thanksgiving (according to the baby with all the opinions)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Well, wonderful interspersed with not-so-wonderful, actually...Millie and I traded off being sick and useless (me)/grumpy (her). Poor Matt. He's probably getting tired of being the only fully functional member of our household. I keep reminding him that this is just payback from the summer and his weeks of Man Mono (kind of like Man Flu, but times 3 billion because it was legitimately mono). Soon we will be even.

Anyway, enough about all that. All you (or I) really care about is Millie, so let's just get her perspective on how the holiday week went, shall we?

Things That Were To Millie's Liking:

1. Hanging out with her cousin who adores her and is borderline obsessed with her. Not even joking. Although Carley lives two hours away, her life (according to her parents and grandparents) revolves around Millie. Talking about "Mill-Mill" and looking at pictures and videos of Mill-Mill are basically her primary interests in life right now. In case you think I'm exaggerating or just overestimating how much she cares about Millie, I will tell you this true story that my SIL told me. One night last week, Carley woke up in the middle of the night crying hysterically. Emily rushed into her room and couldn't calm her down. "Do you want some water? Your lovey? Are you hungry? Do you want to come sleep with Mommy and Daddy?"...she listed everything she could think of, but Carley sadly and hysterically shook her head no to everything. Finally, after many minutes of sobbing, Carley calmed down enough to sputter out what she needed: want to watch Mill-mill movie on phone!!!....so at 3 in the morning, there they were...sitting in bed, watching iPhone videos of Millie.

OBSESSED!!!! (I love it.)

Anyway. Luckily, Millie enjoys being the center of all that love and attention. :)

Hopefully you're getting a sense of the cousin love these two share!! I just can't wait for Millie to get a little older and return the obsessive love (and with ALL of her cousins)!

2. Being a Farm Baby

As you may have observed, Carley has the excellent luck of living on a farm! This is just fine by Mill-Mill, because animals and being outside are 100% her favorite thing.

WOW, YOU ARE LIKE A REALLY BIG LOLA!!! I"ll just go ahead and give you some pat-pats and poke your eyes...

Ummm...isn't parenthood all about supporting your children, even when they make choices that you would never, ever, not in a million years make for yourself? Yeah, that's what I'm doing in the above picture. Go on and pet that chicken, Millie. Hope you don't catch bird flu! (Or more likely- get your eyes pecked out. Or get touched by one of its feet. AHHHHH!!!! A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH!!!)

But Mommy, if you let me get a chicken, I will gather all the eggs for you! You never even have to go in!

3. Family Wheelbarrow Rides

Well, to be honest, I don't know if Millie enjoyed these as much as I did. But I enjoyed them a lot, so we'll go ahead and count it.

Oh look, it's Lola! She still exists!

Things That Were Not Even Remotely Close To Millie's Liking:

1. Our attempts at taking family pictures. I just wanted ONE decent picture for a Christmas card. ONE!! Apparently that was too much to ask.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I DON'T WAAAAANNNNNNAAAAA!!!!!

Ooh, a leaf! Cool!

HOLDING ME MAKES IT WORSE!!!!!

 (We give up and decide to try again the next day. Surely it will go better!!)

(Twenty-four hours later...)

No.

Hmm...I'm going to think about something sad, maybe.

STILL NO, MOMMY. STOP TRYING TO MAKE PICTURES HAPPEN!!!

I'm going to pretend I don't even know you. Let me down, lady! I want to go pet chickens!

So that was a smashing success, I'd say. Maybe I'll make a Christmas card of outtakes. Or draw a stick person on a post-it note and write MERRY FREAKING CHRISTMAS and call it a day.

(On the plus side, check out Millie and Matt's awesome prom hands pose in that last picture!)

All in all, it was a Thanksgiving to remember. Just not one to photograph and frame, apparently.

(Bonus points if you spotted my special "alteration" on my dress...ha! That dress really doesn't fit right, but I wanted to wear it for a picture, so I snagged this quick fix idea from the skinny girls on wedding dress shows on TV! Genius! Until they accidentally take a picture of you from the side, apparently.)