Summertime...

It's been a while!  I'm noticing a trend with this favorite second son of ours.  We had much fun cheering a friend on for her first race- bright and early on the 4th of July.  (Thanks for inviting us!).  And then we hung out at a nearby park for a while.  

Sam is 5 1/2 months now... and not colicky, per se.  He is a bit of a mama's boy, which surprised me because I didn't think that separation anxiety kicked in just yet.  But there are days (or nights!) when all he wants is for me to hold him. If only that 'power' could last...

He is doing all sorts of  things lately, rolling over, grabbing stuff, laughing at his brother.  He has re-started his newborn habit of smacking his lips, and it's quite possibly the cutest thing he does.

 And while he likes to sleep- he's got no discernible pattern. Some days it's a quick 30 minutes, and other days it's 2-3 hours of zzzzz's.  But we never know which is coming, so that's fun.

PA is pretty in the summer.  I'm still astonished that I can be cold in the early am or late nite, but the days are great.  Even when they're hot!

4 Months Later...

Well, hey there!  We've survived the 'most brutal winter in a dozen years' or something like that.  The sad part is, the last 'record snows' the state had...is when we were in college here.  Sigh.

But, all winter long, I kept my eyes on Easter.  If we make it to Easter, I thought, life will be good!  The babe will stop crying, and we'll have a bit more of a routine, and we'll be able to go outside again...

Heh.  The babe mostly stopped crying- at least those eternal colic fits.  And we sorta had a routine- which I promptly messed up by working again.  Only part time, but still.

And THEN, the weather played us.  Now- almost a month after Easter? - we're starting to hit 70 degrees more than once a week.  But it's not 70 in the morning, which means layers.  Still.

But I found my favorite fleece vest!  And almost all the crazy work events are over! and it's 70+degrees out - at least part of the day!  And... AND, the babe is LAUGHING.  On purpose.

We're falling in love all over again.  Ah, spring!

Speaking of Spring... though we live in an apartment, the grounds here are nice.  We see all sorts of critters when we're out.  A chipmunk that likes to race across our porch and under the table.  Squirrels that like to bury their nuts in our planters.  Large birds holding small ones in their talons.  The occasional deer (while driving, not in our 'yard').   Oh, and falcons on the highway signs!  Here:  Bunnies, mostly at dusk.  And- the best part- a pair of chickadees nesting in a birdhouse Kaden made last year!  Right on our porch, which is pretty awesome to see and hear each morning.

And, of course, our favorite little groundhog- who may or may not be teething at 4 months.  Drool or no, we'll keep him!

Ten Weeks along...

It's hard to believe that LittleManSam is 10 weeks already.  It feels like forever! In a good way (mostly).  His crying jags have lessened.  We're rarely on the "level 3 alert" - which was eyes scrunched closed, mouth wide open and WAILING at the top of his lungs repeatedly.  Not fun for any of us.  He still cries and fusses, but at (usually) lower levels and (usually) not 3+ hours at a time.

We haven't taken too many photos of the cry jags.  I've been TRYING to get a photo of his smile, which is completely adorable.  But it comes and goes rather quickly.  His first smile was around 8 weeks.

You might think, from the photo above, that we entered him into some sort of old-tyme photo shoot.  Not at all.  He's not pretending to be a founding father (with their white wigs)- this is actually his baptismal outfit.  It was mine, actually, which is kinda cool.  (Kaden used a combination of my 2 brothers' outfits.)  I swear he looked much more normal when he was baptized.  That was around... 6 weeks old.

My thinking brain hasn't fully engaged yet.  It does, for brief spans of time, and then... it doesn't.  Very frustrating on some levels.  A bit worrisome since I ease back into work this week.  But most of the time, with those cute toes, a bit of aspirin and strong coffee- it's all good.

Here's the close up of our founding father.  I love all the expressions on his face here.  All these photos were taken by a (new) friend of mine... she offered to take newborn photos, but she has a toddler and it took us about 7-8 weeks to synchronize :)   She's pretty talented, though, and the day was a lot of fun.

Sam's face seems to be changing day by day this week.  Kinda amazing, watching him grow.  The 2 month doctor visit went fine.  We're still doing both nursing and formula.  Kaden is still over- enthused about his baby brother.  Spring has sprung, Easter's around the corner, and all in all, life is looking better each day :)

OH! and this week, Sam has started focusing more intently on stuff (and people, too).  He really likes patterns and the feel of flannel.  One day he was wearing a footie outfit, where the footies were little bears, and it looked like he was trying to grab them.  He hold his head up really well, and usually prefers to be in a sitting position.  If you try to lay him down, or just recline his head/back a little, he grunts and moves his head up.  It's kinda adorable to see him trying to do stuff, but not having the body control to do it.  I'm sure he'll get there soon.

And, even though it's way too early for him to be teething, we've noticed that sometimes he likes to bite down on stuff.  Interesting, that little boy.  Another fun tidbit- when he sleeps, he'll often still do the moro reflex (where his arms flail out for no reason).  He's almost 12 lbs of fun, that little boy!

What did you say?

Hi!  Thought I'd catch you up on things around here.

Mostly, I sleep...  and eat, and pee.

I make all sorts of odd noises (grunts, squeaks, smacks).

Some days, I cry.  A lot. But never when there's company.

Can you believe I'm a month already?

I open my eyes a little bit more now, and look around at people.

Even though I'm just 4 wks, I weigh about 10-11 lbs.  That makes it hard for mom to figure out which clothes will fit me.  Below, I'm pretending to be a meditating monk.

And here is my first or second walk outside.  It's freezing out, so I have about 3 layers of clothes plus 2 blankets on, and Mom still doesn't let me stay outside for more than 10 minutes or so.  Sigh.

This is my big brother, Kaden.  He's really nice to me.  He talks a lot.

Yesterday, I was crying, and he told me:

"Don't cry, Sammy, this is a happy house."

And the other day when I was crying, he told me:

"I know it's hard, Sam, but you gotta face your fears if you want to grow big and strong like me!"

I don't know what he meant by that.  Where's my monk robe? I need to think about it.

PS- like my sideburns?  Mom thinks they are cool.