Samantha: 31 Months, Week 1 {Pajamborie, Stomach Bug, and Our Family Christmas}

Parenting is one of those experiences that give you the highest highs and the lowest lows, sometimes all the in same day, but at least all in the same week.  And this week was no different.

Our week started out with our rescheduled play date with Vivian.  Samantha was really excited to have her over, to show her all her toys, and to have someone else to play with besides Mommy and Daddy.  Vivian was a bit shy when she first arrived at our house, and Samantha was very interested in the baby, Maeve, and how her mommy was taking care of her.  Eventually, Vivian warmed up, and they played with Samantha's little dollhouse and with her kitchen together.  Samantha even read books to Vivian for a little while.  She would pick one out, show it to Vivian and ask, "Do you want to read this one?"  Then, she'd sit down in the little yellow chair next to her and say, "Are you ready?"  She would turn the pages and describe to Vivian what was happening on each page by looking at the pictures.  After the book was over, Samantha would ask, "Do you want me to read you another one?"  One time Vivian said no, and Samantha got a little disappointed, saying, "Vivian made me feel sad."  I just told her that it was okay and maybe she wanted to read a different book or look at a book by herself instead.  The girls really got along pretty well, and I think Samantha enjoyed having another little girl in our house to play with.  We don't have too many kids her age, let alone another girl, come over to play very often.  It was also very fun for me to have another mom to talk to for awhile.  She has four kids, so it was great to hear how transitioning from one to two kids was for her, and to share about our little girls who are very close in age.  I often will tell Ben that being a stay at home mom can be one of the loneliest jobs to have because you just interact with your child/children all day long, and have very little adult interaction.  This is something I have definitely been missing lately, so we will definitely have to have another play date with Vivian again sometime soon.

Even though we had a busy morning of playing and interacting, Samantha did not take a nap again that afternoon.  She was acting pretty crazy in her crib during the whole time I had her up in bed, and it made me start thinking again whether we should just try not napping during the day and putting her to bed earlier at night.  It seemed like she was just outgrowing her nap since she has been resisting it so strongly over the last week or so.  It's just so hard to know what to do, whether it is just a phase or whether it is a transition period for her in her napping routine.

Here is a video of Samantha helping us decorate some Christmas cookies.

On Tuesdays we normally take care of Sadie, but Michelle was home sick today with a fever, so decided to keep Sadie at home with her.  Samantha and I still went to story time at the library together, and it was kind of nice going with just her.  We had much less stuff to drag in with us, and it was a bit easier to check out books on CD and DVDs for our Christmas trip that way.  After story time, Samantha always goes and tells the librarian thank you, and when she did this the librarian complimented her on how good of a listener she was.  She said, "You must really like stories because you are such a good listener at story time."  Samantha felt pretty proud of herself, being complimented by her favorite story teller.

That afternoon, Samantha again did not nap.  We had some fun activities planned for the evening, but they required her to have a good nap so that she wasn't overtired and wouldn't need to be put to bed early.  I so desperately wanted her to nap and needed a break from her talking and being silly, but it was just not working.  I decided there was no point in trying to do the same thing every day, hoping that maybe this day it would work, so I decided to at least try to encourage some rest time.  I went upstairs, gave her a stack of books, and told her she had to have a quiet, rest time where she could read books until I would come back up and get her.  There are a few parents that use this trick every day at nap time, and oftentimes their children will fall asleep looking at books.  But this didn't work with Samantha.  She looked at books quietly for about twenty minutes, then started calling out my name.  I ignored her because I still wanted her to stay up in her room, and after giving up calling for me, she went right back to talking and playing like before.  So, I guess that idea doesn't work so well either.

I didn't know what to do after that, if I should have just kept her home from our nighttime activities because she didn't nap, or what.  I guess we just need to stop telling her that she has to nap in order to do this or that in the evenings since naps are so on and off lately.  Plus, I don't want to punish her for not napping if it's just a phase she's going through, rather than an act of defiance against me (even though sometimes it feels like an act of defiance on some days, making it hard not to take it personally).  We compromised and decided to let her go to the Pajamaborie, but not to helping pass out cookies to Daddy's students at his review session since that would be at 7:00, the time we start putting her to bed when she doesn't nap at all during the day.

