My busy life

Hello friends! Mommy thinks my eating and sleeping schedule is starting to regulate, but I just may still have more surprises in store! She also thinks I will be shy like she was when she was younger. This is because I sleep (or at least pretend to) every time we are in public. No matter how long we are out, I sleep from the moment we arrive at a new place until the moment we get home. I always wake up and am ready to eat as soon as we walk in the door back home. Mommy says this is nice most of the time, but she hopes I adapt more to public places with more experience. She is very curious to see how I will react to church. Tomorrow I will visit church for the very first time, and Fr. Tom will do the 40 day prayers for mommy and me. Then Saturday is the big day. My baptism will be held after Vespers. Saturday will be a very busy day for all of us. Uncle Phil and Aunt Anna are coming Saturday morning, and Aunt Anna has to get a bridesmaid dress for mommy's wedding in May. Then at 1:30, mommy, daddy, and mawmaw must visit the reception site to meet with various people. They are dragging me along, yet they won't even let me taste the cake! Sheesh. After the meeting, mommy is picking up a friend from Wash U. so she can meet me and come to my baptism. Then of course is Vespers at 5 and my baptism following. After the baptism, we are inviting everybody over to mawmaw and pawpaw's house for food and fellowship. But I think it's really just to show me off.

While daddy was in D.C., mommy and i spent an evening at Mawmaw's house. Uncle Nick and Drew visited while we were there too. I of course slept most of the time.
While I slept Mommy played a memory game with Drew. It made her feel old because she has a very bad memory!

Mawmaw also visited us at home while daddy was gone.

Mawmaw came over to my house yesterday, so mommy could catch up on some school work. While she was here, she and mommy both took pictures with me, because mommy just realized she didn't have any of she and I together since we left the hospital!

A birthday and still growing

Friday was my 1 month birthday, and mommy and daddy sang to me. Of course mommy seems to always be singing something or other. Sometimes I have to cry to make her quit! We went back to the pediatrician Friday afternoon for a check up. Mommy and daddy were very excited to see how much I grew. I weighed 9 pounds and 13 ounces and measured 22 inches long. The doctor says I'm right where I should be! The doctor and nurse both bragged about how well I'm growing and how strong I am. Anybody who holds me can vouch for my strength. I like to stretch, and sometimes I even try to stretch right out of the arms of my beholder! I love to cuddle with my mommy. I'm starting to make eye contact much more, and I am also reaching and starting to grab at mommy and daddy. Mommy has been pumping, and daddy gave me my first bottle Thursday evening. I hardly noticed the difference, and I really enjoyed having some special time with just daddy and me. I think daddy enjoyed it too! This morning mommy and I took daddy to the airport. He is going to Washington D.C. until Wednesday. We're sure going to miss him around here!

I have some more exciting news: Next weekend I get to go to church for the first time! Friday mommy and daddy are taking me to church to see Fr. Tom for the 40 day prayers. Then Saturday, I get to go to Vespers and afterwards I will be baptized. Mom talks a lot about my baptism and she makes it sound kind of like a bath. I do love my baths, so hopefully this baptism thing won't be too bad either. Mommy is really looking forward to going back to church and taking me with her. If she likes this place so much, I think I will like it too!

More pictures of me

I'm not a big fan of having my picture taken yet, but I try to cooperate from time to time. Mommy takes A LOT of pictures of me, so I wanted to share them before she accumulates too many!

Mommy was very excited to dress me in my first pair of jeans, and she took lots of pictures to prove it.

We took the pictures while I lied on the quilt Aunt Naomi made just for me. On the back she even stitched my name and birthdate. What a special gift!
All that posing wore me out, so I went to sleep... but mom kept going!
Okay... maybe not all picures are that bad. I even gave mom something of a smile in this one!

I've had a few visits with family, and here are some pictures to prove it!
Here's one of me and my Aunt Kay. She had the whole family over to celebrate grandpa's birthday. She was very excited to finally see me awake and had lots of fun holding me and playing with me.

