For Illustration Friday. Wow I haven’t done one in a while.

The girl and the cat are based on the doodles I’ve been drawing with Isabelle lately. Well that is when she’ll let me draw. Sometimes she turns the pages so fast I can barely get a scribble in. The doodles look familiar to me, like I’ve seen them before. Maybe? I hate it when that happens, when something seems familiar but I can’t place it. Maybe the bumblebee reminds me of Isabelle on Halloween? Ya think?!

Isabelle turned another month older a little over a week ago. Here are some pictures from the last month.

Isabelle is full of boos. Did you know that? Not boos as in booze but boos as in peek a boo. She’s full of peek a boos. Today at the store she gave everyone she walked by a boo. Sometimes it’s the full on two handed boo. But today I was holding onto her so it was the one handed boo. She even boos when she’s being naughty. Alan says she’s trying to distract us from whatever bad thing she’s doing by being cute and doing the boo thing. Boo!

Did you know that Isabelle likes to chase the dogs around with her toy stroller? Around and around. How fun! Lucky for them she can’t quite reach the pedals on this bike yet. But watch out, she’s getting closer everyday! And when she does do you think she’ll chase them with her bike? Yikes!

Why does Isabelle run around crazy and jump off things at home but in class just wants her hand held constantly?

And I know you can’t see her face in this picture but it just cracks me up.

As well as this one. It should be titled, what happens when parents are bored. Or more specifically when Alan is bored.

And our monthly family picture.

Go read month twenty five.

I’ve been drawing these girls lately. So obviously with it being Thanksgiving this turkey girl came out. More strange girls after the holiday.

Have a good Thanksgiving! I’m off to bake apple pie and brine a turkey.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Usually we spend it with Alan’s side of the family. My family doesn’t usually celebrate holidays, only Chinese New Year. I don’t remember growing up with Thanksgiving or Christmas. In fact in elementary school I was in a spelling bee and got the word wreath. I had no freakin’ idea what a wreath was. And the example sentence was something like “you hang a wreath on a door“. What the hell? They might as well have said, “you hang a scakabloob on a door“. But I digress.

Celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas have become traditions for me since I’ve been with Alan. And as I said, we usually spend Thanksgiving with his family. But this year we stayed home. Olinda came over and I cooked food, too much food. Sage butter turkey, stuffing, brussels sprouts, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and an apple pie. All for four people.Well for three adults and a toddler. Actually for three adults. Isabelle didn’t have a bite at all. But I ate enough for her and three people! I ate so much I felt nine months pregnant. Why do I do that, just eat and eat? Not like that made a dent in the food. We still had loads of leftovers.

I was going to talk about the rest of our four day weekend but it’s late. I’ll get to it tomorrow. It’s time for bed.

On Black Friday I imagined us spending it at home recovering. Recovering from all the eating, the I ate so much I felt nine months pregnant eating.

I didn’t want to get near a shopping mall or crazy shoppers. We talked about all the people lining up early and going shopping at 6 a.m. in the morning or midnight or whatever crazy not regular shopping hours. We were not going to be one of them. We would be snuggled up in bed or lounging about spending the day at home. No shopping for us.

But we screwed up. I forgot that we had a birthday party to go to on Saturday. We had already bought some books for the birthday boy weeks ago but wanted to get some clothes too. If I had planned better I could have bought something online or made something. But I suck. So out we went. Have I ever mentioned that I hate the mall? And the thought of going to the mall on a busy shopping day? With people, people everywhere? Accck!! I started drawing while Alan was getting Isabelle ready.

Aaaahh the prospect of going to the mall, the horror!

Of course I dragged my feet.

Why? oh why? Oh yeah…cuz we forgot to buy clothes.

I drove. That’s how we ended up parked so far from the store we were going to. I have the worst sense of direction.We had to walk half the length of the mall through throngs of SHOPPERS. The mall was full of them! Ok not full. It wasn’t too bad. Shoppers shopping! And oh my god I just realized I was one of them! If I were the type to hyperventilate, I so would have. I was grumpy, anxious, and unpleasant. It took the whole walk over and a kiss from Alan to calm me down.

When we got there the shopping went nice and quick. I got everything we wanted plus extra for Christmas gifts. And since it was black Friday I got 25% off. Yay! Hey, that’s why people go shopping the day after Thanksgiving! I’ve turned. I’ve become a shopper!

No just kidding. Never. Next year you’ll probably find me huddled in front of a fire, snug as a bug in a rug, at home. No crowds, no strange people, just family and leftovers. Yeah.

And tomorrow a post about the party. We were dizzy and lightheaded from the fun.