The Pajamborie is apparently a Bloomington tradition, but we have never taken part in it before.  It is at a little local mall on the top floor, and all the kids come dressed in their pajamas.  They played How the Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon on a large screen, had cookies and milk for the kids, and Santa came about halfway through the festivities.  It was funny to see Samantha's reaction, though, when Santa came in.  Most of the kids were jumping up and down, scurrying to get in line to see him and sit on his lap.  Samantha just looked at him, almost like she was thinking, "What's all the fuss about?"  She knows who Santa is, and if you ask her, she'll tell you he brings people presents, but she doesn't really understand or buy into the whole concept of Santa Clause, which we are okay with.  We have watched shows about him and read books about him, so it's almost like he is just a fictional person in a book to her.  We don't really like the whole idea of writing a letter to Santa and asking/expecting him to bring something to you, at least not at this point in her life.  We want more of the emphasis to be placed on Christmas being about Jesus' birthday, than about what present might be under the tree for her.  I know some people don't like to talk about Santa because they feel like they are lying to their kids, and if they are lying to them about Santa, who knows what else they are lying about, but that is not our main concern at all.  We just don't want to get sucked into the materialism that comes along with Christmas.  We have told Samantha that we give each other presents on Christmas because the Wise Men gave Baby Jesus presents, and that answer seems to satisfy Samantha pretty well.

Here are some pictures from the Pajamborie.  I know Samantha was just excited about being able to wear her pajamas outside and bring her puppy dog with her.

Wednesday was another kind of strange day because we took care of Sadie, but had not BSF to go to due to the Christmas season.  I felt like just having a relaxing day at home, so we all just stayed home, allowing Sadie to have a nice morning nap, and giving Samantha and I time to make Daddy's Christmas present.  I printed off this cute little poem one of my friend's had posted on Facebook, had Samantha paint a little wooden frame for it, and then put her footprints on the paper with paint.  She had a great time decorating it, and I think the finished product looks wonderful.  (Here's a picture from when Daddy opened it on our family Christmas morning.)

I was hoping that napping would go better today after two days of no napping this week, but she again was fighting sleep after I first laid her down.  After about forty-five minutes of jumping in her bed and making lots of noise, she finally fell asleep, and I was so thankful.  She took a pretty good two and half hour nap, which she really needed.  Maybe this will be our new nap time trend, where she skips a nap for a couple days and then crashes, taking a really good nap the next day, who knows, preschoolers are rather unpredictable.  Since Samantha had such a good nap, and Daddy was going to be giving his final exam to his students right around dinnertime, we decided to meet him at Chipotle for dinner.  When I was talking to Samantha about what we should make for dinner that night, she said, "I think we should have something better than food at home, like maybe go out to a restaurant, that maybe has rice and beans and chocolate milk..."  How can you deny a girl's request for Chipotle, especially when it's one of our favorite restaurants as well?

On Thursday Samantha had her last gymnastics class, and we made sure to bring Christmas cookies to her teacher.  However, Samantha has been a little tricky when transitioning from one place to another lately.  When we are at home, she doesn't want to leave to go anywhere, even if it's somewhere fun, like gymnastics class.  And when we are out places, she doesn't want to leave.  Her solution to not wanting to leave is to pretend like she is a limp noodle, falling on the floor, and refusing to get up and walk.  I think this is fairly common for a two and a half year old, but it makes it difficult for me with my ever growing belly to haul a growing girl around when she is refusing to move, hoping that by delaying, she will avoid having to leave.  Anyways, back to gymnastics, I think Samantha's favorite part of her gymnastics classes is when they get to walk on the tallest balance beam and jump off onto the big, squishy mat.  I think it makes her feel like a big girl, a real gymnast.  And, she was even brave enough to jump off the beam all by herself!  At first, she was always afraid to jump and would want me to hold her hand as she jumped or catch her right away, but now she is brave enough to jump off all by herself.

Daddy was staying home to grade his finals today, so Samantha and I decided to go to the Banneker Center to play after gymnastics class was over.  We didn't know this ahead of time, but apparently they have a special Spanish class on Thursdays and today was their Christmas party.  Even though we had never attended any classes before, Samantha was invited to join the Spanish story and song time, of which she just observed from the outside, and then the special snack afterwards, which Samantha was more than happy to take part in.  She got some bunny grahams, half a banana, and some orange juice.  Samantha had never tried orange juice before, mostly because she doesn't drink much juice, so I usually pick juice that I will like to drink as well, and orange juice has never been my favorite.  However, she just guzzled this juice down and then asked for more.  I guess I'll have to buy her some orange juice in the future!

She had a great time playing with the cars, dolls, and even dressed up like a dinosaur for awhile.  We always have a good time playing at the Banneker Center playing, and we hadn't been there for quite awhile.

Daddy put Samantha down for her nap on Thursday afternoon, since he was at home grading, and she fell right to sleep.  I joked with him afterwards about having special nap powers and possibly hiring him for five dollars a day just to put her to bed.  But in all seriousness, I think it was a mere coincidence.

