Giving Thanks for Little Boys

First of all, our apologies to you loyal blog checkers out there who have patiently waited through the long weekend and the first three days of this week for the Thanksgiving post.  We've got plenty of excuses, but we'll spare you and get straight to the photos.

Mommy hosted book club last evening and needed several hours to prepare the house and the meal for the big night.  Walt, as he has taken to doing lately, graciously occupied himself in his room and its vicinity with some books of his own and his many toys.  I'm not sure exactly how long he had been unsupervised, but Ginger assures me he arranged his toys like this all by himself.  I took this photo when I walked in the door from work.  Keep in mind that the ottoman glides very easily at the slightest touch and most of those toys have wheels on them.  Impressive.  And a bit frightening.

I can't say enough about this photo.  Note the blocks and shapes on the back of the truck in the upper right hand corner.  Also, note the train with the blue wheels in the upper left hand corner that he has cantilevered off of the edge.   This worries me a lot.  Mainly because I'm afraid he gets this from me.

For the more traditional photos we offer this series of Walt and his cousin Collier, who had the grandest of times at Gram and Deedaddy's on Saturday and Sunday.

Playing in piles of leaves has become one of Walt's favorite activities.  Collier is not quite as willing to get down and dirty.

Not to worry, the hammer in the next photo is made of very soft foam.  Collier brought one for Walt, too.  When he and his parents arrived Friday evening, Walt had already gone to bed.  Collier was carried in the door asleep and limp as a rag but with one foam hammer firmly in each hand.  His first act on Saturday morning was to sleepily hand Walt his hammer.  Very sweet.

Before Walt arrived in Murray, he spent Thanksgiving Day with Putty and Nana at Aunt Tutu's.  There were plenty of cousins, aunts and uncles (and uncle's trucks) available for photo ops.

That's cousin Drew.  Those two kids have some blue eyes, don't they?

Uncle Larry's "reh kruck" was a popular destination all day long.  And of course, there was a short trip with Putty to see the cows.  Mooo.

That's about it for the second Daddy Post this month.  Since I've got the keyboard, hopefully you'll indulge me a few lines of photo-free text to go on about that for which I'm most thankful.  Today, I had lunch with a friend who has a six month old.  He expressed how it still doesn't feel real.  It feels like he's babysitting someone else's child.  Fatherhood hasn't set in, yet.  I remember that feeling exactly.  But I can say without a doubt that it is now fully set with me.  And I dig it.  No matter what goofiness has happened at the office or how idiotic the Memphis drivers have acted on the way home, each day when I come to the front door and he leaps off the sofa and runs to the front door clapping all the while, well . . . if you can't be thankful for that . . .