3 Months & Christmas

Briggs you are now 3 months old and already have more nicknames than Logan, the "Doo-Doo" Dog!!  Monster, Briggs Man, Booger, Boog-Boog, Goober, Goobie-Goo, Sugar, Shnukums, and Shug-shug are just some of the ones daddy and I use the most!

Watching football with Daddy

You have been sleeping longer at night, most nights you sleep 6 or 7 hours and occasionally hit the record breaking 8.5 hours!  Mommy really appreciates the rest!!  You are packing on the pounds and are now up to 14lbs, 4oz.  I think right now you are going through a little growth spurt as you always seem hungry!!  You are getting really good at sitting up now, your head control is amazing!!  You continue to love to stand up and are starting to get yourself pretty darn excited about it too!  All in all you are a very happy baby and rarely cry.  The only time you seem to get upset is when we've pushed you a little past the point of being hungry or sleepy and then you can really put up quite a fuss!!

Sitting up

Dad's first solo bath

You have continued to be very verbal, cooing and making all sorts of noises!  You even have started to mimic us when we stick our tongues out.  You are determined to get your thumb into your mouth and you are SOOOOOOO HAPPY when you get it there and are able to use it to doze off!  We keep trying to encourage the pacifier, but I'm not so sure you're into it.  You not only love to put your hands in your mouth, you also are starting to use them more.  You love to bat at your toys, rub your hands together, grab your blanket, my shirt and my hair.  I have noticed lately how much your hands have grown too!! 

Sucking that thumb

During our Christmas vacation, you got to meet your Grandad Harold.  You really thought he was great and didn't take your eyes off of him all throughout dinner! 

Meeting Grandpa

We celebrated your 3-month birthday on Christmas day and it was a heck of a long day for all of us, but especially for you.  I'm not so sure that you actually enjoyed Christmas, but I promise next year will be so much more fun!!  You got so many toys and clothes from our family and friends who love you so much!!  So many toys that Grammy and Grandpa had to come up after Christmas to bring the rest that wouldn't fit in our car!!  Right now your favorite toys are the "jungle gym" play mat and your "coo-coo-clock" from Granny Brenda.  When you are on the mat you just kick and play and the coo-coo-clock seems to just mesmerize you!!  I'm sure it won't be long until you start enjoying all your other toys too!!

Christmas Eve

In our PJ's waiting for Santa

Christmas Morning

Dinner @ Aunt Angela's

Snuggling with Oma

Aunt Sandy's got the touch

HAPPY Baby!

We have been having a BLAST lately with Briggs!  Not only does he give us the BEST smiles now, but we've had LAUGTER!!  On Friday (Dec 9th) Briggs laughed while he was awake for the first time!  I was getting him into the carseat to head out to run some errands and David was luckily home grabbing some lunch.  Briggs was wearing some camouflage pants so I was asking him if he was going goose hunting.  He thought that was HILARIOUS and gave us a few good giggles, it was great!!  No video of the laugh, but hopefully we'll have more of that soon to capture! 

SMILES

Now we are routinely getting some gibberish talk out of him, it's so much fun!!  I have pieced together a some videos, one from a smiles session along with a few of our talking sessions!! You'll notice that most of his smile pictures and videos are when he's wearing PJ's, Briggs is very happy in the morning!!  I am definitely going to miss this time with him when I return to work next month.  I guess I'm going to have to watch this at work whenever I'm having a bad day!!

These are really just snip-its from multiple videos I've shot, if you are having a really bad day and need more, you can watch them all at our YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/MrBriggsMonster

Briggs loves our Christmas tree.  It's a great tool for settling a fussy baby, so we may have a tree in our house for a few extra months!!

Babies love Christmas Lights

On Sunday, Briggs and I went with Jess to the Pendleton Christmas Parade.  It was quite chilly out, so I buddled him up in his new snowsuit and hat!  Briggs slept the ENTIRE time, aside from when the Pendleton Band's drum section went by!!  Seriously, he slept through music, police sirens, and even a crazy parade woman who came over to fuss over him and to give him a lollypop!

Watching the Christmas Parade

2 Months

Briggs you are now 2-months old!!  With each week that passes you change so much and continue to amaze us.

The most exciting thing is that with every day that passes you are perfecting your smiles.  You have the BEST smile - it lights up your entire face!!  We all try our best to get these smiles from you and you especially like when your dad sings the Bonanza song, "Chicka-chicka-boom-boom", or when I touch your cheeks. 

You are such a strong little man ... you have been rolling over (from your belly to your back) now since you were 6 weeks old.  When you are on your belly or laying on my chest you are a pro at lifting that head up so that you can see the world.  Most of the time you like to face forward so that you don't miss a thing.

Holding up that Noggin

You also really enjoy it when we stand you up so that you put weight on your legs.  It's amazing how strong your legs are and you wobble around for a few minutes until you tucker out!  You are getting big fast too.  You have doubled your birth weight and I have already started to put clothes away that you no longer can wear.  Right now you are wearing 3 month old clothes and can fit into most of your 3-6 month outfits.