The other odd, somewhat challenging event this week, besides our napping trials, was a small regression in potty training and then a huge step forward.  The first couple nights of the week, while we were at home making cookies or hanging out around the house, Samantha had an accident in her pants.  We were very confused because she hasn't had an accident in months.  In fact, we don't even worry about making her go to the bathroom except for at transition times like before we get in the car or before she goes to bed.  We rely on her to tell us throughout the rest of the day when she has to go, and she has done an amazing job.  She was very upset about her accidents, cried a lot, and took quite awhile to calm down once we got her in the bathroom and took off her wet clothes.  You can tell it shocked her just as much as us.  Well, right after that, I think starting on Wednesday, she started keeping her pull-up dry at nap time AND at bed time.  We were amazed!  Every time she woke up, we would find it was still dry, we made a huge deal out of it, and we were so happy for her.  We are going to continue putting her in pull-ups, especially with Christmastime coming up and all the changes in her schedule that will be happening, but if she keeps this up for another couple weeks, we may ditch the pull-ups for good.  Wow!  That would be great for Samantha to be totally diaper and pull-up free well before little baby Aedan comes along.

On Friday, we had an exciting day planned because we were going to meet Upland Grandpa and Grandma at the Children's Museum.  As usual, Samantha was so excited.  She loves the Children's Museum normally, but even more so when Grandpa and Grandma are there with her.  It's almost like she acts more interested in things at the museum when other people are there with her, kind of like she's showing them around to all the cool things at the museum.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Jolly Days area, particularly playing with the kitchen, pretending we were baking cookies in the oven.

Then, on the way to find the dinosaurs, we had to stop in the Hidden Treasures area and do some digging, pose with our heads in a statue, watch the trains, play with the train table, and play with the toy dinosaurs.  She was particularly interested in the train table this time, probably because she was the only one there to play with it, meaning she could have all the trains to herself.  Normally, all the kids are fighting over the trains, both here and at the train table at the library.  She does a great job sharing, but most of the time the issue is with other kids who won't share with her.  So, she finally gets tired of having things taken away from her and will just go and play with something else.

She played in the area with the Carousel, mowing the lawn for quite awhile.  We always enjoy watching her play.  And of course, Samantha had to go on the Yule Slide.  This video is from her second ride of the day, with Grandpa.

After leaving the Children's Museum, we stopped at Wendy's for lunch and then headed home.  We tried to get Samantha to take a nap in the car, but we forgot to bring her blankie and blanket with us, plus it was already pretty late in the afternoon, so she just played quietly in the backseat rather than taking a nap, which was fine with us, we just figured we'd put her to bed earlier that night.

However, as the evening progressed I started feeling worse and worse.  At first I thought that I was feeling bad just because I stayed up too late on Thursday night or that maybe my Wendy's wasn't sitting well in my stomach, but it just kept getting worse.  I put Samantha to bed that night and almost had to cut our usual routine short because I was feeling so crummy.  My head hurt, and I was feeling nauseous.  After putting her to bed, I couldn't do anything but lay on the couch.  Ben got back a little while later from running a few errands, and I asked him to help me upstairs, thinking that maybe just laying in a quiet, dark room would help my headache to go away and my stomach to feel calm.  However, I hardly made it upstairs before I had to run to the bathroom because I was sick to my stomach.  This was probably around nine o'clock.  Well, after I got settled back in bed to rest, we heard Samantha crying.  Ben went into her room to see what was wrong, quickly bringing her into the bathroom as well.  I heard him make the comment, "Oh honey, you must have the same stomach bug that Mommy has."  I thought to myself, "Oh no, poor little girl."  I got up to help Daddy clean up from Samantha getting sick in her bed, but it was hard for me to do much because I was still feeling quite sick myself.  On normal days, I have a hard time dealing with the stench of throw up, but particularly when I am sick my self, leaving Ben to deal with most of the clean up.  

We didn't know if this would just be an isolated incident for Samantha, so Ben got her redressed and took her back into her room, just in time for her to get sick again.  This time, we decided to keep Samantha in the bathroom to try and maximize our proximity to the toilet.  The poor girl was so sad looking and so scared of what was happening to her.  She has hardly ever been sick in her whole life, let alone sick to her stomach.  I sat in the bathroom with her, holding her little body dressed in just her pull-up, helping her to the toilet whenever she got sick.  Meanwhile, Daddy worked on cleaning up the mess and getting her sheets, blanket, and clothes into the washer.  What a good Daddy Samantha has!  Daddy eventually took over holding Samantha while I tried to rest, even though I was much more concerned about Samantha than myself at this point.

After an hour or so of being in the bathroom, with Samantha falling asleep on Daddy's lap just to wake up and get sick again, we decided to call the doctor to see if they had any recommendation on how to help Samantha deal with this sickness.  They said we shouldn't give her any medicine, but that it would just run its course.  Unfortunately, that's how stomach bugs are, just a virus, where your body is trying to do it's job and you just have to let it work itself out.  They said the most important thing was that she goes to the restroom every eight hours to show that she was not dehydrated, and that we should try to keep her close throughout the night to help her when she gets sick and keep an eye on how she was feeling.  So, we decided to prepare for a long night ahead of us.  Since both Samantha and I were sick, we decided to have Samantha sleep in our bed with Daddy, and I would sleep downstairs on the couch.  We got trash cans and paper towels ready, left Samantha in just her pull-up, and tucked her into our bed for the night.

