Officially a Big Boy

It's official! Ben's a big boy who sleeps in a bed now. Now that all of his toys and things are in his new room, he doesn't want anything to do with the nursery or his crib anymore. So, he is currently fast asleep for the second night in his big boy bed in his new room and also took his nap there today. He opted to play in the bed during my first attempt at naptime yesterday and escaped his room once (I found him at the top of the stairs calling for me!) but his nap today and both last night and tonight have gone very smoothly. He talks to himself for a little while when we first put him to bed but has not left the bed (or his room) again and eventually falls asleep. Hopefully it will keep up; it seems like the process happened too easily to actually be true - ha ha!

Here are a few photos of the big boy fast asleep in his new bed. Of course he wants nothing to do with the quilt so he throws it off the bed and we have to place it back on top of him after he falls asleep. I think he sees his bed as a giant crib since it has guard rails on either side!

What a sweet, peaceful little guy, all tired out from a hard day's play! Here he is curled in a ball with his blankies prior to us covering him up with his quilt:

All warm and toasty under his quilt:

Benjamin's Big Boy Room

Given that our move continues to be on hold, we decided to go ahead and set up a new bedroom for Ben at our current house. At this point we will not be moving until after the new baby arrives anyway and we figured that it would be better for Ben to get used to seeing his big boy room now instead of springing a new house, new sibling and new room on him when we do move. So, we decided to set up what we could of his new room. It's the no-frills version at this point since we are not painting it the color we eventually want to use and will not hang many pictures or curtains. But, for now it looks very cute and he seems excited about it. He even helped us to carry all of his toys to his "new big boy room" this morning. We have not forced the bed yet, as he still sleeps in his crib, but we'll see if he shows interest and then gradually work towards that.

So, ta-da! Here's Benjamin's new room, decorated in a (what else?) cars and trucks theme.

Starting with his his newly decorated door...

We had to bring his frog chair to the new room even though it really matches the nursery. He loves to sit on it and look through his books and was not even interested in it until he was about a year old, so we figure the new baby won't miss it for now. By the time he's ready for it, Ben will have hopefully lost interest. So, I set up a little reading corner for Ben near his windows. He loves to sit in his chair, look through his books and keep an eye on any happenings in the neighborhood out of his windows!

Lots of room for all of his decorative items and books that have to stay up high.


He has a new bookshelf for all of his toys and board books that he cannot rip if left unsupervised with them! Plus his very own road carpet that Nana and Pop got him for Christmas.

Here's Andrew reading Ben some books in his new room before bed tonight. Of course we took him back across the hall to sleep in his crib after this instead of trying out the new bed, but we figure that we'll take it one step at a time and are just glad that the new room went over so well today.

Caroline's Second Birthday Party

This morning we took Ben to a barnyard-themed 2nd birthday party for his friend Caroline who is in his play group. It was held at Chick-fil-a and all of the kids seemed to have a blast playing in the play area and then eating chicken nuggets, waffle fries and cupcakes.

Here's Ben playing on the treehouse inside the indoor play area. He's laughing because Andrew is inside of it trying to make him giggle by peering through the windows!

Here's Ben and Andrew inside the treehouse now, peeking out at me!

Birthday gal Caroline looked so pretty for her big day!

Here, Caroline enjoys her cupcake with the cow mascot that kept walking around to say hello to all of the kids. Of course Caroline seemed to be the only one in the group who was not really afraid of him. Ben did fine with the big cow when he was at a distance but like the Santa Clause scenario last month, he freaked out when the cow tried to take a photo with him!

Yum, Ben chomps down on his cupcake, always his favorite part of any birthday party!

Pregnancy and House Update

I know that I have not updated in a few weeks so I apologize. So, I decided to do one quick picture post (below) and to give an update on the pregnancy and the situation with our pending move.

As far as the pregnancy, we are in the final stretch! I'm now in my 31st week and cannot believe that it is mid-January already. We're hoping that since I had Ben over a week early that the same will be true for this baby but we will have to wait and see. I'm due March 24th. I am feeling well, relatively speaking for someone in her third trimester, and am trying to stay as active as possible without overdoing it. The baby is still moving a lot and I have had horrendous heartburn (again) so we foresee another blue bundle of energy with lots and lots of hair in our future!

Same as last time, I have developed gestational diabetes again so I am being very vigilant about watching my diet and fitting in daily exercise to my routine. My blood sugar level when I went for the 1-hour glucose test was so high that they told me to not even bother coming in for the 3-hour glucose tolerance test and to just start monitoring my blood levels and following the diabetic regime, espeically since I have a history. I am being monitored to see if I will need to go on insulin or not. Last time I was able to avoid it but this time my levels are worse and I have seen a lot of fluctuation in my monitoring, which has me feeling lethargic and run-down at times,as if I have no energy at all. So, please pray that this will stay under control and that I will not need to start insulin injections.

Other than that, I am feeling well and the baby is measuring accurately. I'll be seeing the doctor every 2-3 weeks from now on due to the diabetes so hopefully he will be able to keep an eye on the baby to make sure he does not get too big (due to the diabetes).

As far as our pending move, we are still having some holdups on the seller's end that have not allowed the title to be cleared so we cannot proceed until these get taken care of. However, we are progressing, albeit very slowly. At this point, we will not be moving before the baby is born so we are trying to ready our current house for his arrival and plan to temporarily set up Ben's "big boy" room over the next few weeks. It's a frustrating situation to be in but it's reassuring to at least know where we will be for the next few months. We are hoping that the new house will close over the next few weeks and we can start the necessary work there, even though we will not be moving right away. We should have some answers this coming week and I will try to keep you updated when it does finally go through.

Glasses

Benjamin discovered these play sunglasses at the bottom of his toy chest and was having fun with them all afternoon!