Happy Thanksgiving!

Damon nor I have been home (basically) since Wednesday so this post will be of the past few days.



Wednesday: Damon and I got off of work/school and headed straight to G-maw and G-paw's house as we anxiously awaited the arrival of our cousins: Jason and Kelly and their kids Trenton and Mckenna. Trenton is exactly 6 months younger than Damon so needless to say it was going to be a weekend of non-stop fun! Mckenna is the new addition to the family as she turned 6 weeks old this weekend. They arrived about 8:00 that night and the boys waisted no time playing as the adults passed around the new baby of the family. The boys finally went down to sleep around 9:30.



Thanksgiving Day: Today was an absolute beautiful day so the boys got to play outside a lot! We road four wheelers, played football, fed the horses oh and Damon and Trenton decided to pretend the motorized wheelchair was an army tank. Check out those [fake] guns...our little soldiers. Dinner was ready around 5:30 and it was about time! We were starving...okay maybe not starving because we had been munching all day. Damon decided to have 4 clementines...wow! The food was absolutely wonderful. This was our biggest thanksgiving yet with the following people: My parents, Tyler (my brother), my grandmother, Larry and Suzi (Uncle and Aunt), Brandon and Kayla (cousins), Jason and Kelly (cousins mentioned above), Trenton and Mckenna. Our extended family ended up coming over after thanksgiving dinner which added at least 20 more people...too many to list. I love having family around and it was so nice for Damon to get to play with all of his cousins. Great day! That night I left Damon with G-maw and G-paw so I could go back to my place and get ready for work the next day. Yes, I was the only one that had to go in to work but not a big deal because this year I was not getting out in the black Friday mess.

Trenton and Damon playing war hero's on their electric wheelchair...too much fighting movies I think. :)Damon and cousin Kayla on uncle Larry's four wheeler.
Damon loves his "Unc"and Tyler loves Damon.

Friday: I went in to work around 6:45 that morning and left work around 12:30 that afternoon. I headed back up to my parents house to chill with the family. Damon and Trenton were of course playing outside and for it being the 3rd day they were still playing very well together. They had their cars and army men out. Later as it got dark and cold we went back to the house and let the boys watch a movie...Wal E. They could not wait to see it but then fell asleep during it. :)

Trenton and Damon got along so well this entire weekend. They are so cute.

Saturday: The adults were slow moving but the kids were up and ready to go. My cousin Jason offered to watch the boys while the adults went to a wine tasting vineyard. It was beautiful but for those of you that know me...I am NOT a wine drinker therefore after I would take one small sip of my wine I would pass the rest of my glass to my Uncle who would gladly finish it up for me. The kids were asleep when we got home so Kelly and I went out to do a little Christmas shopping. I got everyone finished except for Damon. I will have to do his when he goes out of town as there are only so many places you can hide gifts in an apartment. That night the adults went to Whiskey River however Kelly and I decided to stay home with the kids. They did great but this night we put them to bed by 8 and I think Kelly and I fell asleep on the couches by 10:00. Above is the beautiful winery...gorgeous actually. Below is everyone getting ready to do some tasting.



Sunday: Today was a sad day as it was time for my cousins to go back home (Northern Virginia). We all took turns again holding Mckenna (baby) as we knew the next time we saw her she would be older and less likely to want to be held. As my grandmother (Damon's G-G-Maw) was holding the baby Damon asked...

Damon: "are we going to keep her?"

GGMaw: "do you want to keep her?"

Damon: "yes"

GGMaw: "Well, she has to go home with her mommy and daddy but she will be back soon."

Damon (while rubbing Mckenna's face said): "I'm going to miss you Miss Kenna" and he gave her a kiss on the cheek.



Damon was very helpful all weekend with Mckenna. If she cried he tried to figure out a way to "make her stop" and if she needed to be held he would be right there asking to hold her. Damon would make an excellent big brother. Oh so cute...Mckenna is being breast fed and my cousin has a little poncho like thing she drapes over the baby while she feeds. The first time this happened Damon was very curious.



Damon: "Where is the baby?"

Kelly: "She is under my poncho."

Damon: "What is she doing under there?"

Kelly: "She is eating."

Damon: "Oh..."



At that point you could see the wheels turning in Damon's mind and the next thing we know he takes a peek under the poncho and came out with his eyes wide and a shy grin. He was curious no more. :)

The Grandchildren: Counter Clockwise: Grandma, Kayla, Jason, Tyler, Brandon and Me.

We had a great time with our family and can not wait for their next visit. We Love You!