None of us had a very restful sleep.  Samantha would fall asleep peacefully, just to wake up again and get sick.  Luckily, she got pretty good at recognizing the signs of being sick, and Daddy was able to help her get it in the trash can every time.  But with her being small and having a tiny stomach, she got to the bile rather quickly.  She was desperately wanting water, but Daddy had to limit her to just little sips so that she wouldn't throw it right up.  That didn't make her very happy, as can be expected.  She got pretty hot in the middle of the night with fever, and it finally broke around 4:00 a.m.  After that, the worst seemed to pass, and Samantha finally fell into a peaceful sleep around 5:00 a.m.  Her night reflected my night fairly well, with the whole household finally getting some good rest from about 5:00 to 8:30.

When we all woke up for the day on Saturday morning, Ben was not feeling well.  He was feeling nauseous as well, and we figured it would only be a matter of time before he got the stomach bug just as bad as Samantha and me.  Even though it seemed like the worst was over for Samantha and me and we weren't throwing up anymore, we still were under the weather and had very little energy.  I made an executive decision to text Ben's parents to see if they could come down for the day to help us out, to help take care of Samantha, so that Ben and I could rest.  They gladly offered to help and arrived sometime between 11:00 and 11:30.  Samantha and I just rested on the couch that morning watching cartoons on the Disney Junior station.  She only got sick once that morning and that was because she drank too much juice too fast.  She had pretty much no energy though and literally stayed on the couch all day.  Actually, right before Grandpa and Grandma arrived, Samantha had fallen asleep on the couch, head propped up on a pillow and covered in a blanket.  She has not fallen asleep on the couch since she was an infant.  It was so precious to watch her sleep, but so sad to see our little girl so sick.

Once Grandpa and Grandma took over care of Samantha, I was able to go back upstairs to get a nap in bed with Ben.  We both slept most of the afternoon, knowing that Samantha was in good hands.  None of us got sick again the rest of the day, thankfully, but this stomach bug zapped away all of our energy and appetite.  Grandma helped me with laundry and changing the sheets on our bed.  Grandpa helped us wrap our Christmas presents.  They were a huge help to us, and it made us so thankful that we live only two hours apart.

We were hoping for a good night's sleep for all of us, placing Samantha back into her bed, and Ben and I back in our bed.  After about an hour of sleeping, Samantha woke up crying and Ben went into her room to check on her.  (It seemed like he never really caught the stomach bug, but more was feeling sick because of being up all night with a sick child and dealing with the stench that that entails.)  Everything was okay with Samantha when she woke up crying, but she was feeling her face, almost like she was afraid she had gotten sick again.  Poor girl.

Since this horrible stomach bug knocked us off our feet for a good 24 hours, our plans for Sunday to go to Sadie's dedication, then lunch, then hang out with the Shivelys for the afternoon, were all cancelled.  We were planning on leaving for Chicago on Monday morning, so we decided to have our family Christmas on Sunday morning, since we were all getting back to our normal selves.

Here is Samantha when she first came downstairs and saw all the presents under the tree.  She was still fairly lethargic and didn't have as much expression as she usually does.

We started off with our stockings.  I found lots of cute little Disney things at Michael's that were only fifty cents each, like the socks, coin purse, and markers.  I got the blue purse from a Ugandan lady that came to speak at our Mom's REST Stop group awhile back.  The purse was a pretty big hit with Samantha because she really likes putting her toys into bags lately.

Here are some other pictures from our present opening on our family Christmas morning.  We got Samantha a "new" tea set for her tea pot.  (It was only $3 at Once Upon a Child, but is a complete set of bowls, plates, saucers, teacups, forks, spoons, knives, and little tea pot.)  Now she can really serve up a tea party for her dolls and animals.

Then, we had Daddy open up the present that Samantha made for him.  She was so excited to show him what she had made, and I think Daddy loved it, too.  You can't really tell what the poem says on the paper, so here are the words:

Daddy, Daddy, I have made,

Prints with my little feet.

Then you can remember when, I

Was so small and sweet.

I will grow and toddler days will all be in the past,

But you can know my love for you

Daddy, will always last.

She picked out all the colors herself, for the footprints and for the frame.  Samantha was so proud of it and couldn't wait to display it on the dining room table.

 Samantha's other gifts were a set of Disney princess figurines, two plush princess dolls: Belle and Rapunzel, and a Little People Nativity Set.

