A Slow Return

Slowly but surely, I'm getting back to blogging. We have had a great December, and it's expected to just get more exciting and celebratory as christmas is a week from today. We are preparing our hearts to celebrate the birth of our Savior and friend, Jesus Christ. Reese's favorite toy these days is our nativity set, and she loves putting Baby Jesus, Mary, Joses, and the rest of the crew to bed and making sure they are fed and happy. We sing MULTIPLE Christmas carols a day, have watched a good number of Christmas movies, and read the daily story from the Jesus Storybook Bible every night. Here's a look at the past few weeks around here...

Sweet Reese before heading out to play with friends.

Picking out the perfect Christmas tree. At Home Depot.

Brother/Sister Love. These two have my heart.

Date Night at Ruth's Chris with the Walker siblings.

Playing "I Spy" with the Christmas tree. New favorite game.

Reese's first Christmas concert performance. Away in a Manger has never been performed cuter.

A few decorations around the house.

And a few more.

Kraft Christmas Party.

SO glad Wes works with one of his best friends, and SO glad his wife is one of my besties.

Date Night.

Bentonville Christmas Parade.

Fayetteville Square.

Little Girl was a bit distracted by the lights.

Post-church. Love these two.

Two little buddies. He pretty much follows her around the house.

My BEAUTIFUL girl.

Play date with some fabulous friends and kids.

Reese, Stella, and Campbell. Sweet friends for sure.

Craft time.

2nd annual high school friends get together.

Ready for church.

Not so ready for church.

Stella, Campbell, and Reese playing and laughing and tackling and hugging and melting our momma hearts.

Graham's THIRD Month

So my computer is running out space, and so is my blog. These are things that I don't really have time to deal with right now. Oh, and our router broke, so wireless is out until we get a new one in the mail. These are petty issues, but these are the reasons no blog entries have been written lately. I actually typed up a blog entry last week, got so excited, and then tried to upload pictures to it. Then blogger said I don't have space, so I just shut it down for the night. 

Here we are again, and I'm going to try to figure out how to make it work tonight. Graham is THREE months old today, and he totally deserves this monthly update. He's wiggling and giggling beside me on the couch right now; he loves his cute pictures I took today. This past month has been quite a blur, and when I think back to the first few weeks, it feels like forever ago that I was longingly dreaming of the 12 week mark. We are so much more into a routine, Graham is a rockstar sleeper compared to even a month ago, and I'm just smitten by the giggles and huge smiles I get all day. Graham talks a ton, and it's my absolute favorite thing right now. Lots of fun baby sounds going on in our house. There are days when he sleeps amazingly well and days that are a bit more rough. However, like I said, Graham is getting into a great routine with naps and night. His schedule is very similar to a month ago except nights, and he's just settling into it much better. He's still too young though to predict which will be his best nap if we are at home for each of them. The afternoons seem to be better on a more regular basis. He's learning to keep his pacifier in better, and I just started unswaddling one arm because he was getting it out every nap and at night. It would wake him, and now he's just used to it being free. I'll probably slowly start unswaddling him but keep him in the sleep sack for a while. He usually wakes between 4:00 and 4:30 in the morning and then again at 7:00/7:15 to start the day. I can handle it, but I'm looking forward to getting rid of that 4am feeding in the next few months. 

Graham is mostly a happy baby, but he has his days. He doesn't like the car too much, and he doesn't sleep well outside of his crib. 

I honestly had forgotten how incredibly wonderful little babies can be. The newborn months are so extremely rough for me, but I already feel way out of that stage and into a new phase of getting to know my baby boy. My little Graham is just about the cutest thing ever. He loves to just watch his big sister and his momma play and dance and read books. He spends a lot of time on his play mat looking around and staring at the toys above his head. 

Now I'll leave you with some sweet pictures from the past month...

THREE Months.

Lighting of the Bentonville Square.

Thanksgiving in Conway.

Gran, O'Pa, and the NINE grandchildren. Camden Thanksgiving.

Cousin time in Camden.

Exploring the Hendrix Village greenspace. Mom and Dad are moving in this week!!!

