December 1st! How did that happen?!! I just ordered Christmas (photo) cards, and put the advent calendar up this morning -- Oliver's very excited about putting another "ormamen" on the tree each day! We just got back from Thanksgiving in Maine a couple of days ago (yum! and lots of fun!), and in another couple of weeks we head back up for Christmas (Andy to follow on Friday the 18th). So I've made the difficult decision to NOT have a Christmas tree here in NJ this year. It's so much work, and not enough time here to enjoy it!! We'll be in Maine for over 2 weeks, and we'll have a tree there at the house, so it seems excessive to have one here as well (plus, it will get lonely while we're in Maine, and I can't deal with that sort of disappointment). :-) We're thinking of trying to do some outdoor lights this year, that would be fun.
So, it seems like turning 3 has been a TRUE turning point for Oliver -- he potty trained himself in the week before his birthday, and in the weeks before and after he turned 3, he just has become a lot more manageable when we're out and about... we went to the gr
ocery store today, and it was actually FUN! I can't believe I just said that, but it's true. Which is not to say that he can't be a complete rascal sometimes, but mostly he's a really good boy. He talks endlessly, and asks "why?!!" all the time, which seems to be a very good thing, even if he does push the limits a lot! He's very imaginative (as you can see in the first photo), and he has started to be a very attentive big brother - this morning he brought tons of his books into my bedroom where Maddie was sitting on my bed, and read to her bits of each one. Well, paraphrased from them... !
Maddie turns 8 months old tomorrow! Imagine. She's become a voracious eater - she pretty much YELLS at me at mealtimes wh
en I don't keep the food coming fast enough! By means of really loud humming, if that's possible. She eats a lot of what Oliver eats now - chicken pot pie with peas and corn, macaroni and cheese, toast, pasta with tomato and meat sauce... I haven't made her Armenian pizza yet, but I'm sure she'll love that, too! Avocado, applesauce - butternut squash was a big hit -- she ate a lot more of Thanksgiving dinner than Oliver did! For a couple of weeks now she's been nursing less, only twice a day, so I have to be sure she's drinking enough from a bottle. She's a VERY happy baby, quite content to play on her own sometimes, very "go with the flow." She usually goes to bed around 8 or so and sleeps until 7am, give or take... how lucky am I?! She's sitting on her own now, no sign of crawling yet.
We're about to send off a Christmas package to our family in England, and I've somehow figured out almost all the presents for our family here, so I'm feeling pretty ahead of the game! This Saturday is a big holiday party organized by the moms group that I'm in, and it will be the first time ever that Oliver meets Santa, can't wait!
December 20, our first big snowstorm in Maine during our Christmas vacation!! Started mid-morning, and has been steady all day. Andy went out and and got our Christmas tree, and we put the lights on together, with Ollie offering lots of encouragement. The rest of the day was spent getting more settled in and tidy around the house... and fine tuning our two woodstoves for maximum heat outlay!! We're seeing how it goes with just wood heat for the whole house - so far so good!! Soon we'll head over to Grandma and Granddaddy's house for a big birthday celebrat
ion dinner for Aidan and Eli... we were too snowed in to attend the birthday breakfast! First we have to clear off the car, though. 
