2 years ago today...

Jon and I went on our first date 2 years ago today. 3 months later we were engaged and 3 months after that we were married. I would never have guessed that I would do it so fast, but when you know it's right, you can't wait for the rest of your life to begin!

And life DID begin!! 4 months after getting married we were pregnant, and 9 months after that we were parents. It's been wonderful, it's been hard, and I'm so so grateful.

To celebrate we basically just hung out with our slightly cranky, possibly teething, nearly 5 month old. Aaaahhhh, life is good!

Bye Bye Burrito Baby

*Sniff* *Tear* my baby boy is growing up!

Ever since the hospital Walter has responded really well to swaddling. It always really calmed him down. We started out just doing it like the nurses showed us. But we learned, as he grew a little, that we needed to swaddle tighter to really keep him still, to make him feel cuddly safe, and to help him to sleep. We referred to this newer, tighter wrap as "the ruthless swaddle". Then later than that he started to wriggle free and wake himself up at night again, so we developed a newer technique that we called "the nuclear swaddle". I even developed a "summer swaddle" which just kept his arms tight because it was too hot to have the rest of him wrapped up. They always calmed him and helped to him to fall asleep and keep him asleep longer. We took our swaddle blankets with us everywhere. People at church became accustomed to seeing Jon perform the ruthless swaddle on the foyer couch during the meeting, and then pace around carrying Walter in his favorite position, the football hold. For a while there all our swaddle blankets were red, and we got all kinds of comments about how he looked like a little chili pepper (all he needs is a green hat!) and my chiropractor always called him Super Baby!!!

But when he started wriggling free of the nuclear swaddle and still staying asleep through all that we began to get the idea that he might not need the swaddle anymore. So I've been putting him down for naps without it, but we kept on doing it at night for the last couple of weeks. But last night he went to sleep without the nuclear swaddle and slept really well. So I think we may be the proud parents of a big baby boy who no longer needs to be swaddled!! Sad.

As a sort of tribute and good bye, here are the pictures we took of our swaddled little boy while he was growing. And I guess we'll put 7 or 8 square pieces of knit fabric in varying colors in a box for the next baby who likes to be swaddled!

4 Months!

My little boy just keeps growing! On friday he turned 4 months old, and he had his 4 month check up. He is now in the 94th percentile for height and the 76th for weight. He is 16 lbs, 5 ozs. He's basically as big as his cousin Brooklyn, who's almost a year old! Jon likes to say that he's half as big as me, since when I hold him he covers my whole torso. Ha ha!

Even more important than his 4 month check up on Friday, on Sunday we finally had him blessed at church. Jon did a great job and though apparently Walter cooed and gurgled through a lot of it, it wasn't picked up on the microphone, so the rest of the chapel didn't hear it! Although that probably would have been cute! Below are some pics of my Booboolala in his cute blessing outfit. Sunday went great, we had a lunch after and I got to see some beloved family, and some wonderful friends I hadn't seen since before my baby was born! Thanks to all!