Wow - 6 months old!

Amazingly, our super sweet Samuel is six months old today! He celebrated the day by having a rotten cold with a bit of a cough (definately better in the day and upright though than he has been for the previous couple of nights), but also by having his Mummy a bit more than he has over the past few days (Young Women in Excellence was last night so the hard work is all done for just a short while), and by having a bit more of a family day as we celebrated Thanksgiving - a day late! :o)

It was more of a relaxed day than it would have been yesterday. We still didn't get as much time as I'd hoped we would - no surprise there as there is always something - today it was half of the family waking up ill, and the two oldest in the family (you guess who!) waking up very tired again after two little boys being awake and crying through the night. Well, by lunch time we were able to have our devotional, read a lovely thanksgiving book together, and get a fair way with each child making a Christmas decoration of their choosing - all similar, with personal variations. Then when I put some white fairy lights up in the living room and dining room just for fun (I wanted to last night, but just went to bed like a good girl), suddenly all of the children were amazed, excited, and all in a VERY Christmassy mood. Impromptu dancing, singing and playing of Christmas carols on the piano and a Christmas CD! Wow - what an impact! So they played while Michael and I got our dinner ready and cleared up from all the crafty things we'd been up to. Here are a couple of pictures to share from there on in...



Samuel especially loved the roasted butternut squash,



... and also the chicken he pinched off my plate while I wasn't looking (actually I was picking up some food he'd dropped on the floor)



He is enjoying a few different tastes of food at the moment - pineapple, parsnip, squash, brocolli, green beans, pitta bread, etc. He is leading the way with starting on solids, and so for about a week now has been 'eating' a few things. He hasn't actually got to the stage of eating yet - just chasing around a bowl or the table, holding, squishing, chomping, tasting, moving the food around a bit in his mouth, then back out it comes - the actual swallowing is next to develop, so when he's ready ... For now, he's enjoying being a slightly messy part of family meals though. :o)

Samuel was playing happily with his feet this evening, before a nappy change, and I find it so enjoyable to watch him do that, that I tried to take a photo. First sight of the camera always means stop what you're doing though! Well, I liked the pictures anyway. Do you see those lovely blue eyes he still has? The last one is a bit too dark, but he looked so funny. His tongue was working over-time, like it does at meal times.





We thoroughly enjoyed our very unplanned but pleasant celebration of Thanksgiving today. Unintentionally planning Young Women in Excellence for the day of thanksgiving left it as just happening on its own. I wouldn't change that though - YW in Excellence was a lovely evening, and I am thankful for it and for my counsellors and the young women who did a fantastic job. :o) It was not such a rainy day today, but dry and sunny in some parts of the day, and a walk in the woods would have been lovely if everyone had been well enough. Rebekah was too ill with a cold to go outside as she just needed to keep warm, but just seeing the sun was a pleasant change.

Did you notice the corn smiley faces on our dinner plates? Everyone had a lot to be thankful for, and kept asking for more pieces of corn to put on the heart plate after using up the eight I'd given to everyone. The plate was half full when we were done. A very joyful evening. It feels nice to be grateful, not least for a wonderful little boy in our lives called Samuel.

Happy Thanksgiving!