Big Adventures

First of all, let me say that Elias will be 4 weeks old tomorrow, and motherhood is finally starting to be fun. This is due mainly to the fact that he has started SMILING!!!! They are pretty hard to catch on camera, so we don't have a picture of one yet. But it is the sweetest thing I have ever seen in my life. His whole little face lights up. We'll do our best to catch one for you all to see... This is the best we've caught so far - the end of a smile:Motherhood is also becoming more fun because Elias has actually started EATING!!!! Sunday was a fantastic day - he was eating like crazy and a lot. But then yesterday was terrible. But last night it all turned around and he has consistently eaten well at every feeding since. My hypothesis of what happened is that Sunday he started a growth spurt and so he was eating like crazy to tell my milk-makers to up the production. Yesterday was bad because they were still working on it and weren't making enough for him. But then last night I could tell that my supply had increased and it was coming out faster for him, and he started eating really well. So that is a huge relief and I'm finally feeling confident that he's actually getting enough to eat at each feeding. Praise the Lord for this and pray that Eli will start to flourish with this newfound eating success. We go on Thursday to have him weighed again to see what's what.

In other news, Elias has started having big adventures! With the new eating well, he is sleeping much better, and that means he also is more awake for his playtimes. This week he started playing on his Baby Einstein activity mat, and he loves it! He'll stare at the lights, listen to the music, and even bat at the toys! He also does tummy time on the mat, which he doesn't like as much. But he's learning and developing!Then this evening we went out for our first walk! The weather here has been heinously hot, so we haven't been able to walk as much as we want to. But it was breezy and a little cooler this evening, so we loaded him up in the Snugli carrier and went for a walk. It was fun (and surprisingly comfortable) to carry him in the Snugli, and he liked it so much he went to sleep! He didn't fall asleep until the very end of our walk, though. He is so curious and loves to be walked around to look at everything. I know he was enjoying the fresh air and sunlight and the new sounds and smells. He's our little learner.

Yeah, so this motherhood thing may not be so bad after all...