Fruit of the Week: Prunes

By the reaction on his face, I think this has been Sam's favorite fruit so far!

Sweet Pup

Sam Loves Cookie!

No More Swaddling

Well, the dreaded day has finally come..no more swaddling for Sam. As many of your already know, swaddling has been the best thing that has happened to all of us. Since Sam was about 6 weeks old, we have been wrapping him up at night and it has been like magic. Once we did it, he started sleeping through the night and we have never looked back.

I knew the day would come when he would start turning over and would need to have his hands free. Adam is off all week and called me at work to tell me that he found Sam sleeping on his belly still in his swaddle blanket. He also said that his eye was really swollen, but it was the eye that had been closest to the mattress. It went away after he had been awake for a little while.

Poor boy - this is what happens after you sleep on your belly/face for the first time!

After talking to the nurse at Dr. Sherwood's office yesterday..my fears were confirmed, no more swaddling! Adam and I were very nervous about how this was going to go, would we ever sleep again? Since he was wrapped so tightly every night I didn't know how he would sleep being able to move around so freely with his hands free. We did decide to put him in a sleep sack to keep him warm and to put some mittens on his hands so he wouldn't scratch his face to pieces. I rocked him for a while until he was sleeping soundly and put him down. We didn't hear a peep from him until the next morning - success! He did great!

Still snug as a bug - just with my arms free!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends. We definitely had a busy, but fun, Christmas making the rounds to see everyone. The holiday festivities started on Monday night with my office Christmas party. We had a delicious dinner at The Steam Room Grill and Adam was able to meet all of the nice people I work with. While we ate, Sam stayed with Lili and Shuffie and opened his first Christmas gift..an exersaucer to stay at their house!

Help me Shuffie!

This looks fun!

Then on Wednesday night, the 23rd, we celebrated Christmas with my extended family. We had a house full with my grandmother, my aunt and uncle from Missouri, and my cousins Natalie, Nathan and Nick and their families. We used to always celebrate Christmas on the 23rd because that was my grandfather's birthday so it was nice to celebrate again on that day like old times. We had a great time visiting and playing and the kids loved Sam.

Cade (11), Caimbrie (3), Natalie, Chloe (5), Sarah, Cole (8), Pamela & Christian (7)

Adam, Sam, Carlin & Kelly

Christian, Meme & Nathan

Opening gifts

Thursday we went with both of our families to the Christmas Eve service at church. It was extra special for me this year to be able to sit in that service and hold baby Sam. I can vividly remember sitting in church last Christmas Eve wondering if he was ok or if we had lost him. It was wonderful to get to hold my Christmas miracle in my arms as the entire church went dark and sang Silent Night by candlelight. It was beautiful!

After church we headed to Bobi and Papa John's for Christmas at their house. We all wore matching PJ's, ate a yummy breakfast fixed by Bobi and Uncle Eric and opened gifts.

Uncle Eric, Aunt Amanda, Banks, Carlin, Sam & Adam in our matching PJs

Little Sock Monkey

Sam riding his rocket from Bobi & Papa John

Sam was so tired from all of the celebrating that we had to wake him up on Friday morning to see what Santa brought. His big gift from Santa was an exersaucer and he LOVED it! He also got some books, a cookie monster, a dump truck and an animal sounds puzzle.

My two favorite boys on Christmas morning

Sam and Mom on Christmas morning

Playing in his gift from Santa

After we finished opening gifts from Santa, we headed to Lili and Shuffie's house for brunch and presents with Meme.

Meme and Sam

The cutest Santa I know!

Carlin & Rusty's tail lost in a pile of gifts at Lili & Shuffie's

Friday night we went to Adam's Mimi's house to celebrate Christmas with his Aunt Jeanne & Uncle Steve, Aunt Robbie & Uncle Paul and all of his cousins. We had a great time and enjoyed a good game of Redneck Life - it was one of Adam's gifts and it was hilarious!!

Sisters & Cousins

The whole family

We wrapped up the Christmas celebrations with lunch at Cock of the Walk with Adam's Mammy and his Aunt Jan, Uncle Bill and cousins from Atlanta. PawPaw wasn't feeling well so he stayed home, we missed him!

Payton, Amanda, Banks, Aunt Jan, Sam, & Stuart

Thanks again to EVERYONE for the delicious meals, wonderful gifts and most of all the time spent and memories made. We had so much fun with each and every one of you!

Eskimo Sam

Fruit of the Week: Pears