Big girl bed - part 2 AND baby #2 update!

Success!! (Well, for the most part :o))

The first night was a success for Taylor in her new bed. She slept through the night and didn't get up until Ryan and I woke her up the next morning! I was so curious to know where/how she slept through the night. This morning we found her snuggled next to the pillows by the wall - it didn't seem that she left the mattress all night, and asked to be picked up when we went in to get her.

The first nap time was a bit of a different story. She was up making noise in her room for a good hour after I put her down (including a few knocks on the door.."mama, mama"), but she never cried, and when she was finally quiet for a while I just HAD to take a peek. These are pictures I tried to take silently with my phone.

Can you spot the little girl with the pink shirt half covered with a white blanket in this picture? And the empty bed in the corner? :) But she slept for an hour - so at least she napped a little bit! (BTW - the room was completely clean when she went down for her nap. As you can see she managed to make QUITE the mess in a short period of time. :))

Night #2 and nap #2 went without any problem (and she slept on her bed), and tonight she went down without a single tear! So far the transition has been easier than I expected! Yay, Taylor!

And baby #2 and I had an appointment yesterday morning to see how everything is going at 23 weeks. Thankfully everything still looks great! I am measuring right on track, and amongst all the kicking that was going on, we could hear a strong heart beat at about 154 bpm. :o)
Belly pic from a week ago at 22 weeks - and little girl is growing lots right now, so the belly is definitely more pronounced each week!

 

There is lots of movement, especially in the morning and evening when I finally sit for a longer period of time, and some of those kicks/punches can be seen from the outside now. We are talking baby names and keeping our options pretty open as we discuss likes and dislikes - we still have about 17 weeks to figure it out! My students are also a bit more talkative about my changing appearance - one student is convinced the baby is ready to come out now - ha! Morning runs have turned into jogs that are broken up by walking breaks every 20 minutes or so, but we're still shuffling along!  :o) Next up is the lovely glucose tolerance test, and another appointment in four weeks. Time is flying!!

Big Girl Bed - Part 1

Taylor is currently sleeping quietly in her bedroom, and is not in her crib!!! We thought my long Christmas break would be a good time to make the transition out of the crib before baby #2 arrives, and see if she might be ready to sleep on a regular bed. As this weekend approached, I started feeling a little sad that she is grown up enough for this big transition already. In my heart, I want for her to grow, learn, and experience new things, but a little part of the mommy in me wants to hold onto these little girl days a tad longer. :)


Taylor will eventually be sharing a room with her little sister, so the room wasn't a complete transformation (the crib is still set up in there), but we did a little moving around, and brought in the mattress for her to start sleeping on. We decided to just do the mattress on the floor for a bit, as she gets used to sleeping without the crib rails surrounding her on every side of the bed. We also do not have her complete bedding set yet, still looking for the perfect cover for her down comforter, but here are some pictures from this afternoon, and also right before bedtime.

Checking out the new bed - she was pretty excited!

Carefully laying out her blankie, as she likes to do, and then snuggling on top of it...

Right after we got home from small group, we went into her room (still with coats on :)), and she wanted to read a book on her bed...

There were two short bouts of crying (not more than a minute or two), and it has been quiet ever since. Here's hoping that she has a wonderful, full night of sleep!! (And this is one of these moments where I wish we had a video baby monitor - I would LOVE to know what position/where she ended up falling asleep... :))

**This post will be in two parts, with an update to follow on how tonight goes!**

Christmas cookies 2011

It doesn't really seem like Christmas until we get around to baking our holiday cookies each year! It is as much about the yummy cookies as it is about the memories that are created in the process. :o) And this year, Taylor (who was feeling under the weather with an ear infection last year), was much more interested and able to be a part of the cookie baking!  (BTW - mem and I agreed that next year we need to get some matching aprons for Taylor, her, and myself for our cooking and baking activities - also for baby girl #2, even though she probably won't be quite old enough to help out much next year :o)).

