Random thoughts...

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Lot's of eating and relaxing and then some more eating.  And so many things to be thankful for.

I had all of these random thoughts to post, but now I can't seem to remember them!  I have mush for brains these days.  Hmmmm...

Today I tried sitting Sam up on his own and he was able to sit up!  I couldn't believe it!  He toppled over after a minute or so, but it still impressed me and you could tell he was excited.

Have I ever mentioned how much Sam LOVES freezing cold fresh air?  Whenever he's crying, all I have to do is walk outside and he instantly stops, takes a deep breath and starts looking around.  Works like a charm every single time.  I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy, bringing a screaming baby out onto the porch even when it's snowing, but whatever works, right?  And whenever we go for a walk, the colder it is outside the faster he falls asleep and stays asleep.

Poppy is all about card games lately.  She is super fun to play with and is finally good at waiting her turn, etc.  I think her favorite right now is Snap, or maybe Old Maid.  The entire time we play, she keeps saying "I hope I don't get stuck with the OLD MAID!!!"  Super cute.

Can you believe how big he is getting?  4 months already!  Oh, and he has his first photo shoot at Fisher-Price this morning.  That should be interesting.  Poppy has been saying that she would like to get something for Sam for Christmas so she is coming with us to the photo shoot and then I told her we can go to the toy store afterwards and she can pick out a toy for him.  She is beyond excited to pick out his toy (which she totally knows he will be too little to play with and that she'll have to play with it for the next couple of years...)

Hallelujah!

Guess who slept through the night last night?!  Yep, this little cutie pie.  It's a miracle!  And after getting 9+ straight, uninterrupted hours of sleep for the first time in over four months, I feel like a new woman today!!!  (And Sam seems to be in a pretty good mood too!)  So we started doing "sleep training" last week, and as hard as it was, it was also the best thing we could have done.  We learned the hard way with Poppy that the older they are when you start, the harder it is to do, so I always knew we were going to start young with this little stinker.  We started with just having him learn to put himself to sleep at night and the first few nights were rough (for everyone involved), but do-able.  Then a few days later we moved on to having him put himself to sleep for his naps and now after a week, I can put him in his crib while he is awake and he falls asleep without a peep.  How awesome is that?  And he has been waking up once a night for nursing, but last night he just slept through it!!!  I'm trying not to get too excited because who knows what will happen tonight, but at least I know we are on our way to full nights of sleep!  Yay Sam!!!!

We've also been celebrating a few birthdays (my dad's and Courtney's) and Marc and I had our first night out sans kiddos!  Exciting stuff!

We also met up with some friends for a "literary playdate" which involved a craft, storytime and then Corduroy made an appearance!  Poppy was pretty scared of him, so I didn't get any pictures.  While Poppy and Claire were playing, Sam and Oliver had time to hang out too.  How cute are they together?

We're still here.  Time is just flying by lately.  I don't even know what we've been up to!  I haven't uploaded pics since Halloween, and there was barely anything on the camera.  I'm gonna work on taking more pics lately though because my two little monkeys are growing up waaaaaay too fast.

Here are a few pics of Poppy showing Sammy the ropes about her rats.  Just take a look at how many rats she has.  (and the 5 "back-up" ratty's we have aren't even included in this pic)

She was being serious when she taught him how to gently pet ratty, and to not spit up on him, or put his tail in your mouth.  Sam took the lesson very seriously.

So let's just talk about how big he is getting all of a sudden.  First it was the exersaucer and then a few days later I put up the jumperoo.  He loves this thing.  He loves anything that lets him push with his legs.  His absolute favorite thing is for me to hold him up by his hands so that he can pretend he's standing.  He gets the biggest smile on his face and I think he thinks he's really standing.  (I'll have to get a pic of that soon)

And this is from a few weeks ago when I was at book club and Marc had Poppy help him give Sam his bottle.  She was so proud of herself that she was feeding her baby brother.

As of the other day, he no longer uses these little bottles, he graduated to the big boy size!  (which means a ton more work for me in the pumping dept.)  And last week, one day all of his 0-3 month clothes fit him.  The next day they didn't!  It was crazy!  It literally seemed like he doubled in weight overnight!

Whenever I get the chance, I've been making little batches of baby food that I store in the freezer.  Poppy decided to help me make kale cubes the other day.  It's amazing how quickly her "helping" went from meaning that the kitchen would be a bigger mess, to now she actually really helps.  She scooped all of the baby food into the ice cube trays while I did dishes!



Do you see what I mean about them getting so big all of a sudden?

Happy Halloween!

Poppy wasn't really that into pumpkin carving this year, but Marc still was!

On Saturday we had some friends over and we all walked down to Elmwood, where all of the neighborhood shops were having trick-or-treating.  It was a fun afternoon spent with friends and it was so nice to be able to dress up in everyone's costume during the day.

Then on Halloween we went to Scott and Jessica's to see all of the cousins in their costume.  And this is where Sam finally made his debut as one of Snow White's dwarfs.

And the Louie the Lorax was spotted "speaking for the trees".

Trick-or-treating was a huge hit this year, even though it was so cold that we only made it to a handful of houses.  After each house, Poppy would proudly exclaim that when she gets home she is going to eat up all of her candy!

As soon as we walked in the door, she dumped her loot and lined it all up like this.  I remember doing the same thing when I was little, getting ready for the big candy trade with my brothers.

Luckily we were able to talk her out of eating everything that night, and now the rest of her candy is working well as bribes to get her to continue to nap each day!