Colt, my dear, you are 2 months old today! Happy day!

Colt developments: Sweet love, you are changing so much – growing from a beautiful baby to an even more beautiful, tiny little boy. Let’s be honest, you’re still in the little baby stage, but it feels like you’re so much more of a defined person now. All of your features – your eyes, your nose, your eyebrows and eyelashes… – they all just seem stronger.

Personality-wise you continue to be your super chill, laid back, awesome self. You generally only cry if you’re particularly upset about something (time to eat or you’re ready to sleep) and you’re still very easy to soothe and quiet – especially with your paci – you love that thing! You are very portable and we enjoy taking you with us wherever we go.

You also started smiling this month, Culhane! You smile every day but each one is still a treasure, and when you give one out you’d think your mom and dad were being told that we won the lottery – we get so excited every time! The best part of your smile though baby, is your eyes. Your eyes squint up a little bit and just look so happy. What a blessing and a joy it is for us to be a part of that pure happiness.

You are really following people and objects. Sometimes you bat at the toys hanging above you but I think it’s just coincidence at this point. You do tummy-time every day and usually you seem to like it at first – holding your head up and turning it from side to side, doing pseudo push-ups of sorts. Then eventually you either want to fall asleep there or you get feisty and start kicking. If I put my hand behind your feet then you’ll push off and scoot around, but it’s more out of frustration than anything. When you sneeze, you typically give 3 in a row and your arms fly up in the air. We have also decided that you definitely yawn more than the average baby. We are pretty certain you are a little South Paw, and we think that this bodes well for your future baseball career. One of my favorite times with you is when you are first waking up – you’re SO cute I think I might explode with love for you.

Oh, and you’re officially a bad-ass dual citizen with both US and Brazilian passports. I’m so jealous!

Health: My goodness little one, have you put on some weight! At the pediatrician’s office yesterday you weighed in at 12 lbs 2 oz and I hate to say it love, but you are just roll after roll. Your chubby little legs are unbelievable and I’m pretty sure you even have mini rolls on your fingers and toes. You moved from Newborn to Size 1 diapers at about Week 5 and you are starting to outgrow some of your outfits. We are certainly not starving you little one.

I’m happy to tell you that your little face acne cleared up a few weeks ago (it probably only lasted 2 weeks) but about a week ago you developed a light heat rash of sorts on the top of your chest, shoulders, and a little bit on the top of your back. It seems like mama is keeping you a little too warmly wrapped all the time, so we are getting a cream to put on it. I’m glad that in the meantime, you don’t seem to notice.

Eating: You are such a great little eater baby! You always make it known when you’re hungry and you’ve gotten pretty efficient with the whole process – usually spending about 7 minutes on each side. You make me laugh every time we feed though, with your little faces and noises – I love it. Due to life and logistics, sometimes I have to pump and have someone else feed you a bottle, and while I am happy to share the joy of feeding you with others because it is so special, part of me is always a little sad when that happens because I feel like it’s our sacred time together.

I’m amazed when I look at the beautiful, chunky little man that you are and realize that from the moment of conception, God has given me everything that you need to develop, grow and thrive. What a blessing!

Sleep: Praise the Lord you are a great little sleeper. You are getting about 6.5 hours of sleep at night (7-8 hour feeding cycle start-start) and you nap all throughout the day. You always sleep in your crib at night, all swaddled up, but during the day the naps are all over the place. Your favorite place to nap is in your stroller or in the car – those get you to sleep immediately every time! I swear that you look like a tiny angel from heaven when you sleep and I love to just stare at you and snuggle with you.

Schedule: Although I totally would have thought that I’d have us on a set schedule by now, I have come to realize that a loose routine with predictable patterns is better for us than a rigid plan at this point. A couple weeks ago I tried to put you on a more legit schedule and it was just a mess. I would get stressed out whenever activities got in the way and often you just wouldn’t stick to it and I wouldn’t know what to do. The worst part, however, was that it messed with your night-sleeping abilities and, although it definitely wasn’t part of the plan, we were waking up a lot more at night for feedings.

Anyway, right now our pattern focuses on trying to feed you around 10:45pm and get you to bed somewhere between 11:30pm and midnight. You usually sleep until 6 or 6:30am when you wake up to eat. After your morning feed, we change your diaper and then you get some snuggle-time or play-time with Daddy, either before or after he goes to the gym. Some mornings when you’re especially, irresistibly cute he skips the gym to play with you longer or take you for a walk in the park. Who can blame him though?! After that we just operate on 3-4.5 hour cycles of feeding, changing, playing and napping, but it just depends on what we have going on for the day and your mood. Every day I try to play with you a lot, sing to you, do tummy-time and back time with you, read to you, dance with you and get you out of the house a little. I try to keep you awake the entire time between the last two feedings to help you go to sleep for the night a little easier, so usually those last two are only a couple of hours apart. It works out well though because it means that you’re awake and able to play with Dad the whole evening!

I like our routine little one, and I appreciate that it gives us some flexibility from day to day. And as time goes on, I think you’ll naturally sleep for longer stretches at night, but for now I know I’m getting more sleep than lots of moms of 2 month olds, so I can’t complain.

Mom: Physically I’m feeling great, fully recovered, and back to my old self! I’ve had a few tough days (following nights of very little sleep) but I think we’re finding our rhythm and I’ve realized that I just need to take naps during the day sometimes. Now that we no longer have any visitors, we are settling into normal, real life as a little family of three and I love it.

Thoughts: My littlest love! What a blessing it is to be your mom! You are so much fun and bring so much happiness to this family every day.

I love watching you change and grow – so much happens so quickly right now. It is pure joy to witness, but I also find it a little painful. I love you so much it hurts, and I think that the hurt comes in realizing that in this life, nothing is permanent. You are so tiny and cute and cuddly and I just want to freeze time, but I can’t. Each developmental milestone brings new joy and new heartbreak at the same time. I know this may not make much sense to you right now little one, but I know that the day will come when you will know this feeling – this joy that only comes all tangled up with this heartache. It is a beautiful reminder that ultimately, we were not made for this temporary world. We have eternity built into our hearts and our souls, and one day the joy shall win over the heartache, and we will have the wholeness without the bondage of time.

But, for now we live in this world and I pray that I am making the most of each moment with you and living out a godly example of love, joy, grace and justice. I pray that you will grow up to be a man who loves the Lord with all your heart, and that you will be used by Him in mighty ways, to bring Him glory and honor in this life and the next.