Ok, Ally, This One's For You

In speaking with my dear friend Ally the other night, I was chagrined when she told me about how she checks my blog daily and has been disappointed for 3 weeks in a row because I haven't posted. In her honor, I'll make this maiden blog a big one (oh, ok, and because I haven't posted in 3 weeks so have a lot to say). What have I been doing instead of blogging? you might ask yourself. Well, I've been trying really hard to do several things, including paint my living room and bedroom; get the mountain of donated baby clothes sorted, organized & stored; make, assemble and mail Sam's baby announcements; rearrange and organize my house; and other projects (I refuse to list the ones that I haven't gotten to yet).

Sam is getting SO big, he is smiling and "talking" to us with coos and gurgles all the time. He wants to be held ALL THE TIME, which gets old pretty fast, but it does make you feel loved. :D We took him in for his 2-month appointment the other day, and he came in at a whopping 13 lbs 5 oz and 22 3/4" long! That means he's a good 2 inches and 4 1/2 pounds bigger now than he was at birth. Yikes! He's right in the middle for head circumference and height, but he's in the 75th percentile for weight. Chubby boy! And yes, I did cry when he got his shots. I know it's cliche and pathetic, but it really is hard! He was so happy and cooing and then all of a sudden his little face just crumpled and it was so sad!

He loves his Baby Bjorn and when he just won't take no for an answer on being picked up, I've resorted to using it around the house. His favorite time of day is when we take the dogs out for a walk, he is fascinated with looking around outside. Last night he gave his parents the most precious gift a 2 1/2-month-old can give: he slept for EIGHT HOURS!!! I must've kissed him for 10 minutes straight. :D

Paul is still loving his cop job. He completed his first month without "doing anything too stupid", as he puts it, so that's good. His partner is really nice, he even let me go meet them for lunch a couple of weeks ago. They call his division (Devonshire) "Club Dev" because supposedly nothing ever happens there. Apparently Paul is some sort of black cat catalyst because since he's been assigned to it there have been several huge happenings not only in his division, but his area within the division. First there was the metro train crash, followed by a horrible murder-suicide in which a man who lost all of his money in the stock market plummet killed his entire family (that is just pure evil - can't even think about how horrible that is), and finally the huge Porter Ranch fire that broke out on Monday which, to date, has burned more than 13,000 acres. Needless to say, he's seeing plenty of action. He's been working lots of overtime lately, which stinks in the short run (18 hour days are not fun!) but will be good in the long run when he can start cashing in his overtime.

I've been keeping myself busy with the above-mentioned projects and being a new mommy. I've had a lot of ups and downs, but mostly ups, as I try to really get a handle on having someone around 24/7 who is completely dependent on you and adjust to Paul's new schedule that keeps him away for some really long hours sometimes. I started teaching our new primary class on Sunday, and I think it'll be a lot better experience than I originally imagined...9-year-old boys can be really intimidating! :D

Last of all (and, let's be honest, the part that you were all really looking forward to), here are some recent pictures of Sam for your viewing enjoyment:

Here he is all dressed up and ready to go walk the dogs with me. The temperature went down into the fifties and sixties and it was WONDERFUL to have some chilly days! We spent lots of time outside with the dogs. Check out the pumpkin hat...LOVE it! Thanks, Aunt Becky!

He zonks out on the couch a lot. Here he is propped up on our pillows. It looks so uncomfortable, but he never seems to mind when he wakes up and if I move him into a lying position he always startles awake, so I just leave him as he is.

Here's a weak depiction of his adorable smile. He's smiling and "talking" to me all the time now, it's his favorite thing in the world when I start gurgling and cooing at him, his eyes go all big and bright and he smiles so huge and then chats it up for as long as I'll respond. :D You can kind of see one of his dimples in this picture; they're still faint but I think they'll get deeper as he gets older.
Conked out on the couch again. I don't know how he does this without having some killer neck kinks when he wakes up.
haha, again with the conked out. I guess I take a lot of pictures when he's sleeping. I love the smashed face in this one.
Oh man he was sporting this plumber all day long, we could not get his diaper to stay up!

hahaha, I this is my favorite recent picture. Very deer-in-the-headlights.
Here he is hanging out with Mason at Mason's cousin Jack's birthday party. It was the cutest thing, he actually grabbed onto the ribbon holding this balloon and was so enthralled with the balloon.
His shirt says "grumpy"...he really was.

I love this. Naked boy on sleeping dad. I was getting the tubbie ready so I rested Sam on Paul for a minute. I was secretly hoping he'd pee on him because it would've made for some great comedic relief. :D (and yes, moms, I do twiggle the buns :D)

Two tired boys.


Another day before we went outside. Another time the camera can't do justice to his smile and the way his eyes light up.

Just...hang...on...a...little...longer........zzzzzz