Great Grand Children: Trenton, Mckenna and Damon.

Be Our Guest...

Damon and I were pleasantly surprised to find out that G-Maw was going to be spending the weekend with us this weekend. Damon was a great host as he gave her the run down of bathroom occupancy, shoe placement and seating organization.

Damon: "G-maw this is my bathroom and mommy has her bathroom so if you have to go to the bathroom I guess you can use mine."

Damon: "When you come in the door you have to take your shoes off right here (in the foyer) and I put my shoes in my closet."

Damon: "G-maw you can sit right here on the couch beside me."

Damon has such amazing table manners...when it is just the two of us. If you add any other person to the mix he tends to get distracted and forgets his manners. Last night at dinner Damon decides he wants to lean his chair back and balance on the back legs. The first time he did it I explained that he could get hurt, we don't play at the table, and he could break the chair. He proceeded to do it and the next thing we know (in slow motion) Damon falls back in his chair and all we see are his legs in the air. Now my dinning chairs are very much padded on the back and the toosh so I knew he was not hurt when he belted out this ginormous cry. I looked on the floor and he had fallen while still intact in his sitting position- picture yourself sitting in a chair except the back of your chair is on the floor. I'm sorry...it was hilarious and I did laugh. He wasn't pleased with the fact that I was laughing but all I could say was "I told you so..."

After dinner G-Maw and I took Damon to Bruster's to get ice cream...yum. My mom got a scoop of chocolate on a waffle cone, I got the vanilla pineapple milkshake, Rylee (my boxer dog who came to visit as well) got a doggie ice cream with a bone on top and Damon got the free kids ice cream. The only problem with that is he wants more than just a tablespoon of vanilla ice cream on top of a tiny cone and the fact that Rylee took a big lick of his treat didn't help matters either. So needless to say after he was finished with his bite sized cone I had to go to Wendy's and get him a bite sized frosty...that seemed to do the trick.

Damon ended up falling asleep last night at 5:30 and slept through the entire night waking up only to tell me he wanted different pajamas on. This morning we woke up and had biscuits and gravy and an apple.

This afternoon we made chocolate chip cookies and watched "engine turtles" as Damon likes to call it. Now, Damon knows we only eat at the dinning table and not in the living room because it makes a mess however sometimes we do allow guests a.k.a adults to eat some items in the living room. G-maw asked Damon for one of the cookies we made (she was sitting on the couch) so Damon got a paper plate, he put a cookie on it, brought it to her and said "make sure you eat over the plate so we don't get my mom's couch dirty." I was in the other room when I heard this and I was just so proud. I guess he does listen! Then we played some football inside and practiced his touchdown dance. The dance is a bit extensive but very entertaining. We'll continue to work on it...


All in all it was a good weekend.

Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner!

Tonight Damon's school hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for all of the children and their families. It was a pot luck dinner so the parents were to bring in a side dish or dessert of some sort. There were all kinds of food there: green beans, broccoli casserole, mac and cheese, yams, stuffing and of course turkey. I however made corn pudding and I have to say it was a hit. Several parents and teachers commented on how good it was and asked me for the recipe. So not to toot my own horn but...beep beep. There was none left for me to bring home so that was great! I have to say thank you to my Aunt for giving me the recipe! Thank you Sandi you're the best! Okay enough about my success...


Damon ate two helpings of almost everything. He really enjoyed eating dinner with his friends. Below is a picture of Damon's friend Raven. She is the cutes girl and Damon really likes her. That was his first friend when he started this school almost two years ago. What can I say everyone likes Damon. I was unable to get a picture of Damon and his friend Andrew playing together tonight (battery died) but they sat on the floor and played cars. At the end of the night it was time to go and neither Andrew nor Damon were ready to leave so Andrew' s mom and I devised a plan to let the boys walk each other out (which got them out the door quickly). They hugged before going their separate ways; it was sweet.

Okay I think at this point Damon was a little embarrassed that I was taking pictures of him eating.

Needless to say, Damon should sleep really well tonight with a belly full of turkey...so will I. :)

3 hours of fun...

Today Damon's cousin's school had a fundraiser festival so we decided to take the boys. It was touch and go at times because it looked like it was going to rain but it actually turned out to be a beautiful day...windy but beautiful. There was a lot to do at this festival and the boys really enjoyed themselves. They were also on their best behavior however it's not hard to be when you get to have fun for 3 hours straight...

They had a small animal farm so the kids could pet and feed them. Damon really enjoyed feeding the goats. There were rabbits, birds of all kinds (not really sure what they were), several goats, and ponies.

