Squid Brains, Eyeless Fish, and Thanksgiving Dinner

So I've been working on a photo book of Addie's entire life up to this point. After spending a million hours getting all the photos in one spot and then figuring out where to put them and which ones to eliminate (I swear I have more photos of her than minutes she's been alive), it came time to put in some text. I started writing but found that I couldn't quite remember everything and it was going to take another million hours to complete. Then I had an Edison moment and decided to go through every post I've ever written on this blog to see what I've written about Addie. It was during this process that I truly discovered the value and awesomity of blogging. Everything from Addie's birth up until now has been recorded with fabulous detail and timely accounts. I just copied and pasted stuff from this blog and put it into my book (it's one of those Blurb books I'm doing). Voila! It was so great to go back through and remember so many things that my squid brain had already forgotten. I'm going to have to make a book out of our blog, too! I also realized how awful my posting frequency has been these last two months. Absolutely despicable! Therefore I am recommitting myself to regular posting for the sake of my posterity and your entertainment. Consider it done.

Just a little footnote: "squid brain" has become one of my favorite things to say since I watched a show on Animal Planet about Colossal Squids. Here's the funny thing about squid brains: they are shaped like doughnuts and their esophagus goes right through the middle hole. The result of this crazy design is that if they eat something too big it could give them brain damage or kill them. Pretty fascinating, right? Just another one of those animals I'd like to have been around to see created. Heck, maybe I was.

And now for some pictures:

The last Wednesday of every month from November to February is Wild Wednesday at the zoo. Wild Wednesday is wild because admission is free and you get to wear long johns, sweaters and a pile of coats to walk around and look at animals in. It is no misnomer, I tell you. The day before Thanksgiving was one of these wild days and so we took our little pink puff to the zoo. It was pretty cool! It was cold but clear and not windy, plus no one else wants to go to the zoo in the winter so its not even busy!

They have a little playground complete with a snake slide (you come out of its mouth, right between its fangs!). It was so cold the slides weren't slippery, so kids slowly squeaked down them, Addie included. However, this large egg was still fun.

We wandered around and checked out all the cool animals and watched Addie get excited about them. She's been to the zoo once before but it was before she could walk or point. She was most excited about the bats, turkeys and tiny orange monkeys. Of course, she fell asleep before we got the elephants or giraffes which are usually zoo highlights.

There were so many awesome animals at the zoo (I'm sure they are always there but its usually too crowded to really get to see them all) and we really had an awesome time. My favorites were the cave fish (they don't have eyes) and the baby elephant. Jason's were the mountain sheep (we watched it eat snow) and the tigers (a mom and three cubs). I don't think we'll be going to anymore Wild Wednesdays until next year since I hate even going out to get the mail in this cold, but you might consider going. You'll probably even have the whole place to yourself.


This was Addie's first Thanksgiving dinner. We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house with my mom, dad, two brothers, Grandpa Brough, and the dog. It was a special treat to have my Grandpa there because he usually goes to my aunt's house (she lives closer). He told us stories about crazy stunts he pulled when he was a kid and explosions he's set off, been in and/or both. We were in awe.

Addie only wanted to eat cranberry sauce, rolls and pumpkin pie. In that order. Now, I like a tasty cranberry sauce, but that doesn't mean I like to eat straight handfuls of it one right after the other. Addie, on the other hand, prefers to eat hers that way. Hey, we all have our strange habits. After dinner we played Scrabble where I averaged about twelve million points a word. Then we watched Monster's Inc. and followed it up with turkey sandwiches. It was a tremendous Thanksgiving. We truly have a lot to be thankful for.

Addie reached another milestone three days ago. No, not the Speaking one or the Master Pianist one. We're talking about the Ponytail Milestone. Her hair is officially long enough, at least in the back, for ponytails. Pigtails. Whatever kind of tails these are. Congratulations, little one. We are so proud! I think this means she's graduated out of the Infant Class into Toddlerhood. She definitely looks older with them in, anyway. Not that I want her to grow up, but what can I do about it? I don't really want to be taking care of a one-year old when I'm eighty, either.

So here's the table I've been talking about. This is Stage 1: Brown. I sanded it, primed it, sanded it, and then painted it a lovely shade of Sea Tickle. Or maybe it was Sea Shimmer. This brings us to...

Stage 2: Pleasant Plain. At this point it was permitted to come inside the house for its next step in the make-over. I then made paper pattern after paper pattern, which were then used to make the final petal pieces. After cutting cardstock to the point I developed a juvenile form of arthritis, Stage 3 was set in motion.

Stage 3: Speechless Beauty and Awe. I arranged all of my precious pieces of paper on the table top and then left them there for two weeks.

This is the final design I decided upon for the leaf. Without the leaf the table has a complete Dahlia flower on the top. With the leaf it has to Dahlia halves with a smaller, complete flower in the middle. I explained all of that for those of you that are photo blind. After the two week period (a time for me to prepare myself for Mod Podging....having never done it before I was nervous and needed to gather my wits about me. That sounds funny. "Come wits! Gather round and let us be one!") I pulled out my bottle of Mod Podge and my sponge brushes and went to work. Stage 4: Majestic Phoenix Rising from the Ashes in Full Glory and Light has been completed. I'll post pictures after everything has dried and I can put it all back together. I really love this table and I'm excited to have finally finished it. Now I just need some chairs.

Also, I can't take full credit for this idea since I pretty much swiped it from here: Juicy Bits. She's so creative and I thought her table was so cool that I stole it. I had to have one, you see. Anyway, if any of you feel like stealing it too here's some advice: 1. Use paper, not fabric. It goes on smoother and resists bubbles. 2. Buy all the materials you'll need before you start. Namely paper, because if you realize that you need more paper of a certain print so you go back to buy another piece it will be gone. And then you'll have to buy a different print, which still works, but is annoying to incorporate.