It has been a busy week for us. This past Thursday was Tim's 34th birthday. I finished up on his last minute shopping & on Thursday night, Mom came over to have dinner with us & hang out. We ordered food from Grape Leaf - hoummus, tabuili, grape leaves, salad & a gyro. Yummy. For his birthday, Tim got: 2 calendars, a new kitchen knife (I was tired of hearing him complain about how much he hates our Chicago Cutlery knives), some Izod boxers, a computer screen type universal remote (the big kind that you point to the tv to download all of the info into it. It comes with a stylus to work it. Very complicated - but fun for Tim. He also got a miter saw & a power nailer. Problem is that I didn't know that the nailer needed an air compressor to run. So, he decided to keep the saw & return the nailer. From Mom & Dad he got a subscription to Handyman magazine, a pizza paddle & a wine making kit. I received a free Pizza stone from work a few weeks ago & now Tim is into making his own pizza. We (Mom, Dad, Tim, Shawn & myself) went to Tim's birthday dinner last night at the Holiday Inn French Quarter in Perrysburg. They have a good restaurant in there that has a Friday night Seafood buffet. The original plan was to leave Shawn with a sitter b/c he is so bad in restaurants, but Tim just couldn't handle leaving him with a stranger. So, we took him & he ws an angel. We ordered him a hot dog & fries & while we waited for that, I gave him a plate of shredded cheese that he played with/ate. Once his hot do came, he dipped the fries & hot dog into the ketchup & just sat quietly & ate. I think he might be past the horrible behavior in the restaurants. After about 45 minutes, he & Nana needed to go for a walk - he was restless by then. We came back & Tim went to an office party at Jed's - a local sports bar & Shawn & I watched his movies until he feel asleep at 10:20pm.

We are working at both home & daycare to teach Shawn the ABC's. They sing the ABC song daily at day care & one night last week, we were singing it to him & happened to look at his right hand. He ws moving it along to the song. At that point, Tim & I realized that he was signing the ABC's. I went to daycare & his teacher said that she did start that with all the kids, but she didn't think they were really watching him. It is really cute. I am going to buy a signing book & see if I can teach him more.

We are teaching him to say "Uncle Brad", in anticipation for Brad's visit. We have the Uncle part down, but Brad doesn't come out. We'll keep working on it!! Nana & Papa taught him to say "Ho Ho Ho" in relation to Santa. He won't say santa, but if he see's a Santa anywhere, he immediately says "Ho, Ho, Ho" Too cute!!!!

We are going to Meijer & Anderson's today to buy our food items for Christmas Eve & Christmas. We do appetizers for Xmas Eve & a ham dinner for Christmas. We want to get to the store before all the Christmas crowds do.

Have a good weekend!!