Wrapped around his little finger...

I'm in serious trouble. Once this little boy is calling me 'mama' with intent (says it all the time now but I don't think he knows what it means yet) and telling me he loves me I'm going to be toast.

Mack isn't much of a snuggler at all. It's been probably since he was 2 or 3 months old that he actually fell asleep on me, and then not without a fight. But that's exactly what he did last night. He was in the absolute best, sweetest mood even though he was getting pretty tired. It was only about 7:20, so we were trying to hold him off for another 15-20 minutes because if we put him to bed before 8 he just thinks it's a nap. He was sitting next to me on the couch and kept laying his head down against my chest and then sitting back up to grin at Ryan and me, all the while sucking on his lip and holding his favorite blanket the way he does that makes my heart melt e.v.e.r.y.t.i.m.e. After about 10 minutes of this, he actually fell asleep! I snuggled him and soaked it all in for about 20 minutes, before I felt like I really needed to wake him up if we had any hope of getting him to bed at a decent time.

Boy am I in trouble with this one...

You're going to miss this...

We've had some bad nights lately and I keep reminding myself how very quickly these days go by.

I don't know if little man is teething, dealing with separation anxiety, or what, but he has been struggling to say the least. I'm talking screaming for an hour and half, won't go to sleep until we take him for a ride in the car, then only sleeping in his car seat. Oy...

He's never been a terrific sleeper - seems like we've worked through one issue after another since the beginning. We've been planning to do a little sleep training after our holiday travels to get Mack to sleep through the night instead of waking up twice. Now I'd be thrilled with his usual two wake-ups...

I get REALLY discouraged and stressed about his sleeping. When I hear about other babies his age who've slept through the night from the get-go, I figure I have to be doing something wrong. I feel like we're doing everything the 'experts' recommend, and it doesn't make a difference. I just want so badly to do the right things for him. I know we'll get there eventually, it's just tough at the moment.

I know I have to keep things in perspective - I have a healthy, happy, awesome little boy and an amazing husband who loves us both. So when I'm up with Mack for the fourth time before 3am, and I just want to cry right along with him, I remind myself how truly blessed I am and how quickly these days are passing by. And I snuggle him a little closer :)

Pre-Christmas pictures

I already take what seems like a ridiculous amount of pictures, but now that we finally got our new camera, I think it may just become a little bit obsessive. The camera had quite the adventure getting to our house - apparently it was loaded on a UPS delivery truck that went in the ditch along I-35. After I obsessively (sensing a theme here?) tracked the status online all day and checked the front step more times than I can count, the package's status was updated to 'Emergency conditions beyond UPS' control.' What?? Thankfully it arrived in one piece the next day. Now I just have to figure the crazy thing out - our copy of 'Canon Rebel T1i for Dummies' should be here soon to help out. (The first picture is the only one taken with the new camera - any difference in picture quality?)

Trying on new hat and mittens - I doubt the mittens are going to keep his hands real warm if they're wet from him sucking on them all the time...

'Helping' mommy sew - aka rolling around the floor in fabric scraps

'Helping' mommy bake..."Mom, do you know how many calories are in a serving?!"

"Why do they call it reindeer poop? This doesn't look like my poop..."

"Let's make pretzels now! I'll help by crushing them into tiny pieces."

Being super cute - what a big boy!

Hanging his ornament on the tree with Daddy

Baby's first Christmas ornament :)

Mack - 2, Mommy - 0

I learned a lesson today the hard way - Mack is a crazy little man these days! We started off the morning with a little poop in the tub - first time we've had this happen. I saw it coming too, just couldn't act quick enough. He hadn't been soaped up yet either, so I took him out of his tub and set him on the bathroom floor while I drained the tub, wiped it out with a lysol wipe, rinsed, and repeated. Of course then he decided to pee on the floor too. Silly little boy.

A little later we had lunch at South Union with one of my old coworkers (who is expecting her own little troublemaker in a few months). Mack and I shared my water and bread, and I even gave him a little chicken from my soup, but apparently it wasn't enough for him. There I was feeling all super momish - holding Mack and keeping him happy while I ate, sharing my food with him, and carrying on a conversation all at the same time. Then he grabbed the still nearly-full bowl of soup (which, thankfully, had cooled significantly) and poured the entire thing all over us. At least it was cold enough today that there weren't too many people in the usually packed restaurant. Neither of us is worse for wear, although my cute fuzzy black snow boots now look like someone yacked all over them - awesome :). He's quite good at humbling me and putting me in my place...