Sam is turning into such a big boy! His latest accomplishment was switching to a big boy bed. I was fully intending to have both kids in cribs, but on a lark, I decided to order a toddler bed instead of another crib. We talked it up with Sam and he seemed really excited about the idea. The toddler bed arrived in the mail (thank you Amazon Prime!) and Sam wanted me to set it up RIGHT AWAY! I persuaded him to wait until Daddy got home.

It ended up taking longer to set up than we thought it would, so it was 8:45 by the time we put Sam to bed. His normal bedtime is 8 and so he was super cranky! I was really worried that the whole plan would go up in flames. But we put him in his bed and told him that when he was ready to get up in the morning he should just shout out, “I’m ready to get up now!” He went to sleep without a problem and we didn’t hear a peep out of him until 8 a.m. when he shouted out for us, exactly as we’d told him to!

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know that Sam is STILL sleeping in his sleep sack. We decided it would probably be too much to take that away at the same time and it has the distinct advantage of keeping him in his bed. He CAN walk around in it, but not easily. Although Sam climbs into bed and out of bed, he hasn’t figured out that he can get out of bed on his own yet–or maybe he just doesn’t want to? He does cherish his sleep, just like mommy!

Here’s the little guy sleeping soundly–so soundly he didn’t even wake up when I came in his room and started taking flash photos! Now I just need to figure out some wall art to make his space a little cozier and safer! (There used to be a recliner in that corner so everything was hung up around that).

We are finally getting some winter weather around here! Other than a fluke snow in October (!), we have had pretty mild weather–and I am not complaining! But it was kind of nice to wake up on Saturday morning to a light blanket of snow. The best part of it was when my amazing husband let me sleep the morning away while he and Sam went out to explore the snow. And Ben even threw in a little hot cocoa afterwards as an extra special treat.

Sam had a great day! The snow hasn’t melted yet, and every time Sam looks out the window he says, “it’s snowing today!”

Today was Ben’s birthday! We had a fun day filled with good food and lots of relaxing! Although, actually I am pretty exhausted after cooking more in one day than I have in the last month combined (that’s not really saying much since I have not been up to doing much of anything lately!).

We love you, Ben!!! Hope it was a wonderful day!

–Caitlin and Sam

Here is the cake Sam and I baked for Ben (from scratch!!). Although, sadly Sam had to go to bed before we finished making it. Luckily I think he kind of forgot about it, but I am sure he will want a slice for breakfast!

This year we went to get our Christmas tree in early December. This is earlier than we’ve gotten it in past years, and apparently too early for me. I was so ready to take it down the day after Christmas!!

We went to a local nursery to pick out our tree which was really fun. They even had free hot cocoa and popcorn! Sam loved finding the right tree and sniffing the branches.

When we got home, I used some of the extra branches to spruce up our stockings. I am so proud of the stockings I made this year, I just have to show them off! I saved a few pieces of the fabrics so that I can make one for Baby Sister next year!

I also have to show off our new advent calendar. I started this project last year but finally finished it in time for the holidays. It is an ornament calendar, so you pull an ornament off each day to hang on the tree. I still need about 10 more ornaments, but that worked out this year since we didn’t get around to hanging it up until mid way through December! My plan is to take off all the tags and use it as a bulletin board for the rest of the year. But right now it is still hanging up, mostly empty except for the one ornament that never got hung up! Here it is sitting in the basement before it got hung up.

Next year, or maybe the year after, I plan to copy my friend Betty’s idea. She does a Christmas Activity Advent Calendar. Each day her daughter picks a card to find out what activity they will do. The activities range from something as simple as reading a holiday book to a big activity like going to The Nutcracker. I am thinking I can combine this idea with my Ornament Advent Calendar and put the activity cards behind each ornament. Of course, that will require a lot more organization than I had this year, so we’ll see!

I know I am kind of going out of order here, but I haven’t posted in a while and have a lot to catch up on!

This year, Sam got to see Santa TWO times! After our Santa visit last year, I wasn’t sure what to expect:

A few days before we went to see Santa this year, Sam helped me put up our Christmas decorations, which include framed pics of Santa visits from past years. Sam was fascinated by last year’s pic and every time he walked by it, he would point and say, “Sam sad!”

The first Santa we went to see was just in our neighborhood. There was a little Christmas party in the community center. Sam was a little nervous as first, but once he got a cookie, he was all smiles. Unfortunately, this Santa was kind of crabby

A few days later, Deirdre and I decided to take Evie and Sam to the mall to see Santa. They were both a little scared of him but he was REALLY nice so they eventually warmed up. Santa asked Sam what he wanted and he said “trains and trucks!” (We had talked about it on the ride over so he would have something to say.)

When it was time to get off Santa’s lap, Sam got kind of cranky and asked me where the trains and trucks were. I told him he had to wait until Christmas day. He remembered his order for the three weeks leading up to Christmas and was very happy that Santa delivered on his promise!

Afterwards, we took the kids to a yummy lunch at the food court! Sam kept his hat on the whole time!

We had a great Christmas and Hanukkah this year! We started the festivities with the first night of Hanukkah, which this year came a few nights before Christmas.

