Happy Thanksgiving!

Quote from Linus Van Pelt: "In the year 1621, the Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving feast. They invited the great Indian chief Massasoit, who brought ninety of his brave Indians and a great abundance of food. Governor William Bradford and Captain Miles Standish were honored guests. Elder William Brewster, who was a minister, said a prayer that went something like this: 'We thank God for our homes and our food and our safety in a new land. We thank God for the opportunity to create a new world for freedom and justice.' "

What a wonderful Thanksgiving! I cooked some but Jason cooked most. We had a house full of people, which was great since we get lonely around here. The kids built gingerbread houses and then ate them, of course. There was balloon sword fighting and way too much food of all sorts! After everyone left on Saturday, Aidan asked to see a doctor. (He's had a cough.) Turns out he has strep, but we got his antibiotic right away and he's feeling better today.

This evening we saw Bolt. On the way home Aidan lamented his many friends. Our new neighbors moved yesterday and although he rarely played with the boys who lived there, he was crying and saying how he needs to see people. He weeped a bit about having to miss Rebecca too. They were so cute together this weekend, he adores her so much!

Jason and I are in a tough situation with this friends situation. My colleagues either have grown or no children, which is the nature of academia. Jason's colleagues are all in Lexington with the rest of our friends. We're sort of old parents in these parts and anyone who is from Lubbock already has their lot of close friends. My feeling is that it's hard to infiltrate the locals here, although I'm not sure I'd really want to. We have to be creative and work harder at finding some people for Aidan to connect with. Even if it means hanging out with Sarah Palin supporters. Although that would be a fate worse than death!

The Wide World of Sports

Fact: All Texas Universities have a hand sign. For the University of Texas, it's the "hook 'em horns." At Texas A&M it's "Gig 'em Aggies." And for Texas Tech, it's "Guns Up!"

Last night Aidan stayed with a sitter while Jason and I went to a dinner for the democratic headquarters volunteers. Jason helped by making phone calls for our precinct, so we were lucky enough to be invited. We met several people like us, more in one room than I've previously seen in Lubbock. We met a couple of Quakers who told us that Lubbock Friends are nothing like they are in the rest of the states. Some of them told stories of other young couples with children who believe in religious freedom, tolerance, and social responsibility. I'm all about playdates with any and all of those people!

This morning we visited Santa at the civic center. I know this is off topic, but around here Christmas seems to start the day after Halloween. Does this make sense to anyone? Is this happening everywhere? Ok, back on topic. Aidan had his picture made with Santa, they had a very professional photographer there who will send the photos to us in the mail. Aidan told Santa he'd like to have "a very scary toy." Not sure what that would be, but we'll see what Santa comes up with.

The rest of the weekend will be filled with our new pasttime, watching sports. Our #2 team is playing the most important game in their history for the third weekend in a row (according to ESPN), and we will be watching with some of my colleagues. Our hosts were gracious enough to set up their Wii for Aidan while the rest of us watch the football game. I thought this would be an opportunity to see if Aidan likes the Wii so that we could ask Santa for it, but it's not a scary toy. Maybe Mommy and Daddy will have to buy that one, although it breaks my rules about buying too much for him at the holidays. I'll have to consider it further.

Oh yeah, and there is this other game going on between Eastern Kentucky and Tech this afternoon. I figure that one will get less press.

Basketball Makes Me Homesick

Basketball Facts: The Red Raiders earned six regular season titles and won five conference tournaments while members of the Southwest Conference. They have also appeared in 14 NCAA Tournaments with a combined record of 7–15. The Wildcats have earned 43 regular season titles and won 25 conference tournaments in the SEC. They've appeared 49 times in NCAA Tournaments and have won 7 of those tournaments.

Lately we've been the recipients of unused basketball season tickets of colleagues. Of course, right now everyone is focused on Football, given that Tech has a #2 team this year. Given that I know basketball and can never figure out the calls in football, I'd prefer to go with what I know.

Last week Jason, Aidan, and I attended the Lady Raiders game, after which there was supposed to be a men's game. Aidan didn't do that well, so we missed the men's game. So last night when we had the chance to go to the men's game, we got a sitter. Aidan was not too happy that we went without him, but I'm glad we got to see the entire game. It was a good one.

So, we're told that faculty get discounts on season tickets and that the general admission seats are around $85. I'm thinking it's a low investment and we might get 3 for next year just to see if we enjoy it. And you never know, if we keep them long enough we might luck out one year and find ourselves with a powerhouse team. It happens. Even at a football school in Texas.

Kid + Private School = Expensive!

Fact: The 2006 census showed 2.35 million 4-year olds were attending preschool, which was an all time high.

The most tolerant school in Lubbock, Aidan's private school is, at least on paper, less expensive than his previous school. Just like his previous school, he brings his own lunch but at the new school we pay $10 per week for him to eat Chick-fil-A on Tuesday and Friday. And then we pay for field trips at least once per week ($5), and then there are the constant fundraisers. Jason calls this the "pizza toppings." I say just raise the tuition and bill me. The surprises are killing us!

Today my angst is uniforms. I'm having trouble deciding if I can justify the uniform issue. He wears the same thing each day, which means that we don't have to worry about the name brands of his other clothes (not that he's at that point yet, but he will be soon enough). And his uniform is adorable. But being a family that always bought second hand or clearance for our boy, it's hard to shell out the $25 per shirt or pant; $50 per jacket; $40 per sweater (required), only available at the school or at Land's End.

I keep telling myself that it will be totally worth it in a few years when he discovers name brands, but Jason says he'll still want those clothes for his off days. The school has a trade-in allowance as the kids outgrow their uniforms, but Grandpa pointed out that the boys roll around so much on the playground that there's no way we'll have anything left to trade in! Now if I can just settle my dissonance about the cost of these uniforms...

The Peanut Chronicles

Note: A study at John's Hopkins found that of the 20% of children who outgrow peanut allergy, only those who ate concentrated forms of peanut regularly had no recurrence of the allergy.

That's right folks, Jason and I took Aidan to his peanut oral challenge today and he had no reaction. We watched him eat 3 peanut crackers and absolutely nothing happened to him. No hives, no swelling, nothing. He was a little nervous about eating it and told us that he didn't really understand why people like the taste of peanut butter. Although I was very reluctant to start giving him peanut anything, regardless of the fact the doctor insists that we should, after reading the study linked above I'm feeling better about just letting him eat it. If we can get him to like it, this opens up some options for lunches, that's for sure!

Our Post-Dissertation Defense, Post-Election Weekend

Fact: The portion of people with graduate degrees in Lubbock is 4% (10,194 people), while in Lexington is 7% (18,236 people).

So, finally, we have two Dr. Rinaldos in our house and aren't we less stressed!

Because Aidan has had very little time with me and he's been pretty vocal about it, I attended chapel with him at school on Friday. His class sang two songs for the parents, complete with hand signals and dancing all around. It was very cute, although I'm sure Aidan is pretty confused. The songs are very different from what we've been accustomed to at his previous schools. I had to ask the teacher what one of the lines in the song was, as I was certain that I heard the words incorrectly. I had, in fact, heard them right, "If God were not on our side, our enemies would have surely eaten us alive!" While I won't get into why and how these words grate on my views of religious freedom and tolerance, they are just inappropriate for 4 year olds in my view.

Jason talked to a lady at the local NPR station, who also coincidentally sent her Jewish children to the same school Aidan attends. She had some interesting stories to tell also, but insisted that this is the most liberal and tolerant school available to us and that it is possible to raise liberal, tolerant children here in Lubbock. I told Jason to schedule a lunch for me to meet with this woman, I need to know her secrets. Her grown children are now in graduate school in Austin.

On Saturday Aidan and I participated in a Mother/child study with a group here at Tech. They videotaped us interacting and talking together, and then gave Aidan a verbal ability/IQ test. I am not going to ask what the score was, nor do I want to know. We were surprised by how many words he knows and we now have fear that he knows much more of what is going on than we previously thought.

We finished off our fun-filled weekend by cutting into Aidan's pumpkin to make pumpkin pies. We ate one, sent one to Houston with Grandpa, and took the third to church to share. And now we have enough pumpkin in the fridge to make about 15 more pies. Who knew it only took .08 of a pumpkin to make a pie?! And you should see the HUGE pumpkin on our porch! I guess I'll be burying that one in the yard because I'm not sure I could cook it!