Counting Down at the Beach House

Yesterday morning, Big Brother's first words to greet me were, "Mama, can I ask you something?"  He proceeded to ask me if it was Thanksgiving yet and I told him it was Thanksgiving week and we were scheduled to have a fun play date to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends.  After contemplating this, he held up his little hand and clarified while counting on his fingers, 'so this is Halloween (on his pinky finger), this is Thanksgiving (ring finger), this is Christmas (middle finger) and THIS is Grandma Ridder's in NJ (pointer finger)?'  It was so completely adorable.  Apparently we've entered into the 'count down' phase of life with Big Brother.  He is very much looking forward to Thanksgiving in MN spent with his Manders' cousins and family, Christmas - not so much because of Santa, gifts, or any of that, but because he can't wait to be with our family and see his Grandparents and aunts and uncles that live far away (especially Grandpa Dave!) and I'm pretty sure he's pumped about NJ because he'll get to see all of his "Grandma's house" toys again and he's very curious about NJ house.  I only hope we can continue to develop the importance of being with family on the holidays versus the crazy materialism of certain events.  It will be fun to count down in special ways with him to our big celebrations and fun adventures.

Another 'new normal' occurring in our home has to do with 'sound'.  This past weekend, we moved Little Brother into his bedroom to sleep at night.  Up until then, he had been sleeping in a baby chair that kept him a little more upright to help with his spitty nature.  I was beginning to sense that Big Brother was waking up Little Brother too often during the day (since we were allowing Little B to sleep wherever as long as he was near us) and I was starting to feel the need to put him down for naps in a quieter place.  So, Ross and I looked at each other last weekend and decided it was time to try him in his room for naps and overnight.  Our 10.5 week old guy was a champ!  He fussed for his usual 2 or 3 minutes and fell right asleep, sleeping normally, getting up to nurse as usual and going right back to sleep.  So, Saturday, we took a family trip to Target and purchased (with gift cards - yay!) a Spa Sound Machine for his room.  The new normal sounds you now can hear in the middle of the night sound like a rain storm (Little B's room) at the ocean (Big B's room).  It's quite peaceful, calming and funny.  I kind of like our MN beach house! :)