Here's a visit at my great grandma and grandpa's house.
My great grandma loves to cuddle with me!
While we were there Uncle Marty and Emily visited too, and I got to meet them for the first time.

I hung out with daddy while mommy took a test at UMSL. He says putting his phone by my head made me smile.

Today mommy gave me a bath. I didn't like those old sponge baths, but I love being in the water! She washes my hair under the faucet, and I especially love the running water. Mom even let me hold my hand and feet under the faucet so I could feel the water.

I really do like my bathtime. It's all the pictures I get sick of! Below are a couple of after bath pictures. I love when mommy cuddles me up in my hooded towels after a bath.

Next it was of course time to get dressed. Mommy dressed me in my new outfit from Aunt Sami and family. Mommy also took some head shots so everyone can see how much lighter my hair is getting.

Growing like a weed

Our 2 week check up went very well. We didn't see my normal doctor, because when we got to the office, we found out his wife was having a baby! There sure are a lot of babies being born! Nothing too eventful occured, but I surprised mommy very much by my weight gain. I weighed exactly 9 pounds--that's up 12 ounces from the previous week! They didn't measure me at the doctor's office, so mommy measured me at home the same way they do there. Though she's not sure how accurate any of the measurements are, mommy says my height is now 22.5 inches. I'm growing like a weed! I've been more and more awake and alert with each passing day. I am very observant, and my favorite things to look at are people, lights, and fans. After daddy and mawmaw get home from church today, we are going to visit great grandma Hoffman for the first time at her house. Mommy tells me lots about church. She says I get to go there and be baptized on March 31st--sounds exciting to me!

Growing

I'm 1 week and 6 days old today, and today is my second day home with mommy. It gets a bit lonely around here without daddy and mawmaw, but mom and I do quite well on our own. I'm learning more songs and listening to more stories every day. Today mommy read me a book called Counting Kisses, and I really liked looking at a couple of the pages with bright colors on them. Mommy and daddy began giving me a binky. Mom doesn't like it much, but she only gives it to me at certain times. She thinks I like to suck a little too much, so between feedings when I'm awake and still wanting to suck, I get my binky. Just now I was lying on my blanket, and mom caught me holding the binky in my mouth all by myself! She likes to brag about all my good reflexes. Mom thinks I may have rolled over a couple of times too, but if I have, it was while nobody was looking (I'm sneaky like that!), so it is not yet official.

Monday and Tuesday Mawmaw stayed with us while daddy went back to work. It was awfully nice having her here. She does more cleaning than daddy! While she was here, mommy finally got to do things like shower, read, and do homework for her classes, which I don't usually allow. Tuesday we made our first trip to Mawmaw's house, where I mostly slept and mommy watched videos for one of her classes. My first non doctor related trip was Monday evening when we went to Aunt and Uncle's house. Nina and Grandpa have been staying there and taking care of my great great Aunt who hadn't been able to meet me yet. I slept through most of this visit too, but the whole time Nina held me I was all smiles.

Today I am feeling especially cuddly. Mom keeps trying to lie me down so she can clean and do homework, but I just wake up and cry and she comes right back to me! Tomorrow is my 2 week check up at the doctor. We'll post on my growth then.

For now here are some more pictures taken by mommy and mawmaw:

I love hanging out with my mommy! You can really see my hair starting to lighten in this photo. Mom thinks I will be a blonde before long!
This was during the day with Mawmaw here, but I've been sleeping in my crib at night too! I only get up a couple of times during the night to eat, and sometimes I don't wake up at all, and mommy has to wake me up to feed me!
Our first family photo at home!
Tummy time! I'm doing so well!
All bundled up and ready to go to Mawmaw's house

Also while mawmaw was here, Mommy and she put my handprints in my baby book. They did my footprints for us at the hospital, but we were on our own for the hands. I wasn't exactly cooperative, so they figured it would work best to wait until I slept.

This is my most recent picture to date. Mom just tried to capture me sleeping, and as usual the flash woke me up.