Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great day today. Riley helped out a little, but mostly, she watched the Macy's parade. Twice! Daddy found it on a second network, airing in the afternoon. It was so funny... when the tap dancers came out, Riley ran and put on her tap shoes. When the cheerleaders came out, she grabbed her pom-pons. She screamed at the top of her lungs every time a familiar big balloon character came out, and made daddy and me both run into the TV room to see. She had so much fun.




Russell was a huge help today, too. Even though he's feeling under the weather, he kept Riley occupied and mostly out of my way as I slaved over the hot stove. He even helped me to put some of the food in bowls at crunch time. And, he was in charge of photo-documenting the entire event. Thanks so much, honey, good job!

For dinner, we had two guests. Eban, who Russell works with, and his brother, August. They are very big guys, and helped us to put a wonderful dent in all the food. I made less than I usually do, but it was still too much. The boys got some yummy leftovers to take home (Jenny would not approve of me eating them)!





And, Riley has been successfully indoctrinated into the Stewart/Parrish noodle-loving family. It's a long-standing tradition in the Pennsylvania Dutch side of my family to have homemade noodles at Thanksgiving and Christmas. To our family, those meals would never be complete without them. And, no matter how many we make, it's NEVER enough (a question that is always heard on the morning of the feast: "Is that all you made?!"). Well, Riley couldn't get enough either, and eventually pulled her chair up to the noodle bowl and ate right off the serving spoon. That's more extreme than I believe anyone else in my family has ever done with the noodles, though we've all threatened similar actions over the years. My pappy Mix would have been so proud of her, because he was such a joker. And he didn't always encourage the most lady-like behavior...





We don't even need to get into how she devoured a whole turkey leg. She didn't even ask for ice cream after dinner.




And that is all for today. I'm pooped.

Thanksgiving prep

Riley is the BEST helper, ever! She rolled the noodles, washed the dishes, and did all kinds of other things this week to help me out for the big Thanksgiving dinner. She wasn't happy unless she was helping me do something. OMG, she kept asking, "mommy, can I help oou? Pweeeeeze?"





She sorted the compost bowl for me. For about 45 minutes. Oh, thank you, compost bowl! You're my saviour in the week before Thanksgiving. Then, she discovered the floor. Oh-oh. In watching this video, it's so funny to see her using my words. Aren't we all becoming our mothers in some weird sort of way? Even at two years old... And yes, she has a tattoo on her hand. It's the "big guy" from Tinkerbell, her new favorite movie. I highly recommend it in Blu-Ray.



Riley and daddy were playing with my computer tonite after a really nice video chat with grandma and Duke. Here's what they came up with. These are two silly folks.












A few weeks back, we took Riley to the annual Taraval street fair.



We had a great day, as a family...Grammy was here last year and went with us, and it was so much fun, we decided to go again. Good food, good vendors, and great music. This year, Riley had her first popcorn, ever! Loved it. And a hotdog. I did too. Don't tell Jenny.






And this year, they had a HUGE Shreck jumpy castle. Which collapsed at one point, but not when Riley was inside! Whew...




And it's Halloween. And San Francisco. So of course, there were the questionable characters.




Then we walked down to the beach cause it was so beautiful outside. Check out this good-lookin' couple!



That night, our friend Scott came to visit. He was in town from New York, and it's always nice to see him. Riley loved him, and shared her juice box with him (he loved that, cause he doesn't drink alcohol).



And a little side note, here is daddy's idea of loading the dishwasher:



Oh, and just a little quickie to end with, here is Riley during the presidential debates. 64 Zoo Lane all the way!

Oooooh nooooooo! Aaah-hahahahaha

So, Riley and I decided to host a playdate at our house in honor of Pam and Jacob, members of our moms' group who unfortunately (for us, anyhow) moved to Texas a bunch of months back. I'll add more details about this playdate in a later blog, but I HAD to get this footage posted. ASAP. It is hilarious. Well, at least I think it is. I hope Jacob isn't scarred for life by it... Pam, please keep us posted on that.



Hahahaha!!

Weekend shenanigans

Today, Jen and Chris and Coral hosted the first ever dinner playdate. Brave souls. The reason being, Robin, Alan, and Meredith are moving to Boston! The second family from our mom's club to leave this city, but Meredith is the baby of the group! And we will miss them terribly. Here they are, along with some other wild indians:












Afterwards, I offered to be just as brave and host the next one, possibly close to Christmas. Covered dish? Grab bag? Could be a good one...

I had some errands to run yesterday, so daddy and Riley got to hang out. Apparently, she loves our new bed (oh yeah, last week, we got a new king-size Sleep Number bed. Mmmmm, what a change in our sleep patterns!).




Then we took some stuff to the dump. The garbage collectors won't take certain large items without an appointment and a fee, so Russell found out where to go, and we decided to take it ourselves. In the rain. But we were prepared (and kinda excited) for the adventure with our rainboots and umbrellas. Too bad Riley fell asleep on the way there, and didn't wake up until we got home. Oh well. She didn't miss much, other than a load of trash and huge machines pushing it all around:




By the way, if you're skeptical about recycling and trash separation (like my mom and dad are... they think everything goes to the same place no matter what we do at home), check this out. Really cool!

There was an awesome display of people's tossed goods on the mountainside adjacent to the dump. It was a trash shrine, and it was awesome. I can't believe Russell didn't take any photos of it. But, he didn't. Hmm, maybe we'll have to go back. Even just for the photo opps. But, we do have an extra house-full of stuff clogging our basement...

Oh, and last weekend, Russell and Riley also got to hang out a lot while I ran errands. It was raining then, too, and they took advantage of the new umbrellas grammy brought:




Crying. Dinner. Laughing. It was fun. Riley is such a goofball. She asks us to cry or go away (fake it), and then she likes to practice her caring, thoughtful reactions. Watch: