Turkey for you, turkey for me...

We are so grateful for all that we are blessed with and look forward to a relaxing and yummy Thanksgiving holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

(Isabelle loves these shoes that squeak when she walks. I obviously had to remove the squeakers before we left for church.)

When I Grow Up, I want to be...

Sesame Street came to town and we had 4th row seats to see the action. We met our good friends ( and Ben's boss ) the Fera's at the Freeman Coliseum and enjoyed the new Elmo Live show When I Grow Up! The Fera's have three boys: Peter, Jon and Andrew all of who adore Belle with reciprocated love. Andrew and Belle are actually only about 12 weeks apart in age so they are good little buddies and have a great time whenever they get together.

Isabelle was completely in awe during the 90 minute show and was even lucky enough to get her head patted by Cookie Monster when he danced through the aisle during the show and she also gave Elmo's big furry hand five! She kept saying I touched Elmo with my hand! Sesame Street again preformed a wonderful show filled with singing, dancing and learning. If I wasn't a PBS fan before Isabelle joined the family, I most definitely am now.

Unfortunately we arrived just moments before the show began, so I missed any great photo opportunities, but I snapped a quick picture of Belle as we were leaving. The Fera's were all chasing streamers that had fallen from the sky so I was unable to capture a photo of the 4 of them together.

Isabelle really believed she was ON Sesame Street for a few minutes and she has been talking about it ever since. What fun to be 2 years old!

A Wiggley Christmas

While at HEB this week Belle and I purchased a $1.69 VHS tape called Wiggley Wiggley Christmas. There was a big cart full of weird VHS Christmas movies and this was the one Belle was excited about. She used to enjoy The Wiggles when she was a bit younger but probably has not watched them in over a year. However, for this price, I figured even if it only entertained us for one afternoon it would be worth it!

I have created a Wiggley monster! She is obsessed with watching this movie and I am having to limit it to once a day. We only have one VCR in the house so she has to watch it on the little kitchen TV but she doesn't seem to mind. The Wiggles sing and dance for 40 minutes...and so does Belle.

This was the moment we caught last night after she insisted on putting on her tutu! (Thanks to Aunt Heather for this handmade tutu. It gets a lot of use!)

Thanksgiving may still be a few weeks away but there is a giant Wiggley Christmas spirit in the air at the Cosby house!

Fairy Dust and Magic

Isabelle has not had a good week. After a head cold went terribly wrong last Thursday, we ended up making a quick Urgent Care trip late at night, and came home with 5 different prescriptions that we are now feeling the side effects of! I actually fought giving her an oral steroid that I was concerned about but after talking to multiple doctors, friends and family members, I finally was convinced and started her on the drug 3 days later. Unfortunately, she has been grumpy and sickly ever since and we are grateful it is only a 5 day treatment plan and that we are almost halfway through. She of course had an ear infection and will be on breathing treatments at least through the New Year, but I believe if we can get off this steroid we will both be happier!

Since the steroid is an immune suppressant we have been home a lot lately and we are feeling a little cabin fever. So, today we ventured out for a short while and came home with the new Disney movie Tinkerbell. Belle and I needed a little magic and we had so much fun watching this movie together. We learn how Tinkerbell, who we all know and love, came to be who she is and the importance of her fairy wings and dust. We learn that her name is actually just Bell and she is a Tinker by trade, hence the name Tinkerbell. It was a perfect break in our long day today and my Tinkerbell and I really needed one.


Our thoughtful friend and pre-school teacher, Tiffany, brought over Belle's homework she missed at school this week and was kind enough to bring some cupcakes and enchiladas too! Belle and I held our own sort of school today and studied the letters I and J.

I will be glad when this week is over and I know sweet Belle will be too. I tried to not be too jealous of Ben tonight when he called me from NYC as he was walking to dinner to tell me that he just passed by Barney's NY and they were starting to get their holiday window decorations up. He will be home soon and we are counting down the hours until his return. I am hopeful that Belle will sleep well tonight and get back to her usual happy, smiley, silly self soon!

Yes We Can!

I have felt somewhat disconnected from this election season. Since I was old enough to vote, I have always been working on a campaign or running an exit poll, etc., and this year I simply watched the news unfold on TV. I started the year off on the Romney campaign and although I knew even then that he would not win the election, I was intrigued by his attempt and it motivated and inspired me. I was scheduled to work at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in September, but without a candidate that I truly believed in, I passed at the opportunity.

We started our election day bright and early with a brisk jog to our polling booth and were happy to see a line of maybe 20 people already started by 7:15am. Belle was very excited and shouted "I'm going to vote for Barack Obama" in the school and we had to quickly quiet her enthusiasm. Although I cast my vote for Senator McCain, I let her push the red blinking VOTE button so that she felt that she had indeed cast her own vote. Our DVR started recording the news at 5:00pm and when Ben arrived home at nearly 8:00pm we finally started our news watching marathon. Even though the election was mostly decided before November 4th ever arrived, we still watched intently until the polls closed on the west coast and they officially named President Obama the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election. (Ben immediately got out his calculator and started estimating how much money he would lose next year! It is all fiscal-policy for him!)

It was a long and dreary night for the Republicans both locally and nationally and almost every single candidate that I voted for, lost! Even my local judge who has run uncontested for years and my Water District Representative both were defeated. And even though Senator McCain was able to carry the State Of Texas, he lost in my county! Luckily, Representative Frank J. Corte won by great margins which is always a particularly sweet victory for me!

This morning while I was jogging and passed the school with all of the campaign signs blown over from a busy night, I thought about picking one up for Rep. Corte and running a victory lap for him. (That would have been a sight to see!) He would have loved it, but when I thought about that he would not in fact actually see me doing it, I decided to run home empty handed. At home I found an elated Isabelle who was dancing to the news of the new President-Elect Obama and decided that that was success enough. At age two, she already believes in the democratic process and thinks that her vote DID matter and that she helped elect the first black President.

So, although I do not share the same vision that President Obama sees, I believe in pulling together as a country and working to keep America strong. I am grateful to live in a time when the American Dream is still alive and I am hopeful that the Grand Old Party can unite and be ready in 8 years to flourish once again. Congratulations to Barack Obama and may he be inspired to lead as we so desperately need to be led!

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known. - President Ronald Reagan

Halloween in the Big Easy!

Isabelle, Grammy (Jeanene) and I went on a road trip last week and drove through the swamp to New Orleans, LA. Aunt Tara was busy coordinating Arthur Murray's SUPERAMA and invited us to come work and play with her for the week. We staying in the Sheraton on Canal Street and enjoyed great accommodations right downtown with a corner suite and all of our meals expensed. Isabelle loved all of the dancing, sequins, music and people (especially Miss Suzanne) and thought she was just one of the many competitors. She was so excited when Ben flew in Friday night and she finally had a "real" dance partner! With some help from many experts I think she has mastered the basic cha cha step and has been cha cha-ing ever since.

New Orleans is known for being the Mardi Gras City and Bourbon Street has a reputation all it's own, so traditional Trick-or-Treating for Belle was not really an option. She did wear her cowgirl costume for about 12 hours on Halloween though and got plenty of treats from the hotel staff, store employees and the many dancers! She was able to charm the smooth Nick Kosovich as well as the handsome Luca Baricchi and many of the foreign dancers took pictures of Belle as the perfect little "American" girl. By noon on Halloween mostly everyone was in full costume on the streets and we are talking about the adults! We did venture out to watch a few minutes of the famous Krewe of Boo Parade but after noticing that Belle was the only blonde two year old outside at this time, we quickly made our way back to our hotel, only after she was able to celebrate with some eggs filled with candy, a stuffed dog which we named VooDoo and of course...some beads, all thrown to her by scary adults dressed in bizarre costumes riding some sort of off-road vehicle while intoxicated. It was a truly spooky Halloween!

We also enjoyed running along the Mississippi River in the mornings and having breakfast in the French District at the yummy Cafe du Monde! We watched a lot of great dancing and ate a lot of delicious food! Tonight while putting Belle to bed she turned to me and said...I miss Aunt Tara again! It was a fun trip!