So...I blinked and my baby is 3 months old.

So somehow my baby is already 3 months old. Umm, excuse me...wasn't he just barely born? When did this happen? John put Max in his pajamas the other night and brought him down in a 3-6-month-sized sleeper. And it fits him. I may have fought back a few tears at how fast my little guy is growing. Yep. I'm one of those moms who cries when her baby moves up a size in clothes. 

Max had his two-month appointment with the pediatrician a couple of weeks ago and apparently I produce super milk because our little dude is, as they say, growing like a weed. (Also, little man had to get his first round of shots. THE HORROR. I cried all the way to the pediatrician's office thinking about it. And even though I totally stepped out of the room when the nurse was doing them (don't worry, John stayed in with him!) I could still hear his sad little anguished, betrayed cries in the hall and couldn't stop the tears from coming. The nurse gave me a hug when she saw me. I am awesome.) Anywho, here are his stats from birth until now:

BIRTH, 9/21/2012

Weight: 7 lbs. 6 oz.

Height: 20.5 inches

TWO DAYS OLD, 9/25/2012

Weight: 7.17 lbs. (24th percentile)

Height: 20.47 inches (68th percentile)

Head Circumference: 13.8 inches (27th percentile)

TWO WEEKS OLD, 10/8/2012

Weight: 8.16 lbs. (27th percentile)

Height: 20.96 inches (54th percentile)

Head Circumference: 14.6 inches (42nd percentile)

TWO MONTHS OLD, 11/28/2012

Weight: 12.79 lbs. (68th percentile)

Height: 24.41 inches (89th percentile)

Head Circumference: 16.1 inches (68th percentile)

Y'all. He weighs as much now as I did when I was a year old. And don't worry that in another month, he'll probably be halfway to being as tall as I am. So I guess when you combine my and John's genes you get super tall, super healthy, super CUTE babies. Because let's be real here, my baby is quite possibly the cutest baby ever born. (Get a load of those chubber thighs...squeeaaa!!! I love them.)

Max has started smiling a lot and is almost to the point of laughing. And can I just say, those little smiles of his can probably cure all kinds of diseases and probably would have gotten Mitt Romney elected if he would have used him in his campaign. (Ha! Political jokes!) It has become my and John's mission in life to get this kid to smile, and we resort to all kinds of shenanigans to get him to do so. I'm sure he thinks we are the biggest idiots ever and only smiles to amuse us...but it works. I mean, just LOOK at this face! I die!

Another reason my baby is pretty much a rock star? He has been sleeping in five- to seven-hour stretches at night for the past several weeks. We finally broke down and put him in his own room at night after having him in with us in a cradle (that my awesome husband and dad made for him, might I add) for the first six weeks of his life, and I think that has made all of the difference. He is not exactly a...quiet...sleeper, shall we say. When he was in our room, I would wake up to every grunt, squeal and whinny. (Seriously, he makes this one noise that sounds like a horse whinnying! Who is this kid?!) And when I woke up, I would turn the light on which probably in turn woke him up, yada yada yada. And then he got to the point where he'd roll over during the night and get his hands and feet stuck in the slats of the cradle and wake up crying. So yeah. Babies in their own rooms is where it's at. And baby monitors are little angelic pieces of technology. 

I finally feel like I am getting this mothering thing down. In all honesty, the first month was super rough for me. I was healing myself while trying to take care of this little stranger, on top of which I was dealing with some pretty nasty baby blues. The whole bonding thing also didn't happen as fast as I expected it to, which was really weird for me because I felt so bonded to my little guy while I was pregnant with him. I tell John all the time that I kind of feel like I was cheated out of that first month and didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I should have. But I am taking full advantage now and breaking all sorts of those so-called "rules" that are in all of the parenting books. Do I rock my baby to sleep? You betcha. Do I let him sleep in my arms? Totally. Do I still demand feed? Yep. Do I pretty much not let him cry longer than a few minutes at a time? Maybe. OK, so I admit that I might possibly be spoiling this little one...but I really can't look at that face and not want to make him happy every second of his life.

Happy 3 months, little bug.

Max's Blessing

Our little Max's blessing day was on November 25th, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving up in Logan with Johnny's family this year, so needless to say I spent the days leading up to when we went up there cleaning our house like a mad woman. Consequently, I have learned that trying to clean while also taking care of an infant does not always work out quite how you want it to. At least he seemed to like the sound of the vacuum, so I had that. 

We have 1:00 church, so I tried to time everything just perfectly so that Max would be clean, fed and tired by the time sacrament meeting rolled around. He was pretty grumpy all morning and I was sure that he would scream all during the blessing, but he must have known that what was happening was kind of a big deal (or he had help from some sort of heavenly being) because he was pretty much an angel baby during the blessing. And I have to say, my Johnny gave him the most beautiful blessing I have ever heard. I have never felt more like a real live grown-up than when I realized it was my husband up there blessing my baby. I have arrived, people. 

After sacrament, we invited the bazillions of people who came to support our little family back to our house for some grub. People were PACKED in our house. I was running around like a mad woman, yet again, trying to talk to everyone, coercing groups of people into taking pictures so we could commemorate who was there, feeding my seemingly starving child and plotting how to magically make my house bigger. In the meantime, most of the food was eaten and I was reminded again of the joy of motherhood--not ever getting to eat when you want to. Ha.

All of the men who were in the circle

John's family

My family

One of the things I was most excited about was getting a four-generation picture of all of the living John Morreys since John's grandpa was in town. As I mentioned back when we found out we were pregnant with a boy, our little John Max is the seventh John Morrey. We have since found out that all seven of the John Morreys also happen to be the firstborn in their families...sorry, son, now the pressure's all on you to give the world John Morrey VIII. 

John Douglas Morrey (my father-in-law), John Max Morrey, John Scott Morrey and John Rolf Morrey. That's a lot of Johns in one picture.

I think it's kind of funny that you have all of these John Morreys who look just like each other and then BAM...there's some little stranger who looks just like me but is posing as one of them. I guess those Stapley genes are pretty strong.

All in all, it was a wonderful day and Max was such a good little baby for most of it. Only once everyone was gone did the screaming begin. He saves all of the good stuff for John and me. But we just love him and are so happy he's ours.

Zonked on the couch once everyone had left