The moment

I was holding my son and spinning him around the other day, enjoying his smile and shrieks of laughter.

"Hold onto me forever Mom," he pleaded. His eyes, demanding and earnest, were locked with mine.

Oh, how I wish that I could.

Today, I am thankful for...

• Three pumpkin pies baking in the oven.
• My husband and son calling me downstairs so I don't miss my favorite balloons in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• My mother still visiting from West Virginia.
• My husband's relatives cooking the Thanksgiving meal.

More good books for children

Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex. With its "...skull and a shoe and a pot full of goo. And a hairy old werewolf who was hollering Boo" this petrifying parody of Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon is sure to make any 6-year-old want to scream, "Goodnight monsters everywhere."

Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel. This book holds two stories that make my son giggle hard enough to fall off the couch. In "Strange Bumps," Owl gets scared of the two bumps that are under the covers at the foot of his bed. And in "Upstairs and Downstairs," Owl comically tries to be both places at once.

DK's Jewish Holidays Cookbook has great traditional recipes, like turkey kreplach and savory cheese sufganiyot, and non-traditional recipes, like matzoh brei and Persian lental salad. And it's designed to get children helping out and cooking in the kitchen.

Turning six

Grandma Edna and K'NEX

It's a banner day when Grandma Edna arrives from West Virginia and you get to open your birthday present, a 20 model set of K'NEX dinosaurs from Uncle Mike, three days early.