The Past Two Months

Quick bullet points about our life over the past few months:

• Susanna began walking, and then took off. She's not running yet, but she walks very fast, is learning to jump and kick, and is basically unstoppable. She is a textbook two-year-old, complete with tantrums about minor things (today she screamed for five minutes because James wouldn't take her for a truck ride). She's about 35 inches tall and weighs 29 lbs. She is beautiful, intelligent, and has a feisty personality. I fear what my life will be like when she is a teenager. The good news is that she is also loving and sweet. She absolutely adores "Sesame Street" (Elmo in particular), playing outside, coloring, reading, and Simon. She and Simon are the best of friends, although he does sometimes give me this look that says, "and you're having ANOTHER one? There will be TWO of these around here?" We converted Susanna's crib into a toddler bed (it's one of those convertible cribs that morphs from a crib to a toddler bed with rail to a full-size bed) in mid-October, and I think she likes her "big-girl bed." The transition has gone well, with the exception of naps, which she often takes in her Pack and Play, because otherwise she won't stay in bed and then trashes her room.
  
• At our 20 week ultrasound, we found out that we're having a boy! We've decided to name him Gregory James. We're turning our office into the nursery and our living room will become our office. We have a family room, and weren't using the living room for much anyway, so it works out. Our house has four bedrooms, and we wanted to still have a guest room, so transforming the office into the nursery was the best option. We still have to clean out the room, paint it, order furniture, and decorate the room. It boggles my mind, but somehow it will get done. We're planning on ordering the furniture sometime after Christmas. We had picked out a set that we really really liked at a local independent baby store. However, that store closed overnight, so it's a good thing we didn't order from them. Now it looks like we're going to get a similar line from Babies R Us, which is actually going to cost about the same amount. It's only supposed to take seven to fourteen business days to arrive, so we can order it fairly late. If, for some reason, the furniture doesn't arrive by the time Greg does, we have a Pack and Play with a bassinet. I was going to have him sleep in that (in our room) for the first few weeks/months, anyway.
  
• The last week of October, we went to Disney World. That will get a post of its own, complete with pictures. In general, we had a lot of fun, although we did get sick and it was HORRIBLY hot. We were hoping to avoid the heat by going at the end of October, but apparently got there during a heat wave (90 degrees! 70% humidity!) which made us somewhat uncomfortable.
  
• We spent Thanksgiving at home and with my family for the first time in eight years. We hosted it (James did the cooking, I did the cleaning) and while it was exhausting, it was a lot of fun.
  
• James still loves his job, and they love him (very important in this economy). I'm really proud of him for getting an incredible evaluation and the top raise for the second year in a row. He works hard, is good at what he does, and it shows! I'm enjoying my job, and will probably blog about that at some point.