Charlie's in charge of our days and our nights...

So, our baby girl is now 4 months old... can you believe it? She weighed in yesterday at 9lbs and 4oz!! She is doing so well and becoming so much fun. She is becoming more and more responsive all the time. She obviously recocnizes Will and I now. She particularly LOVES her daddy (it is almost enough to make me annoyed!!) For example, she got her 4 month shots yesterday and she was pretty much a pill the rest of the day. There would be no smiles for mommy. But once daddy came home, it was an entirely different story as she became smiles from ear to ear. She even smiles sometimes when she hears Will laughing from across the room. It is pretty cute. Of course. as soon as we break out the camera we get nothing but "blue steel" from her. Hopefully we can capture some of her truly beautiful smiles here soon (her half smile that turns into a big open mouth grin is currently my favorite!!)

People ask us all the time if she is sleeping through the night yet which I find funny because she is really only about 7 weeks old (adjusted age). She gets up 2 or 3 times a night but I have been bad about keeping track. I usually start her out in her bassinet and then when she gets up the first time, I usually just pull her into bed with us (learning to breastfeed lying down was one of the best things about lactation clinic :) Speaking of lactation, we have officially graduated (as of the end of October!) So we don't get to go to CHOC every week anymore or see her old nurses (which is kinda a bummer!) We still get to see Amanda though since we will be going to her baby shower at the beginning of December. She is so great! It will be fun to do something in return for her since she spent so much time taking care of our baby. I feel like I owe her in a big way.

We still are not completely settled into our house. Some of that has to do with money (it is expensive to get everything I really want to finish off the house, like a new kitchenette set, some decor items and, of course, my porch swing!) The office is still an eye sore. I hope that by Christmas it will be a bit more put together. I just realize that I don't have nearly as much time as I would have thought with a newborn in the house! She takes up so much time. Not only that but I seem to spend a lot of time falling asleep myself when she naps. So, I basically feel as though I get nothing done. I just ordered Baby Wise though from Amazon so I am hoping that we get a schedule figured out soon. (one of those things I wanted to read before I delivered... turns out that didn't happen!) I am certainly looking forward to Christmas though. I had my first Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks last week and was SO happy! I also realized yesterday that Coast 103.5 is already playing nothing but Christmas music here :) So fun! My fear is that the next month is going to go by way to fast and I am going to let Christmas slip by again. So, I am doing a few things to combat that. First of all, I am trying to get all my Christmas shopping done this week (I am mostly there!) Second, I want to put together a FAMILY CHRISTMAS CALENDAR because we have so much going on this December (including 2 weddings and all of the stuff that goes along with that... showers, rehearsals, etc.) And I want to put EVERYTHING that I want to do down on that calendar.... even if that means writing down the little things like getting our tree, putting up lights on the house, or cozying up with a Christmas movie and a fire, I don't want to forget anything. Also, I have been reading a book on Christmas traditions and I want to incorporate a few things into our lives... especially since it is Charlie's first Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving should be fun too. We are hosting at our place and invited anyone from church that has nowhere else to go to come here... it will be fun to have people over. It is nice to have a place to actually host. We certainly have so much to be grateful for!

I hope to have more pictures soon... like of Charlie's first halloween (we had SO many trick-or-treaters, Will had to run out and get more candy at about 8pm!! It made me think though about how much I LOVE living in a neighborhood!) As soon as I get pictures, I promise to post :) Will has them all right now and I am negotiating their release :)

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. We are thankful for you, our friends and family at this time of year and all year long.