Like most little kids, having everything wrapped in a box is just agonizing, so we quickly got the princess figurines and nativity set out of the box for her to play with.  Samantha spent the rest of the morning playing with her new toys and enjoying some quiet playtime after a day of being so sick on Saturday.  She still wasn't quite herself, spending a lot of time laying on the floor playing, so we had an early lunch of mac and cheese and a nice long nap for Samantha (plus a little one for me as well).

We were glad to be recuperating after our stomach bug.  It was the worst sickness that has ever hit our family, and we were glad to be rid of it.  Our family Christmas was enjoyable, and we were all ready for a week long trip to see both of our families for Christmas as well.  Tales of that are to come in the next blog post. :)

Samantha: 30 Months, Week 4 {Build a Bear and Children's Museum}

Samantha has been asking for quite a while to have a friend to come over to play.  When I ask her who she would want to invite, she always says Vivian from church.  Her mom and I planned a play date for Monday morning, but because of all the snow we got over the weekend and the bitter cold temperatures, public schools were delayed, causing our play date to get cancelled as well.  Samantha was pretty disappointed about this because she was really looking forward to having Vivian over, but we still had a fun morning playing at home and getting some housework done.  Samantha has definitely become more of a homebody lately, much preferring to stay home and play with her toys than to go out, which is fine by me.

We are continuing to struggle on and off with nap time still, although on Monday Samantha eventually fell asleep after calling me up to her room because she had to go potty and didn't want to go in her pull up.  We don't mind that.  We think it's great that she is trying to keep her pull up dry at nap time. However, on Tuesday she did not take a nap, she was just up in her bed talking and playing for two hours.  When I went up to get her out of her bed, I asked, "Why did you throw your blankie and take your pillowcase and pants off?"  To which she replied, "I don't know," with her hands up in the air.  I said, "Well, it doesn't make me very happy when you don't nap."  So she came up and gave me a big hug, saying, "Are you happy now?"  I couldn't help but smile and hug her back, both of us laughing out loud.  Then, with a huge smile on her face, she said, "I'm just cute.  I'm just funny."  Oh our little girl, what are we gonna do with her?  How can you not think she's adorable?

Tuesday and Wednesday passed quickly with our normal routine of watching Sadie, going to story time at the library, and BSF.  Wednesday night, we had plans to go out with some friends and a friend of ours was going to watch Samantha for us at their house.  However, Samantha did not take a nap again on Wednesday, so we weren't sure what to do.  We didn't want to reward Samantha for not napping or give Heather a hard time by having to deal with a tired girl.  However, we ended up deciding to go, mostly because I felt like I just needed a break that day.  This pregnancy has made me feel really emotional lately, and having Samantha refuse to nap two days in a row was almost too much for me this week.  I needed some adult company.  We had a good time out for dinner at The Runcible Spoon, and Samantha had a wonderful time at Miss Heather's house being doted on by all members of the family.  When we got there to pick her up, it was already past her bedtime, but she didn't care, she was busy playing with little legos on the floor in the living room.  By the time we got her home and in bed, it was almost ten o'clock, and she was so tired from not having napped all day, that she went right to sleep.

Thursday morning we were supposed to have gymnastics and Mom's REST Stop, but all those things got cancelled due to the weather.  There was another two hour delay for snow and cold temperatures, so instead, we decided to head up to Greenwood for a little Christmas shopping.  I was planning on getting Daddy a messenger bag/briefcase for Christmas, but we wanted to actually look at some before we made any decisions and Greenwood was the closest place that had multiple stores we could look at.  Samantha did a really good job being patient with us while we looked around the department stores and sung in the car pretty much all the way there and back.  We wore her out good enough that she took a good nap that afternoon too, which we were thankful for after two days of not napping.

Thursday night after dinner, we decided to take Samantha to our local mall to go to the Build A Bear store.  She really wanted to go in the store earlier in the day, and Daddy decided it would be great to let her make an animal.  At first, she didn't really know what to think or what she was supposed to do.  There were so many animals to choose from that we eventually had to choose a few and let her decide from there.  She chose a bright pink penguin and was so excited for her turn to get it "washed" (which is what she thought was going on when they filled the animals with stuffing).  She enjoyed kissing the little heart, placing it in the penguin, and standing on the pedal to fill up her special animal.

Then, it was time to give penguin a bath and brush her hair.

We told Samantha she could pick one little outfit for her penguin.  She was immediately drawn to the princess shirt, and then we had to find something for the bottom.  Since the penguin's tail was so big, regular pants wouldn't work, but this little sparkly tutu was perfect.  Samantha decided to name her penguin Hannah Penguin, which we thought was adorable because Hannah was the name we were going to use if we were going to have a girl.  Hannah Penguin fits Samantha's personality perfectly.  When her penguin was all dressed, Samantha flapped her arms and squealed with excitement.  In the car on the way home, Samantha was treating her like her little baby, saying, "I'm your mommy.  I love you with all my heart.  I love you with all my pancakes."

