The importance of CJ's smiles

It's no longer important that I don't remember what it feels like to sleep more than 2 1/2 hours at a time... What is important is the look on CJ's face when after I change his little non-existent butt after he wakes up in the morning. His smiles are beautiful...

His smiles in the morning are by far the best (for me at least!) Whether he is wide awake and happy for 15 minutes or an hour, his cheerfulness gets me through the rest of the day; no matter what time we wake up, how much we slept the night before... It all just doesn't matter after he shows me his gorgeous, toothless smile.

CJ is about a week away from being 2 months old (February 16 he'll officially be 2 months). His greatest achievement at this point, I think, is smiling when he hears my voice and sees my face. It fills me up with happiness I never knew existed!! He's also developing well. He's holding his head up like a champ, and he doesn't fight tummy time (as long as we get him on his belly under his terms, he's happy; that is the key to tummy time I believe.) His newest thing is chewing on my finger. He loves to chew on my pinky right in front, and then also in the back of his mouth... He doesn't take a binky from me, which is ok, I'm not against them or for them. If they work, they work. If not, I don't want to force him to take it, but he also chews on those now!! i wasn't sure if it a sign of teething (not very likely, but who knows!?)

We go to the pediatrician February 20 for his two month check up and some vaccines. I'm spreading out his vaccines so he doesn't get more than two at a time. If I can, I will only allow him to get one at a time. It's pretty stressful for him to undergo more than that I think. Yes, I survived the shots and so have many other people. But when he gets one, he tenses his arms and legs up, and putting a needle into a tense muscle doesn't feel very good!!

Anyways, CJ is eating like a champ, he takes a bottle (of expressed BM) for daddy (not for me... he'd rather have the real stuff, I guess). But it is kind of nice just in case I want to or have to go out somewhere, and daddy is watching him. I've gone out to the store for a quick ride, but never out for more than an hour (and I've done that once, maybe twice). And I'm always local!! Never more than 10 minutes away. I'm certainly NOT complaining because I don't think I'm ready to leave him for more than that yet! February 28th I'm heading to a tricky tray and that will be my first night out of the house with Frankie home with CJ for a good amount of time. The doors open at 5pm and the auctions start at 7pm... However, the school where the event is being held is within walking distance (10 minutes max; 1-3 minutes driving (depending on lights). So if I had to get home for whatever reason, I'm REALLY close. I think it's a good planned first night out!!!

All in all, everything is going well. Transitioning to parenthood can be a challenge. Don't get me wrong, Frank and I have had some up's and down's over the past almost 8 weeks, but everything has been up for the most part! I'm pretty much exclusively breastfeeding, so Frankie doesn't necessarily have to get up at night. I'm a little quicker with changing diapers, so I take care of them at night... It keeps CJ sleeping rather than waking up!! Plus, CJ has an innate sense of who is changing him, and he usually pee's on Frankie 2 out of 3 times when he changes him!! We agreed that during the night, I'll change him so we ALL can get some more sleep... Silly daddy!!