Day 5 - Clue

(This year the blog is about keeping the grandparents happy more than the actual photography so prepare for lots o' kid posts)

Since Thanksgiving we have worked with Sam on a couple big things at our house: using utensils, going potty and getting rid of the binky before Baby Sister makes her appearance.  I am proud to say that he has managed to do all three things with relative ease. 

The binky was the most daunting so I chose to do it the first week of Christmas vacation.  Uncle Kent and his girlfriend Erika came to visit so when they left we just told him that Kent took the binkies back to Utah.  While not thrilled about this, he had so much fun with Kent and Erika that he accepted the idea.  Every once in awhile he still asks for one but we just say, "Sorry, it went home with Kent." and he goes on with his business.  This could make our next trip to Utah interesting since Sam has an excellent memory.  He'll probably ask Kent for his binky.

We also eased the transition by giving him a new friend to take to bed.  Blue from Blue's Clues.  In our house she (yup, watch the show, Blue is a girl) is referred to as "Clue".  Every time we went to Barnes and Noble this fall Sam would hunt down Clue and carry her around.  The last day that Kent and Erika were here we went to B&N and of course Sam found Clue.  Knowing the plan for the binky, I bought her on the sly when Sam wasn't watching.  He was very disappointed when he couldn't find her so he was SUPER excited that night when I brought her out at bedtime.  Now Sam and Clue are inseparable. 

Last night Sam decided he wanted to sleep with Clue and his Lightning McQueen Easter basket (?????)  so imagine his excitement when I showed him that Clue could drive Lightning.  Needless to say, Clue has been cruising the house in her race car all day.

I sure love age three.

Day 4 - Mario

We have some serious Mario love going on in our house right now.  Sam want play Mario constantly, especially with Ben.  I'm no good so he usually ends up taking the controller away from me.  We've had to limit the times that he can play.  No Mario unless Daddy is home.  When he is home they usually play between Daddy catching up on ESPN and dinner.  

Here are a few of my favorite phrases that I often hear Sam say while they are playing.

"Go up Daddy!"

"Take that dudes!"

"Take that chumps"

"Yea!  We did it!"

"Good job Daddy!"

"Ahhhh! So close"

"Letsa go!"

Day 3 - Besties

Sam has a BFF.  

His name is Logan.  

They are the cutest little friends.  

Since his mom and I are friends we often have little McDonald's lunch dates.  For awhile when we would drive past McDonald's Sam would say, "Nuggets, fries, play with Logan!"

Logan came to play this afternoon.  We had been talking about it for a couple of days.  When I picked Sam up and drove towards our house instead of Logan's he had a major meltdown.  Once I convinced him that the school bus was dropping Logan off at our house all was well.  The bus driver said that the whole way to our house Logan was talking about going to Sam's house to play. They played cars, made me lunch in Sam's kitchen, had snacks and played Legos.  I think they played with every single toy in my house.  I'm so Sam has such a cute (and nice) little friend to play with.  

Day 2 - Baking

As you can see, Baby Girl isn't the only thing that is baking around here.  

First of all, seriously?  Could my stomach poke out anymore?  Ben came home today and my shirt wasn't covering my stomach.  My MATERNITY shirt.  And I still have 87 days to go.  I'm going to be employing my other prego friend Keri's plan of a mumu and Uggz before I know it.  Seriously.  So ridiculous.

The good news is that while I'm carrying the same way I did with Sam, straight out and high, this pregnancy could has been the complete opposite of my pregnancy with Sam.  Blood pressure is great.  No swelling.  Minimal heartburn.  I feel fabulous.  I keep telling Ben that my body must prefer Baby Girls. And then I look at Sam and know that this cannot possibly be true.

In other baking news, all I want to do it cook. And eat.  And cook some more. 

Tonight's dinner:

Smokey Bean Soup with Ham

and 

Homemade Ciabattas.

Both winners.

Day 1 - We're back

Ok.  So last year I made it something like 252 days.  Not bad.  I felt a little bummed that I didn't get all 365 but it's a new year and we are going to try again.  Mostly because I've had a bunch of people ask when I was starting again.

Plus this will be a good way to record the transition of having a new baby in our house.  We've been talking to Sam about Baby Sister a LOT so he won't be completely shocked when we bring her home.

To start off the year I'm going to post a video.  We are going to be a little more flexible and use a combination of media this year.  Here is a little  conversation we have at least once a day.  In case you can't tell, he is totally teasing me with some of his answers.  He thinks it is HILARIOUS!

Don't mind my messy house it was New Years Day.  Also, I can't talk.  I'm pregnant.  Leave me alone.

To clarify for those of you who don't know, we are naming her Dannelly (my maiden name) but I'm not huge on Danny for a girl so we are preemptively nicknaming her Elly.  We'll see what we actually call her when she gets here.

And that Diet Coke Sam drank at the end . . . from the night before.  So gross.  How has his mother not cleaned off the side table?