11.11.11

Jeran left for school this morning wearing a red poppy that one of his teachers had given him, and four of our five children helped set up and/or take down flags that were posted throughout our neighborhood.  Through the day I thought of my brother, and my grandfather, and many others who have stood between us and tyranny, terrorism and threats from enemies of freedom.  I've always known freedom, and I like to think I've always appreciated it, but I know sometimes I take it all for granted.  I'm thankful for days like today that help us remember.

And now for this really cool number on the calendar.  When I started this post it was 10:11 p.m. on 11.11.11.  Cool, right?

Even better is the fact that we're staying up tonight until 11:11 p.m. on 11.11.11.  One hour to go!

All day I kept thinking, "Wouldn't it be awesome if one of those really amazing, once-in-a-lifetime things happened today?"  I found myself wishing someone in our family was being born, or married, or celebrating a birthday (or that I could win a million dollars...girl can dream...).

Then tonight it happened.


Gabby ate chicken.

...Not the battery, fried stuff they sell at fast food places (which to date is really the only chicken she's wanted to eat), but real, off-the-grill chicken.  She actually dipped it in Ranch dressing, but who cares.  She ate it!

The funny part is, I seriously resigned myself to the idea that she was vegetarian, even before we met her.  We'd heard she didn't like meat, and that was just ok.  (She'd somehow survived to that point in her life without it.)  It just didn't seem to matter a lot.

And as the year has progressed, food has been the least of our worries.  It's sometimes a little difficult to find a place to eat out that everyone can eat.  For a while if we went to Subway, we'd end up stopping somewhere else to get food for Gabby.  And family dinner has frequently consisted of her heating up Indian food while we eat whatever we're eating.

Then we noticed she would actually eat things she didn't think she'd like (such as pizza) but it has to be the right kind, and if it's not, she just peels off the toppings and eats the crust and says, "This pizza is delicious!"

But anytime someone does something new there should be a celebration..

So in the spirit of celebration that we like to do a lot around here, we used the leftover dinner to make Chicken and Tomato Balti, which she also ate (she was trying to wait until 11:11 p.m. on 11.11.11 to eat it, but it was too good.)

And we watched a movie and painted fingernails...

And in about 25 minutes it will be bedtime.  'Night all!

(And looking forward to my mom's birthday on 12.12.12.  I feel another celebration coming on!