Happy One Month Birthday, Ryan!

Well, today Ryan is four weeks old! It's been both the longest & shortest four weeks. In one way it seems like he's been here forever, but at the same time I also feel like I was just pregnant! We're still getting up once or twice a night (not counting trips to his bedroom to insert his pacifier!), but we're adjusting. Ryan is a very sweet little guy with the potential to have quite a temper if you don't move fast enough to feed him or get him out of his crib when he wants to get up! Annalise is getting used to his screams. Last week he screamed so loud that she ran away crying & covering her ears. Today he screamed that loud and she laughed at him. Haha...

Ryan's current stats are: 9 lbs 11 oz. Yes, folks, he's gained a whopping TWO pounds in only three weeks! The boy loves to eat.

I'm counting down the weeks until we can expect a full night of sleep. I know that it will be here before we know it, so right now I'm just trying to make the best of my middle-of-the-night viewings of "Nick at Nite" or HGTV. If only the Brady Bunch were on at 3:00 a.m., life would be so much better!

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already. Since I've been mostly quarantined at home for the past few weeks, I feel like I never really got into the "Christmas spirit." After several weeks of adjusting to life with a newborn, the holiday just sort of snuck up on me. However, it all came together and it was a fun day. Santa was much too generous to Annalise. After opening all her gifts, she was overwhelmed and just wandered around the room playing with an old flashlight. Oh well! Today (12/26) she was able to "take in" her gifts and has been playing with them more.

After a morning of opening gifts here at our house, we went to my parents' house for our family Christmas. The whole Patch crew was there and it was lots of fun! Gift giving was total chaos, as always. We start out saying "Let's open them one at a time so we can see who got what" and the next thing you know, there's wrapping paper, tissue, and bows being ripped apart and tossed into the air in total gift-opening madness. I may have no idea what anyone received, but everyone seemed pretty happy afterwards, so I guess all the gifts were a hit! More important than gifts, of course, was just being with the family. I am very blessed to have so many people in my life to love and laugh with. I have been given so many gifts that can't be wrapped, and for those I am so grateful.

Some pics from the day: