There are pictures coming, but we wanted to share tonight's big news: Eli is in his big boy bed! He was so excited about it and talked about it all afternoon... until he was tucked in and the lights went out.
Then he said in a tiny little voice, "Mommy, maybe I sleep in baby bed?" Argh.
It might have been heartbreaking if Kevin and I had not spent a big chunk of the afternoon assembling the big boy bed and wearing ourselves (and possibly our marriage) out in the process. What is it about children's furniture that makes it so challenging to assemble?
In the end, he did decide to stay in his big boy bed with his friends Baby, Puppy and blanket. He looks very cute and very small in it, funny, because he looks like a big beast in his crib. He's been asleep for a couple of hours now.
So I will take this opportunity to hit my own big girl bed! Good night!

And finally, friends, lest you hear it in the tabloids before you hear it here, the Wild Rumpus is about to get wilder. I'm sporting the latest in Hollywood accessories: a Baby Bump. Stay tuned...

This year, we let Eli help decorate the Christmas tree. He did a great job and really got into it! He was very concerned with proper ornament placement and occasionally got worried that our (sad and pitiful) artificial tree was "broken".

I brought an art project. The pictures speak for themselves. What was I thinking?

One of the best things about visiting David and Jaime's (other than the good company!) is that there is lots of space to play, both indoors and out. Eli loves all of Hunter's toys, especially the ride-on "tractor". Eli also took a shine to an old broken guitar, which he played quite adeptly as an upright bass. Hunter, 15 months old, is a much calmer child than Eli and was mostly content to watch Eli go racing from place to place. Jamie and I are convinced, though, that that will soon change. It is only a matter of time before the two take off into the woods by themselves to go make little boy mischief. Heaven help us.

Looking for ducks in the water below.

We spent Thanksgiving in the lap of country luxury. We went and visited David, Jaime and Hunter in rural Virginia. It is like being in a kid-friendly bed and breakfast when we go out there, right down to the fluffy bath towels.

Jaime did a great job with Thanksgiving dinner. She keeps insisting that everyone contributed but all I remember the rest of us doing is hovering around and sneaking bits of food from the dishes she worked so hard on. I wish I had taken a picture of the pumpkin pie. It was the largest pie I have ever seen in my life. Really, it was HUGE!

We spent one afternoon out "hiking" on the Virginia Creeper trail. I think we went the equivalent of 1/2 a city block, but we saw all sorts of things: ducks, rocks, geese, rocks, sticks, rocks, chickens, rocks, cows and rocks. Eli came back with his pants so full of rocks that they wouldn't stay up! Too bad stonewashed jeans went out in 1989 because that is what most of our laundry is like these days.

Eli was a frog for Halloween. He was particularly infatuated with his froggy hands. We never did figure out why, but he liked to show them to everyone who would look at them. We got good use out of the costume, with a visit to the preschool fall festival, a Wednesday night supper at church, a trip to a Halloween-themed Music Class where we danced to the "Monster Mash", and even a short round of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. AND, next weekend the costume will come out again for the Christmas pageant. Bet you didn't know there were frogs at the manger, did you?

At his school's fall festival, there is always a train ride, usually around the playground. It was raining buckets that day (drought, what drought?), so the train was relegated to the parking deck. It didn't dampen Eli's enthusiasm for the train at all. They gave every kid a train whistle to blow as we drove in circles. Eli still keeps it in his carseat and takes it out from time to time to serenade me on our morning commute. I am a lucky woman.

I'm not even going to bother apologizing, dear readers. I'll just give the standard excuse: life has been on the hectic side here at The Wild Rumpus, so blogging has been tabled for a while. Now that the big conference I've been pulling together is over and Kevin has a semester of teaching behind him, perhaps I'll get back on the blogging wagon, but don't hold your breath.

The good news is, after a photographic dry spell (Eli wouldn't let us use the camera), we've got pics to share! So, let the show begin...