by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . December 3, 2010 . 11:36PM
Thanksgiving was ample opportunity for me to see my family in action. Holidays tend to brief out the best and worst in people, even the littlest ones. Perhaps the proper commentary on this is that the littlest ones recognize that, in the hub of activity among the adults, the opportunity for mischief is unbridled and they can get away with…well, anything. This past Thanksgiving was no exception and the littlest of my extended family were out in full force keeping the adults on their toes.
When people say it takes it a community to raise a child, they aren’t kidding. The main reason for this cliche being that children have the energy of ten adults at any given time and they can wear an adult down in the time it takes for one of them to throw an energizing temper tantrum. In a medium-sized home on a holiday, the nooks and crannies to hide in and do whatever your little heart desires are endless. Carson, my cousin’s son who is a new toddler, took this to full advantage.
It helps that when Carson smiles the adults in our family will give him whatever he wants.
During the day, each table in the house had a bowl of peanuts and candy corn resting upon it for guests to snack upon while waiting for a meal or recovering after a meal. There were plenty of these and they were refilled throughout the day. Carson discovered the bowls immediately upon entering the house and would sneak a tiny handful whenever no one was looking. At one point, my cousin Ashley noticed that something was wrong with Carson’s belly button.
It was orange.
He’d stuck a candy corn in there until he got hungry later.
He would climb chairs and adults would sneak him candy corn.
He would crawl under tables with a bowl of candy corn.
Nothing in life had ever tasted as good to him as candy corn.
Carson rarely even babbles. How did I know that he loved candy corn?
At the end of the evening, I watched him slyly walk over to the coffee table. His little eyes were shining and drawn to that bowl of orange. He pinched his fingers together and grasped a single candy corn and raised it to the sky in victory. A look of pure bliss crossed his face as he placed that candy corn in his mouth, closed his eyes and smiled as he chewed.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a human being in such a state.
It was beautiful.
Yes, Carson loves candy corn.
We checked his belly button before he left.
We wanted to make sure there were no rogue candy pieces there.
Yes, there was a candy corn thief at my Thanksgiving celebration. And I am thankful for him.
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by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . November 26, 2010 . 7:19PM
In a year where, at times, I would rather have given up than given thanks, Thanksgiving rolls around and I am once again reminded that there are holidays to come that will be filled with joy and happiness if I allow them to be as such. There are circumstances beyond my control and people and situations that cannot be changed that cause me unhappiness, but there will always be days during the year where people will come together for the better and it is a reminder that few things in life are permanent.
Thanksgiving is always a loud affair. There is no real way that it can be less when you pack around 50 people into a small house. It can’t be a quiet, completely civilized affair when there are at least 10 children in that bunch. We started the lunch at my aunt’s house where she had set up the Wii for the kids and found a surprise: my cousin had me a Mii of great-grandma. So, the superstar of the day was Great-Grandma Z as all the great grandchildren wanted the chance to use her Mii to hula hoop, play tennis and cross country ski.
There was a moment of prayer and the kids jumped into line for what looked like way too much food for the amount of people that were in the house. Casseroles and noodles and turkey and ham and rolls and every carb you could ever want lined counters, the stove and multiple tables. As the little ones picked through the foods they would eat, the adults sat at the tables and talked. The rain turned to sleet but no one was concerned. There was plenty of food and no one needed to be anywhere immediately. The scents of holiday food enveloped us in comfort and we ate plate after plate of food.
And did it again.
And then again.
And had some dessert.
And then ate more food because you can’t waste food.
And ate some more and there was still MORE food.
About that time, the wind howled and the sleet turned into fat flakes of snow that hugged the cars and the sky turned dark. AJ, who rarely sees snow of any real accumulation in TN, yelled that there was snow and he was going sledding! The adults started to get groggy and talk of naps and Black Friday shopping.
As the snow continued, there was a thief on the lose…a candy corn thief…
To be continued…
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by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . May 8, 2010 . 5:58PM
As most mothers will tell you, the homemade gifts are the most amazing, loving, generous and heart-breaking we will ever receive from anyone, ever. Most of us would not trade these colored, glued masterpieces for the most expensive piece of jewelry you could offer us. Children, as they get older, begin to provide information as to their true feelings about their mothers. I am lucky enough to have a child who shares my inability to wait when sharing gifts. Yesterday, I received a book that he’d made at school. Completely bound and made with love by my 9-year old, AJ.
Some of the comments were just heart-breaking and beautiful…and some caused me to raise my eyebrow. All spelling errors are AJ’s.
From page 3… (my commentary is in parentheses)
Just right (????)
Important (awww)
Legendry (mmmhmmm)
Lovable (my little sweet one)
Inaccessible (what? Does he mean in a “can’t touch this” kind of way?)
Awesome (truly)
Neat (well, we know he doesn’t mean in the vs. messy category)
From page 7….
His favorite time with Mommy
My favorite time with mom is sleeping with my mom because we get to spend time with each other. We get to do it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It’s nice to sleep with my mom. (Ok, I swear I’m weaning him off of this. He’s just having trouble adjusting to recent events. I can only imagine what the teacher thought when she saw this paragraph. I literally put my face in my palms when I read it.)
From page 10….
A list of Mommy’s best attributes:
1. Nice
2. Kind
3. Generous
4. Smart
5. Loves me
6. Listens
7. common (WHAT? OH NO HE DIDN’T. COMMON? WHERE DID THAT EVEN COME FROM?)
8. Accuracy
9. Gives advice
10. Comferting
From page 14: If I had a millione dollars I would buy her a golden car. (Exactly what I’d want if he had a million dollars).
Page 19: (Perhaps the one I’m most proud of) When I’m a parent, I will read like my mom.
But the bottom line is that Mother’s Day is about how we feel about each other. AJ says:
My mom is nice.
She does homework.
She likes me.
She looks like me.
She sounds like me.
She smells like perfume.
She always loves me.
My mom is kind.
That’s my boy.
Happy Mother’s Day, y’all.
Home
Thanksgiving was ample opportunity for me to see my family in action. Holidays tend to brief out the best and worst in people, even the littlest ones. Perhaps the proper commentary on this is that the littlest ones recognize that, in the hub of activity among the adults, the opportunity for mischief is unbridled and they can get away with…well, anything. This past Thanksgiving was no exception and the littlest of my extended family were out in full force keeping the adults on their toes. 
Life is like a game. We all have challenges, thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Often, it feels like something out there, life, karma, catty people, or blue shells (for the Kart lovers), seeks to bring us down. Luckily, we always get up. This is where I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth.
