November update

November wasn't quite as busy as October for us, probably because there aren't a whole lot of Thanksgiving activities out there. We did end up making some Native American headbands for the kids to wear. Correction, Rebekah made them for us all to wear. Levi, Caroline and I went to Rebekah's Thanksgiving party at school. The kids in her class were all dressed up and sang songs. Rebekah was doing the actions and singing until she saw us arrive. After that she only smiled and acted bashful. It made for thrilling homes videos.
On Thanksgiving day we went to Sam's and ate delicious food. Afterward we all headed over to cousin Joe's lot to watch Sam rip out tree stumps with his tractor. In the evening we headed over to Nelson's cousin's house for another dinner. Lots of food and lots of turkey.

That evening I braved the crowds to do some Black Friday shopping. Little quiz for you: did you know that Black Friday shopping actually starts at 9:00 pm on Thursday now? Wowsers.

Rebekah is continuing to love the violin and ballet. Her teachers always praise her and tell me how she is doing so well. Her ballet teacher says she is a little leader in her class.

Levi is a rascal if ever there was a rascal. He keeps me on my toes to say the least. He is not a mean boy, he is just constantly getting into things. I have to child lock everything I can. And if it can't be locked down, he's into it. Or on top of it. Including the baby. On several occasions I have found him trying to ride Caroline like a horse. (I think he took the pony rides last month a little too seriously). Levi continues to say more and more things. He has a deep voice for a little boy and it's quite charming at times. He has started to need more attention at nap and bed time. Nelson always puts Rebekah and Levi to bed, and Levi has started to cry hysterically when Nelson leaves the room at night. A few days ago we were letting him cry it out. It finally reached a point where we were going to go in and lay him back on his bed. Nelson opened the door and Levi comes bolting out, completely naked and smelling of urine. Oh, so that's why he was laying down at the door, screaming so hard.

Caroline has developed a love of socks. No, not to wear, to bite and chew on. If she has socks on she gleefully yanks and pulls on them until one comes off in her hands. One day she was wearing pants with footies. She quickly became frustrated and screamed and cried when the footies would not come off for her to play with. She started eating Gerber puffs last week, like baby food pears, and that's about it. She is not a lover of baby food, but enjoys small pieces or regular food. She plays with Levi and Rebekah more and more, and loves to play with Nelson. She just smiles when she hears his voice or sees him.

    Levi playing in his room after having scaled a shelf in his closet to find his Christmas present (the train set).

                                      Rebekah in school for her kindergarten Thanksgiving party

Levi loves to find the floss and pull out as much as possible before he gets caught.  Here he is, having tied up  a coffee table leg, and himself.  It was like he had somehow handcuffed his own arms behind his back.

                           His hand turning purple from so much floss being wound around the wrist.