2 months old!

Russell's 2 month "photo shoot:"

Our baby Russell is 2 months old today! His personality has really started coming out this month. Here are some things he's doing/enjoying:

~Smiling! His first smile was at 5 1/2 weeks old, and now he gives us that bright smile several times a day.

~Cooing: He makes the sweetest little noises when he's happy

~Laughing? Maybe you can't count it as a real laugh yet, but he grins and makes this squeaky noise - it's adorable :)

~Russell's favorite things to smile/laugh at: paintings/pictures, lights, and ceiling fans! On rare occasions, he will even smile at people - haha.

~On Sunday night, Russell started sleeping in his own room (before that, he was in a bassinet in our room). He enjoys his crib!

~Speaking of sleep, he has started to sleep longer: a few times a week, he will sleep for 4-6 hours straight! It's not consistent yet, but we'll take what we can get!

~He is outgrowing a lot of his 0-3 month clothes already due to his length!

Russell's 2 month well check is on Friday! Of course, we're not looking forward to the shots, but we can't wait to see how much he's grown!

Lots o' Posts

Scroll down for several posts about our Atlanta trip last week! We had a wonderful time, and I'm sure I'll add more later!

Uncle Jef

Russell has two uncles: my brothers, Jef and Jon. Uncle Jon had met Russell before - since he lives in Raleigh, it's a lot easier for him to visit. But Uncle Jef got lots of quality time with Russell this week, since he stayed in Atlanta with my parents the whole week!

I thought maybe I could talk Jef into changing a diaper or two, but no such luck - maybe by Christmas? I guess it's enough that Jef got comfortable holding him, seeing as I don't think he's ever really held a baby!

By the end of the week, Jef even picked Russell up when he was crying, and Russell calmed right down!

This is Jef and me before heading to Ted's Montana Grill Saturday night - don't we look nice in our matching Carolina blue? (Yes, there are a few other UNC alums in our family!)

Russell and his Greats

Russell met several "greats" while in Georgia!

My grandfather, Grampy, was so happy to meet his first great-grandchild. I think Russell was pretty happy too! In fact, Grampy taught Russell how to suck on his fist - a trick that Russell has demonstrated several times a day since then.

Russell also met his Great Aunt Jane (my mom's sister):

And this is as close as Great Uncle Dan would get to Russell :) (he's the one on the right). My cousin Bill is holding Russell here, with his wife Stacy:

Maybe by Christmastime, Dan will be interested in holding a baby :)

Welcome to Atlanta

This is just the first of several posts about our trip! In this one, I'll explain some of the important things, then the pictures will come later :)

Russell and I just got home from a week-long trip to Atlanta! He got to meet so many relatives: great-aunts and uncles, cousins, and his only living great-grandfather. We had such a nice trip.

Some highlights:
~I was very nervous about traveling 5 hours (driving time) with a 7-week-old, but he was wonderful! Slept a lot, and hardly cried at all. I fed him bottles in the car so we didn't have to stop. He was great on the way to Atlanta and the drive home!

~Not only was I worried about Russell, I was worried about the rest of us traveling - we had to fit my parents, my brother, Russell, and me in a 4-door sedan for a 5-hour trip, plus all of our stuff, including a stroller! I didn't think we could do it, but somehow we did - and it wasn't even uncomfortable!

~Grampy (my mom's dad) just adored Russell, but who didn't? I think he was hardly put down the whole time!

~We started several nice food-related traditions while there:
*Appetizer Fridays: each person/couple makes a nice hors d'oeuvre for the family to share. We had quite a spread!
*Pancake Saturdays: this has officially spread across state lines now, as Jason and I do this every week anyway. In Atlanta, Jason made blueberry pancakes and banana-nut-coconut-chocolate chip pancakes. Yum!
*Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Sundays: Russell's Uncle Jef made AMAZING sausage gravy for everyone!

It's always a let-down to come home from such a fun trip, because there's unpacking to do, laundry to wash, groceries to buy (since there are none in the house), etc. We'll be down for another week or so at Christmas, and I'm already looking forward to it!

Goals

This is actually not a post about Russell - sorry if that's disappointing! :)

I think it's always important to have goals in your life - to always set your standards high and aim to make yourself a little better. To that end, I have two goals right now that I'm hoping to reach:

1) I want to lose all of the baby weight! Yes, it's only been 7 weeks, but I am tired of wearing maternity clothes, as hardly any of my "normal" clothes fit. Thus, Russell and I have been walking for an hour every day for the last four weeks. Also, on Monday, I started Weight Watchers.

Normally I wouldn't go on a diet plan like WW, but I just don't know how much a nursing mother should eat, and I'm not good at looking up calorie counts for everything. WW has been great with that, because now I know my points goal for the day, and the books I'm using (thanks to Leigh Anne) are an easy way to figure out the number of points for almost any food. So far I can definitely tell that I was eating too much before, as I've had to cut way back on my portions!

2) I'm doing a read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan! I'm really excited about this, as it's something I've always wanted to do. I'm ashamed to say that there are some books in the Bible that I've never read through, so this is a way to make sure I read them all.

Hopefully posting these on my blog will keep me accountable for completing my goals!

Mobile

Have I mentioned how much Russell loves the mobile on his crib?

No?

I actually only registered for the mobile because it matches his bedding, and I just thought every baby should have a mobile. I didn't really think he would even look at it. I kind of thought this one was boring - it's not very flashy or colorful. All it does is this: the stars spin around slowly and it plays a lullaby.

But 80% of the time, if Russell's crying, it calms him down immediately. That's really good - nothing works 100% of the time :) He can stare at it for 30 minutes sometimes!

Here's the proof (and notice the cute romper):

You might think he's just looking at me or Jason...

...but you'd be wrong!