random things

erik has developed a strange new habit. when i went to pick him up last friday, i heard one of the teachers yelling at him while i was getting his things together and signing him out. i looked over to see him trying to climb on the back of this little girl, anastasia. now i use the description "little" rather loosely here. while she is indeed much smaller than me, she's nearly a head taller than the other kids in erik's class, and built like a tank. and she's about a month younger than erik. well, it turns out erik had been trying to "ride" her all day. i have no idea where this came from, but apparently he would push her to the ground and then climb on her back. she is definitely stronger than him and could have probably pushed him off, but she just kind of yelled at him instead. the poor girl ... i hope repressed memories of this don't torment her one day! later that evening, erik was trying to "ride" our kitty xena too:
he seemed to forget about it over the weekend and the past couple of days, so hopefully he's through this phase. it'll be interesting to hear if he behaved himself at school today.

monday was my 7th wedding anniversary. peter and i both find it impossible to believe we've been married that long. it's felt like 3 minutes ... under water! but all kidding aside, i used to wonder how people like my grandparents could be married to each other for over 50 years. i know 7 is just a drop in the bucket, but the years really do fly by. erik will be two in a couple of months, and it feels like only yesterday that i was knocking stuff over on my lab bench with my big pregnant belly. to celebrate our anniversary, we decided to go out for dinner at penn brewery. we had some really good german food and beer, and erik was pretty well behaved, so we had a nice time. we also got dessert to take home from the cheesecake factory, which was of course delicious!

i have been fighting off a nasty cold for about a week now, and monday night was by far the worst of it. it's always so much worse at night. i hardly slept and was absolutely miserable by the morning. i stayed home and tried to get some rest. peter was very thoughtful and kept erik busy for most of the day. he even took him to get a haircut. i will be sure to post some pictures soon. we went out in the afternoon and bought a humidifier for our bedroom which will hopefully help me to feel better. it seemed to do pretty well last night, and i'm feeling much better today after a pretty decent night's sleep.

tomorrow is thanksgiving, and peter just found out that he doesn't have to work in the morning so we'll get to spend the whole day together. yay! we'll be heading up to evans city for a traditional turkey day feast. we're bringing libations and dessert. we got a nice sampler case of beers from penn brewery and a 1.5L bottle of some kind of red wine i hadn't heard of, but it's from chile and was recommended by a nice lady at the shop while i was perusing the wines and looking rather confused. i hope it's tasty!

and of course friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. for some reason i am actually thinking of going out at 5am before peter leaves for work in search of bargains, but i am sure that reason will prevail and i will be snug and warm in my bed for as long as erik will allow. i have no idea what we're going to do for christmas presents this year. as is the case for many people i'm sure, we're on a very tight budget these days and don't have a fortune to spend on presents. but at the same time, we want to get something nice for the people we love. it's always a challenge. we'll think of something.

to anyone who happens to be reading this, happy thanksgiving! if you are traveling, be safe and sane and have a wonderful trip. enjoy the time with your family, your friends, or yourself!