"These are my Thanksgiving pants!"**

That's right, to celebrate the gluttony that is Thanksgiving I made the switch to maternity pants, and I am thankful I did, as I literally ate until it hurt to move.

Other Thanksgiving things I am thankful for:

(Unusually)  None of my Thanksgiving food contributions were inedible/really really ugly to look at.

(Not as unusually) neither were anyone else's contributions.

To make up for my Halloween laziness, Holden and I successfully completed a Fall themed craft while it was still technically Fall.

Probably the number one reason I decided to have kids was to make the holidays fun again.  Holden is not disappointing me.   I could not love more that it is 100 percent obvious that a 3 year old decorated my tree.  There are bare spots galore along with the occasional branch dripping with 4 or 5 ornaments.  And almost all of the ornaments have been relocated at least once to make room for Holden's newest favorite game "Ornament Plinko"--AKA dropping ornaments through the tree branches onto the ground and cheering about all the money you just earned.

I get to peek in on this sleeping face at night.  Which believe me, I do a LOT after a rough day.

For the record, I am NOT currently thankful for Blogger, as I had a bunch more pictures to post (you know, ones of actual people and stuff), but they kept rotating funny and I got bored/annoyed.  

**For those not in the know--title is courtesy of an episode of Friends.  Just thought I should clarify.

Free to be Three

Holden has been three for a good month now, so I figured I was overdue for one of those cheesy growing up posts I like to do every once in a while.  Thanks for indulging me.

The biggest difference between two year old Holden and three year old Holden is that he is starting to assert his independence.   Despite the bad rap of the "terrible twos,"  Holden really didn't care too much about testing boundaries or doing things his way.  Now he does, by the way.  Now he does big time.  But when I think about it, I can't blame him too much.  He has a lot to catch up for.  He turned 11 while I wasn't looking.

Proof:

The Stats:
37.5 inches (50th percentile) (more importantly, only 2.5 inches away from riding all the good rides at Disneyland).
34 lbs 3 oz (75th percentile).

The Things He Likes:
Candy
Quarter Machines
Having unintelligible conversations with Siri (the creepy robot lady on my cell phone).
Playing Plants Vs. Zombies

The Things He Doesn't Like:
Eating Dinner
Sleeping
Going To The Dentist  (He hasn't actually been yet, by the way, nor does he have any upcoming appointments, but he tells me pretty much daily that he doesn't want to go, so I am expecting THAT to be a treat when the time comes).
Santa's Beard

Funny/Weird/Random Stuff He's Been Saying Lately:

Me:  What are you doing?
Holden:  Just talking to Siri!
....

Holden:  Is your cell phone in here, by chance?
...

Me:  Holden, do you have to go potty?
Holden:  Don't tell me if I need to poop!
...

Holden:  Does the baby have any toys or anything in your belly?

So there you go, a little snapshot of Holden's third year thus far.  Hope you weren't too bored.

Potty Training Is My Nemesis

And the worst part is I am pretty sure he is doing an okay job, especially considering we are only a week in and we each lost a couple of days to the evil stomach flu that took down our house last week..  

Someone please tell me it gets better, and the rest of my life won't be spent with "Do you have to go potty?"  being the most frequent words I say.

And it's too late to tell me to wait until he's ready, because ready or not, I didn't let my kid eat almost an entire bag of Skittles in one weekend for nothing.  We're committed.

Oh Yeah....

So, remember how in August of 2010 I started some sort of schooling? Then remember how back in May, Julie and I went to Indiana for a graduation ceremony? Well, in August, I finished said schooling, but since I had already gone through the whole celebration of a graduation, my school work just sort of...ended. All of a sudden, school was over and all I had to show for it was more free time. Until now...

Last week I checked the mail and found this waiting for me. How cool is that? I had practically forgotten that one of these was coming my way. If only we had an office or something in which to display it. I'm guessing I'd look a little pretentious if I hung it in our living room.

And I Don't Even Feel Guilty...

Yesterday at Target, these delightful treats (in the running for my favorite candy EVER)

found their way into my basket along with my Halloween clearance items.

And, on the way home, Holden and I cursed FM 100 because they weren't playing Christmas music.
Merry Christmas!

And for those of you who are worried about Thanksgiving, don't worry.  He and I have an understanding.  He knows I love him and fully intend to celebrate my guts out on November whatever day Thanksgiving is this year.  He's just not the kind of holiday I want to celebrate for months on end.

My Weak Attempt At Documenting Halloween

We didn't do much for Halloween this year.  There were no pumpkin patches, there was no pumpkin carving, I didn't decorate, heck, Holden even insisted on recycling his costume from last year despite many requests by his parents to be something else.   Add to that the fact that I was camera-less for almost the entire month of October and this makes for one sad excuse for a Halloween post.  But thanks to some mediocre pictures from Reo's phone, some photos taken by other people and a Halloween miracle of the arrival of my replacement camera I will do my best to piece together some sort of Halloween memories for 2011.

Not Pictured:  Holden making sugar cookies with his Aunt Emily and insisting on more hearts and Christmas bells than Halloween related shapes.  And eating so much of the dough that there were very few cookies to show for the event anyways.

Pictured:  Annual Halloween party with friends where the Manning Family costumes fail each year to measure up to everyone elses.  Could be because we aren't great costumers anyway, and we all tend to shed pieces throughout the night, so by the time photos are taken at the end of the shindig only traces of our costumes still exist.

Not pictured:  Any of the Halloween themed crafts/activities I thought about doing with Holden all month (sorry, sweetie, Mom's pregnant this year).

Pictured:  Holden's nursery leaders at church saving the day and giving him a pumpkin to decorate.

Not pictured:  Trick or Treating at Grandpa's office, where Holden was able to do a practice run for the big night.

Pictured:  Realizing that I have a marathon trick or treater on my hands.  The kind that in a couple of years will be mapping out lengthy routes and coming home with pillowcases full of candy.  This kid was in heaven.  He lasted about 25 houses longer than the 5 I expected him to last, and as soon as the candy hit his bucket he turned to us and asked "Are there more houses after this?!?"  Add to the fact that we caught up with my parent's next door neighbors who happily took Holden under their wing and let him tag along with them, and I firmly believe he could have gone all night if we had let him, despite the fact that by the end of the night his little bucket weighed as much as him.

Pictured:  Despite all the trick or treating fun, when we got back to my parent's house he was still hungry for more and insisted on helping pass out candy to the other kids.

Pictured:  Enjoying my favorite part of Halloween, sorting through all the loot you bring home.  Must be Holden's favorite part too, as he asks to "sort" his candy about 10 times more often than he actually asks to eat a piece.

Pictured:  And finally, refusing to let the Halloween spirit die and recycling trick or treating buckets into "slippers,"  where we have to dance to the song "This is Halloween"  over and over...and over.

Can I just tell you how much fun it is to be a mom of a 3 year old?  Because it is crazy fun.