Little Christmas Package...

Since we will be out of town for Thanksgiving this year, Jeff and I decided we would decorate our house for Christmas before we left. So yesterday, while Sophia was taking a nap, we pulled out all of our Christmas decorations and began putting them up. We decorated the living room, dining room, kitchen and down stairs bathroom. It looks and feels so Christmassy now! We knew Sophia would probably love the decorations, but we didn't anticipate how much she would react to them once she woke up. We both heard her up and about in her room, so Jeff went up to get her and bring her downstairs. As she walked down the stairs her eyes lit up with excitement. She began pointing to all of the decorations including a big stuffed snowman on the stairs and was saying, "man, man." She also loves this big ceramic Santa sitting in a chair that we put right next to the fireplace. She went over and sat on his lap and kissed the top of his head. You would have thought it was Christmas morning to her. It just warmed both of our hearts to see her so entranced and excited about all of the fun decorations we have collected over our 7 1/2 years of being married, and now she gets to enjoy them! We still had a few bins of Christmas decorations to put up. One of which contained some self adhesive Christmas labels for presents. Sophia was immediately drawn to these and pulled the whole sheet out (thinking they were stickers), and wanted us to put one on her hand. Well one thing led to another and before you knew it, she was covered from head to toe in Christmas present tags. She thought she was so hilarious and when Jeff and I would laugh at her, she would cover her mouth and laugh too! She just lights up our lives and we are so in love with our little girl!!!

After Jeff put one label on her tummy, she said "mo, mo" (more)

Sophia picking out the labels she wants to wear

Cracking herself up!

All decked out sitting on Santa's lap

Mums the word...

So after much debate, Jeff and I have finally agreed on a name for our little girl. However, we still don't have a middle name picked out, well so I thought.? The other day we were talking with my family about having a name, but wanting to keep it a surprise until the baby arrives and I said we still didn't have a middle name. Well, that's when Jeff told me he had picked out a middle name that he thought was cute. So I asked him what it was and he told me it was a surprise and that he would tell me once the baby arrives. You can probably guess my reaction, lol. At first I was like, "what the heck, man!? I'm the one carrying the baby, I should have the right to know!" But after a while I thought, "actually it's kind of cool and gives me a little something special to look forward to after I have her." I just hope I like it, lol. But I trust his taste, after all he likes to decorate, shop and take bubble baths. He's a man after my own heart:) I just can't wait to hear the middle name he picked out!!!

New Bedtime Routine...

Every since we transferred Sophia to her "Big" girl bed, we have been rocking her until she is completely asleep and then laying her down. We were doing this because we were afraid that if she was awake when we put her to bed she would try to climb out. Well, after a few weeks, Sophia's night time routine started to get quite lengthy and become quite the tiring process. As I have come farther along in my pregnancy and my tummy has gotten bigger, it has been increasingly harder to rock Sophia or for her to get comfortable in the rocking chair. Because of this, she would fidget and squirm around, thus kneeing and elbowing my stomach which was very painful. And because it took her longer to get comfortable, it took longer to rock her to get her to fall completely asleep, thus resulting in a 45 minute night time routine. This was beginning to wear me out and by the time I would finally get her to sleep I was ready for bed! Sophia was also waking up every few nights in the middle of the night and wouldn't go back to sleep, so I was moving her over to the spare bedroom and sleeping the rest of the night in there with her. I was beginning to miss the comfort of my own bed, and a good nights rest! Well, Jeff and I talked and decided it was time to start putting her to bed completely awake and letting her sooth herself to sleep. We made this decision based on her age and due to our second little girl that will be needing much of our attention come February. We want Sophia to feel safe sleeping in her bed all by herself and feel comfortable going to bed on her own, so that if the baby needs us at the same time, it wont be a struggle. I had a feeling this wasn't going to be a fun process and was probably going to be harder on me than on Sophia. Well, I finally decided the sooner the better. So when Monday rolled around, come nighttime, I was going to sing two songs to her, give her a kiss and lay her in her bed. After doing this, I left the door open so that I could see if she sat up in bed or tried to climb out. Of course she cried and she sounded so sad! After about 20 times of telling her to lay back down and that I loved her and she was a big girl and needed to sleep in her own bed, she finally pooped herself out and slept through the night until 8am the next morning. Tuesday night was even harder, when she cried and through out whimpering would sadly say "mooommmmy". It tore me up inside to hear her call for me and I had to keep reminding myself it would be better for both her and I, to sleep in our own beds and get a good nights rest. She is getting so smart these days and tried using many methods of stalling, such as needing to go potty, needing a tissue for her nose, and wanting me to kiss her head. It took every ounce of strength to not give in and pick her up and rock her!!! When Wednesday rolled around, I layed Sophia down, she cried for about 15 minutes and fell asleep. Thursday was much the same and Friday was even easier and it took Sophia about 5 minutes of quiet whimpering before she yawned, rolled over and fell asleep. Tonight, I couldn't believe it! I sang her two songs, layed her down and not a peep!!! She closed her eyes, snuggled her bear and blanky and went to sleep all on her own without any crying at all! I am hoping this painful process has finally come to an end, and she is comfortable falling asleep on her own in her own bed. Though I do miss rocking her, I know in the long run, this is a good change and will all be for the best.

Trick or Treat...

This Halloween marked Sophia's second year of trick-or treating! We went over to Jeff's parents house in Sunnyside to take Sophia trick-or treating in their big neighborhood. We started off the evening with some yummy Jack-o-Lantern pizzas and then bundled her up and took her out to get some treats. The first few houses we went to, Sophia was a little hesitant, and not quite sure of what to do. After about 10 houses or so, she became quite the old pro and would go up to the house, knock on the door, and when they opened it up, she would pick out a candy, put it in her bag and then say thank you and finish off with a wave good bye. Her favorite house had to be the one where the family had dressed up as the muppet characters. She just stopped, stared, and smiled and kept on waving to them. It was a nice change of scenery to see some people dress up friendly and cute instead of scary. A big bonus was the weather! In the morning it had started off drizzling, so I was a little worried, but by the evening, it was a clear, dry, and fairly warm October night. Sophia was such a big girl and ended up walking (and running from house to house), the entire time! It was fun to see her facial expression when she would try to figure out who the people were in their different costumes. We were hoping all the fresh air would tire her out, but by the time we were finished trick-or-treating and got back to Jeff's parents house, Sophia was only more excited to see all the treats she had collected! We visited for a while longer, put Sophia in her pj's and headed for home to unwind from a busy night. Sophia seemed to have so much fun and was quite the little trooper with all the hustle bustle and activity going on. I know we are a little biased, but we thought we had the cutest little candy corn witch around! It turned out to be such a wonderful Halloween!

Before Trick-or-Treating at Grandma and Grandpas

Cutest Candy Corn Witch Ever!

Our little family all dressed up!

Sophia wasn't sure what to think about this scary guy!?