The Dickinson Boys: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We've had a lot going on around here, as usual. Luke is now eating solids and has tried squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and bananas. His favorite seems to be squash. He also enjoyed the bananas I mixed in his rice cereal last night. He is definitely a fan of eating food (as opposed to drinking it). He's doing much better at eating from a spoon too but we still make a big mess at mealtimes.

Luke is still a slobbery mess a lot of the time. But at other times he seems very observant and aware of things that are going on around him. He loves to play with my face and grab my cheeks and eyes. He also loves Eskimo kisses and giggles when you touch his nose. He enjoys lying on his play mat and looking at the Christmas tree. He watches Will very closely and I can already tell that Luke is going to learn a lot just through observing Will. He is getting to a very fun age.

Will is a ball of energy these days. His big new skill is spelling and "reading" his name. We started by writing his name on a piece of paper so he could see the letters. He would say, "W-I-L-L Will." Then he started spelling his name even when he couldn't see the letters. Now, when he sees "Will" written out, he most often just looks at it and says "Will." I think he thinks it's old news now but he can recognize his name when written and can spell it out loud, though not always on demand. I've worked a little with him on writing a "W" but I think we're a ways from being able to do that. He does occasionally scribble and say "down, up, down, up" which is what I'd say when helping him write a "W." One thing that will be tricky for us is teaching southpaw Will how to write. I tried to put my hand over his but I'm so bad at writing with my left hand!

Will has been very concerned recently with where things are. It's one of his favorite questions- "where is it?" One day a couple of weeks ago he had a toy of Luke's that did not have batteries in it. Will looked at the back of the toy, where the battery compartment was, and said "screwdriver, where is it?" I kept telling him he couldn't play with a screwdriver but he kept asking "where is it" because he wanted to try to unscrew the screws on the toy to open the battery compartment. Don't ask me how he knows these things! A few days after that he was in my office upstairs and happened to find a screwdriver. The first thing he did was take it downstairs to look for that toy! I took it away (mean old mommy). We're looking for a tool playset for him for Christmas.

Another day Will was looking at Luke's baby monitor and when he didn't see Luke on the screen he asked "Where's Cookie?" And just this morning we played my favorite game- which of Will's 50 cars is he looking for and upset that he can't find? He kept crying, "Car- where is it?" And then he'd tell me "go get it." Finally found the missing car in his bed. It's both funny and exhausting that he always wants to know where things are.

Will's feelings toward Luke seem to have shifted from mere tolerance to actual affection. He often shows concern that we bring Luke with us when we go places. He likes to help push the stroller and brings Luke bottles and pacifiers that he "finds." Most nights he says "night night, Cookie." Shortly after Halloween Will was finishing off some gummy worms and I briefly left the room to get Luke's jacket. As I was coming back in I heard, "open, Cookie, gummy worm!" And Will was trying to give Luke a gummy worm! Had to put a stop to that. And on Sunday when we were putting up the Christmas tree, Luke was watching from his activity center and Will would come over to him, point to the tree and very excitedly say "Cookie- Christmas tree!" And my favorite- both boys were on my lap and Will leaned over and kissed Luke! We still have our sharing issues, however. Will still does not like it when Luke plays with toys and he tries to take them away. Will is very protective of "his" toys but we're working on it.

Lately Will has been very opinionated about what he eats. One of his favorite things to do is yell "pizza's comin'." Even if it's early in the morning or after we've already eaten dinner, Will often gets struck with some wishful thinking and yells, "pizza's comin'." We ordered pizza the day after Thanksgiving and he was yelling about pizza coming. Then Uncle Kyle asked Will where the pizza comes from and he said "front door." He's got it all figured out. He also keeps asking me for chocolate cake. We haven't had chocolate cake since David's birthday in October, but Will sometimes pulls me into the dining room, points to the empty cake plate and says, "chocolate cake." A new food that he just discovered and loves is marshmallows. We bought some mini marshmallows for some hot chocolate, which he didn't care for, but now he keeps asking me for "marshpillows." He loves them!

The week of Thanksgiving we had some visitors- the boys' Aunt Erica, Uncle Kyle and cousin Savannah. We had a great time sightseeing in Annapolis and Chesapeake Beach and visiting. Erica and I whipped up a Thanksgiving feast, though I think I may have been a little too ambitious about cooking things from scratch. Next year I'll definitely ease some of that burden. It was also my first attempt at brining a turkey. I think the brine turned out well but the turkey cooked a little too long and was, therefore, not as juicy as the Food Network promised me. I'm looking forward to trying it again sometime without the meat thermometer malfunction. But we all had a good time. We especially enjoyed meeting our niece, Savannah, who is a cutie. Her and Luke enjoyed staring at each other. Will called her "Salina."

Will watched a lot of "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" prior to Thanksgiving. At one point in the car I had it off and he started babbling about the Mayflower, trying to get me to turn it on. He's seen "A Charlie Brown Christmas" a couple of times. Thanks to his love of Peanuts (we have a boxed set) he repeats words like "typewriter" and "sport coat" which is really amusing. He can also identify the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy but he calls Peppermint Patty "sir."

Will's obsession with basketball continues. He found an old (and very flat) basketball today and has been carrying it around. He insisted on taking it to his room during his nap and slept with it in his bed. Santa is bringing him a new ball and an actual basketball goal, which I think he's going to love!

Our tree and Christmas decorations are up and we're looking forward to the Christmas season. Though, sadly, we are again short a person. Next week we may go see Santa at the mall in Annapolis. I need to work on Will so that he doesn't scream like he did last year. He seems to understand more now. He knows Santa Claus in pictures, knows that Santa says "Ho, Ho, Ho" and he recently learned the words "sleigh" and "reindeer." The toy thing he does not yet understand. He also has been playing with one of our Nativity sets and on a good day he can identify Mary, Joseph, "baby shesus" and "angel." Can't wait to see him on Christmas!