London is thankful today for queen and quest. I asked her if she even knew what a quest was and she said, “ya, it’s a thing where you look for something.” Okay. So she’s thankful for queens going on quests.
I’m thankful for quilts (and the grandmas who make them). Both of my grandmothers are still living and both have made me some beautiful quilts. I received a quilt from each grandmother when I was young. I still have them and use them on London’s bed now. Each of my grandmothers also gave me (and Taylor) a quilt when I got married. Then they made baby quilts for my children. My mother and mother-in-law have also made quilts for my children. I love them. They’re all so special to me and I’ll treasure them for the rest of my life.
I know I asked London this morning what she was thankful for, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what she said. So I’ll tell you what I know she’s thankful for: penguins and princesses. I know she’s thankful for penguins because they’re the first animal she wants to visit every time we go to Sea World. I don’t really know what the fascination is, but she loves them. She pretends to walk like a penguin and thinks she’s so funny. And, of course, she also loves the penguins on Mary Poppins. She also absolutely loves princesses. I think that comes in the blood of every four year old little girl. I don’t know what it is. She has been totally obsessed with Cinderella until lately when she got the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She told me today (while dressed up as Cinderella) that Snow White is now her favorite princess.
I’m thankful for pumpkin. I love this time of year because I have pumpkin everything. It’s such a fabulous fall flavor. I haven’t tried the pumpkin ice cream or pumpkin shakes yet, but I’m sure they’re just heavenly. This year, we didn’t have time to carve Halloween pumpkins. Plus, the ones we found at the pumpkin patch were tiny. With the sickness we all got and everything else going on, we just put it off until it was too late. So I used London’s pumpkin to bake. I scooped out the seeds and roasted them. I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin seeds, but they were okay. Then I baked and pureed the pumpkin. I used it for pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin cake (with cream cheese frosting) and pumpkin bread (with cream cheese filling) and fed it to my little pumpkin. He loved it, by the way. I’m starting him off right! I think I need another pumpkin.
London kept telling me today that she’s thankful for octopus. I think that was the only “O” thing she could think of. Later she said she was thankful for ostrich and on and off. She didn’t believe me when I told her that “ocean” and “orange” also start with the letter O. I asked her if she was thankful for the ocean and she told me that she wasn’t because it gets her head wet. She loves the beach, though. Go figure. I’m thankful for the ocean. It’s so nice to live so close to the beach. I don’t go nearly as often as Taylor, but I do enjoy the times when I can go. I think it’s amazing to look out into that vast body of water and remember that my life isn’t as significant as sometimes I believe it to be. So often I get so caught up in the little things of life that I forget the really important things. It’s good to have those little reminders once in a while. That’s why I’m thankful for the ocean today.
Before I get to the “N” thankful thing of today, I want to tell a dirty joke. Okay, London made this one up today. She’s hilarious. This is how it goes: What does a pea say when it poops? Poo-pea! What does a pea say when it pees? Pee-pea! She thought it was so funny.
Now for the letter “N.” London is thankful for noodles. I think she just couldn’t think of anything else that started with “N.” So Noodles it is. Sometimes she likes noodles, but most of the time she tells me she doesn’t. In fact, most of the time she tells me she doesn’t like anything (except macaroni and cheese, cheese of any kind, chicken nuggets, hot dogs and frozen peas). One time she got really excited about pasta and ate a ton, but since then she tells me she doesn’t like it.
I’m thankful for Netflix. I love that we have so many movies that we can watch instantly. We use that option often. It’s fun for London, too, to watch things she loves but that we don’t have. It’s definitely a small luxury that we enjoy.
I’m thankful to be a mom. There was a time, not too long ago, that I wondered if I would ever say that again. I wondered how anybody could actually enjoy being a mother. I can say now that I do. I love my children and I love spending time with them. I feel so blessed to be their mom. I love the conversations I have with London and I love the smiles and kisses I get from Ashton. I also love the way they interact with each other. It’s so fun to watch London make Ashton laugh. I hope they’ll always be such good friends.
London is thankful for mix. I had to have her clarify because I didn’t really know what she was talking about. She told me that mix is mixing up cookies and eating dough. She loves baking with me. We both get our aprons on and go to town. And it happens fairly often. London’s favorite part of “mixing” is eating the dough. I think she gets her tastes from me.
