Can you tell the difference between these two tummy time champs?

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(top: Campbell, bottom: Sam) I feel like Campbell has a slightly daintier, feminine look, but perhaps I am just imagining it!

Ben has been in charge of putting Sam to bed since he was about 6 months old. After reading a few books, he always sings Sam a few songs. And since Ben has an exceptionally low tolerance for “kids” songs, he always just sings his personal favorites for Sam. Lately, this has included a lot of Radiohead. Consequently his favorite song right now is “No Surprises” by Radiohead. Sam sings it all the time and requests that we play it on repeat. We caught these super cute videos for your enjoyment. And if you aren’t familiar with the original, click here).

Last Tuesday, Sam got his first dental checkup — every kid’s dream.

I took the afternoon off and accompanied him to Arlington Pediatric Dentistry, where they clearly know how to make a two (and a half!) year old comfortable: a TV on the ceiling of the exam room playing nothing but cartoons, and GQ-quality sunglasses for the patient.

Sam was excited for his visit, and seemed happy the whole time we were there, though he was a little apprehensive about all the new equipment at first — which included a buzzy toothbrush, a fluoride applicator, and dental floss.

The practice’s staff was extremely friendly and kid-oriented, and Sam did a great job of answering their questions and following their instructions — even the unusual ones, like “don’t bite down, my fingers are still in there!”

Half an hour after Sam first walked in, he walked out again with a bag full of new toothbrushes, toothpaste, and big boy dental floss.

It was a great visit: sparkling clean teeth and an overall clean bill of health.

Plus a new bouncy ball.

Ben,

I hope you have a wonderful Father’s Day! You are a better father to our children than I could have ever imagined. I am thankful everyday for you and all you do for this family. I am sure it is hard working all day and then coming home to a wild house, but you never hesitate to step in to take care of dinner or entertain/care for the kids. Sam loves every second he spends with you. And why wouldn’t he? You are definitely the “fun parent!!” And I can already see that Campbell loves you just as much (even if you don’t feed her yet!). I feel so lucky that I get to raise a family with you!

I love you,

Caitlin

Since the day we found out I was pregnant with Campbell, I have been fretting over sleeping arrangements. Our top floor only has two bedrooms (ours and Sam’s). We have a guest bedroom in the basement but I didn’t want to put either kid that far away from our bedroom. A few of our friends with the same floorplan as ours have gotten pretty creative (including a friend who moved the master bedroom to the basement–making the guestroom a closet!) but in the end we decided that Sam and Campbell would just have to share a room!

Of course, this meant that Campbell would have to sleep in our room for the first few months until she started sleeping for longer stretches. I was really nervous about this since I had to kick Sam out of our bedroom on the first night he came home from the hospital. He was just so LOUD. And as a new mother, every little squeak made me jump. Luckily, this time around it was much easier to have Campbell in our room. We did get a noise machine to drown out some of the little noises, but I was also just much more relaxed.

However, after a couple of months, having her in our bedroom was getting trickier. It seemed like we were all waking each other up at night, so Ben and I decided to try having Campbell sleep out in the hallway. This was actually a GREAT arrangement and I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner. We turned Sam’s noise machine up a little higher so that if she started crying it wouldn’t wake him up (since she was closer to his room now). And we shut the door to our room so that we couldn’t hear her little noises (of course we could still hear her if she cried).

But just the other week, we finally decided it was time to put Campbell in Sam’s room. We figured it would be best to get her used to the environment as soon as possible. And we wanted to give Sam time to adjust. Sam was SO excited about it, and he still asks us every single night, “Can Campbell sleep in my room again tonight?”

So far it has been great. Putting them to bed is no problem at all. Campbell usually falls asleep in minutes and then Sam continues to talk to himself for 15 minutes to an hour but this does not wake up Campbell. And on the rare occasions that Campbell wakes up in the middle of the night (not early morning), Sam doesn’t even wake up. And if he ever does, I am not really worried because he goes back to sleep easily if he is awoken in the middle of his sleep. (In fact, I have started taking him to use the potty most nights at 10:30 or so when I go to bed to avoid morning accidents or early morning potty requests. He stays almost completely asleep the whole time. It’s pretty hilarious.)

