Happy 2 Month Birthday, Ryan!

Ryan is now 2 months old! On Saturday we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, and decided to let him try out a "big boy chair" - his Bumbo seat! He is still a bit wobbly, so he didn't stay in too long, but he seemed pretty pleased by it. He looked so cute sitting up!

Fun in the Snow!

We don't often see snow here, and so we were very excited last week to enjoy a snowy Saturday! It was the first time Annalise has ever seen snow. We had a great time sledding down our neighbor's hill (using a heavy-duty trash bag as our sled), throwing snowballs, and making a snowman. And our neighbor even made us some "snow ice cream" and it was delicious! My parents stopped by and my mom took a few turns on our "sled." It was such a fun day! Check out our pics and a video I took while sledding down the hill - the sound of Annalise cracking up is infectious!

3 Going on 13

Today I prepared a bottle for Ryan, left it on the coffee table, and then briefly went upstairs with Annalise. While up there, I thought I heard Edgar grab the bottle off the coffee table. I had Annalise go check and she said, "Yes, he got Ryan's bottle!" I screamed "EDGAR!!!!!!!!!!" and ran down and the bottle was where I left it, untouched. I said, "Annalise, he didn't get it, it's right there." She kind of chuckled a little bit and said, "Mama, you was freaking out!" WHAT? Freaking out? Where did she learn that? Sometimes she seems more like a teenager than a preschooler. Heaven help us when she actually IS a teenager!

Smiling & Sleeping!

It's been a big week here for us. Ryan gave us two great gifts this week - he's smiling AND sleeping through the night!

For five days in a row, he's slept very well. Last night was awesome, he slept 11:00 pm - 7:40 am! A couple of nights have been more like midnight to 6:00 am, but WAY better than getting up for the 3:30 feeding!

And, Ryan is also smiling now! It's the most wonderful thing in the world. That first smile is our payment for surviving those first difficult, emotional, draining weeks. I just love his grins!!! He was so smiley this morning and it really just lights me up. Anyone who knows me knows that I am NOT a morning person, but those grins take all my grumpiness away and fill me with such joy and gratitude for this little guy!

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:

Baby Ryan has arrived!

We are proud to announce that our little boy, Ryan Holcombe, arrived on Monday, November 26th at 12:14 p.m. He was 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. The delivery, which was via c-section, couldn't have gone better. I was smiling and chatting with the doctors during it -- quite a change from our last experience!

Ryan is such a sweet little guy! (Unless he's hungry or having his diaper changed, of course!) Annalise adores her little brother, but is definitely having trouble adjusting to "sharing" her mommy. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing around here before too long! :)

Here are some photos of our new family of four!