Our big project is the butter cookies - it is a multi-step process, and makes a LOT of cookies, so we always tackle those first. Taylor liked watching the process of rolling out the dough, and helped cut out a few herself.

And you have to have a little milk with cookies, right?? (BTW - she had NO interest in trying out the dough, but enjoyed tasting the final product :))

Hanging out with daddy while we continued working

Very intrigued by the tree with different ornaments - the snoopy ornament was her favorite - we will have to get her one for our tree next year!

Checking out the final stage - icing and sprinkles 

It was a fun day to continue a fun tradition - and next year there will be another little girl in the kitchen!!

Two left hands

I wanted to post this picture for two reasons. First - I love the crafts that Taylor brings home from daycare, especially when it includes hand and footprints! Although, her little foot is not that big, it was traced around the outside of her shoe. :) Second - this particular craft had to be done a little differently the day they completed it, because if you look closely, the antlers were made using only her left hand, and it is a little reminder of one of her recent toddler accidents/injuries. 

Most of the other kids used both hands, with the thumb sticking out each side so it would look more like antlers, but this was done on the day that Taylor's right hand was out of commission. The night before, she thought it would be a good idea to grab the pretty bright light bulb on the little lamp next to the couch. The end result was a sore, blistered little right hand and a sad little girl. Luckily the blisters never broke open, and after a little TLC, it is now all better. Lesson learned - the hard way - and now she points to any light and says, "hot!" (even the little Christmas strand lights on the tree - but it is better to be safe than sorry :)).

Just need one good picture...

It seems so simple, right? We get out the camera, turn on the Christmas lights, and tell Taylor to smile in front of the tree - should be easy, we need just one good one to use for our Christmas card. *Sigh* All I have to say is that I don't know what parents did to capture pictures of toddlers before digital cameras! We got a couple of good ones, and along the way, a few that simply made us smile because they captured the essence of Taylor's true personality right now....
Observe...

"Taylor, smile for mama!"

 Nope... no smile...


"Taylor, hug frosty and smile!"

And we got more of a silly pose instead :o)


"Taylor - big smile, show us your scrunchy nose!"

Yep - she is good at that one... :)


"Taylor - just one more - just smile one more time and we will be done"

Yeah - she was done at that point... :o)


Picture taking done - "I just want to play, mama!"

 

"Oohh...pretty ornaments" (Notice that there are hardly any ornaments left towards the bottom of the tree - she will pull off an ornament, show it to us, and then we will hang it in a higher spot :))

Run, run, run!

Love this silly girl...

Thanksgiving week recap and Christmas tree pics

Last week was quite the busy week, but it ended with a five day weekend, which is always a nice thing!

Taylor was diagnosed with croup last Sunday, and didn't get over her fevers that would come and go, until Wednesday, so she didn't go to daycare at all before the holiday break. Sickness = no appetite, but we would find random things, like red peppers or blackberries, that she would be interested in munching on every once and a while...such a tired looking little girl...

Monday morning she stayed with dada while he was able to work from home, and had lots of down time that included a number of her favorite episodes of Little Einsteins (this was a picture Ryan sent me to show his "office" for that morning)....Taylor LOVES Little Einsteins!

Taylor was feeling better mid-week and helped me with some preparations for Thanksgiving treats for Thursday. I would unwrap the Hershey kisses, and she would place one on the center of each pretzel, never even attempting to try one! Such a good little helper :)

We did a noon meal with Ryan's whole family, then headed down to BC for another meal later that day. Bring on the turkey!!  I think this is the most people we have had at my family's Thanksgiving in many years!

Friday, Taylor got her first Christmas present from grandma and grandpa Slagh - a little early - a lights and sounds Nativity scene...so much fun!

Thanksgiving weekend also means putting up the Christmas tree!! It was beautiful, warm weather, and we found the perfect tree for our little house. :o)

The only challenge left was to get a picture of Taylor by the tree...she was a little less easy to capture this year :o)

Back to work tomorrow (only a four day week for me - no school today!), and I will miss spending mornings with this little one, but it was a great long weekend!