Christmas #1

We have many Christmas celebrations in our family but of course Christmas Day is the first. What a special one this year to celebrate it as a family. Max treated me to 6 hours of sleep, the best gift ever!

Christmas Eve, after church, begins the marathon watching of daddy's favorite 'A Christmas Story', he couldn't wait to introduce Max to it. Of course the Christmas outfit Aunt Ellie bought him was a hit at church, I mean can you get any cuter....

But of course that's the first of much Christmas attire....

Max was so excited to see that Santa came and brought daddy, I mean Max, a Hess truck! He did seem to think the lights and noise it made was pretty cool.

Can you tell I bought this a month ago, tubo is busting out of it! But he doesn't seem to care...

Some day I'm gonna pay for this, I just have a feeling...

Being this cute really tires a reindeer out!

I told everyone Max was their Christmas gift and I meant it, everyone got pictures of the boy. (Yes it was our turn to be those sucker parents who spend WAY more than they intend at a photo shoot:))

Since I haven't updated for a while... in other news...

My mom got moved into her new house. It looks so nice all freshly painted and all new floors. She would like some new furniture and still has the kitchen to unpack but its coming along nicely and its such a cute home.

We're grateful that Nate is working from home with all the miserable weather we've been getting, lots of rain and ice of course. Max and I keep busy at my mom's or getting ready for Christmas or hanging out with friends from church (he loves his play dates of course). Its amazing how busy you can be with just one little one, I can't imagine two right now (though am starting to get a little anxious already:)).

Without realizing it we're actually starting to get into somewhat of a routine. It really depends on if its a hungry or sleepy day and if he takes a bottle or is breastfed (he generally lasts longer if he takes a bottle, a whole 6oz already piggy! and its pretty much split half and half at this point to how he eats depending on what's going on). He'll go down around 10pm give or take an hour and has been sleeping till anywhere between 3am and 4:30am (by 4:30am I have to wake him up to eat for my own sake anyway but he's usually stirring by then). Then he'll sleep for another few hours till anywhere from 6:30am-8am. He may wake up sometimes but usually either settles himself or we have to give him paci and he'll conk back out. Then we eat again mid morning, mid afternoon, around dinner time and again anywhere from 8-9:30pm. We've also started nap time this week. He sleeps on and off all day long but had been getting somewhat cranky if he didn't have a real good sleep (which sometimes he can just do downstairs in his bouncer and he sleeps pretty well) but we've been going back up to the crib after the afternoon feeding. Its working ok, we spend half the time in the glider sometimes but he'll get used to it and its nice for me to be able to get some things done, he's pretty good at sleeping through a lot of noise if he's downstairs but I still can't get done everything I can if he's upstairs in his nursery. So we're doing good, eating lots, pooping lots and entertaining a ton. He's just so much fun, I always knew this would be amazing but you just can't imagine it till it happens to you.

As I sit downstairs on a belly full of cookies (which is no way to loose the last 10lbs) and can hear my husband and son "talking" upstairs and our families have all gone home safely after a wonderful day together, I can realize how truly blessed we really are and I really did get the best Christmas gift!

Of course the greatest Christmas miracle came many years ago...

Luke 2:1-14
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." (KJV)

All I want for Christmas...

I believe his wish list would be milk, cuddles and more milk with an occasional paci! We have it pretty easy this year. We figured we should get this in now because this year all Santa is is a big snuggle bug to him, next year may be a different story!

PS: Santa was free at Bass Pro so just ignore the antlers to the left there....

2 Months!!

Can you believe its been 2 whole months... Sometimes its hard to forget life without him but its also still hard to believe he's ours for the keeping!

We went for our 2 month check up today and he's a growing boy! He's 23 inches long and 11,5 lbs. We can't believe what a change only 2 months can bring. Its fun to look back like they're memories already. We go to Babies R Us and see all the excited pregnant couples with the registry guns and reminisce and its hard not to just go up and tell them that they can't even imagine the joy that will soon come into their lives. Even seeing a baby for its 2 day check up at the Dr's this morning and remembering those sleep deprived dazed days of just trying to figure the new baby out seemed like ages ago. Its also fun to have gotten to hold 2 newborns since Max and "remembering" when he was that big. I guess we have a long way to go and SO many wonderful memories yet to make.

Our Max is doing awesome! He was such a good boy for his shots this morning, SO much better than mommy was but we all made it through and now he's nice and sleepy. He is still doing good at night. I usually get about 3-4 1/2 hours of sleep at a time. He does wonderfully in his crib. We still have no schedule, some days he sleeps all day, some days he barely sleeps for more than a half an hour at a time. He's eating less often now which is nice but still means when we nurse it can push almost 2 hours sometimes. He just really enjoys it and if I have time then so be it.

He is all smiles these days. He so often had such a "Mad Max" face I thought maybe he'd be one of those babies who always looked serious but not anymore. He talks to us all the time now and has the best smile. I even get it when I change his diaper if he's not hungry.

We still love having daddy downstairs and getting to see him a lot. Its going to be weird when mom-mom moves out of our house and I go back to work so we're really enjoying this time while we have it.

We've been keeping very busy lately with helping my mom get her house painted and ready. I've also had to go in to help at work a little bit for some very unfortunate reasons so I guess its a way to ease back into it, though I still am cherishing my last month at home with the boy and am SO glad that I won't have to be going back full time (and that daddy and mom-mom will be the ones to watch him).

So that's the two month update, just have to share our smiling pictures: