Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent this Thanksgiving at the 10th Annual Kumar/Thompson Thanksgiving party at Sam and Lilli's house in San Jose.

The highlight of the week was certainly the pumpkin pie parade float Dev designed.

We also took Beatrice (multiple times) to the excellent San Jose Children's Discovery Museum

and to the park to chase geese.

Gillian and I also took Beatrice to a downtown San Jose tree lighting and Christmas festival.

Beatrice gets a haircut

Before

During

And After

With a certificate of completion and souvenir lock of hair

Lucas and Veronika's Baby Shower

On Sunday we threw a baby shower for Lucas and Veronika and their upcoming twin girls (due on Christmas Day).

The theme ideas I had were winter woodlands, Russian forests and fairy tales, birch trees, and the colors green, white, and silver.

The decorations included yarn-wrapped candle holders (thank you to Summer St. Pierre and Amy Turner for helping me wrap twelve candle holders!), gilded acorns, silk butterflies, nests of wood shavings, birch tree slabs, moss and twine balls, papier mâché toadstools, and table runners of fresh moss.

Our "thank you tree" of party favors: silver pine cones from Crate and Barrel.

The menu was also Russia- and forest-inspired: tamari- and maple-roasted almonds, new potatoes with sour cream and caviar, marinated mushrooms and olives, pickled vegetables, salmon mousse with rye crisps, and roasted chestnuts. Plus chocolate cake, chocolate brownies, and chocolate truffles, because Lucas and Veronika really, really like chocolate.

The cake topper: matrushka renditions of Lucas, Veronika, and the twins

Instead of games we asked each guest to claim a letter of the alphabet and draw a picture or make a collage for that letter. I'm going to bind all the letters into an alphabet book for the babies - and I'll have to scan the pages and post them, too; they were all really great, from Christine's "P is for Platypus" and Gillian's eponymous "G is for Gillian" to Jonas' "T is for Time Travel."

"A is for Apple Pie" and "M is for Mouse Dreams"

We also had guests leave a thumb print "leaf" to make a tree for the babies' nursery (an idea I got from a wedding blog).

My family was in town which meant they could celebrate with us - and my mom could help me set up.

More photos are on Facebook (and thank you to Gillian for taking the photos!)

We can't wait to meet the babies next month!

Disneyland

This weekend we took Beatrice to Disneyland for the first time and it went wonderfully!

I was pretty concerned about taking a 17-month-old to Disneyland: I expected over-stimulation, missed naps, tantrums, and general emotional breakdown. I wanted to take Beatrice because my parents, Gillian, and Ezra were in town and going to Disneyland has been a family tradition every year since I was a baby myself, but at the same time I anticipated disaster.

But in fact Beatrice was WONDERFUL. She didn't cry, scream, fuss, or complain once the entire day. She was cheerful, happy, cooperative, and absolutely loved every single ride and activity. She was, in fact, far better behaved than she usually is on a regular day.

Running through Fantasyland with no shoes on

She loved every ride and attraction, from the Tiki Room to the Jungle Cruise to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, but her favorite was Pirates of the Caribbean.

Waiting in line for the Jungle Cruise

On the Jungle Cruise

At first I refused to let her on Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride, for those of you who aren't familiar, takes place in deep darkness; contains flashing lights, tunnels, loud explosions, and two steep roller coaster-style plunges; and is populated largely by skeletons (though I figured Beatrice lacked the cultural context to be scared of skeletons).

Anyway, Dev insisted that Beatrice would love it but I said no. So the rest of my family went on while Beatrice, Gillian, and I watched some ducks, but when Dev got back he was more sure than ever that Beatrice would love it - and he was right. I finally agreed to take her with Dev and she wasn't the least bit scared. She laughed and clapped on the two steep plunges. She beamed at the long tunnels and the eerie flashing lights. When we passed the large pirate vessel firing cannons with loud, bright explosive bursts into the darkness, she leaned out, waved at the menacing pirate figure, and shouted "Hi!"

Dev explained, "Beatrice is basically a pirate."

She also loved spinning in the tea cups (and helping her father turn the wheel to make it go faster), riding on Casey Jones' circus train,

This is a very dizzy baby.

Riding the Casey Jones train with Aunt Gillian

dancing to street musicians, watching the parade, pointing out ducks floating in the man-made lake ("duck!"), waving to passing boats, climbing on Tom Sawyer's Island, and pretending to feed the beloved Tinkerbell doll my mom bought her. The only ride I wouldn't let her on was Dumbo (I was afraid she'd jump out) but she was perfectly content to wave wildly at me and Dev as we rode it.

Beatrice remained on perfect behavior from 10am-6:30pm, by which time she was clearly pretty tired - still not fussy, but developing a sort of bleary-eyed stare - so Dev kindly drove her home and put her to bed while I stayed until closing with my family. The weather was mild, the lines were the shortest I'd ever seen them - it was pretty much a perfect day.

With her mother on the Mark Twain steam boat, looking for ducks

Anaheim on Dwellable

First sentence

And one more thing - while we were visting the Blocks, Beatrice said her first (confused) sentence. While petting our cat Odin (whom she called both "doggy" and "kitty cat" throughout the weekend) she said to me and my mother, "Kitty is a nice doggy." So that settles that.