Last night Will pointed out to Nick, "We don't have a fireplace."  Nick didn't realize the purpose of the comment, he said, "No, we have a furnace."

I said, "He wants to know where Santa Claus is going to come in."  Realizing the reason for the comment, Nick said, "Oh, he is going to come in the furnace.  He can do that.  He does it all over."

Will thinks for a minute, then he says, "Yes, that's a good idea!"

It is so fun!  His favorite show right now is "Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas."  He wants to watch it all the time.

Today was our annual trip to the mall to visit St. Nick for St. Nick's day.  We'd been priming Will this year.  He really "gets" Christmas this year.  I told him today we were going to see Santa Claus.  I asked him if he was going to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  He said, "yeah."  I asked him what.  He said, trains, the Polar Express train.  He loves that movie!

So we get to the mall about 5:50 and he was the first in line to greet Santa...Santa was on break until 6.  Shortly after we arrived, several other kids started lining up.  Santa came out a little before 6, and Will got sooo excited.  He said, "Mommy look, it's SANTA!" He started running around in a circle like an excited puppy dog.  Santa opened the gate to come see him and Will hurried right in.  As soon as Santa sat down in his chair, Will practically leaped into his lap. It was the cutest thing.  I wish I had been videoing the experience.  I'm sure Santa was glad he was so eager to see him, since not all toddlers are so thrilled.  Santa asked him what he wanted, and he said Polar Express. Santa told him he was a fine little boy.  We got baby Sam on his lap and they took a picture together.  Sam was fascinated by Santa.  He kept looking up at him.  He wasn't scared, he and Santa just hung out for awhile and they captured a sweet picture of Sam and Santa looking at each other.  Santa was pretty happy chillin' with Sam, he said he could just take him home to Mrs. Claus!  Sam, of course, had to christen Santa with some spit up!  He said he's used to it!

All in all, we had a good visit with Santa.  The fourth successful one!

Sam started smiling about 3 months ago...today he had his first laugh!  I was walking my fingers up his chest doing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and he just started laughing when I got just under his chin!

He must be just as ticklish as his big brother!!

He's progressing right along.  He's been rolling over, holding his bottle, starting to lunge to sit up, and eating cereal...all in the last couple weeks!

I'll post the boys' pictures they had taken at KinderCare.  They're just too cute!

A special message for my 1/2 birthday!

As we were leaving Grandma and Grandpa Ottiger's, Will piped up from the back seat and said, "MOMMY!"  Then right after out of the blue, he said, "Mommy, I love you."  I was so moved.  He can say the sweetest things.  I told him, "I love you, too."

A week ago, he said to me while I was dropping him off for school..."Have a good day at work, Mommy."  It was so sweet.  It was the first time he said that to me, and I did have a good day at work!

It's so wonderful that he can say these sweet things out of the blue and unprompted now.  It really just makes my day!

My biggest concern while pregnant with Sam was how Will would react to the breast-feeding.  I guess at his age, the thoughts of women's bodies being different doesn't concern him yet.

The following are just a few observations of his own that I wanted to document.

One day, Will told me I needed to feed Sam from my "bellybutton!"

Another day, Will told me he was going to feed baby Sam.  He was in the other room, and I knew there were no bottles or anything in there, so I peeked my head around the corner.  He was sitting in the big chair with Sam.  His back was turned to me and he had pulled up his shirt and had Sam pressed against his chest!  It didn't take long before he yelled back, "Mommy, I can't do it, you have to do it."  This coming from my frustrated independent toddler!

The final memory was from a lunch we shared togther one day.  He was eating his favorite, Spaghetti, and I asked him if Baby Sam could eat spaghetti.  He said quickly, "No Mommy, he can only eat you.

How observant he can be!  He does enjoy when he gets to feed Sam with the bottle.  He also loves helping get him undressed for baths, and trying to help give him baths.  He helps get new diapers and wipes and likes to throw away the dirty diapers.  He also says, "I love Sam."  He really enjoys his baby brother and is a good big brother.

Almost since my last posting, Sam has been sleeping throug the night.  It's those late nights I'm no longer up waiting for him to eat again, that I haven't been journaling!  I've been trying to catch up on a lot of missed sleep!  I might be filling in some things that are worth discussing that have been missed up to this point, but as of these last three postings today, the last posting was September 7!  Over 1 month!  A lot happens in a month and a half.

Sam's really been a great baby.  He's sound asleep right now and has been on a consistent schedule in the evenings the last few weeks.  It never seems like it is going to happen, but it does.

Sweet dreams, Baby Sam, and mommy, too!!