Pregnancy Announcement Photos UPDATED!

We had a lot of fun taking pregnancy announcement photos in January, so I asked our friends to re-create the shots with Whit in place of our props! It's fun to see the photos side-by-side, and I'm so so glad to finally have some good family photos! This little photoshoot only took about 15 mins, because we weren't sure how long Whit would last. I think we got some good ones for going through it so quickly! 

I love seeing the change in us and our family over the 8 months between these photos. Oh how time has changed... for the better! 

Whit's 2 months old!

Whit is TWO MONTHS old! Oh. My. Goodness.

11 lbs 10 oz. (64%)

23.5" long (92%)

39.4 cm head (68%)

Whit @ 2 months:

-Started sleeping THROUGH THE NIGHT! That's right, he sleeps from around 10:30 pm to 7 am.
Be jealous. 

-Gaining about 1/2 lb. a week

-Stated smiling! Only a few intentional smiles, but we'll take it!

-Keeps his head up without support almost all the time and is starting baby push ups!
-Recognizes our voices and sees us from farther away. He'll track a voice or follow a face from any direction.  Grandpa says his concentration means he's smart :)
-Goodbye baby acne, hello dry, flaky skin
-It's confirmed: That dimple on his belly is a third nipple! No, I'm not joking, and yes, I think it's awesome.
-Seems to love music. He will stop crying when we start singing, and he likes to "dance" around to Baby Einstein music on Pandora

Mommy & Daddy:

-Daddy still protects Whit against Mommy's "Kiss Attacks." Is it really so bad to practically smother your baby with the force and frequency of your kisses? Really??

-Mommy packed away all of Whit's Newborn clothes

-Mommy now nurses in public All. The. Time.

-Mommy's 6-week post partum checkup went very smoothly
-Daddy started his MBA program back up, but comes home for lunch everyday to make sure he spends lots of time with Whit
-Took Whit to the beach and the mountains and stayed a total of 4 nights in hotels. Whit did really well!

*What's this noise about breastfed babies pooping less than bottle-fed babies? Sometimes even only pooping once every few days? NOT SO. It may be a benevlolent symptom of my milk oversupply, but Whit only nurses on one side for about 15 minutes every 3-4 hours and still gains around 1 lb a week and poops so often that we expect at least one diaper a day to leak through to his clothes. What the what???

*Whit still doesn't keep his hands open very much. Yet despite them being clenched almost all day and night, there are still surprises of lint and hair between his fingers... Why?

He is just so perfect! We love him so much!

The US National Whitewater Center

Did you know the US Nat'l Whitewater Center was in Charlotte, NC? National as in Olympic Team??? Oh yes, my friend, it is. I went to the USNWC as a Senior in college and wasn't too fond of it, actually. I love rafting and kayaking (the Center's specialties), but I am almost uncomfortable doing those things in a man-made, concrete, circular facility with pedestrians crowded around. Ben, on the other hand, thinks it's awesome. He has gone a few times since we've lived in North Carolina, and last weekend I finally decided to be a good wife and come along to watch and support him.

In all fairness, the place is pretty cool. It has expanded a lot in four years, and now is an adult's playground. It not only has whitewater rafting and kayaking routes, but mountain bike trails, hiking, adventure ropes course stations, zip lines, paddleboarding, etc. I've been interested in stand up paddleboarding for a while, so Ben convinced me to try it here! I'm really glad I did, it was so fun! And probably the closest I'll ever get to feeling like 007 (10 points if you understand that reference!)

Ben tried it, too...

We put my light t-shirt over Whit's head to protect him from the sun. 

We had him in the baby tent on the side of the river while we took turns paddle boarding. I am so glad we bought that thing- it was a great investment! It keeps him shaded and bug-free, it makes it easier for him to sleep or get a diaper change, and he doesn't seem to mind it! Win, win, win. 

 And Ben got some really amazing photos of Whit smiling!!!! Yay!!!!

Unfortunately, that is all we have evidence of from our fun, adventure-packed day. The SD card we had in our camera was a 2GB disguised as a 32 GB, so all the photos we took became unreadable after we filled up the 2 GB. Stupid China.

I guess we'll just have to go again!

Whit's Blessing

In our faith we don't perform infant baptism because we believe babies are born perfect, but we do have a common practice of a Baby Blessing, where the father (or another male who is a righteous priesthood holder) gives him an official name and blessing. My baby's blessing was something I'd been looking forward to for years. The baby usually wears white, the dad holds him in a ring with other friends and family members in the front of the church congregation for the blessing and holds the baby up for everyone to see at the end, then proudly walks back to their seat and the leader of the congregation welcomes the baby as the newest member. It's sort of a right of passage for the parents (and the baby, of course).

Ben's mom stayed with us for the week leading up to Whit's blessing, then his dad, sister-in-law and her two daughters, my grandparents, mom, sister, and her children also came in to town to celebrate with us. We had a BBQ lunch before church started, complete with a special cake I made just for the occasion! 

Our family enjoying lunch before church started... 

My Opa, the man Whit is named after:

And a silly song I wrote for Whit to the tune of KIDS from Bye Bye Birdie... 

The whole group in our church building after his blessing: 

(Take a close look at this picture. Every single kid is doing something funny! I love it.)

The proud parents: 

We love you, Little Man!

And a BIG THANKS to all our family who traveled from far and wide to be here with us :)