What a last few weeks and what a week to come!

In the last 3 weeks, I have traveled to DC for a day meeting but been stranded in Detroit because of a delayed flight due to inclement weather, I have taken some vacation and upgraded (i.e. spent money and moved furniture) Jacob's room to a "big boy's room", got rid of naps (most days) for Jacob and gone to an earlier bedtime, I got a stomach bug and was out sick for 2 days, passed that same bug on to Shannon, Jacob got a different virus and actually got sick (Jacob is a very healthy boy), got Ava Lauren's room "mostly" finished, worked feverishly to get some work for DGI done before I take off for a 7 days after my daughter is born and had Jacob go through a major rebellious/defiant period to test our patience/discipline/wisdom to the limit.

I am worn out typing it.

But it is a good life and I am blessed. I believe my rededication to daily Bible readings had helped my spiritual life and helped me through this time. I am eagerly awaiting Ava Lauren's birth. She should be here around 8:30 AM this Thursday, March 6. I can't wait to hold my daughter. Wow. A daughter. It truly won't be real until I hold her in my arms and call her my little girl.

As noted above, Jacob is in some transition. We moved our day bed downstairs and he now has it in his room with his old crib in Ava's room. It has worked well and I believe he is sleeping better with the more room and better mattress. We decided this was a good time to go away from naps which he had begun to tremendously fight us on, much more than he use to. Now we have an earlier bed time and he generally sleeps 11 hours at night. We still do a nap every 3 or 4 days to help him catch up on any missed sleep.

In lieu of naps, we do make him do a "quiet time" where he is to stay quietly in his room and play or read books or even sleep if he wants for about an hour. We believe this is a good idea but it is a work in progress. He often comes out of his room and wants to play with us. At the end of the hour, his room is typically a mess. Yesterday, he was having a rough time and kept coming out and I had to get on to him. After about the 4th time, I scolded him pretty hard about leaving his room and sent him back. The hour was up about 10 minutes later and I went down to tell him. Below are the pictures I snapped when I came into his room. It was such a sweet picture. I love him so much.