Happy Hanaanaa

This year has been really fun to teach Josh about the holidays. He is learning and understanding so much, and he has been so happy and excited. On the first night of Hanukkah we has a little low key celebration with lighting the candles and some easy pre-made latkes. We taught Josh about the menorah, which he calls "Hanaanaa" and told him the candles were hot. He was a pro at opening gifts, he must have remembered some from last year :-)

Last night we had a few people over to celebrate Hanukkah and I cooked latkes, brisket and apple sauce. We have been getting a bag of apples each week in our CSA and I have found the only way to keep up is to make apple sauce in the crockpot. Josh really enjoyed his latkes and apple sauce :) He also kept pointing to the menorah and saying, "Hanaanaa, hot".

Hopefully by next year Josh will be ready for some dreidel playing!

Brisket ready to bake in my new brisket pot!

"Hanaanaa, hot!"

Playing with his new book

Elmo!

Baby brother

I think by now all of our readers know that Josh is going to be a big brother :-) Here are some cute pictures. 

Big news!

He wanted to see his brother

Giving his little brother a hug :-)

20 week bump picture, for those who have requested one

Lie down!

Julian and I have always been big lying on the floor people (particularly me!). So we often lay on the floor in Josh's room while he plays. Now whenever you lie down on the floor, he likes to come lie down with you. But then you also need a buddy (blanket), a pillow, and an animal or 2 or 3. A few weeks ago Josh came down from his nap to find Jeter sleeping in the sun (a common occurrence), he decided that she needed a buddy and a teddy bear to sleep with. Over the weekend I was napping while Josh napped.  When he woke up, Julian brought him downstairs while I was still on the couch with a blanket and pillow. He of course wanted to join me, and required that several animals also join us. I love snuggling with Josh, even if he is a demanding napper :-)

Bringing JeJe a bear

And then a Buddy

I don't think Jeter appreciated the gesture...

Snuggle buddy :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were happy to get to spend Thanksgiving (and the weekend after) with all of our families. On Thursday we went up to Baltimore to spend the day cooking with the Ellie and Mark and then dinner with family.  Friday we had brunch with Julian's Mom and step-dad before they headed off on their trip and Saturday we had brunch with Julian's Dad, Nancy and his sister.  I got to do lots of cooking and shopping the whole weekend. This year was MUCH better than last year where I had to work on my thesis the whole weekend.

When we got to Ellie's, Josh was very happy to get to hold baby M for the first time! He LOVED holding her, and still asks to see the pictures of them :-)  We had big plans to watch our traditional Thanksgiving day West Wing (The Butterball hotline episode) while Josh napped. Josh decided that everyone was having too much fun and wanted to watch with us. I let him snuggle with me on the couch, until he was being too chatty and not resting. By then he was tired enough to sleep in the pack and play upstairs. We then had a great potluck style Thanksgiving (everyone helped out!) with a big group of our family (from all sides). Josh especially enjoyed his mashed potatoes and apple pie.

This was the first year in a long time we haven't been able to do two (or more!) Thanksgivings. We were certainly a little bummed about that, but very thankful that our families are understanding. We had a great time at brunch with Julian's family the next few days.

Helping Mommy cook!

Mmmm pie....2 out of 3 pictured here

Cousins!

No nap!

Drawing with Cousin Maeve

Gobble Gobble