Happy 5-Month Birthday Nicholas

Dear Nicholas,

You are 5 months old today and I can hardly believe it. This past month went by in the blink of an eye! But it was an eventful and busy month.

I started back at work earlier this month, which was really hard at first. The days and nights leading up to my return to work were filled with lots of tears (mine – I don’t think you had any clue what was happening). You’ve taken the transition in stride and are incredibly happy at daycare, which makes it much easier on me when I’m at work (especially when I peek in on you through the video feed and see you playing with all of your little friends). The thing I miss the most by far are my mornings with you. Yesterday I took it easy in the morning and stuck around until you woke up…I forgot how absolutely amazingly awesome you are in the mornings. You smiled, laughed, babbled, giggled, smiled some more…it just melted my heart. And then of course it made it so much harder to leave you and go to work. Your Daddy is a lucky man to get to see you so happy every morning.

You’ve continued to learn so many new things this month. You finally discovered your feet about two weeks ago. We were beginning to think that you would never know they were attached to your legs. But now all you want to do is play with them. You love lying on your back with your legs up toward your chest, feet in your hands, just giggling to yourself.

You also learned how to roll from your back to your tummy, and you made it look so easy! You also rolled from tummy to back in the opposite direction from the way you normally do it. And you sat up unassisted for a few seconds. You’re getting so big and strong!

I definitely think you’re teething, since you’re drooling even more than usual and sticking your hands in your mouth at every opportunity. I was hoping you’d get your two front teeth for Christmas, but so far they’re a no-show.

On that note, you celebrated your first Christmas this year with Mommy’s family in Memphis and you had a great time! You got to meet your cousins Tieren, Lucas and Alex for the first time and they had so much fun always trying to make you laugh.

You experienced snow 3 times this month – once in Atlanta, and twice in Memphis (on Christmas and the day after).

You tried out the Johnny Jump Up for the first time last night, and you loved it!

You are honestly the happiest baby that I’ve ever met, and it makes us so incredibly happy to see you smile and laugh all the time. And you’re still quite the talker, often talking yourself to sleep. It’s adorable, and we can’t wait until we hear your first words in a few months.

And one of the cutest things that you started doing 1-2 weeks ago is “waving.” You just started sticking out your left hand, and turning it while you would stare at it, and it looks like you’re waving. It’s adorable!

We’re looking forward to 2011 with you and love you more than you know!

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from this month.

(I totally think you look like a Cabbage Patch Kid doll in this picture)

(Mommy just had to torture you with another one of her crocheted hats)

(The Santa-Andrews with our little St. Nicholas!)

Happy Little Clam at Daycare

I returned to work two weeks ago, and so far so good. The first day back was awful (I couldn't talk about Nicholas or I would burst into tears), but luckily it got easier with every passing day. The thing that helped the most was knowing that Nicholas loves his daycare and seems to be thriving.

On his first full day at daycare, he was up for 8 hours straight, but apparently didn't fuss at all. I showed up one night to pick him up and thought I heard him fussing, so I asked one of his teachers if it was him and she said, "Oh no, that's not Nicholas. He never cries...he just smiles and laughs all day." Nothing can comfort a mother more than knowing her baby is happy, even when they're apart. His teachers also find it amusing that he cracks up every time he gets undressed!

This was the picture that Scott e-mailed to me on his first day:

One of the best parts of his daycare is the fact that I can watch him throughout the day and see what he's up to through the school's video feed. It's not the best or clearest video, so when I can't find him right away, I look for the little dude with only one sock on:

And he seems to really enjoy watching the other kids and learning what they're doing, because he rolled over from back to tummy the other night for the first time, and last night sat up for a minute or so completely unassisted. Love our little man!