A Christmas miracle

Isaac gave me the most special Christmas gift I could have ever received this year.

A perfect smile!

I've been trying for weeks to capture his beautiful smile with the camera, and he would never let me. I literally have spent hours holding a camera in front of his face while cooing and laughing and talking to him hoping to get something, even a hint of a smile, but he was totally camera shy. Then, on Christmas morning, after opening all of our gifts, Steve set the camera timer and we all layed down in the wrapping paper for a family picture. I leaned down to place a kiss on Isaac's forehead, and Steven was just lying there looking at him. Isaac looked up at the flashing light on the camera and broke out it the biggest baby smile you've ever seen. Steve and I both just held our breaths, afraid to say anything, silently praying that he would hold it long enough for the flash. Then the flash took, and immediately he lost the smile and started looking around. I started screaming for Steve to look at the camera to see if we got it, but I knew we did. Then I saw it. There's nothing more beautiful that seeing one of your baby's first smiles. Though I've seen him smile a few times on other occasions, it is such a rare thing, and I wanted a picture so I could see it whenever I wanted. And now I have it!! I truly believe angels whispered in his ear and the perfect moment and told him to smile for Mommy. I cried for about 15 minutes afterward, because it was just so incredibly special.



Thank you baby for giving me that beautiful genuine smile to see whenever I want, and thank you God for telling him what I wanted for Christmas and helping him give it to me. This was by far, the best Christmas of my life. I never knew life could be so perfect - I am so incredibly blessed.

Isaac is 2 Months Old!!

Recognize this sweater?

I know it's been forever since I have updated this blog, but man, being a mom is major hard work. I barely have time to get pics posted online for people and catch up on email. But I'm going to try to make more of an effort to keep everyone updated on how we're doing on this blog. I know I have several faithful readers, including my friend McKenna, who are just fed up with checking in to see that Sept 11 is still my last post. So, McKenna and everyone else, I hope you haven't given up on me.

Isaac had his 2 month check up on Monday. I can't believe he's 2 months old already. Time has flown. Before I know it, I will be back at work after 5 months of being home. In some ways I'm looking forward to getting out of the house and back into the land of the living, but at the same time it wrenches my heart to think of handing my little boy off to some stranger to take care of everyday. I am so worried about missing out on his growth and development. What if I miss the first time he rolls over, or his first laugh? It breaks my heart. He's also been breastfeeding so well and hasn't had a bottle in weeks, and it breaks my heart to think that someone else will be feeding him. That's my special time with him and I'm sad about having to share it with someone else. Not to mention the fact that he doesn't take a bottle very well anymore. I guess we're going to just have to start giving him one a day or something so he can get used to it, but oh, it makes me sad. But, luckily, the daycare he will be going to is only 2 blocks from my building, so I will be able to go feed him at least once a day, and hopefully he'll only have to have 1 or 2 bottles a day that way.

As for his doctor's appointment, it went really well. He weighs 10lbs 3oz (4lbs 15oz at birth), so he's more than double his birth weight now. He is 22" long (17" at birth). He's perfectly healthy. He had to get his vaccinations. One was oral, and he loved it - it had a sweet taste, and he was sucking on his lips afterwards wanting more. Then came the needles - 3 in all, right into his little chubby thighs. My poor baby, I've never seen him make such a face in his life. With the first needle, he belted out a cry, then by the second one, he had his poor little face frozen in a silent scream and stopped breathing and turned bright red. He held this for about 30 seconds, until the 3rd shot was over, then he just screamed and cried with tears streaming down his face for a couple of minutes, then he fell asleep. I cried longer than he did. It was so hard to watch my poor baby in pain. But, at least that's over with, for another 2 months anyway.

Check out his umbilical hernia. It's massive, isn't it? I took him to the doctor about it last week because it looked like it was going to pop or something, and I was so worried about it. But turns out it is very common and nothing to worry about. But even the doctor said it was pretty impressive. It should go away on it's own, and they won't do anything surgically unless it's still there when he's 4 years old. I'm hoping it will be gone in a few months, but by the size of the thing, it might be around a while. Steve's worried this will give him an outie belly button.

I'll leave you with a few more pics of my cutie.