Update, Long Overdue

No Christmas post. No New Years post. No pregnancy picture posts for months 4, 5 or 6. No post even marking the end of the second trimester, and the beginning of the third.

And it's beginning to get real that we are going to soon have another baby. That we'll soon be up all night again. That we'll have to learn how to split our attention between Benjamin and his sister. That we'll have to help Benjamin learn how to adjust to not being the center of our universe all the time.

We meant to toilet train him before the baby came. We meant to wean him from his beloved Biddy (pacifier) too. We meant to get a few more projects done around the house. And buy a minivan. I meant to write blog posts capturing my thoughts about this pregnancy and my thoughts towards this little girl growing in my belly, so that she, too, would have some record of her earliest days.

But here we are: 2 1/2 months before baby #2 (already named, but unless are our family or you can directly ask Ben who will gladly tell you her first and middle name, you'll have to wait for her birth day to find out) is scheduled to arrive, and we have done none of the above. And that's okay. But instead of waiting for the perfect blogging time to arrive, I've at least written down a few thoughts that are in my head today. And I'll post some pictures below.

The things we have accomplished:

• Bought a new reclining/rocking chair. We had a huge overstuffed one that we bought about a month after Ben was born that was damaged in the flood. I really wanted to replace it before potentially spending every waking (and sleeping) hour holding a baby again. Particularly if this one is like her brother, with a "button" on her back that goes off whenever / wherever you try to put her down.
• Bought a new TV. I realize that this shouldn't necessarily be on the "to do" list for having a baby, but in order to make room for the recliner in our living room, we had to move some things around, and part of the plan was to get a flat screen to hang on the wall so we could gain more floor space. And Mark found a great deal, so we went for it. It's a cool TV --- replacing my little one from high school! We've watched a few movies and Good Eats videos on it so far (Not much TV yet, except football, as we don't have cable, my old favorite TV shows are usually on before Ben goes to bed, and I actually haven't really figured out how to use the TV since we got the cable converter box when we moved back in last year), but mostly I get to appreciate the Wild Animal Baby DVD on it in the afternoons. :) Mark has plans to build a Home PCTV (is that what it's called?), and replace our current 5 remote controls with a single one. But all that will likely happen after baby is born.
• Began the transition to Ben's big boy room. Mark bought him a twin mattress last week, which we put on the floor (after removing the guest bed, which awaits having a murphy bed frame built for it in our percussion studio), and my mom bought him a very cute quilt set to go on it. Pictures of that to come. Then during the evenings this week, we moved around the furniture in and out of his new room. Today we cleared out everything from the closet, and I've just begun putting his things into this room. He took his first nap in his big boy bed this afternoon (slept over 2 hours, so I think it works :) ), and tonight he'll probably sleep in it for the first time. We'd been encouraging him to sleep in it all week --- usually starting out snuggling in it, but then he'd eventually ask to move to his "baby bed." In order to move everything out of his new room, we ended up piling it in his old room, and actually put the mattress on its end. If he really wants to sleep in his baby bed tonight, I'll probably pull the mattress out for him, but I'm hoping he's ready to make the move.

Wild Animal baby is now approaching its end, so I better wrap up this post, or I'll be hounded to watch blue elephants dancing on the internet, but first here are a few pictures:

Benjamin's Advent Stickers: I put up the first few days of stickers in a column, low on the wall. Apparently, I had set a precedent by doing so, so every following day of stickers had to go up on the wall, higher and higher in a column (until we added a second column). Ben would tell me to put them "way up there!" You can also see our new chair in this picture. Many hours of rocking in it, to come!



Ben was in our church's Christmas pageant. He was a sheep. Adorable. He enjoyed being in the pageant and practicing the songs for it. I have a really cute video of him sitting on stage waving to us during the actual "show". Maybe one of these days I'll post it. But let's be realistic. I probably won't.



One morning Ben found the sesame street underwear we bought to have on-hand for when he was ready for toilet training. He really wanted to put them on, so we did. I thought "this is it! We're going to toilet train, now!". Not so much. Back in diapers by lunch time. :)

I think the picture below will be perfect for posting in the baby picture section in his high school senior year book. :)



Here he is on the phone with Grandma Susan, telling her all about his underwear:



Doesn't he look so grown-up in this picture? He's wearing his elephant hat, a Christmas present from Gramma and Granddaddy, which he just opened up. He's telling us what elephant's say, which includes the gesture he is making in this picture.



Trying out his blue elephant stool from Aunt Sarah.



6 month pregnancy profile pictures. Only one more week before I need to take (and post?) the seven month pictures!







And yes, I cheated, I put in the Potty Song video for Ben so that I could finish this post! :)