life, but always at the top of my list are my family and friends. You all just make life better, make me better, make the world better.

Max’s letter to Santa, as promised:

I’ve been busy working on invitations to send out for Josh’s company Christmas party. Have I mentioned how much I like his company? They are taking us all to the Gaylord Texan– not just for a meal, but dinner at the Riverwalk Cafe, then drinks and dancing at the Glass Cactus afterwards. In the morning (yes! we get to stay the night there, too!), we’ll meet for breakfast and then we can either go golfing or hit the spa for massages/pedicures/manicures. After that will be lunch at Texan Station. Then we all return to our normal lives. I guess that’s one of the perks of having just a handful of employees– more than a pizza party at Christmas! I am so ready for that massage.

While completely enamored with Captain Picard’s ABCs (YouTube video), I have to admit that I’m even more taken with the resulting Metafilter thread. It boiled down so quickly to a Picard vs. Adama scenario. Even the mention of The Adama Maneuver makes me happy. In January, they’ll be moving Battlestar Galactica to Sunday nights– not my preference, but I guess I’ll take what I can get. This is where my dear sister starts chanting nerd alert! nerd alert! because she loves me.