However, mornings have been a little rough. When Campbell wakes up early, so does Sam, and he doesn’t go back to sleep. He does seem to be getting better at resting until it his time for him to get out of bed. But even on days Campbell sleeps until 8, Sam has been waking up at 7:15 or so. This is at least a full hour earlier than his normal wake-up time. I think this is because he is so excited that Campbell is in his room that as soon as he stirs, he fully wakes up. Luckily this doesn’t wake Campbell, and luckily he knows he has to stay in bed until we come get him. However he has been a little crankier on these mornings. The upside to this is that Sam has been napping great in the afternoon! (They do not nap in the same room because their naps are not perfectly overlapping)! It used to take him over an hour to fall asleep some days but now he always falls asleep in minutes and sleeps for at least three hours! I am hopeful that as Campbell becomes a better sleeper and Sam adjusts to the newness of rooming with sis, things will keep improving.

And here is a pic of Sam showing off his new toddler comforter that I made for him as part of an effort to create some kind of unified decor in that room. That is a whole other, totally incomplete, project!

So, the other day I switched my rings from my left ring finger to my right ring finger. It is something I do often because I have sensitive skin and my rings irritate my skin easily. That night, when I went to take my rings off, though, I couldn’t. This has happened before, so I just put lotion on and tried again. And again. And again. But they wouldn’t come off and my finger was getting more and more swollen. So I decided to leave it alone and try again in the morning. Here is what my finger looked like before I went to bed:

But then I woke up at 3 in the morning and my finger was still swollen and it hurt. A lot. So I called the BCBS nurses line. After asking a few questions, she told me I needed to seek immediate medical attention, which at this time of night meant the ER.

So I got in the car and drove to the ER. Luckily, there was hardly anyone there. They took me back right away and immediately decided they needed to cut the rings off, rather than try to slide them off. I was eager to have them off my finger — however that needed to happen. I was surprised by how long it took. The guy used a not-very-powerful saw and then pried the rings off with clamps, causing all kinds of damage to the rings in the process. They slid that metal plate underneath while they were sawing to protect my finger and that is metallic residue below the rings.

The medical staff in the ER were very different than what I am used to. While the guy was working on my rings, he was telling me all kinds of crazy stories, including the fact that the guy in the cot next to mine was high on narcotics. Luckily he was snoring away, so he couldn’t overhear the conversation, but still–isn’t that a pretty clear HIPAA violation? And at one point a nurse came over because she said she needed my guy’s help rousing patient #5. My guy responded, “Oh, I am sure the PCP has worn off by now.” Yikes!

But whatevs, he got my rings off, which is something I couldn’t do for myself, so I guess beggars can’t be choosers! Here is what my hand looked like afterward. Yikes. Those suckers were on tight!

The next day I took my rings to the jeweler to have them repaired. The jeweler couldn’t believe how bad they looked (one of the rings had cracked into the setting when it was removed, another had been cut in two places). Grand total? Over $1,000. Oh my gosh, what a waste!!! So, the moral of the story is that if your rings are stuck on your finger, just leave them. Don’t mess with them. Wait until the next day when you can go to a doctor or a jeweler who will be able to get them off or cut them off more delicately. On the bright side, when I get my rings back, they will be nice and shiny!

This year at preschool, Sam got back to his yoga roots (see this post if you have forgotten about his early yoga days). Every Tuesday, Miss Judy came to Sam’s preschol to teach the kids yoga. Man, I would love to be a fly on the wall in that class!! From what I heard from Sam and his teachers it sounds like it was a lot of fun for the kids. I got this video the other day of Sam showing off his yoga moves. Such a cutie!! (He goes to a Jewish preschool, hence the “Om Shalom!”)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Campbell has really found her voice in the past month. However, anytime I tried to record her “talking,” she would just stop to stare at my phone or Flip. But I finally got not one, but TWO great videos of her talking. Enjoy!