Four Months Old

How is it that my baby is four months old?  Those who know me know I love having a newborn, and let's be honest.  Four months old is not really a newborn anymore.  Aaron has great head control, can sit for a long time in the Bumbo, wears 3-6 month clothes, and is really close to rolling over when he gets mad enough.  Those are not really newborn things.  I'm very sad about how quickly he's growing.  Soon he'll be wrestling nonstop with the other two and finding various ways to destroy my house and drive me crazy. 

Despite all the growing and developing, we definitely love this little one.  Eli is still Aaron's number one fan and takes every opportunity he can to literally smother Aaron with love and affection. 

Aaron is not quite the sleeper the other two were.  He's not terrible, but I know Eli was definitely sleeping a lot longer at this stage, and Clayton came home 100% sleep trained at two months (thank you feeding tube).  These days Aaron is nursing and usually going to bed between 7 and 8, I'm waking him at 11 or 12 to eat (or else he's screaming his head off by 1am), he's waking about 7 to eat, and then he sleeps until 9.  It's definitely not anything to complain about, but I know Eli was close to if not already sleeping 12 hours without nursing at this point, so it's hard not to compare them.  During the day he's eating at 7, 10, 1, 4, and 7, every three hours on the dot, and there is definitely no stretching it.  This boy has an amazing internal clock, and he knows when it's time.

I'm definitely still adjusting to life with three.  Clayton is getting better and better about walking places, as opposed to riding in the stroller, but he tires easily, and a short trip to the mall this morning nearly did him in.  Luckily we met up with my mom at the end, and I was able to carry him while Mom pushed the other two for a few minutes.  It goes better when I carry Aaron in the front carrier and push the other two in the double stroller.  It's just more physically demanding for me.  That's close to 80 pounds of kid, 40 pounds of stroller, and who knows how many pounds of diaper bag, purse, and survival toys and snacks. 

All in all we're all well, and we're all looking forward to the Christmas season.  Clayton COMPLETELY understands the whole gift receiving part of Christmas (thanks to Toys R Us inserts in the paper), and now we need to work on the meaning of Christmas and the joy of giving.  I picked up a book of Jesse Tree devotions today, and I am looking forward to starting those tonight.  If you're not familiar with a Jesse Tree, I first heard of it from Emily last year, and I knew it was something I wanted to do with my family.  Here's a link to her post from last year.  I hope you don't mind me sharing it, Emily.  I'm a few days late, but we'll squeeze it in.  I don't have my ornaments yet (bad planning), but I hope to really get moving on those in the next couple days, and for now, I have some printed paper ones we can use. 

Merry Christmas!