Merry Christmas!

Isaac's first Christmas. My first Christmas as a mom. What a beautiful time.

Here's Isaac dressed up for our liturgical Christmas Eve service at church. He slept through the whole thing, except when hubby got up to do the prayer. He woke up a little and grunted and groaned. He loves his daddy. :)

And here he is in the wee hours of Christmas Day. He did not sleep well. Must have been the excitement of the day.

And super comfy on Christmas morning. He was awake the entire time we were at church. It was the first time most people have seen him awake. At one point during the service, I put him on my chest and he started doing his neck "exercises" and swung his head all around. I got a couple of smiles out of him, and he spent a long time staring at me. ♥

Hubby spoiled me rotten, as usual. I think this is my favorite gift. It's from National Geographic. A hand carved stone sculpture, made in Zimbabwe.

I'm loving life! And mostly, thankful for another baby whose birth we celebrate today. The one who came to save us all!

Merry Christmas!

Favorite Pictures

How is this comfortable?

Milk coma!

Got a glimpse of how he'll look as a toddler... ♥

I'll have to recreate this with a better camera and background.

Snuggles with Mommy!

Christmas Present

My mom sent a beautiful book from Pottery Barn Kids. It is personalized! What a great idea! Even on the inside, it says it's from Grammy. The story is about Isaac wanting a teddy bear for Christmas. He writes a letter to Santa and he brings him the teddy bear. There's a page that shows the mantle on the fireplace, and we all have stockings: me, hubby, Isaac, Grammy, Miles (the cat), Frieda and Moses (the dogs). So cute.

It also came with an adorable teddy bear, of course! :)

I think Isaac likes it. :)

Holy Family!

Our church had it's children's Christmas musical this morning and hubby, Isaac and I were asked to be Joseph, baby Jesus and Mary. What an honor! I've wanted to do this since we were married. Hubby and I did play Joseph and pregnant Mary one year. That is fun to do when you're three years into infertility. At any rate, what a thrill this morning!

Isaac was perfect and didn't make any noise at all. He did get startled at one point. I think it was when the shepherds knelt before him. :)

Here he is waiting to go on stage for the second time:

The kids in the choir all wore angels' wings, and I asked to borrow a pair after the musical was over. Isaac didn't enjoy himself, but I got a few fun pictures.

What a fun experience!

Doctor's Appointment

Isaac went to the doctor today for his one month checkup. They always make the poor baby get naked so they can weigh him. Thankfully this time I remembered a blanket.

Everyone said how good he was. He didn't cry at all when I placed him on the scale or on the desk to measure him. He didn't cry when he got his temperature taken.

He got a shot today, and he only cried for three seconds. It's official: he's an angel. ♥ Honestly, though, he did really well. I thought he would scream his head off after the shot, but nope. :)

His measurements:

Weight: 9 lbs (18th percentile)

Length: 20 3/4 inches (10th percentile)

Head circumference: 36 1/2 cm (10th percentile). Now to me, he has a huge head, but apparently it's normal.

The doctor said he is growing exactly on target compared to where he was last visit.

And he got a Scooby Doo band-aid!!

He spent a lot of time sleeping after we got home:

Check out that outfit! I found another Christmas outfit at Target! I bought two - the other one is all red and says "My first Christmas" on it... he'll wear that on Christmas Day. I bought newborn size though, and I wonder if it will fit him. I might try to get back there within the next week and buy the next size up. He's still gaining an ounce a day, so he'd be 10 lbs right around Christmas. Can a 10 pound baby fit into a newborn sleeper? :)

Favorite Pictures

Some adorable cell phone pics from the past week or so:

Dedication

Today we dedicated Isaac to the Lord. We wanted to do it today because Brian's mom and sister were visiting. It was beautiful.

The pastor quoted Ephesians 1:5

In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will...

"In the Old Testament, there are only three people who were adopted, the two most prominent being Moses and Esther. In the New Testament, however, the concept of adoption looms large in the letters of St. Paul, for Paul uses adoption as a metaphor for what it means to belong to Christ Jesus.

'In love,' he says, 'God decided in advance to adopt us as his sons through Jesus Christ.' Into our hearts he has sent the Spirit of his own Son to witness that we are now God's children! Because we are sons, we look to God, calling him Abba, Father.

May this same deep relationship grow in the home of Brian and Dawn. They have waited many years for this event, and God, in his grace, has not forgotten them. Isaac may not know this now, but God has placed him in a home where he will be loved unconditionally. If I could change only slightly the passage we read at the beginning, it would read, 'In love Brian and Dawn decided in advance to adopt Isaac,' and it would be entirely appropriate to say, as did St. Paul, that they did this 'through Jesus Christ.' It is Christ's love that stands as the eternal pattern for us all! May this family be truly blessed."

Then our pastor held him, anointed his head with oil, and prayed for him. When he finished praying, he looked at Isaac and he had a HUGE smile on his face! He said to the congregation, "he's smiling!" and people gasped and Aww'd. Isaac kept smiling until after we sat down.

After the sermon, we had communion and Brian spilled his wine on me and Isaac! Oops! :)

It was a beautiful day. I can't imagine the dedication being any more perfect. I loved every moment of it. ♥

Christmas Decorations

I finally got the Christmas tree up! I say "finally" because I really wanted to do it last Friday, but we hadn't bought our new tree yet. Once I got the tree, I couldn't find our old lights! So I went out the other day and bought lights, but I didn't realize they were white-wired lights instead of green. Irritated, I took another look in the basement and did find the right lights! Whew! Just have to return those white ones now. :)

Me and the hubby decided we don't really like tree-toppers, so we are angel/starless this year. :)

I did keep two sets of the white lights to put on the Expedit from IKEA. :)

Some favourite ornaments:

Isaac's stocking! :) Mine is the top one, his is the bottom one:

Baby's first Christmas ornament from my mom (dh and I both cried when this came in the mail):

Christmas Clothes

Raise your hand if you are really, really ridiculously good looking!

Do you know how hard it is to find Christmas clothes for infant boys? Seriously. That's so disappointing! I have found ONE outfit so far... and then Isaac's aunt gave him a sleeper that is Christmasy... so that makes two. Not enough. I'll be keeping my eyes open for more adorable clothes whenever I get out to shop!

I found this cute one at Wal*Mart:

One Month Old

Isaac was born one month ago! It's so hard to believe! :) Time has flown by.

I'm loving being a mom. I love that Isaac is an easy baby, at least as far as I know. Ha! He is now going up to 6 hours between feedings at night! That sure makes a difference in how I feel. He's now using mostly the big bottles, as the little ones don't hold enough! He's such a good eater! If our calculations are right, Isaac now weighs 8 lbs 2 oz!

I love this baby!

Begin meltdown:

Ok, he's better now...

♥

Favorite Pictures