The first night we made latkes (potato pancakes) which are always delicious!! Then we lit the menorah and let Sam open up a little cardboard menorah that had a piece of chocolate gelt in it for each night of Hanukkah. We also tried to show him how to spin the dreidel but that was a little tricky and made Sam very frustrated. Finally we let Sam open one present. The first night he got a school bus/Elmo/lego thing. He loved it!

A few days later Nana and Grandpa Jerry came to visit. Sam loved spending time with his grandparents!

On Christmas Eve day, we all went to the National Botanic Gardens (which are indoors!) to check out their holiday train display. There was quite a line but it was worth it! They created such a cool display. They had little replicas of important buildings in the area, created entirely out of plant parts like acorns and twigs. And going through the whole display was a train track with lots of little trains chugging by. Sam loved it!

That night, we made sugar cookies and left some out for Santa. Sam had a great time helping us decorate but definitely ate more than he made!

The next morning Sam was so excited to see what Santa had brought him (a train set!). After breakfast, we opened up our presents, and Sam got to pass all the presents out. Surprisingly, we had to hurry him up. Every time he opened a present, he wanted to just play with it instead of opening the next one. I am glad he was able to savor the moment! I am sure that won’t be true next year.

After opening the presents, we got busy cooking Christmas dinner. We basically had a repeat of our Thanksgiving dinner and it was delicious!! After a few photo ops, Sam dug in with his new construction themed utensils that Nana and Grandpa gave him! I think he liked the food!

That night we decided to go see the White House Tree.  Unfortunately we weren’t the only ones with that idea and it was VERY crowded! Sam was way more impressed with the humongous menorah than the Christmas tree, which makes sense considering the tree was about 5 times the size of our tree and the menorah was about 5,000 times the size of our menorah!

Ben had the great idea of driving a few blocks over to see the Congressional Christmas Tree. It was way less crowded and much bigger!

That night we came home and skyped with my Grandpa out in California. Sam was really excited to show Great Grandpa Gene his cookie but he was not willing to share it!

I’ve never spent the holidays at home before (even when I was younger, we always went to California or Minnesota to visit family) so I was a little nervous that it wouldn’t be the same. But I actually had a great time and I think everyone else did too! This may be a new tradition!

Since our little girl doesn’t have a name yet (we have a few ideas which we are keeping to ourselves until we’ve made a decision), we have been calling her “Baby Sister.” Sam loves talking about Baby Sister–where she’ll sleep (“in a basket”), what she’ll do (“cry”), and how cute she’ll be (“so!”). I know it will be hard for the three of us to stop calling her Baby Sister once she is born and has a name!

Today is exactly ONE MONTH until my due date!!! Ahhh! That means that Baby Sister will be here in one month or less–I have an induction scheduled for the night of the 7th, so she could be early but she won’t be late! Sam was 9.5 pounds, so my doctor and I decided it would be best not to let this little girl cook too long! Sam was a few days early, so I am hopeful that I will actually go into labor on my own. My labor with Sam was only 8 hours from start to finish, so I am a little nervous about this one going so fast that I don’t have time for an epidural. I have heard of that happening to some of my friends and that is NOT ok with me!

So far this pregnancy has been different than Sam’s. I think I was sicker in the beginning with Sam, but the morning sickness this time lingered all the way until the end of my second trimester. I also felt tired for longer this time, but that may be more to do with having a toddler to look after! I have felt the best during this last trimester but now the baby is so big, it is really hard to get comfortable! Oh well. I can’t complain because it could definitely be worse.

I thought I should post a pic of me with my pregnant belly before I don’t have one anymore! Ben took this on my phone the other night. You can probably tell how tired I am from the pic!

And here is a pic of Baby Sister! I love this ultrasound pic that my doctor got at the last appointment. She is covering her forehead/eyes with her hand but I still think you can get a good idea of what she looks like!

We are all so excited to meet Baby Sister. The other day, Sam and I were looking through old pictures of him as a baby. We came across a photo of me pregnant the first time so I asked Sam if he knew who was in my belly. He naturally said, “Baby Sister!” and I told him, “No. That was Baby Sam!” He kind of nodded like he didn’t really understand. Then a day or so later, Ben pointed to my belly and asked Sam, “Who’s in there?” Sam said, “Baby Sister AND Baby Sam!!” He must be so confused by this whole process! It is a lot for a 2 year old to wrap his head around for sure. We will see what he thinks once Baby Sister finally makes her appearance!

I love that Sam is old enough now that he can actually help out! This morning I was folding laundry and he really wanted in on the action. Obviously he is not quite old enough to fold, but I had him pull all of the socks out of the basket, which was actually pretty helpful. Then he helped me by putting all the dirty laundry that had been piled on the closet floor into the laundry basket. It may not sound like much, but at 30 weeks pregnant, I really enjoyed not having to bend down and get it myself!

Some cute shots of my little helper:

We are so lucky that my dad gets to come down from New Jersey so often for meetings in DC. Sam loves hanging out with his Grandpa Pat (and so do we!).

Arlington has a great new park that we checked out over Thanksgiving weekend. It is located by the airport, and while we were there we saw three trains, a helicopter, and a dozen airplanes. It was great. If you live in the area, I highly recommend checking out Long Bridge Park. I will definitely be returning after baby is here to jog and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

Checking out the train:

Going:

Going:

Gone: