The List

The girls and I had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with family in Wisconsin. Chris' fun ended the morning after our annual feast, however, as he got really, really sick and spent the next 24 hours completely out of commission.

We crammed all the family traditions into two short days: Thanksgiving at my Mom's (including - dare I say starring?) the infamous peanut salad; hot chocolate, popcorn, and cutting down our Christmas Tree at Hilliker's Tree Farm; and swimming at the Cranberry Lodge.

For the last several years, we have also taken advantage of the long holiday weekend to spend a few days in this amazing little cabin surrounded by State forest in the middle of Wisconsin, an amazing little cabin that happens to belong to my step-father, David.

We like to make this more or less a retreat from technology (barring, of course, our fancy smart phones, cameras, and ipads to play audiobooks). And we usually like to turn this retreat into an over-indulgence in wine and excessive craftiness (you know, cabernet and hot glue guns make a great pair).

This year, with me 8 months pregnant and Chris all post-traumatic-flu-syndrome, we had to come up with other ways to entertain ourselves. Last year it was drunken pine-cone elf making, this year it was Ramona Quimby, Age 8 audio-book and Lego boardgames.  Last year it was drunken bonfire fun, this year it was knitting quietly in a chair and reading books by the wood-burning stove.

Slug hunting

But I did get a chance to probe my girls for some personal information I felt I had sort of lost track of: namely, a list of their "favorites." And so, while Chris finished his current book and I knitted the baby another gray sweater (the only gender neutral color I seem to have in my stash), the girls indulged me.

MAE

Favorite fruit - mango, kiwi
Favorite vegetables - lettuce, carrots, cucumbers,
Favorite "food" - all sweets, sandwiches
Favorite colors - all the colors
Favorite book - Baby book (?), Fancy Nancy
Favorite song - I am weary let me rest
Favorite place to be - Ikea's Smäl land (gulp)
Favorite smell - Grandma Lou's garage, blankie
Favorite (stuffed) animal - Penguin, unicorn, Bela's pretty doll, pink elephant
Favorite real animals - horsies, unicorns (ha ha) puppies

BELA

Favorite fruit - kiwi, watermelon
Favorite vegetables - carrots, cucumbers, salad
Favorite food - creamy peanut butter, salami, grapefruit, mac and cheese,  salad, lentil soup, popcorn
Favorite color - blue and red
Favorite book - The Baby Book, Fancy Nancy, "the scary other Halloween one"
Favorite song - Manic Monday, Eternal flame, Cut Me Out, Super Bass,
Favorite place to be - Katie's (a friend from school) house, Nancy's house, Grandma Paula's, Grandma Lou's, Lucille's, our favorite restaurant (Delish), home.
Favorite smell - Grandma Lou's garage, blankie
Favorite animal - kittens, puppies

I think it's so cute that they, like me, are incapable of choosing just one favorite from each category. But I share this here to freeze it in time, a snapshot of my girls - aged 6 and 4.

The weather was too warm for the fire we had in the wood stove, so the girls enjoyed hot cocoa and popcorn by the open door, to cool off. 

It was a great weekend, even without the wine. And while on the one hand I can not WAIT to not be pregnant anymore and to hold this little baby who has been kicking my sides for so many months, I'm also trying to slow down and enjoy these last few moments as a four-some - Chris, the girls, me... And I'm grateful for this little cabin in the woods.

PS - A hamster update: When we returned home from our sojourn in the woods, we found the hamster cage mysteriously empty. Either the powers that be whisked Little John away to a happier home, leaving no trace behind, or little houdini climbed to the top of his cage and escaped from the one, small hole left unguarded and unplugged. Fare thee well, little man.