After having a day at home, just running a few errands in the morning on Friday, we took a family trip to the Children's Museum on Saturday to experience their Christmas celebration called Jolly Days.  Samantha got to ride down the Yule Slide with Daddy.

She played in the snow castle.

She went ice fishing.

She brushed and fed a reindeer.

And we played with dominoes for quite awhile, turning them into a new favorite toy at our house as well.

Of course, we can't forget one of our favorite things at the museum, the carousel.

We had a great morning, but I think all of us were pretty tired, so we didn't stay at the museum as long as we usually do.  That's the good thing about having a membership.  We can come as often as we'd like and stay for only a couple hours, and still get our money's worth.

Sunday morning, I had to get to church early to work in the infant nursery, so Daddy was in charge of getting Samantha ready that morning.  Here are some beautiful pictures of our little girl all dressed up for church.  She would wear dresses like this every day if we let her. :)

Samantha: 30 Months, Week 3 {The Nutcracker, Sledding, and It's a BOY!}

Well, the busyness of this Christmas season has caught up with me, and I am now trying to write this blog post from a couple weeks ago, with very little recollection of what happened besides what events I have written down on my calendar.

It was a fairly busy week, which was probably good because I had my next ultrasound appointment on Friday morning and was eagerly awaiting this day for the last few weeks.  We were going to see our little baby again, and we were hopefully going to find out if we were having a boy or girl.  But anyways, I will get to that later in this post.

Monday morning we had a doctor and dentist appointment scheduled for Samantha, so we had to be out the door bright and early.  In fact, Samantha actually slept in pretty late that day, probably because we stayed out late going to Christmas at the Zoo on Sunday night.  We were almost about ready to wake her up to get her ready for her doctor's appointment, when she woke up on her own around 8:10.  We quickly got her dressed and ready, tried to give her a little breakfast, and were out the door for our appointment at 8:30.  We did not get to meet with our regular doctor since we had to reschedule our appointment, but we didn't have any major concerns or issues so we didn't think it mattered too much who we saw.  Her height was 36 3/4 inches which put her in the 50-75th percentile.  Her weight was 32 pounds which put her in the 75-90th percentile.  She got a nasal flu spray, and they said she was doing great developmentally.  It was ironic though because we were going to bring up the issue we were having with naps, but then found the solution of staying in her room for a few minutes after laying her down, so we didn't bring it up at all.  However, since I am writing this now two weeks out from the doctor's appointment, I know that our "magic" solution didn't last for too long, but oh, what a glorious couple of weeks that was when we figured out how to get her to nap calmly and quickly.

Right after Samantha's doctor's appointment, we had her dentist appointment, which was also fairly easy.  The dentist just looked in her mouth, counted her teeth, checked to make sure she didn't have any cavities, and told us to schedule an appointment next time for a cleaning in one of the big girl chairs.  Samantha was really good at both appointments and actually really seems to enjoy going.  Getting stickers and prizes are always a good incentive as well. :)

After our appointments we went to get Sadie to watch the rest of the day while her Daddy traveled for a job interview.  The next few days went by quickly with our normal routine of watching Sadie, going to the library, and going to BSF.  We also continued to have good napping with our method of staying in her room for five minutes after laying her down for her nap.

I did get a special treat this week since Sadie's Daddy, Jacob, was going out of town, Sadie's Mommy, Michelle, stayed at our house on Tuesday night and brought pizza to share.  She and I had a great time talking and sharing about what was going on in our lives.  I don't think I realized how long it had been since I sat down with a girl friend like this.  It's just different talking to a girl, rather than your husband, and it's something that my heart definitely needed.  Thank you Michelle!

It's been nice lately, too, because Ben has been able to get solid days of working in on campus, giving us more time to spend together in the evenings after Samantha goes to bed.  He no longer has to get to work as soon as she's in bed in order to stay on top of things, and I have really enjoyed having my husband back a few nights a week to hang out with, to talk to, or to watch a movie together.

Thursday was an exciting day and the beginning of an exciting weekend of Christmas activities.  We had gymnastics class in the morning, which of course Samantha loved.  She even got to play with one of her little friends after class.  They spent fifteen minutes or so running back and forth together and being silly.  It's great to see Samantha playing with others.  We definitely don't do that enough, and it's nice to give her the freedom to take the initiative in playing with others.

We were very glad that Samantha took a nap that Thursday afternoon because we had an exciting night planned.  We had tickets to see The Nutcracker at the IU Musical Arts Center.  Michelle gave us tickets as a Christmas present, and we were so excited to see what Samantha would think of the the ladies dressed in tutus and everyone dancing around.  We were grateful that we picked Thursday night to go because it was not busy at all.  In fact, we were in a section off to the right side where there was no one around us.  It was probably a good thing that we were a bit secluded because Samantha talked to us about what she saw and asked us questions throughout most of the performance.  We encouraged her to talk quietly, but she doesn't necessarily have control over the volume of her voice sometimes.

