Boy, is it ever nice to know I’m not the only one that’s not on the ball with this keeping house thing.

Back to the grindstone today. That is, if the grindstone means a rhyming & singing class, toddler gymnastics, voting, and eating leftovers that I didn’t have to cook the first time either. It’s a rough life, I tell you.

We had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. The only crappy part was that my Dad wasn’t there and he would have loved it. He loved all holidays, especially those involving get-togethers with family, friends and food. Lots of food. My mother in law made a special dessert in honour of him. He often arrived for dinner before the rest of us just so he could sit at her table and visit while she worked, and he would ask “Well, Jeetster? What’s for dessert?”

We had two huge Thanksgiving meals, actually. One at my father in law’s house on Saturday and one at my mother in law’s house on Sunday. Both were melt-in-your-mouth amazing. My mom doesn’t cook for Thanksgiving anymore – Christmas is her meal. Our whole (sometimes huge, sometimes average) family, in-laws and all, celebrate the holidays together so that we never have to split our time between families and it works out awesome. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We generally have to make a short day trip because the BG’s parents are divorced but it’s not too far and they’re always invited to the big one at my parents’ place too. We took a few pics too, but I haven’t had a chance to sort them yet so will share later this week.

The Big Guy has today off and gets to join the kids at their activities. It will be his first time experiencing either Rhyme Time or Gymnastics so he’s pretty excited. So am I because I have complete laryngitis and can’t do much rhyming or singing of my own. It’s a good thing toddlers have no concept of what makes a terrible good singer. (Kidding. He’s not THAT bad. Sometimes.)

I get laryngitis every October. Apparently even when I’m not teaching.

Tomorrow could be interesting without the Big Guy if my voice doesn’t return. How am I going to parent a two and a half year old without yelling? (Again, kidding. Kind of.)

Actually, I am looking forward to the challenge. So far it’s actually working nicely for the most part. Funny how I forget all of my amazingly effective teaching strategies when I’m dealing with my own kids. I whisper, he whispers. When a slight vocal sound sneaks out, he mimics me and sounds like Frankenstein. It cracks us all up and any tension is immediately diffused. When I can’t get his attention with hand signals or a whisper, I pick him up and either hug or tickle him – depending on the situation – and it works much better than shouting “NO!” Hmmm…food for thought.

He has asked me a gazillion times “Do you want to talk louder, Mommy?”

“Yes, dude, I’d love to…”

How was your Thanksgiving? (Canucks…)
Columbus Day? (Americans…do you get the day off work?)