Aden and Damon have always had a love for horses so they were really excited about getting to ride "kid horses"...our goofy boys.

After our outside adventure we decided to go inside and play all the fun games and win fun stuff. One of the games was an old favorite, musical chairs; the prize...a cake! We encouraged the boys to play while my cousin and I stood on the side cheering them on (we had a certain cake in mind that we wanted to win). After several laps around the chair and no cake I decided I needed to up our chances, so I jumped in on the fun. Go figure my first lap and we won the cake! Of course it was a team effort.

There was a clown that made Damon a sword balloon with a belt to hold the sword. Damon watched him with amazement as he twisted and turned that balloon every which way until a sword appeared.

They had cotton candy, a cupcake station and a popcorn stand. There were many games such as duck tic tac toe, ski ball, bean bag toss, basketball...look at those skills. I mean the technique is almost perfect. :)

And balloon pop which Damon was too light to actually pop the balloon. He tried bouncing on it, jumping on it, stepping on it but that balloon just would not pop. So I had to intervene and use my trusty heels. Yup that did the trick.

On our way out the boys stopped to take a picture beside the firetruck. Silly, silly.

Damon got to sit in the front seat of the firetruck...what a treat!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they had a bouncy house and a bouncy slide. Check out the moves on Damon as he bounces and slides his way to the bottom into the ball pit. I really wanted to go down the slide too...maybe next time.

The day was not complete without Damon having to take a pee in the school bushes. He always has to go at inopportune times but then again he has always liked peeing outside. :)

Kids say the darndest things...

Damon is such a healthy eater. He eats his carrots, peas and corn; he drinks his milk, water and diet juice; he snacks on apples, peaches and yogurt. I have taught him over the years that healthy food is good for your body and he would ask me where (meaning what part of the body). So I proceeded to tell him that milk is good for your bones, carrots make your eyes strong, peas are good for your nose, corn is good for your ears etc. Ever since then any new foods he would eat he would ask what part of the body it was good for so I would tell him. One night we were at my parents house eating dinner and he was eating chicken and he told g-maw and g-paw that his chicken was good for his knees and he said this in his most serious voice with the most serious face. G-maw and G-paw looked at me and said "what?" so I had to explain it to them. We got a good laugh out of that.

Damon likes to sporadically pray before eating dinner and the other night he folded his hands, I likewise, and started saying a prayer out loud that went something like this: "Spiderman, Spiderman, doing whatever a spider can. Spins the web any size, can't you see with your eyes...amen" I couldn't help but to chuckle to myself. I told him that was the most beautiful prayer I had ever heard.

Recently I have been trying to do exercises while talking to or playing with Damon. He has started to join in on the exercises as well. Last night G-maw called to speak to Damon so I walked towards him holding out the phone saying "G-maw wants to talk to you." He said, "I can't right now I'm trying to do my exercisers." and he proceeded to do his curls with my stretch band.

When Damon was still in my tummy I used to think..."What will he sound like? What will he say? How will he talk?" Boy have all my questions been answered. :)

The Amazing Maze

Today my cousin and I took the boys to The Amazing Maze. We thought it would be a fun, team building activity but turned out to be a game of follow the leader.

We started off at the mini maze for Aden and Damon to practice on. Wow, what a great job they did running and skipping along. They were having a blast.

Here is Aden and Damon listening to the instructor give out the rules. By the look on the boys faces I believe this was the part where they heard "This is a two and half mile long maze and no one has made it out in less than 30 minutes."

Off we go into the corn field maze.The boys were a bit hesitant at first but then picked up speed. We let them lead the way for the most part as us mom's gabbed about...well...mom things.

The boys found a resting spot where there was water and a nice bench to sit on. We were only in there for 10 minutes but we had to stop none the less. In fact every water point we approached the boys had to stop so they could pour water not only down their throats but on their heads. Keep on truckin...

After a while the boys did get a little bit bored with the fact that we were walking and walking and walking and nothing seemed to be happening. That's when they decided to sword fight with some corn stalk they found on the ground. That boosted their energy a bit and off we go to finish the maze which I then began to lead as I was getting a bit tired too. We made it to the end and when we "clocked out" we finished the maze in 43 minutes. Not bad considering we had two little ones and all of the "pit stops" we made. The time to beat today was 38 minutes.

The boys looked out over the corn field maze so they could see what they had accomplished. It really was a great feeling.

Needless to say the kids were exhausted and ready to hit the road to McDonald's...yum!