The Past Three Months in a Nutshell

Ok, I'm obviously no Dooce, and my grand plan for monthly newsletters for/about Sean seems to have crumbled. So here's the nutshell version of the past two months.

--Sean was the cutest little pumpkin I've ever seen at the daycare Halloween Festival


--Beginning in November I quite my job to become a full-time stay-at-home-mom. While it's more work than I've ever done before I love it. Since staying home, I find that I'm happier and more content, better able to handle stress, and for the first time, I feel like I'm really doing what I was meant to do.


--Sean went with me to the polls on election day to help elect President Obama. For the first time in years, I have a renewed sense of optimism about the future of our country and the world. Someday, Sean will learn about and understand the incredible ramifications of this election. And he'll know that he was there to help make it happen.


--In October, Bryan's mother moved out here from Los Angeles after receiving news that her cancer was terminal. She wanted to be closer to Bryan, Sean, Uncle Jeff, Nadine, and I in her final days. She passed away in November. While we're thankful that we were able to see her and spend time with her during this time period, and that she had more opportunities to visit with her grandson, we were all stunned at how quickly her time passed. She was a wonderful woman, and is sorely missed. It saddens me that Sean will not get to know his Grandma Leslie, but he will hear stories, and will always have the wonderful quilts that she made for him.


--In early December, we went out to California for a memorial gathering for Leslie. While the circumstances were sad, it was nice to be able to spend time with family. Sean met many of his cousins, got to spend more time with Great Grandmother Helen, and even had his first trip to the beach.


--Sean continues to grow and develop and explore his world. And I'm so happy to be able to see him do it. He loves to roll over, and goes both back-to-front and front-to-back. Until recently, he always rolled the same direction (always to his left to get to his tummy and to his right to get to his back). But a few days ago, he started rolling both directions. This has increased his mobility. He's not crawling so he uses rolling to move around and get places.

--Speaking of crawling, he's really working hard at it! He rolls onto his tummy, and starts kicking those legs. He might sort of ooch forward a little bit, but usually, he pushes up from his legs, his butt goes into the air, and then he twists a little bit and falls over to the side. So he rolls back onto his tummy to try again. He seems to have the motivation, and once he figures out how to get those legs and arms working together to move, our lives will never be the same!


--Sean sleeps really well at night. He's a champion night-time sleeper. But...naps are a different story! We've been using naptime to try to teach him to sleep unswaddled and it's not going well. So...for now, he remains swaddled. And if anyone knows where we can find some giant swaddling blankets, let me know, 'cause he's really outgrowing the blankets we have!


--Sean has lost interest in a pacifier (except as a teething toy), and instead prefers the first two fingers of his left hand. He's also discovered that he has toes, and he seems to think those are pretty yummy too!


--We all enjoyed celebrating Sean's first Christmas. Santa must have thought he's been a good boy because I think he got more gifts than everyone else combined! He has new clothes, new toys, new nursery decor. Of course, he didn't realize what was going on. But it was fun for mom and dad, as well as Grandma Connors and Uncle John who joined us on Christmas morning.


So...that's how things have been going. Very busy for everyone, and lots of ups and downs. Sean has been a champ through it all. Before long, he'll be crawling around, eating solids, and teething. It's hard for me to believe it's been 5 1/2 months already! He's a great kid, and we're having a great time with him!