Enjoy your turkey, tofurkey, pie, wine, or whatever it is you partake in this Thanksgiving.  We are off to Maine for a few days, and I will indeed enjoy the real deal—real turkey, with real tryptophan, oh loveliest of dietary amino acids!

We are very behind with uploading new Holden photos and videos, mostly because 1)  This is National Novel Writing Month, and Rob is closing in on 50,000 words.  Again.  2)  I am writing a grant.  3)  I am preparing an upper-division undergraduate seminar from scratch. 4) Holden continues to battle ear infections (most recently involving a ruptured eardrum. and 5) I have been battling a sinus infection.  Again.

So, it’s been unusually crazy round these parts. Nevertheless, I have managed to get all of H’s Christmas shopping done and all of his presents wrapped.  I don’t go too crazy for Christmas.  Rob and I decided on a couple of items ahead of time, and I more or less stuck with that plan once I got in the store.  I only allowed myself a single impulse buy for Holden (a miniature yellow school bus, complete with working rear emergency exit door).  His brain is going to explode when he gets it.  I just couldn’t resist.

Despite the total lack of prompting from us, Holden has cultivated a fascination with buses, tractor trailers, dump trucks, concrete mixers, excavators, and farm equipment.  He has us read to him the titillating book “Big Farm Machines” about 10 times each day, which features a dizzying array of telehandlers, combines, and baling machines.  Don’t know what those are??  Well, either did I, prior to this year.  Related to his “big moving vehicle” obsession, H’s favorite color is yellow.  Buses are yellow and most farm equipment is also yellow.  So now, Holden is constantly alerting us to all of the yellow things around him:  “Wellwoah,” he says pointing to one of his building blocks.  He can also say “blue” and “purple,” but rarely identifies those colors correctly.  At this point, it’s mostly about understanding color as a concept, rather than getting the specifics down pat.  He’s been going through a word explosion lately, repeating almost everything we say, and occasionally stringing words together to ask questions.  The other day he pointed at a TupperWare tub full of scones that we were taking to brunch at our friend’s house, and he asked (clear as could be): “What are those?”  He has also learned the inevitable and self-centered “Mine” and “No No NO.”  He never says no just once.  He makes sure you’ve really heard him.

I’m off to do some last-minute packing and preparations for our trip out of town—I have so much on my mind and so much I want to write about, but it will have to wait another week or so (probably till after December 8th, when my grant is due).  Yikes!

I hope everyone enjoys the holiday.

ETA:  I don’t believe I blogged about it yet, but I weaned Holden 2 weeks ago.  It was effortless for both of us and it was time!  And he is sleeping MUCH better.  More on this later….