Wednesday, January 28, 2009

It's so cold, that...


... we should really put away our snow gear since it's not getting much exercise anyways. It's just taking up space.
... we're making up beyond-the-usual silly games and things to do (hence, the picture).
... Marc and I invested in an elliptical machine since you can't even walk outside because of the ice, not the cold (and I'm trying to avoid gestational diabetes this time around).
... Ben is going on the toilet more! (this isn't a result of being indoors all the time, but I'm excited to share our progress!)
... I have a very detailed plan of how I am going to paint the rest of our house when I can open the windows again.
... I've been making some pretty incredible meals, if I do say so myself.
... we've probably ran the most miles in our house playing chase with Ben in the past month than we have outside in a year. And, the 4-year boys at church are impressed with Ben's increasing speed each week as a result.
... even though we haven't had a big snowfall in weeks, it feels as though we have. The piles are still as high as they were when we made them!
... any temperature about 10 feels balmy.
... the hard corp northerner is thinking about moving back to DC where there are warmer temps in the winter.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Time for a bit of an update, eh?


There have been several inquiries about my lack of blog involvement in these last few months, so I thought I'd rev 'er back up again and hopefully I can keep up. Frankly, I lost a bit of steam. For those who don't know by now, I'm pregnant with babe #2 and October (my last post) was in the height of my first trimester and I had very little energy to do much of anything other than keeping up with Ben. Those of you who have gone through this I'm sure are shaking your heads, "yes."

So. There you go.

We are 20 weeks this week (I'm due at the end of May) and we find out the gender next week! Ben has a little clue of what's going on, but easily forgets. We've taken him to our appointments and he can mimic the sound of the heartbeat. Every now and then he looks in my pockets for the baby and gets a wee bit impatient why he can't see it yet. I keep telling him, "in a long bit" he can see it. When we talk about time in this house, it's either "in a little/long bit." He seems to get that concept, thank goodness!

As of late, we have been surviving this very cold and snowy winter and coming up with creative things to do indoors, which makes it extremely challenging to burn off that 2.5 year old energy. I'm hoping to sign Ben up for some art classes and find an open gym for little people during the week. We see friends every now and then during the week, but not as regular as it used to be since we moved across town, which is a major bummer. Later this week, it's suppose to hit a low of -40 with wind chill, which is cold enough that I won't even get in the car. Egads.

Ben continues to be hilarious and it feels as though his brain is exploding with growth! He picks up language and songs (with the correct tune yet to boot!) faster than ever. He loves to read books and fill-in-the-blank with certain stories and poetry. We bought him an easel with loads of art supplies and he really enjoys that, along with building legos. My heart just bursts with happiness to see him so engaged in creative play. He thrives with friends who are a little older than he is, possibly because they don't pose as much of a threat for sharing than his friends that are the same age? I'm not sure. He has figured out how to play in incredibly deep snow and loves it, which is a relief since deep snow is all we have (and it's only getting deeper)! While we were at my parent's house over Christmas break, Ben was always the last one in. Well, he pretty much had to come in since he couldn't be outside by himself anyways. He continues to love dogs, trains and tractors.

One major challenge that we're facing is that he won't sleep in his bed through the night. He happily jumps into his bed when it's time and I snuggle with him until he falls asleep. About two hours later, he wakes up and we go sooth him (which takes little-to-no time at all) and then he wakes up again, this time barging into our room and sleeping the rest of the night in our bed. I know that nightmares start at this age, but does any one have any advice? We'd REALLY like to come up with a solution to this before the baby comes and don't want to go backwards with anything. Yes, we have roughly 20 weeks, but these things can take time, too. We've tried fans, tick-tock clocks, music (until the end of the cd), etc, etc. He actually slept a couple weeks straight starting in November through the night without waking up once. Hmmmm...

So anyway, that's us in a nutshell. Hopefully I can keep up with this a little better in the future.