My Number 9 Cutie

If you want to know what Allen's into, here it is. After years have gone by, I want to remember how much he loved this song, and how cute it was to sing it with him... It's his favorite part of the "Sesame Street Number Show." YouTube comes through again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope you spent part of today counting your blessings... Unfortunately, my fantasy football team isn't helping me out too much in that regard. So it's a good thing that I am blessed so fully in every other aspect of life!

We made a wonderful Crabbe feast: Smoked turkey; green beans with onion and bacon; real mashed potatoes, with enough garlic to light up Napoli; stuffing with Emilyn's famous hand-cut mushrooms; and Mommy's newly famous bread pudding a la mode with spiced vanilla sauce! Whew! That's a good meal.



The birdies came to our feeders for their own Thanksgiving feast. We counted a dozen goldfinches (hard to spot in the winter when they're not gold) and a nice downy or hairy woodpecker... After dessert, we headed out to another Christmas light display. To see more, click here.

65 degrees at Santa's Magical Kingdom

Oooh, it's been a balmy two days here in the Gateway City. What better time than to jump headlong into the Christmas spirit!


We got some coupons from SMK today... And who could resist a wagon ride in 65-degree weather... On Nov. 20? Allen loved the lights, and Emilyn really got a warm holiday glow. I think she's going to do her all to help Mommy make this one a magical Christmas. (Thanks in no small part to my 10-day pre-Christmas vacation! Whoo-hoo!)

To see more from our open-air trip through a holiday wonderland, click here.

Sunday laziness and wackiness

It's a rare moment when Allen will snuggle up with us!

Emilyn being goofy is more common.

I support my friend and mentor, Avis Meyer

As you get to be a grown-up (for me, 35), you realize how truly blessed and lucky you are. You realize how the "stars" had to align to get you where you are. And you start to think about who's responsible for guiding your life in the right direction. For me, of course, there was Mom and Dad. And Steve. And then there was Avis.

Without Avis Meyer, my adviser at SLU, I'd have never known how much fun it was to make a newspaper. I'd have never known people got paid (pretty well) to know how to spell. So, I guess you could say that everything I've been blessed with in the last 15 years, including my home and my kids, is due in large part to Avis.

So it was my honor to be in the audience for a panel discussion Thursday about college journalism with him, my other good friends Tom Pettitt and Dick Weiss (former colleagues at the Post) and Ed Bishop, journalism professor at Webster U. The discussion followed a screening of the documentary "The Paper," a film by Aaron Matthews about a year at Penn State's Daily Collegian.

Watching the movie brought about in me such a strange mix of emotions: I recalled so distinctly how much I enjoyed my days at the University News. And I felt so sharply how glad I am that time of my life is over! It was a lot of hard work and aggravation, but it made me fall in love with newspaper production, and, of course, now I can't imagine doing anything else.

So, of course, it irritates me to hear that my alma mater, Saint Louis University, is suing Avis in a ridiculous, personal dispute between him and the president of the college, Father Lawrence Biondi. It's a sordid tale of censorship, too long to recount here. But Avis has made many friends in his 30-plus years as adviser to the U. News, and many are banding together in an online petition calling on Father Biondi to drop his lawsuit. Click here if you'd like to read it.

And if you'd like to hear a radio program featuring Avis, Tom, Ed and the director of "The Paper," click here. (If you have an hour to spare, and you'd like to hear a discussion of the state of college journalism today, that is!)

A trip to the dentist

Emilyn had her semiannual checkup on Thursday... Her teeth are great! I just had to bring my camera, because I realized we had never documented a visit to Dr. Dunagan's office before! It's a great place, where kids feel welcome. Check out more photos and captions here.

Emilyn's an A-plus kid!

We just had our conference with Mrs. Stasen, Emilyn's teacher... She did nothing but gush about our girl. She said if she could clone her and sprinkle her around the classroom, she would! She also lent Emilyn a treasured book from her childhood, "The Boxcar Children." She said she never would have sent that book home with any other kid!

On her report card, Emilyn got an A in reading, writing, math, science and social studies. Here's a little excerpt from Mrs. Stasen's comments:

"Emilyn has had a terrific start to third grade. She is a very hard worker, and it shows in all she does. Emilyn is doing a wonderful job in Writing Workshop. ... Her piece, "Allen Goes to the Zoo," was filled with descriptive language and details. Math is another strength for Emilyn. She is able to fluently compute addition, subtraction and multiplication problems. ... Emilyn has a wonderful smile and is a pleasure to have in class.

(If I can get my hands on a copy of "Allen Goes to the Zoo," I'll be sure to share it here.)

So, she's earned a big trip to Krispy Kreme for all this great work. Can't wait!

Messing around in the leaves

... Well, Allen and I were messing around. Daddy was working hard. Except when he took time out to pose for me, that is.

Allen, as always, had fun in the leaf piles. Mommy did her best to contribute, by hauling the leaves out to the curb. And, of course, documenting the whole thing for all time. Check it all out, including a little video, here.

A lovely self-portrait

Emilyn's camera MUST be for kiddos... It has a "self-portrait" setting. And she makes it work... beautifully!

Emilyn's birthday sleepover-palooza

Emilyn got her big birthday sleepover this week... I had some (deep) reservations about this... I didn't think our little house could handle a bunch of screaming girls. But they were all very good, if a bit rambunctious, and they were in bed, with the lights out, by midnight. I counted that as a major victory. We went out for ice cream... I kept them all happy with Bagel Bites pizzas, BBQ chicken chunks and games of Nick Scene It. And a healthy breakfast in the morning! So, I think it was a success. Lots more pictures on our DropShots, as well as Emilyn's. Happy birthday (again), Weeto!

"It says Halloween!"

This week, when Miss Julie came to give Allen the once-over, we told her that he's started to make the connection between letters (which he already knew) and words. The other day, I was wearing my Gulf Shores sweatshirt. Allen pointed to the words and said, "It says sweatshirt!" So, he not only knows his letters, but he knows that they go together and make words, and that we use words to label things.

Then, I found this weirdly Cyrillic little grouping on the chair Friday, and he said "It says Halloween!" So, now he's a speller, too.

"Issa shiny blue leaf blower!"

This week, Allen got hold of a roll of wrapping paper, still with the plastic on. Instantly, it became his "leaf blower." He pushed it around the house, going, "Bzzzzzz." He stuck the end in a bowl, then said it was his "vacuum cleaner." He pushed that around, going "Bzzzzzz."

We gave him an empty paper towel roll. He looked at the much smaller tube and said, "Issa pretend leaf blower." Then he pointed to his big roll of wrapping paper. "This one's real," he said.

Our big fall walk

It's Allen's first year to really get and enjoy the changing seasons... He's really into leaves. So, we headed out to Castlewood for a nice fall hike... straight up (to the Meramec bluffs).



To see more, click here. And yes, Emilyn did bring her camera. To see what she saw, click here.

Ooooh, I just LOVE multimedia!

Norma discovered the Halloween themes on One True Media... and "spook junkies" like us just couldn't resist! Here's the result of my efforts...

It's done! Before Allen turned 3!

I was worried that I wouldn't get it finished... Took a while to round up the old photos... Hope you enjoy it!