You know what's nice about having a newborn at Thanksgiving? Everyone else does all the work. We had dinner at our place, under the condition that I wasn't gonna do a damn thing. It worked out pretty well. My brother Ray made the turkey. Between Gracie, Pedra and my mom, all the side dishes and desserts were taken care of. Oh, and Isabel "helped" Mike make a pumpkin pie.

I didn't even really straighten up since the place was just gonna get messy with all the kids running around. My mom stayed after and cleaned when everyone left. Yeah, there are definitely perks. Plus, the baby was adorable in the outfit Pedra and David gave him, along with the hat we found for him at the Christmas market. Isabel has her own hat, which she's hardly taken off since the day we got them.

Oh, and the baby has a new nickname. Isabel kept referring to him as "the kitten" so much that Miike and I started saying it while we're around her, out of habit. It's been shortened to "Kit." He seems to be okay with it.

Argh, two-year olds.

Isa's at that pushing-the-boundaries stage.

Mike's Uncle Danny arrived today from Ireland for Thanksgiving. Him and Mike tend to get all loud and yelly, but Isabel likes her "Unca Danny" a lot and we don't get to see him that often, so hopefully it'll be a good visit.

Thanksgiving was good--loud, a ton of food, lots of kids running around. Isabel learned to say turkey and pumpkin ("tookey" and "poonkin"). She also ate too much pie and puked on Mike. Oh, the memories.

Thanksgiving was, for the first time in awhile, relatively normal. Selene and the Spawn were there, but the kids played outside and she was quiet, seemed a little ill actually (oh my god, I bet she's pregnant again!) Mike got stuck with Raymond and David in the living room watching football-even though it's not really his thing, I think he enjoyed it.

Chris stayed on Raymond's lap the whole time. He was so excited to see his father. The clinic is voluntary so Raymond made the decision to stay home for the holiday weekend. The kids were ecstatic, but on Sunday night, back at our house, Chris had issues again...He got very mad at Mike...he's only five, nearly six, and already has so much anger pent up. I worry about him a lot. He needs stability and not just Mike and I--he needs his parents.

I know they're both trying but it's taking a toll on their children. Us too.