weekend update, november edition

we can't let november escape without a single post ... and if it's a new post ... it must be a weekend update.

mommy returned from her trip to asia in one piece (mostly). to give daddy a break from his more than week-long single parent duty, mommy and kids left him in peace to do work around the house and watch the ohio state game, and headed off for some errands.

one of which, was getting jack's hair cut. his previous cut had been really more of a -- how to say? -- butchering. so, this time we waited for "the good guy." we don't know his name, but you recognize him by his shirts.

this was only jack's second haircut in the chair by himself rather than seated on mommy's lap, and he has become absolutely intrepid. and, he looked so cute by the end, that the mother of the boy in the chair next to him said of jack, "make him look like that little boy."

unbeknownst to her, her son was in the butcher's chair. ah, well ... she'll learn. we all do.

after that highly successful outing, we continued on to the shoe store to buy jack some new shoes. he was mostly cooperative, but the interesting thing is that we've played out the scene in our imaginative play since -- with jack as the shoe store employee and mommy as the customer.

we followed up with lunch at mcdonald's and a visit to the toy store. for the longest time ... pretty much since he could speak words ... jack has referred to the golden arches as "hot donald's." well, no more. he has informed his mother that it is called mcdonald's and he doesn't want to call it hot donald's any more. although he was convinced to do it just a few more times ... for mommy.

at the toy store, jack looked around at all the toys that he might ask santa for. he was, shockingly, particularly drawn to the fire fighting-related toys. in fact, when nana came to babysit him later that night, and she had the audacity to suggest that he might ask santa for some more books in the series from which they were reading, he responded, "oh, no, i’m asking santa for the firetruck and the fire station and the fire mans. i can get the books at the library.” apparently he decided he was not going to waste his “santa asks” on books!

meanwhile, as jack schemes and no doubt plots his strategy for world domination, annie plays happily with toys. she has gotten very mobile and is unstoppable these days. and she has the bruises to prove it. in fact, the baby gates have all come back out -- including one at the top of the stairs which someone broke last year by swinging on it (hint: it was not the cat) and which daddy fixed while left in peace.

sunday found a return of our family to church. after many recent weekends spent working, it was nice to take a break from the hustle-bustle of life and slow down and reflect for an hour. the fact that it was a pleasant day didn't hurt either ...

we wrapped up the day with what may in fact be our first-ever true family dinner. everyone, even annie, ate together and ate the same food. in fact, annie may have eaten more than jack -- nearly an entire drumstick worth of chicken and egg noodles, too! it was a busy weekend but nice to be all back together again.