The rest of 2012

The last 4 months of 2012 were actually somewhat quiet in the Sykes' household; well, whatever quiet means!  After celebrating Nathan's first birthday, the rest of September brought Benjamin's first day of pre-school. I had to miss bringing him in since Nathan decided to fall face first into the tile floor. I took emergency room duties and Stephen took Ben to school. I was certainly disappointed, but Benjamin did quite well. Luckily, Nate didn't need any stitches, but man, that mouth can bleed! After that, Ben started calling him, "Trouble." He thought it was funny to say, "Here comes trouble!"

Ben on his 1st of day of pre-school

the 4 of us after apple picking

There goes "Trouble!"

Trouble's probably a pretty good nickname!

Nate's baptism

The track star and his Coach!

 We celebrated Nate's baptism with both of our families in October. For Halloween, Nate dressed up as a track star and Ben was his "coach." Ben was adamant about not trick or treating; he's definitely the more cautious one of the two!

Ben loves that pool!

We went back to Florida in November. Nate still wasn't a fan of the water, but we enjoyed spending some days at the zoo, Sea World, and the beach. It's always nice to be able to get a week's worth of sun in before the long Berkshires winter! We certainly don't take that for granted!

Poor Nate!

 December brought Benjamin's 3rd birthday and another set of holidays for our family to celebrate. We, along with the rest of our country, mourned those who lost their lives in the Newtown tragedy. As a former teacher, it really hit home for me. It just made me hug the boys a little tighter and treasure all the moments I am able to have with them as a stay at home mom. Not everyone is that lucky.

Ben opening a gift on his 3rd birthday

And, in case you're keeping track...Nathan still isn't sleeping through the night at this point; or what we would consider sleeping through the night! Most mornings, he was up between 3 am and 4 am ready for the day, with a couple (and I mean 2!) mornings of 6:15 sprinkled in there. He would wake up screaming, but once he was up and walking around, he seemed fine. We would still take him to cranio-sacral therapy once a month, but nothing was changing in terms of his waking time.