These aren't the greatest pictures, but we got a few pictures before the show started of Samantha standing in front of the giant nutcracker and the giant Christmas tree.

Once it was getting close to the ballet starting, we took Samantha into the auditorium, showed her our seats, and showed her where the orchestra sits to play the music for the ballet.  As you can see, we had no other people around us. :)  They were wonderful seats, and we didn't have to worry about anyone's big head in front of us blocking Samantha's view.

Samantha did a really good job and at first was just enthralled by the decorations on the stage, the kid dancers that are in the party scene at the beginning of the ballet, and the beautiful costumes.  She sat there in her own seat, staring at the ballerinas, almost like she was afraid to take her eyes off them for fear that she may miss something.  After quite a while of sitting like that, she wanted to come sit on my lap, which was wonderful.  I will always cuddle with my little girl whenever she is willing.  She would ask me questions like, "What are the boys doing?"  "Where are the princesses going?"  "Why do they keep going in and out?"  With a few pointers here and there, Samantha really followed the basic story line of the ballet.  She knew that the boys were jealous of Clara getting the nutcracker doll, she knew they were having a Christmas party, and she knew that Clara was having a dream.  Most of that, without any of our help.  At intermission, Samantha was trying to stand on one leg and spin around like the ballerinas.

During the second act, Samantha got a little antsy, especially since it was past her bedtime, but she continued to do a really good job.  She stood for awhile and sat on Daddy's lap for awhile, continuing to ask questions about what was going on whenever she needed clarification.  Our night ended perfectly with a light fluffy snow falling from the sky and beginning to coat the ground as we walked out of the auditorium after the ballet.  

I think the best indication that Samantha enjoyed herself immensely was when Daddy was putting her to bed that night, and she said, "I am going to bed, and I am going to have a dream like Clara."  Then, probably for the next week, Samantha would ask us many, many times a day, "What is your favorite part of the Nutcracker?"  Daddy and I would always try to come up with a different response each time (although we were asked this question so many times that we had to cycle back through our responses).  Samantha would always answer, "My favorite part of the Nutcracker was when the boys snatched the nutcracker from Clara and broke it."  We are already making plans to see The Nutcracker again next year, if we are still living in Bloomington at Christmastime.  :)

There was a huge snowstorm in the forecast for Thursday night into Friday, but you never know how much snow is actually going to fall.  Well, this is what we woke up to on Friday morning.

The snow was so beautiful, and it continued to fall all day.  At the end of the snowstorm, we had around nine inches of snow total.  As soon as Samantha woke up, we brought her into our bedroom and showed her this view out our window.  She was shocked and amazed.  It hasn't snowed this much in Bloomington since she was born, and she wouldn't have any recollection of it anyways.  I know a lot of people hate snow, but I love it.  I don't think winter/Christmas would be the same without it.  I remember even as a kid being so excited if we woke up Christmas morning with fluffy, white snow covering the ground.  I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas is the theme song of my Christmas season.

We then had an exciting morning because we were off to Mommy's doctor for our ultrasound appointment to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  I was so afraid that the office would be closed due to the bad weather, but luckily, we made it to the office okay, and they were staying open until 11:30 that day.  We had to wait quite a while as they were a bit backed up due to the weather, but had a great checkup and ultrasound.  We knew we wanted to find out the gender of our baby, and it was so wonderful because the first shot we got was like our baby was sitting on top of the ultrasound camera.  We got a very clear shot of what was between the legs, finding out that we are having a BOY!!!  We would have been excited either way, but of course, we are really excited that we now have one of each, a girl and a boy.

There was nothing better than watching our little baby boy move around on that screen.  Especially after experiencing a miscarriage in March, seeing our little boy healthy, strong, moving, with a strong heartbeat, I just about melted.  There's nothing that makes you treasure life more than experiencing the loss of one.  We are so grateful to God for blessing my body with a healthy pregnancy, and even though we don't understand his purposes, we trust his timing and Sovereign plan for our lives and the lives of our children.  We have decided to name him Aedan and are using the traditional Irish spelling of the name, rather than the Americanized spelling.  Ben and I met in Ireland during a study abroad semester our sophomore year of college, and after we got married and decided to have kids, we also decided that we would use an Irish first or middle name for each of our children, to carry on the legacy of where we first met and where our love began.  Samantha's middle name is Colleen, and now our little boy's name is Aedan.  I am already smitten with him and love feeling his movements within my womb.  It was hard to stop smiling and get back to our normal day after this appointment in the morning.  I can't wait to meet our son.

