2 months old on National Adoption Day!

How perfectly appropriate! I started crying when I saw on the news that today was National Adoption Day. I knew November was National Adoption Month, but this was a surprise... a very touching surprise. I was struck yet again by another neat little coincidence. River has had several of these along with innumerable blessings in his short 2 months of life. Here is a list of the updates, coincidences and blessings we have encountered over the last month:

• On Wednesday (November 12th) River had his 2 month well baby checkup. He weighed in at 10 lbs 6 oz and is now 22.5" long. I think he is longer, though, because he was pretty scrunched up when she took the measurements. His head is 16" in circumference. For weight and length he is right in between the 25th and 50th percentile. For head circumference he is over the 75th percentile line. I was very surprised that he was so low in the percentiles but our doctor said that so long as his growth parallels a percentile line he is right on track. Sho'nuff, his growth is parallel. Except for his head... that has grown faster than expected. A sign he is going to be one smart cookie :)
• He is getting very close, but has yet to have grown out of any of his clothes. The only exception to that being that he did outgrow a hat which isn't surprising based on the results of his growth measurements!
• We have been asked to play Jesus, Mary and Joseph for our church Christmas party. This is a huge honor and a neat opportunity for our little miracle to portray Christ our Savior who was a miracle as well. I also cried when we were asked to do this. Am I an emotional wreck or just a proud mother? Hopefully the latter!
• This was River's first Halloween and he was a pumpkin. First off he spent the day wearing an adorable jack-o-lantern onsie that my grandma and grandpa had bought for him. But then his gdiaper leaked through requiring a wardrobe change. So he wore another cute little jack-o-lantern outfit that he inherited from his cute cousin Teancum. Then, he spent the night in adorable Halloween pajamas that his grandma (Gala) bought him.
• Another note on Halloween: I wanted to carve pumpkins with River since this was his first but when I went to the store (several actually) they had already removed their pumpkin piles :( So I bought a lighted plastic pumpkin and we carved an old red pepper from the crisper. I actually decorated the house and was super excited for trick-or-treaters on River's first Halloween but because a few people weren't home and several other homes are vacant and for sale, only 3 groups of kids trick-or-treated on our cul-de-sac :( I was offended! Though it did mean we were able to watch the newest Indiana Jones with very few interruptions, so that was nice.
• River will very rarely in his life utter the words Grandma or Grandpa. Instead, on my side he will call my mom Mimi and my dad Papa. On DH's side, he will call my mother-in-law Gala, and my father-in-law Papa Bear. I have been blessed to have all four of my grandparents still in my life (my dad's parents are even visiting us today seeing River for the first time since they live in Georgia). To River, they will be Gigi and Papa Jack (my mom's parents) and Gigi and Papa Lynne (my dad's parents). I am exited about this because his grandparents and great grandparents are such special people, I want them to have special names as well!
• River is now a smiling, talking fool! First thing when he wakes up (in the morning and after naps) and gets some food in his belly, he smiles and tells cooing stories for at least 30 minutes. His smile ratio is at least 2-3 per minute which makes Mommy and Daddy very happy. Even when he wakes up at 4 in the morning he does this which makes it very difficult to be upset or to want to try to put him back to sleep. Unfortunately, that means we are enforcing bad habits... I know, I know, we are such terrible parents!
• River has become very responsive to his mom and dad. He loves to look at us and all we have to do is look at him or smile at him to get a smile from him that threatens to take over his entire face. It is to die for!
• I have been told by two unbiased sources that River looks like me. First was his pediatrician at his well baby exam and second was a family friend who received the announcement we sent out and immediately called my mom to tell her how much she thought he looked like me. I love these moments but I along with pretty much everyone in our families agree that River looks more like DH. My mom thinks his expressions look a lot like mine did when I was River's age, though. I'll take whatever I can get because he is so cute anyone would love to be told River looks like them!
• Though many of my friend's babies and my niece, born around the same time River was, are now sleeping long stretches at night, River is not. On 3-4 occasions he has slept from 10:00 pm to 3:00 am, however, he is usually up every 3 hours if not more frequently. It has been really bad lately since he has come down with a cold and sometimes wakes up because he can't breathe through his nose :( Any advice from mothers on how to get him sleeping better through the night would greatly be appreciated! Or any advice on how to treat his cold would be great, too!

Well, it has only taken me 2 1/2 weeks to complete this post so I will leave it at that for now. There is plenty more to come and now that I'm back to work I will be better about posting more. My work ethic is amazing isn't it?! But hey, I just heard a statistic that 25% of people with internet access at work look at porn during business hours so I think it is okay to skive off of work for some blogging every now and then because it is a worthwhile cause! Stay posted for pictures and updates on Thanksgiving in Montana :)