Thankful for Leeza's first Turkey Trot!

Ahhh..the day where we all take a moment to pause and give thanks for our many blessings. Honestly, since meeting Leeza, I have certainly been counting my blessings every day since our first "blind date" on August 1st, in Kostanai, Kazakhstan.

As has been our "family tradition" since Sean was about 4, we head out for the "Turkey Trot", a very popular 5k and 10k run held every Thanksgiving morning. It's an incredibly festive atmosphere, and VERY CROWDED! I typically would run the 5k with Sean and Joe, then run the 10k and try my hardest to get the "coveted" Turkey trot mug for the top 100 finishers. Sadly, I have never been fast enough to win the coveted mug, and this year, I didn't even run the 10k. Instead, we signed up for the 5k "non competitive stroller and walker race" that starts behind the regular 5k. For the first time in the 6 years I've run the Turkey Trot, it was a chilly morning! Leeza musta brought the cold from Kostanai. :) It was so nice out-and even though I had to wake a sound asleep Leeza up at 6:15 am this morning (about 3 hours earlier than her typical 9:30 am wake up), she woke up happy as we bundled her up for her first Turkey Trot!




Sean and I wanted to run, so we took off and let Daddy walk with Leeza. He loved it as it he said Leeza is MOST DEFINTELY a "chick magnet" as he had many "ooh's and ah's" over her, to which she responded by blowing kisses to her many fans.





In my zest to get her in the stroller with her hat, gloves, and blanket, I didn't "buckle her in" apparently. Joe said he started to jog a lil bit and Leeza started sliding out........but thank goodness Joe was quick enough to catch her before she hit the ground..(and they say 50 is "too old" to adopt a baby..WHATEVER!!!).





It was a gorgeous, chilly morning and we all went to Village Inn for breakast vittles after the run with our friends the Hockin's, and the Fady's. Leeza scarfed down 2 scrambled eggs-eating "double fisted". She is NOT only a "chick magnet" for Joe, but a "kid magnet" as the 2 Hockin boys, and the Fady boy and the Serra boy were all enamoured with the lil superstar Leeza. :) She is CERTAINLY not a child who wants for any attention, that is for sure. :)





Last night, we went to Carraba's after we all signed up for the Turkey Trot. You would not even know we had a baby in our midst, except for the "drunken" Frankstein walk she had to show off after dinner. She sat next to mommy and ate my salad, and my salmon and garlic mashed potatoes, and my friend Virginia's broccoli and cauliflower. No need to order off the kids menu for her...she eats half my entree which helps me try to keep the Kaz weight off. :)

Leeza is now sound asleep-preparing for the next feast where we head over to Karen's-Joe's cousin's-for Thanksgiving dinner. I am thinking she is going to really love "Thanksgiving viddles", but then again, there is not a food that Leeza has met that she doesn't like, except for baby food and grapes. :)

Having Leeza home with us has made me more thankful in general, and more aware of the many blessings in our lives. She is our "Thanksgiving princess", forever here to remind us of how blessed we are to have her in our family. Leeza is a lucky lil girl too, because she has a big brother who clearly adores her. I knew Sean would be a good big brother, just based on his interaction with her in Kazakhstan. However, I thought that once we got home and her "newness" wore off, and he was home, surrounded by his friends and his daily distractions, that Leeza would maybe lose a lil bit of "novelty", after all, he is a 10 year old boy. I cannot tell you how wonderful he is, even more so than in Kaz. I don't have to ask him for help, he gladly gives it, without being asked, or told. He is really amazing with her, and she just adores him. He is, however, prone to some language I am not happy with and twists the nursery ryhmes around and tells her how "innapropriate" they are (Rub a dub, dub, 3 men in a tub, as an example), and has the penguin he bought her "beat up" the doll baby I am teaching her to rock, so those are things we have to work on. :)


Happy blessed Thanksgiving everyone-and ENJOY THE VIDDLES! Leeza sure will....