two-riffic months

Dear Jack,
Two months! Man, it flies by. Sometimes, I think I can literally see you growing in my arms. Now that I know you've gained four inches in the last six weeks, I know I was right.

We're starting to settle into a routine as a family. Actually, we were getting the hang of things and then I went back to work and you and Daddy and I are still working on finding equilibrium. The balance between work and play has always been hard for both of us, but I promise that we're working on it. (See what I mean: working on play. ack!) I wish I could say that once we get the hang of this, it will be steady-as-you-go easy and that we'll know what we're doing and we'll never forget your diaper bag or show up late to a meeting or come home with work to be finished. Our life together (before you and with you) has been an awesome adventure so far, but adventures aren't adventures without twists and turns and I think we'll all have our fair share of those. Besides, no boy who grows as fast as you do can be that adverse to change!

On that note, you are wearing size 1 diapers. You outgrew the newborn diapers at about five and a half weeks. It probably would have been sooner if you hadn't lost a little bit of weight in your first week--and if your mother had noticed that the newborn size was starting to look like a speedo on you.

This month you are sleeping for longer periods. You go to bed between seven and eight every night and then you get up again at about 11 and then again at 4 or 5. You still take at least three naps each day, but when you are awake, you are more alert every day. Whether eating or sleeping, you go from zero to sixty in four seconds. That is, you are perfectly content and then, well, you aren't. You are learning how to fall asleep on your own. You aren't learning that YOU MUST TRY TO BURP AT THE END OF EVERY MEAL. Instead, you scream as soon as the milk is taken away and only once you've let out at least one whopper of a burp and been given a pacifier do you really calm down. We go through this between seven and eight times a day.

This month, you and I went to San Antonio four times. What a star traveller you are!! I hope this means you'll eventually be up for a trans-Atlantic flight. Let me just say that while there are many, many disadvantages to having half of your family in another country (like missing them all the time) there are some perks when they live in Europe and not, oh I don't know, Kentucky. Just remember that it takes as long to get to Kentucky in a car as it does to get to London in a plane. And there are no potty breaks in the car. Or opportunities to eat anything. Not with your Grandaddy.


You have adapted wonderfully to going to work with me. We usually stay for about six hours and you nap and eat and play. You also get loved on by all of my coworkers and any visitors who happen to stop by. You are far more popular than I am. At the end of the day, after all that attention, you are wiped out--and so is your mother. While it isn't ideal to be back to work so soon, I find it easier to make this transition when you are no more than a few feet away. I'm just not ready to give you over yet.

In the last couple of weeks, you are doing some social smiling. You are super sneaky and it is hard for me to catch it on film; actually, it is nearly impossible. Once you get a little bit better at it, I am determined to capture it as your smiles melt me. And you are a pretty laid-back little guy, so I think we may just find that you are smiling all the time soon.

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a mother and I have wondered whose mother I would be. (When I was a little girl, I would pretend that I was being interviewed about my life story. I had a million fantasies about what it would be like to grow up.) Now, I know. I am Jack Stafford's mommy and I can't imagine it any other way.

Thanks for letting me begin to know you.
Love you always and always,
Mommy