October to November

He's TWO months old today! I'm pretty sure a lot has changed in the past month. I totally feel like myself again except for the lack of sleep. One of my eyes is even irritated because it doesn't stay shut enough. Graham has a routine, and his fussiness has decreased dramatically. That's not to say that he doesn't have periods in the day when he is just plain upset, but we don't find ourselves pacing the halls. The bursts of inconsolable-ness don't last long enough to do that. He will either take the pacifier, calm down from some Gripe Water or Mylicon or just realize he is indeed okay. I also think I don't stress as much about it. I KNOW he's okay and that we are on the road to good naps, a full night sleep, and fun wake times...in due time. He smiles, is content for longer periods of time, and he even giggled at me just a few minutes ago. I think he really likes bath time, but he doesn't love his car seat. He loves the natural method of eating and protests the bottle. We are working on that though. He's pretty much totally in 3-6 months clothes already. Double chin. Size 2 diapers, but I think it wouldn't hurt to go on up a size pretty soon. This guy is big, and I can't wait to see his stats at his check up on Monday. (Update: 13 pounds 15.3 ounces. 23 3/4 inches long. 82nd percentile in weight. 78th percentile in length. 86th percentile in head.) We moved him to his crib at 6 weeks, and he sleeps most of his naps and at night in there. Occasionally during one of the shorter naps, I let him sleep in the infant seat that vibrates in the living room. He also tends to stay down in his crib for 45ish minutes before waking, and he can't seem to get himself back to sleep most of the time. Sometimes I move him to his rock n play sleeper or the infant seat then to finish out those naps.  

Here is a typical day in the life of GCW...

7am: Nurse

8am: Nap (when home, we shoot for this one to be a full 2 hours)

10am: Nurse

11/11:30am: Nap (this is the nap when we run errands if needed)

1pm: Nurse

2pm: Nap (another 2 hour nap)

4pm: Nurse 

5/5:30pm: Nap, fussy, nap some more, etc.

7pm: Nurse

7:30pm: Begin bedtime routine. Bath, swaddle, sing Jesus Loves me, and down in his crib.

10:30/11pm: Dreamfeed

Then it gets interesting. He wakes up about 3-4 hours after the dreamfeed, and I either feed him right then or as of late, I put the pacifier in if it hasn't been longer than 3 hours and to see if he is really hungry. (I have noticed he doesn't chow down at night, and I think he could do longer stretches...and I'm so ready for him to go longer than 3-4 hours on his own!) I end up feeding him around 2am, but sometimes it's later--or earlier. He usually wakes again between 5-6am, and I can always hold him off until 7am with either the pacifier or moving him to the rock n play (or to our bed if I'm too tired). Hoping he catches on to what I'm doing and decides to sleep longer. Of course I'm comparing his night sleep to Reese's, and I'm wanting him to copy sister. 

Let me spend a little time bragging on my rock for a minute. Wes. Seriously. I'm sitting here eating a chocolate lava cake from Fresh Market right now thanks to him. He took Reese on a date today to get smoothies, and they picked up this dessert for me while they were out. He walks in the door from work, and Reese's eyes light up. He plays with her, reads to her, teaches scripture to her, dances with her. He cleans the house...unprompted. He sees things that would help me out, and he does them. I am so incredibly thankful for my husband. These two kids have quite the daddy. 

Onto the pictures. For some odd reason, my computer won't allow me to attach the official 2 month pictures to this post. So enjoy Month TWO in iPhone pics...

(Oh, and this post also serves as a general catch up due to my lack of blogging, so it's not all just pictures of G-Man.)

This is pretty much right after the one month mark. Look at those faces. Priceless.

Conway High School 10 Year Reunion. My two besties from CHS.

Oh, melt my heart.

Reese has gotten better and better at her new role as big sister. She is becoming more and more a two year old, but she can encourage and love on brother like no one else.

School day.

Happy Halloween.

Snuggles with my little guy while sister is at school.

Lion. Roar.

Cutest scarecrow I know.

Trick-or-Treating at Daddy's office. (yes, that's a light mustache on Dad. He dressed up as a nerd, and apparently, they have nasty mustaches.)

Playing at the square with friends.

Tailgating with the whole Walker clan.

Game Days at home.

Handsome fella. That's spot on.

Here is a picture from today's walk at Crystal Bridges. TWO months.