Thanksgiving Pictures

It was a good Thanksgiving. Well spent with family. There was Rocking Horse, Apples, Softballs, Auntie Di Nina, Good Food!, cleaning the pool with Granma, and Parades. Not too mention Cute Shoes and a tutu.

The picture of Danielle at the table. I really don’t know what was happening there. I was taking a picture of Claire and upon review Danielle is making some kind of gesture. I assume she was telling a story about “an elephant, THIS tall”.

Diana and I both blacked out after dinner. Claire was kind enough to give her Aunti Di Nina a good night kiss. And, she was subsequently kind enough to drag me out of my make shift bed. Danielle tells me that they had a conversation about it first.

Claire: Daddy sleeping?

Danielle: Yes, daddy’s sleeping.

Claire: He tired?

Danielle: Yes. Very tired.

Claire: Night night?

Danielle: Yup.

Claire: We wake him up! Okay? Of course.

Danielle: Okay?

And then Claire promptly dragged me off the couch. I choose to think of that as a demonstration of the kind of pure love that only a child can show their parents.

Claire had a ball though. She was in remarkably good form the entire afternoon. She ate good and played hard. And, best of all, blacked out on the way home and went straight to bed. As a parent, I can tell you that this is the best sort of day possible. And, as a parent that feeling is usually expressed through a combination of laughter and tears.

Face Time!

Holy what the what. If I had known that the Face Time feature on iPhone could be used thusly, I’d’ve done this three hundred times. So, for those that don’t know, the iPhones now come with an HD camera on the back and a lesser camera facing the front for video chat. When you use the front camera, you can see what you’re doing on the screen whilst doing it. Shooting video is a bit like driving in reverse using the rear view mirror. What? I like my car analogies.

Anyroad. This is what happens when you give your kid some chocolate and a front seat to ham it up in. When she’s touching her face, it’s because she’s watching herself touch her face. And when she says “Hi Cuhlaire!” it’s because she’s greeting herself. Off video, I took some pictures of her and myself like that and she alternated between greeting Video Dad and Video Cuhlaire.

I was going to post Thanksgiving photos today. But, come on. Seriously. This is ADORABLE!

Slow Day

Well. This closes out the Thanksgiving Holiday. And opens up to preparation for the Christmas Holiday. I suspect the eggnog drinking will continue and that I will gain an estimated 34 pounds.

As you can see, we took it easy today. Note Claire’s employment of a basket holder for stuffed vegetables as a fez.

I’ll post some Thanksgiving photos tomorrow or the next day. Depending on whether or not I’m back in the groove of, you know. Doing stuff.

The Dress Up

Well. You can see how the Dass Family has been spending its holiday so far. I apologize for missing yesterday’s post. I was in a drug induced coma. My drugs? Tryptophan and champagne. Yaar! And when I wasn’t enjoying that, I was busy catching up on FIFA.

What I’m trying to say is I’ve had a great silly time and enjoyed delicious food and good company so far this holiday. I hope that you are doing the same.

Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you get to spend it with the people you love. I’ll be spending the holiday with my family. And, insha’Allah, last year’s FIFA for PS3. Which I have yet to play. You’ve got to make time for the important things in your life, you do.

Future Designs

Aunty Diana got Claire a William And Mary shirt to wear about. I guess someone ought to have designs on Claire’s future. Claire, on the other hand, decided to play her new game I’m Asleep I Promise. Instead of pretending to fall down now, she pretends to have narcolepsy. I mean, she doesn’t call it that. But, that’s what she does. She’ll be walking or talking and all of a sudden lay down and “be asleep”. And, if you don’t notice her deception and completely fall for it she gets very…offended.

But, me. I see a kid in a William and Mary shirt and I think “You better get used to those bars, kid.”

On Obstacles

One of the things that continually impresses me about Claire is her ability to overcome obstacles. Tonight, Claire was very hungry at dinner time. While Danielle and I were getting dinner ready to go we got lost in a conversation. When we came back to, Claire was sitting at her High Table with her backpack eating a nice bowl of pasta. She knew some food was ready and she appropriated a bowl for herself from the counter and set herself a place and sat down to chow down.

Honestly, I wasn’t even a trace of upset. I was impressed. She had to have been watching very closely to know where the prepared food was placed on the counter given that they are still taller than her. So, good for her. Note her use of the back pack. I presume that was her contingency plan for if her appropriation went south. Now, it just had a tea cup in it. So, I’m not saying she’s Machiavelli or Patton, here. I’m just saying, good for her for identifying a problem and a potential solution set and then executing a plan to realize one of those solutions.

She is, however, like that with a lot of things. For example, the iPhone that she uses to watch Caillou can connect to Netflix Watch Instantly. I’ve found her once, having identified a need to watch Dora and Boots, navigated to the Netflix App and successfully located an episode of Dora and started watching it. Now, we’d never set that show up for her. So, she was able to realize that the phone could provide it. That Netflix has a selection of shows that she’s seen elsewhere. And that she could use Netflix and it’s On Demand function to watch one of these other shows.

This ability is awesome, in the truest sense of the word. And, a bit terrifying. It’s scary to have such a young goofball with a highly developed planning and execution ability. I do, in fact, expect an attempted coup in the near future. But, well. Then we shall see who is the master now. Yes. Yes we shall. Game on, child. Game on.

Side note: After seeing Lucas’ vision for the first three episodes, I kind of wonder why Obi Wan didn’t respond more cynically to Darth Vader’s “I am the master now” dig. I mean. Honestly. He cut off the man’s legs and arm and left him burning alive in lava the last time they met. In LAVA, people. Vader may have had the last word (spirit words don’t count), but any victory is sort of a pittance when put up against the reality of his first defeat.

SIde note on the Side note: Yeah. I think of my role as a parent as Obi Wan Kenobi. And I think of Claire as my young would be Super Jedi constantly tempted by the Dark Side. Is that so weird? Is it? Because I’m not sure I have the ability to gauge that for myself.

What A Goofball!

So, yesterday I took Claire downstairs with me. I needed something and Claire required my company. While I was searching for what I needed, she pulled on my slippers and started running around the ottoman like a maniac. It was like we were playing tag and she was winning. Only, I was just standing there snapping pictures. I was more like an obstacle in her game of tag. With which she seemed satisfied.

She’s covering her eyes in the middle picture because one of the pictures I took had the flash on. And that startled her. So, she sat on the bench to pose for a picture. But, while posing she covered her eyes and told me Picture Bright!

Also, the lowest shelf on our new shelves has apparently been reserved as Claire’s Bench. She sits on it and then gestures wildly over her head and shouts Story Books at me. So, then we go upstairs and read some her books. This, too, seems to suit her.

Bouncing Fool

So. Here’s me. Being an idiot. What? We’re on a great heaping air balloon would be trampoline? I’ll take a video! And, here’s Danielle’s video of me doing just that. Also worth noting in the video: Claire’s unadulterated glee. Man, she had a good time at Ticonderoga Farm. I heartily recommend it to any in the area. Kids or not. And this from a guy that doesn’t recommend anything.

Dressing Order

In what order would you get dressed? If you’re Claire, as soon as you get done with a bath you run out and put shoes on. But, hey. They’re new shoes. So, I suppose that should count for something.

Me: Don’t you want a diaper? Or, some pants?

Claire: No. Shoes!

Me: Well. Okay then.

And then she watched the sailing competition on ESPN for ten minutes straight. Interesting child, to say the say the least.