Hair Dryer

My son loves the hair dryer. Yes, the hair dryer. He can't seem to fall asleep without it, day or night. Once he is asleep, he is an awesome sleeper - the past week, he's been going 7-8.5 hours at night, conveniently starting around 10pm. Napping during the day is a little harder (sometimes we get in a long afternoon nap, sometimes it's just catnapping throughout the day), but still passable.

HOWEVER.

At any of these times, he's practically unable to fall and stay asleep without the hair dryer. Sure, if he's really sleepy, he'll fall asleep while eating, but he'll wake up within 5 minutes of putting him down unless the hair dryer is on. It's amazing. Practically the second we turn it on, you can see his eyes start to droop. We may need to invest in a sound machine if this continues. Anyone else have weird household contraptions turned baby essentials?

Also, at his one-month checkup last week, Nat clocked in at 9 lbs. 15 oz, sailing from 90th percentile length/10th percentile weight at birth to 90th percentile length/60th percentile weight now. That is up 4 pounds from 5 weeks before, or nearly 2 ounces a day. The doctor said .5-1 ounce/day is normal. Evidently our skinny minny is chunking up.

Tiny

Some tiny, napping feet made their way to my keyboard. Good thing "q" isn't an oft-used letter.

One Month

Dear Nat,
Today is your one-month birthday. I can’t believe it has been a whole month since your little body entered the world! This last month has been nothing short of blessed.


It has been so much fun to watch you grow and learn. The last couple of weeks, you have been increasingly observant; you love to look around with those beautiful eyes and take in your surroundings. You love focusing on lights and other bright objects, and you always seem very pensive and wise about it all. Probably my favorite thing on which you like to focus, though, is a painting we have of the Savior. Nearly every time I sit and nurse you on the couch above which it is hung, you just stare at it, often pausing mid-drink to smile up at it. I like to think you remember and recognize Jesus, and are smiling at Him.


This month, you’ve also loved spending time with your grandpa and grandma B, or your Ajja and Amma, as they like to be known. You recognize them now, too and enjoy completely making their day with your little smiles. They continue to be completely smitten with you – you have a way of winning hearts. You've also enjoyed lots of Skype and phone dates with many of your other relatives, and we're excited for you to meet many of them in person at Christmastime.


I’ve loved spending my days with you. I love playing with you and singing to you and dancing with you and reading books with you. I love munching on your cute little ears (with the tiny cute little nub on the right one). I love how calm you get whenever we turn on the hair dryer, and how you giggle in your sleep.


The other day, I had to leave you with Daddy for a few hours while I attended an event with my summer internship organization. As I was feeding you before, it took a little longer than I expected, so that I thought I would be a little late. While normally I really hate being late, I realized I just didn’t really care. You are my priority now, and I realized it’s much more important to me that all your needs are met than to be at some event. The best part was that I didn’t feel held back at all by this – I just felt grateful. You and your dad are the most important thing to me, and I’m so happy for it. I love you, Mr. McBub.

love,
mama

(Again, courtesy of the fabulously talented Maria.)

Hallelujah, indeed

The Messiah and Philly have always been connected in my mind, as our annual stake performance of it took my deep and abiding love for the oratorio to new heights. This just takes it to a while new level. Seriously, why didn't they do this while we were there??

Also, I love the Phillies shirts, dancing toddlers, and Penn vocal groups in the background. :)

Chili Pepper

For Becca. Better late than never.

One more

A preview from our newborn photo shoot...

Heart. Melting. Many thanks to Maria for the sweet picture and Whit & Evan for the adorable hat.

The many faces of Nathanael

Picture overload. Proceed at your own risk.

Bathtime.

WHY do they keep putting that camera in my face?

With grandma.

Arlington Cemetery.

Mullet + ear fuzz.

Tiny feet.

He sure is.

Cuddling with Daddy.

Yes, I'm cute. Thanks.

So much fun.