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Another Thanksgiving came and went and, for us, being pretty far away from family, Thanksgiving has always been a nice way to spend some quality time with each other and to unwind together. This year was no exception. After a couple of very stressful weeks, especially for Matt, we had 4 full days off… Yeah!

The holiday did not start the best way. On Tuesday, Keegan woke up at 6am (not me…who of course woke up at 4.30 anyway), so we knew there was something wrong. Sure enough, at noon, we get the dreaded call from daycare: apparently Keegan had 99.7 temperature and I had to pick him up. Saying this did not make me happy is an understatement. I am not a bad mother, but, since when is 99.7 a fever? And considering that he usually naps around 12.15 it seemed really stupid to call me instead of letting him take his nap: they have their own beds after all, and if he does fall asleep before I can get him, then I have to wake him, and if he is sick shouldn’t he get his rest? I tried to mention it to them, but they told me they would keep him up. Plus, why didn’t they call Matt, since he is a lot closer than me? As a final touch, I had to cancel a lunch with a friend we had been trying to set up for the previous two weeks…and let’s not forget the double whammy: since he was sent home with a fever, the following day, fever or not, he stays home; and he misses his Thanksgiving party at school, and he does not get to say goodbye to his friends and teachers, and I had lots of stuff to get done…I know, I know  I am whining!

Well, I show up there, and guess what? Keegan is sleeping. I think I wanted to shoot someone at this point. I can’t leave him there so I have to wake him up, get him in the car, and of course he did not fall back asleep. Not in the car, not in his bed, not in the stroller…and at home, his temperature was 98.5! So I get to entertain him all day. Fortunately he is not too whiny or demanding, even without his nap. He was fine all day, but I guess he seemed to have a sore throat, since it was red and he was not really eating. At night time he did have a low grade fever, but nothing to worry about.

The next day, Matt stayed home with him till 10.30, so I could be at work for two hours, and then I got home. He got his nap this time, which was a good thing, since we went to Seaworld in the afternoon and he needed all his strength. We got to see the dolphins doing tricks, and the seals and of course Shamu, in its nighttime show. Keegan, who talks about Shamu ALL THE TIME, who sleeps with Shamu — well the stuffed version — and who couldn’t stop talking about Shamu the whole time we were at Seaworld, got sick and bored of the show after 10 minutes. Go figure. By the way, Keegan now REALLY likes stuffed animals: he reads to them, feed them, hit them, throw them, jump on them, hug them, read with them…he is starting to amass quite an impressive collection. Check out some of his favorites.

Thanksgiving day was beautiful and unseasonably warm: highs were in the mid to high 70s, so we headed out to the beach. Keegan has been asking to go for a while and it seemed like the perfect day. He had a blast. Despite the frigid water temperature he immediately jumped in the ocean, while mommie tried to keep her distance…BRRRR. He was splashing and falling and running back for some more. We did some sand castles and climbed the sand barriers.

Later in the day, Matt cooked an excellent meal: turkey with yummy sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes and his famous cream cheese appetizers. Yummy. We ate all together, at least until Keegan decided he had enough and wanted to get down and play.We topped it all off with huge ice cream bowls.

gimme some food, NOW!

After dinner, keegan had a  visitor: Jada, with her mom Sharon stopped by to play. Keegan was very happy and the two of them played together quite nicely, without crying or fighting. This is something we are all thankful for.

The next day, Black Friday, we ventured Grossmont mall to get Keegan an haircut. Mom did tried to do it herself and to trim his bangs, but the results were pretty bad. Matt, very delicately, suggested we would take him to a professional to fix the damage. He was starting in his new class on Monday, and he had his bug party next weekend, so he should look good. The traffic was not bad at all, and we easily found parking. Keegan was great: he sat in his little char by himself and let the nice lady do her job…and sure enough, less than 10 minutes and $15 later, he looks like a million bucks!

check out the 50’s styling!

Matt had a close call, work wise. We were worried he would have been doing lots of work, but fortunately he “got away” with only a couple of hours while Keegan was sleeping. I took advantage of his 2.5 hours nap to do some “window shopping” on the computer, looking both for Christmas presents and birthday presents/ ideas. We sent the invitations out for next weekend, so I have to prepare something.

Saturday brought San Diego first “big” storm of the season: “lots” of rain and chilly weather. He rained on and off all day, but we still had enough breaks to play outside. Keegan liked the rain, probably the novelty of it. He had a blast when we ran though the REI parking lot under the rain (mom liked it a lot less): we got a bike seat for him, so hopefully we will be able to go bike riding again soon. We bought a  front mounted one and hopefully it will work OK. During our brief test ride, Keegan seemed to enjoy it. We will see how he will react when he needs to put his helmet on.

It was chilly and dreary, so it seemed a prefect night to light up the fire: it has been a while but fortunately we still had some wood left. Keegan was fascinated by the fire, but at this point he is well aware that fire is dangerous and hot and it will hurt him if he touches it….we know this well from reading “Goodnight Moon”. Every time he sees the fireplace, he says:”fire/fuoco, hot”, then he pretend to touch it and says” houch, male, hurts”. Cute, right? Well, not as much after the millionth time. Do you have any ideas of how many pages show a picture of the fireplace? And do you have ideas of how many times we read that book??? By the way, why kids find it so appealing is beyond me: the colors combination alone really bugs me, (everybody knows that green and red vibrates) and don’t get me started on the creepy bunnies… Don’t shoot me, I know it is a classic…but what do you expect from someone who also finds the Sesame Street characters creepy???

Sunday morning we had a playdate at Hannah’s house. Keegan was excited and it went pretty well overall: minimal fighting, and lots of playing together. They even ate together at a little table. I think Keegan liked this part the best.

We finished our holiday weekend with a quite afternoon at home. We did more Internet shopping, tested out the bike seat and got ready for the next step in Keegan’s life: coming Monday Keegan will be in the ‘big kids” room, the Yellow Duckies.