A [short] December

I have not posted in what feels like forever because unlike Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows, I am thus far not experiencing a long December.  Rather it's been a super fast December as it's already over halfway through and Christmas is less than a week away!  EEK.  We're about thisclose to being done with all our holiday shopping, but I haven't even considered what we might do next week while Greg is off work.  Hopefully by that point we'll be over our lingering coughs that all of us, except for Gabe, have succumbed to.  It's the cruddy kind of cough that clogs up your throat. Not super fun when you need to make phone calls or talk to people. "Um, hello? 'Scuse my raspy voice. Contrary to how it sounds I'm not a chain smoker."

Life has been pretty fast-paced recently.

We've tried new hairstyles (and new facial expressions):

Gotten close to the "prayer hands":

 Taken our first sink baths:

Started smiling:

Dressed like a fairy (and so happy about it!)

Lounged in his cool outfit:

  

Grown into cute 3 month clothes:

Shopped at Whole Foods:

Received Christmas deliveries!

Posed by the tree:

Gone holiday shopping with Mommy (Gabe is in the babyhawk carrier):

And watched football! 

(Scary how quickly kids pick up on TVs!)

Gabe will be 7 weeks on Thursday and I keep saying it, but everything keeps getting easier as we go along.  It goes without saying, sometimes things are overwhelming or exhausting, but we get up and go every day and try to make the best of it.  Right now, his nighttime sleeping is still adjusting, but most nights I can expect him to go 4-6 hours between a feed, for his longest stretch.  That's not too bad, really! Of course I'd love if he went longer, but if I can get 5 straight hours it's amazing how much better that feels than waking up every 2-3 hours.  Saturday nights he always seems to be the most finicky--he must know that there's somewhere I'd like to be Sunday morning!

However, last night, he went to sleep before midnight and woke up once between then and 7am.  Even though he made weird noises a few times and woke me up and had me thinking he was up for real again, he's done pretty well.  My ears are definitely attuned to a newborn right now.

His awake time is increasing during the days now too.  It varies as to when it will be; Saturday he was awake most of the morning, and then asleep while we ran errands and went shopping in the afternoon.  Friday he was awake most of the afternoon while Mia was asleep, so I didn't get much done! And today it seems he's almost been asleep most of the day. Hmm...

He is starting to vocalize now too. We already have quite a talker in Mia, so either he'll follow in his big sister's footsteps, or be a quiet one and let her do all the talking, but the fact that he is vocalizing now makes me wonder if he'll be more of the former. I have no idea who our kids might have received their chattiness from??

This is a crazy, special, chaotic time in our family right now. There are so many moments passing before my eyes that I want to capture and remember. I haven't gotten to spend as much time with Mia as I'd like, but this morning we played for a long time together while Gabe slept and we genuinely enjoyed it. I tried to limit distractions and just simply be with Mia.  I'd hate for her to think mommy doesn't think she's important just because right now there's a lot going on.  She'll be 3 in just four months, and that freaks me out.  A friend has posted on Facebook a few times that the days are long, but the years are short.  That's what it's feeling like right now.   It's hard, but it's good work.

Hope you are having a BLESSED December!