London has been really excited every day to come up with something she’s thankful for. Today she asked me what letter it was. When I told her, she immediately said, “LONDON!” So she’s thankful for herself. I’m glad she loves herself. I hope that she keeps her high self esteem throughout her life. I’m thankful for London too, and just my life in general. I had a really good day today with my kids. London has been bugging me to go to Sea World. I wasn’t all that excited about it, but I packed up the kids today and we headed that direction. I was pleasantly surprised how well behaved both of them were. We had a great time. I love my kids. Sometimes I feel bad for Taylor that he doesn’t get to do all these fun things with us. He works so hard for us and I’m so happy that he is a part of my life. I really do have so many blessings to be thankful for. I love my life. Speaking of which, I have been listening to this song a lot lately. It also starts with “L” so I think it’s appropriate for today.
London and I are both thankful for Kidsville today. We have been twice now and it really is her favorite place to go. When I told her that we were going to go, she was SO excited. I thought she wouldn’t be able to sleep last night because of all the excitement. Luckily for me, she slept really well. It was kind of a production getting there this morning, but I learned one thing. I can fit three car seats in the back seat of my 1995 Accord. Amazing, I know.
The first thing she did when we got there was go directly to the costume corner. She immediately found the Tigger costume. Just being Tigger for a few minutes would have made her whole day worthwhile, but she didn’t stop there. She made probably 10 costume changes. While posing for this picture she said, “Ashton’s smiling because he’s getting his picture taken with the character.”
She was Tigger, Pooh, a Jack O Lantern, a Dinosaur (2 different ones), a dragon, Superman (which was a baby costume but the feet were cut out of it so she made it work for herself), a Care Bear, a cowboy, and the list goes on. I can’t remember them all. Suffice it to say that she was in costume the whole two hours we were there. She is definitely thankful for Kidsville. Here she is in her second dragon costume of the day. She said, “Wait a minute, do I have a tail?” She thought that was pretty cool.
London told me today that she’s thankful for Jack-O-Lanterns. She’s still sad that she never got to carve or paint her pumpkin this year. I cut it up on Sunday and cooked it and pureed it. I’ve fed it to Ashton and made a pumpkin cake with it (which London actually likes). London loves the fact that we made it from her pumpkin. She thought when we were pulling out all the seeds that we were going to be able to carve the little guy, but no such luck.
London also told me that she’s thankful for jam. She told me a bunch of other things, too; all of the things she could think of that started with the letter “J.” I said, “But you don’t even like jam.” Then she said to me, “But I’m still thankthee for it.”
I’m thankful for jokes. I love the cheesy little jokes that London tells me like: What do you do when a truck runs over your toe? You call a toe truck! Or: What does a chart say when it sneezes? Aaaa-chart! Another good one is: What’s tuba plus tuba? Fourba! It’s so funny when she tells me these jokes because she thinks they’re hilarious. Her favorite, though is: Knock knock. Who’s there? Orange. Orange who? Orange banana! She thinks that is the funniest thing ever. Funny girl.
Today London is thankful for ice. She said igloo at first, but that’s only because she was having a hard time thinking of things that started with I. Let me just tell you about her fascination with ice. For some reason, it makes everything better. When she gets hurt, she wants ice. She also always wants a bandage, but I don’t give them to her unless she’s bleeding. On occasion, I have given her ice for bumps and bruises. Now she thinks ice is the cure-all. If she feels better by carrying around an ice pack all day and I hear less whining, I’m totally okay with it.
I’m thankful for ice cream. I think I need to work on that one a bit. I love ice cream. It’s something I have almost every day. It’s no wonder I can’t get my stomach smaller. For some reason, though, ice cream makes everything better. Plus, there’s always room for it. It just melts around everything else in your stomach.
London is thankful for being happy. She’s a funny girl about that, too. She always wants to make sure that we’re happy. It’s not uncommon to hear from her, “Mommy, are you happy?” or, “Daddy, why are you sad?” Today she climbed on my lap and said, “I’m just having a hard day.” She wants to be happy and she wants everybody around her to be happy. Now if she could only learn that happiness comes from obedience, we’d be doing really well.
I’m thankful for my headband. I know this may sound juvenile, especially since my four-year-old came up with happiness, but I really am thankful for it. I use it every night to keep my hair out of my face while I’m washing up. I also use it in the shower on the days that I don’t wash my hair, again to keep it out of my face and keep it from getting wet. It sure is a handy little contraption, well worth the dollar I spent on it.
