Carter on the upcoming holidays

I really love it when someone else does my blogging work for me. Here's a couple of stories shared by Cart Cart about his evening with Carter earlier this week, with a few comments from me [in brackets]:

While reading the fire engine book Wednesday night at bedtime, about halfway through Carter interrupts and raises a finger in the air, and says, "Let's pause for a moment, while I call my parents." And reaches over for the broken cell phone, opens it, and has an imaginary conversation with both of you. Then he puts the phone down and says, "We can go ahead now."

In the car on the way home, he was talking about a lot of things, and especially that Santa had come that day [for pictures]. He remarked the best part of Thanksgiving is that after that, Santa comes. The following ensued:

Cart Cart: "Speaking of Thanksgiving, do you know what kind of meat people eat for Thanksgiving Dinner?
Carter: Yes.
Cart Cart: What?
Carter: Chicken.

Cart Cart: No, actually it's turkey, like the thing you made in art class today and showed me.

Carter: Do people go out and hunt the turkeys and bring them home?

[Its news to me that Carter knows what hunting is. Last time I indicated that something on his plate was an animal he adamantly disagreed, citing (as if I was crazy) that "It doesn't have eyes!"]

Cart Cart: They can, but they usually just hunt them at Publix at the store, and bring them home and cook them in the oven.

Carter: And after they eat that, Santa Claus comes !!

Clearly Carter has misunderstood my attempts to give him a way to think about when the Christmas season starts. If waiting for Christmas is any more difficult than waiting for Halloween was, we're going to have a long weekend after Thanksgiving - not to mention the month after that!

Thanks again to Cart Cart for sharing!

Halloween

Malpractice?

Carter had some tests run today to check up on his solitary right kidney. They did an ultrasound and drew blood. Thomas took Carter to the appointment.  As I was catching up with him on his day, it went something like this:

Me: Carter, how was your day?

Carter: (rambles on and on about the Halloween carnival at school, his friends, his lunch, his trip to the playground, etc.)

Me: And did you go to the doctor today?

Carter: (remembering) Oh. OH! I have to tell you about the end! At the end of the doctor...(pause, and then, incredulous) they SHOT me. The doctor shot me. And I cried.

I don't know much, but I'm pretty sure the doctor isn't supposed to shoot you, unless maybe you're a horse? Regardless, Carter apparently recovered pretty quickly after the "shot" was removed.

And in recent malparenting...

This was K week at Carter's school. Every week, his class studies a letter, and every week, they send home a kid-crafted "book" that we are supposed to fill with pictures that start with the letter of the week. The kids share their books for show-and-tell on Friday, along with other items from home that start with "K". After15 weeks of this, our magazine supply is definitely looking a bit scrappy. And this activity is most definitely easier for some letters than others.

This week, we left the K book to be completed onThursday night, but then we were invited to have dinner with some friends that night. So... I got creative and suggested to Carter that we skip the homework and buy a value pack of Kit Kats for his class so he could point out the Ks on the package at show-and-tell instead.

Needless to say, he was thrilled with the idea. His father... not so much.

Explorer of the Week

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Pumpkin Patch

Last week, we hit our favorite pumpkin patch with Ashley, Anna and Sammy.

In the corn box. My job was to keep the corn out of Sammy's mouth!

Carter volunteered at the piglet races for the first time! He didn't get chosen, though. Maybe next year...

Pumpkin Carving!

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Carter's Chicago Trip

Carter spent some of his Chicago vacation with Mama Helen and Daddy Phil at our friends the Wojcik's house in Evanston. From the pictures my mom took, it looks like he had a blast.

Two funny things:

1. Carter insisted that we were in New York for the entire trip. Since we got home, he's been asking people: "Did you miss me when  I was in New York?"
2. When he was in the city, Carter also insisted that "his" town (Atlanta) is bigger than "this" town (Chicago, aka NYC).

A new favorite game

At the playground

At the Lincoln Park Zoo

Also at the Lincoln Park Zoo

Mandi's Wedding

We were in Chicago last week for Mandi and Ross' wedding. I seem to have stopped taking pictures after the wedding, so I don't have pictures of any non-wedding related activities or friends. But here are a few good shots of the festivities. Thanks to mom and dad for coming to Chicago to keep Carter entertained while we were involved with wedding festivities!

Mandi and Joo at the nail salon

Bren and Aarti at the rehearsal dinner

Mandi at the rehearsal dinner

Brunch on the big day!

The 'maids

The bride!

The cherry pie cutting

Recipes

A couple of you asked for more info on the frozen dinners I made recently. We had the first one tonight, and it was terrific!


Rosemary Mustard Chicken and Veggies

Here are the 3 recipes I used, all three originally from Real Simple, years ago (thanks to Rachel for 2 of them), though only one was originally intended to be a make-ahead meal. I don't follow these recipes exactly anymore, and I tend to use all chicken breasts, but this gives you a sense of the proportions. Basically, just combine everything and freeze. From frozen, bake at 400 for 25 minutes, stir and bake for 25 more minutes. That's it. Dinner on the table. 

Maple Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
1  3 1/2- to 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 yellow onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons maple syrup
6 sprigs fresh thyme


Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 lemons, 1 thinly sliced, 1 juiced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¾ pound trimmed green beans
8 small red potatoes, quartered
4 chicken breasts (bones left in, with skin—about 3 ¼ pounds)

Rosemary Mustard Chicken
1 pound new potatoes
2 carrots
2 small zucchini
2 T whole grain mustard
2 T olive oil
1.5 t salt
.5 t pepper
1 T rosemary
4 6 ounce chicken breasts

First Morning in Chicago

Really enjoying the hotel breakfast...



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