Monday, December 20, 2010

Crazy Birthdayversary!

December 20th, 2010 marked (1) Francis & my 1st anniversary, (2) my 32nd birthday, and (3) Francis' 31st birthday. And, you ask, what kind of crazy, romantic fun did we have that night?! We had dinner with my family....we are wild and crazy folks!
Francis and I originally planned to do a big dinner with a bunch of our close friends, but then as the time got closer I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with being committed to any big event + taking on a newborn's needs. So a nice simple/relaxing dinner at Frankie, Johnny & Luigi's is just what we needed.
Here's a pic from that night. Not surprisingly, this photo took 10 minutes to take since it included a 3 year old, 1 year old, and 7 week old :)

(Jarrod, Jenn, Robert, Francis, me, Nolan, mom/nana, Connor)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

6 weeks...Growth Spurt!

Last night, Nolan was up almost every 2 hours, hungry as ever. Then, during the day, he was feeding almost every hour!
Then I check my email and see "Your baby at 6 weeks" email from BabyCenter. Apparently, 6-weeks is another growth spurt; one of the tell-tale signs is constant feedings. It all makes sense now.
Nolan is all about punctuality - he was born on his due date, and now he has started his growth spurt EXACTLY on his 6-week mark!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Smiling!!

Houston, we have a smile!! Unfortunately, I was not the first one to see it. I spend almost every of the day with Nolan, and I somehow missed his first smile?!
My mom came over to visit, so I took advantage of the time to take a shower. During that 15 minute break, I missed his smile! I came downstairs to my mom laughing and smiling at Nolan, saying "he has the most adorable smile!" I exclaimed, "What, he smiled??!! I missed it?" My mom had not even realized that *I* had not even seen his smile yet; I think she felt bad for stealing my thunder.
He was smirking at me that morning....but I missed his first smile. Fortunately, I was able to see it just hours later! CUTEST THING EVER! There is nothing in the world that can make you feel as incredible as seeing your baby's smile!

Sleep chuckles

Nolan has not started laughing while awake, but (oddly) he has laughed in his sleep!
It is really the funniest thing - he was in a deep slumber, then he just started chuckling. Like a real, bottom-of-the-belly chuckle! No song and dance I do is funny enough for him, but apparently there is some funny shiznit in his dreams :)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Coos & Smirks


Nolan has just recently started with cooing and smirking at us. His adorable coos are just generally "ohhhh" and "ahhhh" sounds, but we did get a little "da" sound too! The kid is a genius! He's already is speaking in foreign languages ("da" is yes in Russian, right?!)

And his little smirks just light me up. He is almost the smiling point - it's not quite a full, gummy smile yet, but I know it's coming soon!!! The smirks definitely make up for my severely reduced sleep schedule. When you are dragging through the morning, then your son smirks and coo at you while you change his diaper, it almost makes you forget your need for sleep. It's all worth it now :)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Great night!

Last night was a really good night, sleep-wise! Nolan did his 8:30pm feeding, then Francis bottle-fed him at 12:00 am, then I fed him at 4:30am. Then he continued to sleep until 8:00am.
But those aren't that significant, in itself. It is that 1) after each feeding, we put him right into his crib and he didn't cry *at all* and 2) he went right back to sleep after his 4:30 am feeding. It felt amazing!

Normally, we have to spend a significant amount of time trying to put him to sleep in our arms before we can put him in the crib. That really takes away from valuable rest time! And, on top of that, he usually does not to to sleep for quite a while after his 4:30 am feeding.

God I really hope he keeps this up! Well, actually, I am hoping for him to sleep through the night really soon...but I will take this small win for now!

My first Christmas card!

This year I decided to send Christmas cards out. Why is that important you ask? Because I have never sent a Christmas card out in my life! But seeing as how I am married with a kid now, I felt that I have finally entered the "christmas card world".
The card is really quite cute, I would have to say :) It has three pics - two of my adorable son, and one of all 3 of us. Then inside this ornament shape, it says: The Smiths. Francis, Marissa and Nolan.
Wow, I am so grown up!