Update on Life with August

One of my friends told me that, after she and her husband welcomed their first son last year, they looked at each other and said, 'Why didn't we do this sooner?'  That's kind of how I'm feeling these days with August.  I know people try to prepared me for being a mom and the overwhelming love and responsibility that comes with it, but I kind of thought it was overkill.
Not even close.
At nearly 4 months, I feel like JP and I have turned a corner with parenting, and it's awesome.  August is more interactive these days, batting the toys hanging above him on the playmat, smiling and gurgling with one of us walks into the room, holding onto his rattles and actually moving them himself.  So much of the first couple months is spent in survival mode that this new phase of recognition feels incredibly rewarding and sweet.

He's so talkative, and loves 'conversing' with us.  Or the ceiling fan.  Or the table lamps around the house.  This kid doesn't discriminate.

August is so endearingly sweet, even when he's grumpy.  If he's tired and needs a nap, he lets me know by rubbing his little eyes before burying his head into my neck.  I'm done when he does that; I just cuddle him in the nook of my arm and hold him for half his naptime.

Speaking of sleep, we're on a much more manageable schedule (she said with fingers crossed).  The past few nights, August has been giving us 7-9 hour stretches of sleep, followed by an easy feed with me, a couple more hours of sleep, then waking up with a bottle with his papa.  Our night routine looks like this: bath at 6:30p, bottle of breastmilk after, asleep by 7:30p, wake at 3a-5a for meal with mama, sleep 2-3 hours, wake at 6a-7a with papa.  Compared to the 2-hour stretches we were getting a couple of weeks ago, this is heavenly.
I keep hoping that we'll get on a consistent schedule of activities each week, but we're still not in a perfect routine for the daytime.  The one thing we do each week, without fail, is hit up our nursing support group on Tuesday morning for a couple of hours.  Other than that, August and I entertain ourselves in various ways: reading board books at home, running along the Chattahoochee, lots of tummy time, singing Disney songs on iTunes Radio, and walking Mia around our neighborhood.  There have been a couple of days when we've gotten it together to hit up story time at our library, and we visit family and friends when the day goes smoothly.

I just love spending my days with this little man!  He makes me smile and laugh, and each day with him gets better and better.  It's amazing how far August has come in just a few months: he's holding his head up like a pro, making some consonant sounds, grabbing his Sophie and putting her into his mouth.  I can't wait to see what next month holds for us!