Thanksgiving and so forth!

So last week was Thanksgiving, and we had us a good one. It was just us and Tom, but since Tom's one of our very best friends and he is definitely Annika's favorite guy ever, it was a good time. The morning was spent getting the 18-lb. turkey into the oven and prepping all the other stuff we were serving, and the afternoon was all about eating like they weren't going to be making food after tomorrow. Heh. Annika sat up to dinner with us (at about 5:00), and really enjoyed her plate (with a little dab of everything we were eating). She indulged us sitting there for an hour and a half -- dang, she's good! And the next day, it was close to 7:00 a.m. before she got annoyed enough to drag R. out of bed ...

Helpful baby

This kid likes to help. And she will do anything you ask, if it's part of a Mommy or Daddy job. Just lately, she's stepped up her contributions to coffee (seriously, you can stop a tantrum mid-kick/flail with "You want to help Mommy make coffee?"), putting away clean dishes ("put away focks and knives, clean ones, match 'em up"), and cooking -- I set her up with a chair right next to the counter (always with the lesson on how "never never never do this unless Mommy or Daddy is RIGHT HERE" ... yeah, we know, good luck with that ...). And I give her a task, show her how to do it, and watch with amazement as she learns and masters things one by one. Having her help me in the kitchen is one of the things I love most about this whole gig -- I remember spending loads of time in the kitchen with my mom, my Grammy and my Neanaw, and it just feels like passing down a gift to the next generation.

Stella dress

OK, this made me feel INSANE, and broke like ten of my own Parenting Rules, but: I bought her a dress from the Stella McCartney Gap collection. Silk dress. Fifty-eight dollars. No discount (she's a Celebrity Designer, doncha know -- even we employees have to pay full price). For a TWO-YEAR-OLD. But! The dress is so cute -- it grabbed me by the face and would not let go till I bought it. She'll look really really incredibly cute for the five minutes until she smears peanut butter on it, at the babyschool Christmas sing thing next Friday (her class's song is "Feliz Navidad" -- you will DIE of cuteness when you hear her sing it). Put her in that dress and top it with what I am calling the "Tuesday Weld coat" (a chocolate-brown faux-fur coat from Gap, with a hood that makes her look just like the photo of Tuesday Weld on the cover of Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend), well ... die of cuteness, is what.

A new Sheriff in town

R. got us a new carbon monoxide detector. As hilarious as it is hearing her go on and on about a smoke detector, imagine her talking about the "kabah. moxide. deee.tector. Daddy get a ... " etc. etc. etc. Heh.

Four, maybe five alarms

New adorable phrase: "a little bit o' picy." As in, the chili we let her have is "a little bit o' picy." So she has to drink milk after. Heh.

Astounding memory

This has always been the case with her -- something you had no idea she'd remember, she's talking about with utter assurance. Yesterday I was folding the red tablecloth I'd washed and dried. She saw it, said "Oh! Red table clof. Put it on de big table. Sit down, wif Mommy and Daddy, and Tommy, and eat de turkey." Holy CRAP.

Babyschool pictures

It's a school. They had a photographer come. You want some? Let us know ...