Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Calleigh is in bed and Duncan and I are sitting back and relaxing with the wonderful thought that Duncan doesn't have to work until Monday. Who knows if I will be working before then or not but that's okay. Tomorrow morning we plan on popping over to Aunt Wanda and Uncle Steve's for a visit and then after Calleigh's nap, we'll head over to Ron & Elaine's for Thanksgiving dinner. After that, who knows. We've never been ones to get caught up in the sales that start at some terribly early hour to save a few bucks but you never know...

After talking to Calleigh about story time on Monday and the bubbles (most importantly the bubbles!) I found out that Seminole County had cancelled story time during the week of Thanksgiving. Devastating. So instead, we spent our morning doing a few errands. We went to pick up our camera at the shop. The guy gave me the wrong camera, which I promptly told him about, and then he couldn't find ours. I was a little nervous (and then slightly excited thinking maybe we would score a brand new one) but alas, he finally located it. After that, it was on to the hospital employee store so that I could get my free sneakers. If you donate a certain amount of money to the hospital, they give you a free pair of Nike sneakers that say "1908" on them which stands for the year the hospital began.I got a pair a few years ago that are the most comfortable sneakers I ever owned. A couple of months ago, I stupidly put them in the dryer and now they don't fit any more. Thankfully, I just got the coupon for a new pair so it worked out well. On the down side, they didn't have my size so we're going to go back another time.

Monday evening was the big event. As I said, the hospital first opened in 1908 so this year marks the 100th anniversary. To commemorate that achievement and also the grand opening of our new 15-floor tower, they had a big block party. They closed off the road and had food, music, and at the end, a big fire works and lights display. We decided to eat at the newly remodeled cafe beforehand so we arrived a little early. The "we" in this instance being Calleigh, Elaine, Ron, Duncan, David, and I. There was a lot of talking from the stage (including comments form Jeb Bush) before we got to the exciting finale but Calleigh used that time to stuff her face with a red velvet cupcake and to walk/run/weave through the crowds of people all the while talking up a storm. She would not stay in one place. Fortunately, she had a balloon attached to her overalls so that made it even easier to keep track of her. Incidentally, Ron had gone and gotten the balloon for her from a tent that was taking blood pressure. Apparently it made a big impact on her because since then, she has repeated to me at least 50 times, "Thank you Beepa, balloon." That is how she's pronouncing Grandpa these days. Anyway, it was quite a show even though I think Calleigh got just a little bit nervous at the end when the fireworks were making a very loud noise but she didn't let out a whimper.



On Tuesday, I ended up taking her to an Orange County library that was having story time. No, not the one with the scary tent dress lady. It seems like every time we go, she always takes away one particular song or rhyme that sticks with her. This time it's Itsy Bitsy Spider. Of course, she prefers to call it the Bitsy Bitsy Spider but that's okay.

We were actually going to go to Monkey Joe's yesterday with Lauren and Caroline but I decided not to. Soon after I woke up yesterday, I got this dull ache on my ride side (to the right of my belly button). It was almost like I had been running and got a cramp. Thankfully it wasn't really painful but any time you're pregnant and get something like that, it makes you a little nervous. I called my doctor and they said since I wasn't bleeding, I should just self monitor it and come in if it gets unbearable. Fortunately it never did (although I felt it constantly for the entire day) and I had no other symptoms (nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, pain when I pee) so who knows what the heck it was. This morning it was gone, hopefully for good.

Today we did a few more errands. I had to return a gallon of milk to Publix that somehow mysteriously ended up in my cart when I was there on Monday. Clearly I'm distracted with a child so I didn't realize until I got home - - "wait a second, I didn't buy a gallon of milk. Why it there a bagged gallon of milk in my trunk?" Apparently the bagger must have inadvertently put it in my cart. Anywho, we found an employee getting some carts and I was able to give her the mystery milk and we didn't have to get out of the car (always a pain with a kid in the car seat). After that, we were on to Walmart to get our Thanksgiving cooking supplies. I'm glad we went in the morning because it wasn't too crowded yet.

The big news in our household today is that we got a new remote control. Yes, I know it's silly that something so simple is so exciting. But we haven't been able to adjust the volume with our current remote and it has been very frustrating. I felt like we were back in the 60's when you had to get up and adjust it manually. That's for the birds or should I say, turkeys. Ha ha!

On that note, have a great Thanksgiving everyone. To close, here's a video of Calleigh practicing her counting.