Sloane turned 3 years old a week before Christmas. This year she completely understood the birthday thing- presents, party, and cupcakes. She and Adam baked vanilla cupcakes (so Adam) with pink cream cheese frosting (so me). Her favorite gifts were a doctor kit from my parents (she has been giving all her dolls check-ups) and a leotard from Adam’s parents (she insisted on wearing it to an indoor gym we went to one cold day). I think it is still hard to get presents all at once, and then have Christmas a week later. She has been rediscovering other presents over the past few weeks- a lady bug tea set, story cards, and a home made bag.

When I got back from my trip, Sloane was still recovery from being sick. She was a bit of a beast for a few days and I thought ‘if this a 3 year old, I’ll be back when she is 4.’ Once she fully recovered, she was back to her old kind, thoughtful, silly self with only small hits of whining and total defiance.

Right now Sloane loves to play with her lovies- dolls and stuffed animals. She rocks them, puts them down for naps with blankets, and walks them in her stroller. Books and stories are still a huge part of our day and she is interested in making up stories herself. Her imagination has flourished recently. She will read a book and then want to pretend to be the characters. Her memory is astonishing- after hearing a book 3-4 times, she can recite it. The other day I was massaging Adam’s wrist and she ran to get him a band-aid because he was hurt. She is such a compassionate little lady. And she is showing traits of Adam and me. After Adam, she refuses to believe anything that she doesn’t see with her own eyes. After me, she loves looking at her reflection when talking! Hopefully, she will be a confident little performer soon.

And Soren turned three months old two days before Christmas. He rolled over kinda, but it was off a little mat. He does this super cute half smile when I am a little funny but not quite super funny. And he can find his thumbs and loves to suck on them. He is flying through clothing- he wears mostly 9 month clothes, but I squeeze him into a few 6 month outfits that I love.

Jesse, Cam, and Lida really needed to meet Soren and this fall was too busy for them to make it out to the West Coast. So I brought Soren to them! We surprised Lida at the airport. She thought she was with Pa at Logan picking up a package and instead they picked up us. The plan for the short visit was to get as much time together and relax as much a possible. And it worked! Jesse and Lida skipped school on Friday to hang out and got tons of good Soren time. Soren thought Cam’s deep Louis Armstrong impression was hilarious. Jesse is the ultimate baby holder for naps- she lasted 2.5 hours one afternoon. And Lida was very helpful with fetching items needed. We all decorated G and Pa’s house for Christmas and it felt wonderful to get a little holiday time with my family as this was our Vancouver Christmas year. Soren was great on the airplane and hopefully this is the start of a good traveling kiddo.

Adam and Sloane stayed home and Sloane was really sick. She had a fever for a few days and a bad cough. Adam said Sloane never let him get more than 4 feet away from her from Thursday morning to Monday morning except for the first couple hours of sleep each night. And then he caught the bug….. Soren and I definitely got the better end of the deal. We’ll make it up to them some day.

Soren was about the same age Sloane was on her first trip to NH. On her trip, it snowed also. And we propped her up in a doll highchair that Pa made for Lida’s favorite doll Pa baby. We set up Soren in it as well because as my dad would say babies are good props!

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving this year with the Brambles. Morgan was the only one in from out of town and Sloane was super excited to see her. The quiet part was nice because Sloane had a stomach bug the two days before Thanksgiving. She was not quite herself and didn’t have much of an appetite. With a two month old, it was great to have Adam home for 4 days in a row to help with cuddles needed by both kiddos.

Soren was two months old on Thanksgiving and had his doctor appointment on 11/27. He was 14 lbs 15 oz at that time. He is gaining on Sloane and might catch up to her by his 4 month check up. The same day as his appointment, Sloane fell at school and smashed her mouth into a wooden chair. She had a fat lower lip and seemed ok. But when we went to give her milk before bed, we discovered her left upper tooth was knocked back a bit. A trip to the dentist the next day showed that her tooth and root were not fractured. It is a wait and see for the next month to see if it will make it or need to be pulled. We have to remind Sloane to eat with the side of her mouth not her front teeth.

After asking Sloane many times, she decided to be ladybug girl, who is a character in a series of books that Sloane loves. Ladybug girl has a bug squad- Bumblebee boy, Dragon fly girl, and Butterfly girl. So instant family of four costume! Most of the effort went into Sloane’s costume and she was super cute! We went over to our friends, the Wades. It was Maera and Sloane’s 3rd Halloween together. Now they both have little brothers, though Soren is a giant compared to Brannon.

G and Pa came for a nice long visit in October. We were able to go to the pumpkin patch all together. Pa thought we were just going to a farm stand to pick out pumpkins and was surprised by the size of the operation- farm animals, pumpkin catapult, hay rides, and a hay bale pyramid! We had so much fun and Sloane really got into picking out a pumpkin this year. She just wanted to wander around in the pumpkin patch on her own. Pa had a hard time keeping up with her when she started walking!

G and Pa were so happy to meet their first grandson, and play with Sloane. She has changed drastically since they last saw her in May. We all went to tumbling and they got see her improved physicality. My mom spent an hour playing a game of ‘school drop off’ and ‘nap time’ while I was getting my license renewed (They expiring on your birthday, not the end of the month here in WA). We were also able to celebrate Pa and my birthday together. I always miss my dad on our birthday and now it is a special year when we get to be together. We had my favorite- seafood chowder with crusty bread, which was great because 2 weeks later I had to cut dairy and gluten for Mr. Soren……

We can’t wait for G and Pa to come back in the spring.