Forms of nature: February 2014

When I was in college, I eventually learned something about myself. There was no way for me to say no to that Sunday afternoon pick-up game of volleyball, the dance party in the dorm-room down the hall, the weekly dorm viewing of ER (yup, probably just dated myself) or any other of the delicious social activities with which you are surrounded when living in tight community with 4,000 other young adults your age...no way, that is, until I had a VERY imminent dead-line looming.

That incredibly long run-on sentence is my segue into this next blog post. It is FINALLY here, the big 3-month update. Long-awaited, much-talked about (to my family anyways) and probably built up exceedingly more than it should have been, here it is. Thankfully, time marches on, and since this week will mark my little newbie's 4 month birthday, hurrah for me, I finally got my rear in gear.

So...here it is - 3 months in pictures...
....you definitely know it's your second child when you are posting quarterly updates rather than monthly ones. Perhaps by my fourth child, he/she will make it on my blog by the time he turns ten.

I realized recently that I have not even shared this little guy's name with y'all. I do apologize - I know my avid readers in Ukraine, Russia and Germany have been gripped with painful suspense for these past three months just waiting to know the details (that's right, I do read my blog audience stats).

Allow me to formally (and properly) introduce to you my second son:

This little guy started out as quite a peanut - so it was a large name for a teeny little guy.

We liked the name because we felt it was strong and masculine. To say we 'named him after' someone specific might be overstating it. But let's just say that the inspiration behind the name was found in a character on a well-liked TV show (no, he's not as beautiful as Michael Scofield, but what he lacks in his brother's looks he makes up with just plain cool-bad-ass-ness), a video game (you always have to consider what your child's name will be shortened too, and we love "Link") and an inspiring president (I think it's neat that both of our children share names with great abolitionists/reformers/statesmen).

Well anyways...like I was saying...peanut.
Fit on a bookshelf.

And a rocking horse.

Yup. Roughly the same size as my husband's ukelele.

This small size (thankfully) made for a quick and easy delivery (although I've decided that the phrase "easy labor" is definitely an oxymoron :). My recovery was infinitely better this, the second time, around. So I was able to do all the cuddling my heart desired, and lots of picture-snapping and newborn bath-partaking in those precious early days

What this little guy lacked in weight...he certainly did not make up for in hair :)

He had a little bit, and like his big brother's used to be, it was/is reddish in color.

But if you see this picture below of his big brother at one week old, you'll understand why my family calls baby number two a little baldy :)

Anyways, this little guy was a sleepy, well-behaved, perfect, cuddly little newborn.

He quickly gained 3 lbs each of the first two months of his life - to jump across percentiles and catch up to where his big brother was at his age. He had already doubled his birth weight by 2.5 months of age! (Starting out at 6lb7oz and weighing in at 12lb8oz at his 2-month check-up)

Other than quickly putting on massive amounts of weight (and length) little Link has been carving his own little space into our new little family of four...

...And into our hearts

Brotherly love has continued to abound

Not that there hasn't been a little increased whining at times from big brother

But for the most part, Willsey adores little Link and seems to be physically incapable of walking by him at any time of the day without scampering over to place a smooch on his forehead...or begging to have baby kiss his 'wowie'...or insisting that 'baby pway too' (a multi-purpose word, it's always fun trying to place it into context, since his meaning varies greatly when it's before a meal-time/bed-time or when he's got a ball and bat in his hand. Just gotta love toddler pronunciations :)

At any rate, as I've mentioned on this blog many times in the past, I feel just as blessed to be a mom the second time around.

Still enjoying bath-time as much as ever...probably my favorite time of the day with respect to motherhood.