Thanksgiving Trip, Part I

Thanksgiving in most families consists mainly of a meal, perhaps an extra extra long weekend and football. Not so in my family. For us, this is the ULTIMATE holiday. The time everyone comes together and spends about a week together. It is full of some of my favorite holiday traditions such as Day-after-Thanksgiving-bowling and a newer tradition Giggleberry Mountain. It also coinsides with both my uncle and grandmother's birthdays, so you can imagine the celebrations go all week. This year we have the honor of two extra guests, from England. Listening to Trevor, my cousin's boyfriend, and his mother and brother has been quite fun. It has also been nice getting to know them a bit better. Tonight is Uncle John's birthday and so I am heading out the door, but I promise to write more later, as I should probably get back to blogging.

La, La, La, La, What?!?!

So I keep telling myself that I need to post on something or someone other than Naithen and then he does something really funny. This morning we were working on saying the L sound because he calls his brothers Wance and Wayne instead of Lance and Layne.

Tami (Naithen's Mother): La, La, La, Lance.

Naithen: La, La, La, Wance.

Tami: No, La, La, La, LLLLLance.

Naithen: La, laaa, Laaaaa, Wance.

Tami: La, La, Laaaa---

Naithen (interrupting): La, La, La, Shain is going outside can I go with him?

Since we were laughing so hard, we had to let him go. Lesson over - or at least I think we learned that while practicing sounds, Naithen isn't connecting that the La, la, La is the first sound in Lance.

The Future

Today, Naithen told us what his future was going to be like. --In his own words, or close to it--

1) I am going to marry my wife. (Point in fact, this will probably happen, only she won't be his wife until after they are married).
2) We are going to make breakfast and eat it. (Chances are good this too will happen).
3) We will get a two-person bed and both sleep in it like Mommy and Daddy. (Another one to most likely come true).
4) We will have kids, but she isn't going to have kids today, tomorrow, or Sunday or Wednesday, and tell them what to do. (What else are kids for :-) )
5) We will go shopping and buy food and eat it when we get home.

So I think he may be 5 for 5. It's nice to know he can be fairly confident that his plans will happen the way he hopes they will. Of course then again, yesterday he told me he was going to be Batman when he grew up, so I guess nothing is set in stone.

Naithen and the Coyotes

Sometimes life is hard when you are number 9 in a line of 11. First off, you don't get away with very much because there are so many people older than you keeping you in line. Second, in Naithen's own words "why are there so many people in charge of me?" - there are lots of people older than you who feel free to tell you what to do. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, like when you keep trying NOT to do something and 5 people in succession give you the same "Naithen, you need to go clean up your toys."

One day Naithen told his Mommy, "I want to go to my REAL Mommy's house."

"I don't know where that is," replied his mother.

"It's past Mimi and Granddad's, past guitar, go south, go north, go east, go west and keep going past everyone and then you get there."

These, by the way, are the same directions to get to his soccer practice, because at 4 he's too young to play on a team here, but would really like to play like his big brothers.

So that was a really long rabbit trail to tell you of the plight of little Naithen one night, when everyone wanted him to do something and he just didn't want to comply. So, he got sent to bed. Now I must preface this by telling you that he really is a sweet little boy, with a sweet spirit and the following is NOT normal for him and because of it's unusualness I did find it kind of funny. After sitting on his bed for a while, I went in to tell him goodnight and tuck him in. This is when he told me he wanted coyotes to come and eat his family (I had visions of Home Alone run through my mind).

Me: That would be very sad. I don't want to be eaten.

Naithen: Then they couldn't tell me what to do anymore.

Me: Let's have pleasant thoughts and go to sleep.

Naithen: I need my blankie.

Me: Okay, I'll go get it. It's not in the freezer, is it?

Naithen: No, but when you get it will you call the Coyotes?

Me: So they can eat us?

Naithen: Yes.

Me: No. ( I went and got his blanket and came back in the room)

Naithen: Did you call the coyotes?

Me: No. I don't want to be eaten.

Naithen: Fine. Goodnight. (Then he gave me a kiss).

Me: Goodnight.

The next morning he told me he was glad the coyotes hadn't come to eat us. I told him I was glad too.

People are Funny

I have long thought that people are funny. We do the strangest things and then think it is the other people who are weird. It's the funny quirks that make us so endearing to one another.

Let's take Naithen for instance. He's 4. I had been trying to get the little guy to sleep between two sheets instead of under a bunch of blankets that then had to be washed and it was a little frustrating. One day while making up his bed - which meant putting back on the flat sheet he kept taking off - I explained he was to sleep inside the pocket. This was an idea he LOVED! So much so that he would cry if something happened to his "pocket" at bedtime.

A couple days later I opened the freezer to get something out of it and I found Naithen's blankey inside. That seemed strange, so I took it out and set it on the counter. An hour later - it's nap time - Naithen goes running to the freezer to get his blanket. Yep. Apparently he puut it there himself. And burst into tears that is was gone. Not because it was missing, but because he "wanted it nice and cold for snuggling with." - This from the kid with four blankets on his bed and a corn bag that I have to heat up to keep him warm everynight. I'm thinking we might be able to skip a blanket or two off the bed.

A Blessed Thanksgiving

So I love my family... I had a great Thanksgiving. My Aunt makes some of the most delicious food and spending time all of us in one place is so great! My cousin and I have such good times. I am so blessed and I thank God for each one of them. The thing is... I'm a military brat. So it seems that no matter how much I love them and how great my time is, I don't feel completely at home. And that's not exactly true. I mean Michelle and I have the greatest adventures together and I wouldn't change a moment of our time together - okay so maybe of few of the moments that Michelle remembers when we were kids and apparently I terrorized her, but honestly I don't remember having access to duct tape as an 8 year old. And I'm sure if I did anything it was because she seemed to have so much freedom and feel so comfortable at our grandparents house and I was just the temporary grandchild. The one that goes home and you only think about again next summer.

That's not to say that I don't know my family loves me - because I know they do... and I honestly love them. But I don't feel at home there, because it's not home. I guess home, for me, is keeping in touch with the people I love - and I'm starting to get used to that. What I'm working on now is understanding that for people who have had the priviledge of living in one place and having roots, is that they don't think about keeping in touch when people aren't around everyday. And I'm learning - or hoping - that just because they don't call me, and I have to be the one to call them, doesn't mean they don't care, it's just we have different concepts of home and family.

So this Thanksgiving I was blessed by seeing my family in a new way. A good way. And understanding them just a little better.