If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been absent for awhile. That happens when you have a baby. Here’s the sum of what’s happened in the last couple months.

January

Eric went back to work, and I had to learn how to be a mom on my own. It was hard, but I expected it to be that. Our little boy grew with so much personality in such a little body, and he was a great sleeper! We took our first day trip to Dixon, and while it was a lot of fun, it also wore out the boy quite a bit. He was quite the trooper. By the end of the month, E was completely out of preemie sized clothing and into newborn. At his 2 month appointment on Jan 30, he weighed 6 lbs 14 oz–smaller than the average newborn.

February

E started to perk up at this point and even enjoyed playing a little bit. He loved his swing!!! Actually, that was a life saver as he loved to play and nap in it sometimes. Early in February, I looked over at him as he woke up from a nap, and he greeted me with an ear to ear smile. Nothing melts your heart like your kids. I didn’t quite understand it until we had our boy, but it’s so true. Near the end of the month, Ethan started eyeing our meals, so we started letting him have little tastes. His first food was avocado, and he loved it! There’s a video on flickr for those of you who want to go digging for it.

Alright, enough catching up for now. I have to go wash dishes.

Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon……

Compare that to his one week old picture

It’s been two weeks since we brought the little boy home, and he’s doing great! Here are a few updates on our burgeoning family:

* Ethan is growing like a little weed. Yesterday, he measured in at 4 lbs 14 oz and 18″ long. He’s still in the 0th percentile for his age, but 20 ounces in 26 days feels like a lot!

* E’s newest adventure is tummy time. He’s pretty cute doing his “preemie pushups” (as the nurse called it). He tries really hard to roll over, but for now he gets stuck on his side. We have to time it right, though, because he gets so hungry that he’s crying his angry cry by the time we finish. Little boy has a temper.

* Mom and Dad are learning how to live on a feeding schedule and a lot less sleep. We’ve also learned that we need a short outing on most days. Otherwise, we get cabin fever like crazy!

* We’ve purchased three pounds of coffee in the last two days. That’s a lot…even for us.

* We just celebrated our first Christmas with Ethan. We dressed him in the onesie that you see in the picture, and it was HUGE on him even in a newborn size. I’m pretty sure it’ll fit him in a couple weeks, but he needed another 2″ at least to fill the length. We had a great time at home and spent the whole day in our pj’s watching episodes of Top Gear on netflix and drinking Martinelli’s. Our apartment was decorated with stockings and a burst-into-flames-it’s-so-dry wreath. Next year we can dress things up for Christmas, and we’ll have a little one year old to celebrate with!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! (And on that note, happy 3rd day of Christmas.) It’s time for me to go feed him again, but we’ll keep you updated with pics and info now that things are starting to normalize. Keep checking back!