What a week

Well, it's been a fun week here.

After the whirlwind trip twelve days ago out west, we decided to stay in town for Thanksgiving.
We all woke up late (meaning, after 8 AM), and watched the Macy's parade together. We went over to the house of one of Alex's classmates, who also has a baby sister close to Sammie's age. We all had a good time, watching football, playing games, and having a great dinner. I did find it funny that all the kids stayed up really, really, REALLY late - as in, to the end of the Falcons game - and still wanted to keep going.

While Kim helped in the kitchen, I tried to corral all the kids in a separate wing of the house, out of the way of the kitchen. It worked for a while, as they were all up for reading books and then playing with trains. By the time they got bored, dinner was ready. Go me.

Of course, Sammie awoke around 6 AM on Friday, but eventually went back to sleep until about 10 AM. We did not indulge in any of the Black Friday hoopla, as we are sane people who do not like mobs. However, we did get to see a polar bear.

We decided to go downtown, to Centennial Park. I took Alex ice skating for the first time, and he loved it, even though he had absolutely no balance at all. We went to see Santa, and Alex was very happy, as you can tell by the picture. I would put up a picture of both kids, except that Sammie had the reaction of WHO THE HELL IS THIS??? AHHH, SCARY BEARD! MOMMY!!!!! so that picture didn't come out very well.

We went inside the World of Coke, as we haven't been inside the new site (and I haven't been since 1995). Once inside, we saw another of Coke's Christmas icons - the polar bear. There was someone dressed as a polar bear for the kids, and taking pictures. I don't have them developed yet, so they aren't here. Alex was thrilled, gave the bear a big bear hug, and sat nicely for pictures. Sammie looked up and thought WTF IS THAT???DADDY!!!!!! as she screamed her head off for us, again. Since Alex used to do this too, I'm not too worried.

Anyway, Alex had a lot of fun, and got to try soda for the first time. He actually didn't like it very much. It's very strange - he doesn't like soda, chocolate, or anything excessively sweet, but he will eat apples, bananas, melon, oranges, and any other fruit all....day.....long.

Saturday - slow day. Cleaning. Studying. Cursing out Kentucky for not finishing off Tennessee. More cleaning.

Sunday - a trip to the store. It's amazing what you make seem fun to a three-year old. He loves going to the store. He loves picking things off the shelves, putting things on the belt, and bringing in the groceries. I am hoping that I can convince him that mowing the lawn is even more fun when he's older.

Aside from that, more studying, paper-writing, and cleaning.

Monday - tax office, where I finished about 2/3 of my problem set (basically, training on the computer systems). I also got some more grades, including a perfect score from a presentation last week which gives me an A for now in that class. I came home, and kept doing schoolwork until 2 AM preparing for papers due Thursday in classes that I do not have A's in.

Today - Samantha turned one. We started the day with a doctor's appointment - her one year checkup, which meant a bunch of shots in the legs. She did not enjoy that. We made it up later, though, with cupcakes at school and muffins at home (which Alex helped make).

So, that's the week in a nutshell. Very low-key, but fun for the whole family.

Let's hope I am able to get my Thursday classes in better shape and keep my Monday classes where they are right now. Two and a half more weeks....