Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope all our friends and family have a great Thanksgiving.

We had a great surprise this morning with our first real snow of the year. Juma and I went outside and played for hours.

too cool

parent-teacher conference

We attended our very first parent-teacher conference as parents. (I always thought I'd be a little bit older when that happened.) Juma is doing well in preschool. He doesn't get in fights or get bullied, he plays well with other kids and enjoys the activities. Only problem is that he's just so darn shy. (Gee, I wonder where he gets that from? Double whammy.)

He talks to the other kids just fine; it's talking to the teachers that gives him lockjaw. It wouldn't be a problem, really, if it didn't interfere with communicating needs and problems--going to the bathroom, help opening up his string cheese--but it does. (Again, sound familiar?)

But he is overcoming his determination to not talk to the teachers. He even tracks his progress at home with us. "I talked to Miss Reeny today!" or "I wasn't shy to the teachers today."

All-in-all, school had been really good to him. He's a really fun kid to have around.

I think we'll keep him.

depressing day

Sarah, Juma and I went to "The Game" today. We had high hopes for our Yale Bulldogs against the evil Harvard Crimson Tide, but it wasn't meant to be. In a very exciting, triple-overtime game Harvard came out on top.

It's a good thing I'm not the suicidal type, because our other team, BYU, also lost a heart-breaker in overtime against their arch-rivals, the hated Utes.

I'm done with football; as of tomorrow, I'm moving to Tibet to become a monk. A monk with no access to ESPN.

more silly things

While driving in the car tonight: Hey, the moon is following us!

Juma to our Siamese fighting fish, Nemo: Have a good Nemo-poop!
Sarah: Have a good Nemo-poop?!?
Juma: (casually) Yeah, fish poop all the time. (as if he was saying, Of course. What's so weird about that?)

While we were playing golf at a sports store: I'm good at golf! (thinking I might feel bad?) You're good at golf, too. (and he kissed me)

uguuhhhhhhhhhhhjuma

silly things

It's time for some more cute Juma-stories.

"I'm drinky!" means "I'm thirsty."
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After Halloween trick-or-treating, we told Juma he can have one piece of candy per day. A couple days later, I was really busy and hoping to bribe him into a few minutes of quiet so I could get something done. "How about a piece of Halloween candy?" I said. (Bad Mom, bad Mom!)

He replied, "No, I already had one piece today!" (Good kid, good kid.)
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Yesterday Juma took a late nap and woke up very cranky for dinner. We could barely get him to eat, and Justin decided to speed up his bedtime ritual by skipping the bath. Juma continued to be grumpy and just wanted to sleep.

But when Justin pulled out a new package of pull-ups (underwear-shaped diapers for bladder-control challenged nighttimes), Juma saw that none other than his hero Buzz Lightyear was on the pull-ups! He rushed into the living room to where I was, waving that pull-up around, screaming, "Look, Mom, look! Buzz Light-chear!"

He was at that moment the happiest kid in the world.

a day with Thomas the train

We went with Justin up the coast to Essex, CT, while he finished his scuba certification with an open-water dive. I figured there had to be something to do in Essex to entertain a three-year old for a few hours. As fate would have it, none other than Thomas the Train was in town giving rides to lucky litte kids.
Juma was thrilled to see a life-size Thomas and ride on a real train.
Unfortunately, Juma also developed a fever a couple hours into what was supposed to be a six-hour stay in Essex. So we cut our activities short and came home. Juma's fever reached almost 103, but we got it to come down. He's still stightly feverish, but feeling a lot better than yesterday.

Halloween highlights

Here are some bits of our Halloween.
Juma has worn a costume for all four Halloweens he has lived through, but he only remembers (and loves) the dinosaur costumes. Rrrooooaaarr!!!!

This is the first year we've carved a pumpkin with Juma. He wouldn't even touch the ooey-gooey-slimy insides.

















He specifically requested we carve a "scary face!"

the silly tree

Down the street a bit there's this great tree, dubbed The Silly Tree, whose branches grow down instead of up. The effect is this great shady dome underneath the leaves, and some great swing-like branches to sit on.

Santa Claus is coming to town...

We bought plane tickets for Christmas. We'll be in California December 20-28 and in Utah December 28-January 4.

We're looking forward to seeing everybody! (Too bad Rus & Kelly and Jody & Patrick won't be around. We miss you guys and all of Juma's cousins.)

It'll be nice to have a much-needed break from my first semester of school. It's really draining me.