You are finally starting to enjoy bathtime!  You love getting wet and when I spray near your face you like to open your mouth to get some water in it!  You think it's hilarious when I tell you I'm getting all your stink off!  You love to lay on your back and stare at the ceiling fan, the windows, lights, TV, and whatever else might catch your eye.  We all try so hard to be the center of your attention, but mostly you are amazed by the ceiling fan (on or off).  As of right now you really like to nap either in your swing or just laying on a blanket on the floor.  Often you will fall asleep after playing on your playmat.

Zonked Out!

You are really working hard on your sleep for me and I appreciate it.  In the last two weeks you have gone from sleeping at the most 4 hours to now sleeping 5, 6 and even 7 hours at night!  Hopefully by the time you start daycare next month you'll be a bit more consistent!  I love to watch you sleep and sometimes it's even more fun to LISTEN to you sleep!  During your naps you often coo, snore, or "call in the geese".  This is also a noise you like to make when you're eating, quite entertaining!  Often when you are falling asleep or waking up, you smile and laugh or will make a horrible face and cry out.  Those little laughs are what I'm waiting so patiently for!!  You also seem to get the hiccups all the time, luckily they don't phase you. 

Recently you have discovered your hands and you are trying your best to get that fist into your mouth!  This can get pretty frustrating and often you will settle for the pacifier.  This can also be pretty dangerous and as of today you have a big scratch on your nose from your fingernails.  Another recent discovery is your hair.  You love to play with your hair when you are laying down for playtime and twice now I have found you screaming because you are pulling your own hair!! 

Today we went for your 2-month check-up with Dr. Bruce.  She was very impressed with how well you are holding your head, and said this is more like the way a 4-month old should.  At today's check-up you weighed in at 12 lbs, 6.3oz, you measured 23.5 inches, and your head has grown to 16 inches in diameter!  This puts you in the 50th percentile which is great!!

Unfortunately today's check-up also meant that you had to get 3 shots.  I was very nervous about this, so I brought your dad along for support.  Of course you squalled when you got the shots and for the first time you cried real tears.  This really broke my heart.  I was glad that you were able to be tough for me and within a just a minute you stopped crying.  Unfortunately, we relived all of this later in the day when your band-aids came off.  Thank goodness for grape flavored Tylenol.

2 Weeks of Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving the Black Family has so much to be thankful for.  Above all, we are thankful that Briggs is a healthy and happy boy.  I am also extremely thankful that Briggs and I were able to spend 2 full weeks in Summerville on a Granny-Vacation!  We had some great family time with my mom, dad, and grandmother.  Unfortunately, my grandma is doing time at my mom's recovering from a broken foot, but it was great to have her right there for visiting with us.

We headed down the Thursday before Thanksgiving and settled right into the Black Family Suite (aka my parents room above the garage).  This visit was great for me to relax some and great for Briggs to soak up some love.  It was way better than my leave days at home because I didn't have to do any cleaning, minimal cooking, AND there was someone to watch Briggs while I showered, pumped, and I was even able to sneak off for a dinner with girlfriends!

Briggs and I were able to spend some time with Aunt Krista doing her favorite thing, shopping!  Not nearly the marathon trip that I'm used to with her, but we powered through the outlets between feedings and actually got a lot accomplished!  Aunt Kris bought Briggs a great Christmas sweater vest and of course an "I Love My Auntie" shirt.

David got into town the night before Thanksgiving and was certainly missing his boy after nearly a week away from him!  Not sure Logan shared those feelings.  Although I didn't HAVE to cook while I was home, I did whip up a total of 6 apple pies, a Hulse family favorite!  We had a great Thanksgiving day with a dinner at Billy & Angela's house and then a second dinner at my moms house.  Briggs loved meeting his cousins, aunts and uncles who also slobbered all over him!

On Saturday, Granny Brenda took us for Briggs' first Christmas photos, an annual Granny Brenda tradition.  We had such a good time dressing him up and posing him, for 2 months old he was quite a trooper and he gave us some amazingly cute shots!  The hard part was narrowing down the nearly 90 shots to the few that we selected!

On Saturday evening, David and I geared Briggs up for his first Palmetto Bowl.  If you aren't aware, David is a Gamecocks fan and I (of course) am a Clemson fan.  Since Briggs can't quite cadence count yet, I have to be fair to David.  SO, I spent a day fashioning him some appropriate attire for the game!  The game didn't have the outcome I had hoped for, thankfully David wasn't too hard on me.

On Sunday, Briggs and I made another visit to the rehab facility to visit Nana.  She was in great spirits and we all enjoyed some nice time on the patio talking and again, spoiling Briggs with love.

While we were home I was able to catch up with my high school bestie, Amanda, who also has a new addition.  Blaysen was born just 2 months before Briggs and they are already best buddies!  I love those friends who you can pick back up with right where you left off, regardless of how long it's been.

And finally, David spent his week off working to get his "new" truck repainted.  Quite an amazing job, don't ya think!?