The rest of our Friday was spent hanging out at home, playing, listening to Christmas music, and watching the snow fall outside.  It was amazing how much snow we were getting.  Samantha wanted to go out and play in it so badly, but we told her it would be better to wait until the next day since it still was falling so rapidly.

Saturday morning we decided to make our first batch of Christmas cookies.  We have a special recipe from Ben's Grandpa's Aunt, and it makes the most delicious, soft sugar cookies I've ever tasted.  Samantha helped choose which cookie cutters to use, cut the dough into shapes, and also helped to decorate them with sprinkles.  We put the sprinkles into little dishes, and I showed her how to use her pincer fingers to pick up a few sprinkles, making it easier to get on the cookie.  She did a really good job with decorating.  I was thinking we would go through a lot of sprinkles, with most of them missing the cookie, but she actually erred on side of not putting enough sprinkles on sometimes.  She enjoyed herself, and it was a fun activity to do as a family.  Plus, we got to reap the benefits of cookie making by getting to taste them.  We all had Christmas cookies for a snack that morning.

Oh yeah, we also made buckeyes on Friday night after we put Samantha to sleep, which were also a part of our snack, hence the very chocolaty mouth on Samantha.

What is the best way to burn off energy from a sugary snack of buckeyes and sugar cookies?  Why, playing in the snow and sledding, of course!  We got Samantha all bundled up and ready for her first venture outside after our nine inches of snow.

We decided to go out to the little valley in our apartment complex and try to sled.  Daddy is not the biggest fan of sledding, but he was a trooper for Samantha and me.  He carried her through the snow on his shoulders until we found a good place to try to sled down.

As you can see in the video below, Samantha's first time down the hill was fairly slow, and she tipped over at the end because of how deep and fresh the snow was.  She smiled and laughed the whole way down though.

After we got our little path carved out in the snow with the sled, it was smooth sailing for our little girl.  I would catch her at the bottom and help her halfway up the hill, at which point Daddy would take over, get her to the top of the hill, situated on her sled, and ready to go down again.

Samantha had a blast!  If I weren't pregnant, I would have been going down the hill with her.  I love sledding and playing in the freshly fallen snow.  We probably played outside in the snow for a good forty-five minutes or so, much longer than I anticipated due to the cold and depth of the snow.  I think she would have sledded for quite a bit longer, but the more times she went down the hill, the faster her sled would go on the slick snow path we had created.  One time Daddy slowed her sled down when she reached the bottom of the hill, but Samantha protested and didn't want him to stop her early.  So the next time, he didn't stop her sled early, and she hit a small bump in the snow, causing her sled to jump off the ground a bit and giving her a face full of snow.  She got a little upset about the snow being in her face and then was done sledding for the day.  However, despite getting snow in her face, she was already talking about going sledding again sometime the very next day.

After returning to our home and taking off our wet, snowy clothes, Samantha got right back to playing while we made lunch.  One of her favorite activities lately is to line things up: cars, people, anything she can get her hands on.  This was quite the impressive line up she created on the floor.

After Samantha woke up from her nap on Saturday afternoon, we decided to drive up to Greenwood for dinner and a trip to Babies 'R Us.  Now that we know we are having a boy, we have to start accumulating boy things.  We have bins and bins of girl clothes, but nothing for a boy.  We decided it would be easiest to just register for a few things like a bedding set, burp rags, and some clothes, so that way if people wanted to buy anything for Aedan for Christmas, they would have a little more direction on what we needed/wanted.  Samantha was pretty excited to go to a baby store and even helped choose a few special pajamas and outfits for Aedan to wear.  I don't know if I will have another baby shower since this is not our first child, but it's hard because we are having a boy and don't have some things that we need for him.  I feel like it's kind of a generational gap.  Most older women wouldn't think to have a baby shower for any baby besides the first one, whereas younger women (at least many that I know) have baby showers for second and even third babies, particularly if they are a different gender than what you already have.  The showers are obviously not as big, but it is still nice to receive some gifts to start you off.  It was exciting and nerve-wracking to be walking around a baby store, registering again.  

Now that we know we are having a boy, it feels a little more real.  I am beyond excited, but also a bit nervous about what it will be like to be a mother of two, what it will be like to balance the needs of both Samantha and Aedan, what it will be like to nurse again and to be up throughout the night again in addition to dealing with a three year old during the day, what it will be like to love both my children equally and completely.  (I love Samantha so much, and I already love Aedan so much, that sometimes it seems impossible to be able to have enough love for both of them.)  There are some things that will be easier because we have already been through it once, but at the same time, we know that each pregnancy, labor, delivery, and baby are different.  Going from none to one is a huge change, but I think going from one to two is also a huge change.  However, we are ready for it, and I am so excited to be able to stay home and have the opportunity to love on both my children throughout the day.