Update Pics

It's been a while, and now I'm going to dump a bunch of Peter Pics here for some of our little milestones of late. Probably my favorite is:

He's smiling!
Not just sleepy milkdrunk smiles or gas smiles, this boy is doing what they call "social smiling"--at us, at interesting objects, and especially his favorite, the ceiling fan. Here he is waking up all cheerful from a nap today:

  

And, somewhat less cheerful:



   

In other recent milestones, his first rattle, and his first bottle:
[To be fair, with the rattle, he can do little more than
hang onto it for a while if it's put in his hand.]

   

The physique update: Not quite as scrawny!

Here is hanging out on the quilt Nana made him, and enjoying (or not) his daily "tummy time."

And here are his fine feet:

And here are a few more day-in-the-life snapshots, just for fun:

Peter reading                                              A father-son chat on the porch

   

Watching the fan, his favorite                    Looking all cute and swaddled (an older/smaller shot)

   

The sleepy glow-worm

And speaking of sleepy:

  

It's Getting Chilly Out There

This cool, crisp, fallish Saturday morning, Peter came with me to a meeting at our church, donning his favorite fall sweater, a hand-me-down from his friend Noah. He slept through most of it. Perhaps you'll indulge me a few more shots of his cozy cuteness...

5 Weeks: A Quick Retrospective

My how quickly he grows. For fun, I went through and picked a shot from every Monday since he was born:

Zero Weeks:

One Week:

Two Weeks:

Three Weeks:

Four Weeks:

Five Weeks Today:

(Couldn't pick just one.)

Milestones

Today marks one month since we first met our Peter Clay. What an incredible month of grace and growth (his growth and ours!) Can we really be the same people we were one month ago? Seems like a different lifetime. Here's our growing boy one month in:

 

 

Another big milestone for Peter is that this past Sunday was his first church service which was also "Child Dedication Sunday" at Covenant Life. Well, he didn't really see much more than the time of worship, which he mostly slept through, and the dedication which he squawked and cried through...and whatever he made out from Josh's message on the TV screen in the Infant Care Room while nursing. Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the dedication. However I do have a very meaningful picture from the Infant Care Room: 

To explain this picture I'll refer for you to blog post by my friend Cara (click here).
As you might observe, a) Peter hasn't yet learned to say "cheese," and b) he is currently about 2 lbs lighter than his friend Henry, who is 10 days younger. 

Much of Peter's family were in town for the occasion. Nana, Grandpa Sean [or whatever he decides he wants Peter to call him], Aunt Anne, and Uncle Scott came over for lunch afterwards.  And Granddaddy and Oma came for dinner the night before:

Thanks, everyone, for sharing in our special day!


Another snapshot from today, during his 3 hour nap in the baby carrier:

We went for a cool crisp fall walk, during which he fell asleep. He was asleep through a visit with our friend and neighbor Nancy, and through more walking, and stopping in to see another friend Lauren, and more walking, and then some housework, and then, not really wanting to wake him, I stood in the kitchen, still swaying side to side, and got through several chapters of Eat, Sleep, Poop, one of the baby books we've been reading. Eventually, he awoke:

 And just a few more shots of our boy ...

To Daddy at Work:

Dear Daddy, we miss you now that you've gone back to work, but we're glad you're back doing cool science experiments to the glory of God, and working hard to support our family. Back home on the ranch, Mommy and I have had an exciting day so far. Since I'm already four whole weeks old, I'll update you myself.  First, I stayed asleep for a while after you left, and Mommy raced around getting as much housework done as possible before I woke up.

 When I did, I was in a great mood, and melted Mommy's heart with some bold new coos and ahs I practiced for her: 

I then ate for a while, during which I had one of those explosive poops (This may be TMI, but it's just between us, right?) And when mommy had just finished cleaning me up and was putting a new diaper on me, I did it again--HAH! She barely got the diaper on in time. So she just let me lie there for a few minutes to work things out. (Notice the hastily fastened diaper...and my fine 4-week-old physique!):

Afterward, since I was feeling so refreshed and content after that nice long nap, I just hung out and helped Mommy in the kitchen. First we did some dishes, and then some BAKING! All while singing and having deep conversations.

Daddy, SURPRISE--we made you blackberry bran muffins!

Truth be told, toward the end of the baking, I was getting a bit antsy, so Mommy loaded me into the baby bjorn, where I was quite happy as long as she kept moving. 

You should have seen her spooning muffin batter into the tin while trying to see over my head, and swaying/stepping/dancing all the while. It was a blast! And since I was now all mellow again, while the muffins baked, we took a quick walk down the block to deliver that mail that mistakenly came to our house. It was all cool and fall-ish outside. Mommy should have taken a picture of the leaves. When we got home and the muffins came out, we quickly did some laundry and a few other things that didn't require bending over, and which I slept through, until time ran out and I informed Mommy that it was time to eat. I was sooo sleepy after that, yet somehow it took her 3 tries to put me down for a nap...which is where I am now. 

We miss you, Daddy! Come home soon!