wee Man

Now a brag about Ray or as we call him, "wee man"**.

Ray teaches me that we have to be flexible and take things as life gives them to us. Ray's adjustment to the world has been a slow one that has required a lot of patience and love. He was born May 15th, 2008 at 11:08pm. Pretty much I finished watching the season finale of The Office and then started pushing! Anyways, Ray was born with a cleft lip. We were not expecting this but it really could have been so much worse we also later discovered that the little guy had a serious case of acid reflux. It almost seems like the first few months of Ray's life are a blur now due to lack of sleep and a case of post partum depression. In a lot of ways I feel like I am still adjusting to him being in the world but also can't imagine life without him. He is a big part of our family of 4.

In September Ray had surgery for his lip. This was a monumental event in my parenting career. It is so scary for your little one to go through something so serious; it really makes you stop and think about how much you love your kiddos. I don't know how I stayed calm that day but somehow I managed (I think I had too because Mike was freaking out a bit - totally understandable). Waiting seemed to take forever but he did great and the surgery went well. Sometime soon after he stopped taking medicine for his acid reflux and hasn't had any problems since. I also started feeling better or at least my good days outnumber my bad ones. This is where things started to get better for everyone as I'm sure you can imagine...

Ray can light up a room in an instant. He has a very deep dimple that everyone notices and when he smiles you can't help but smile too.

He is such a cuddle bug too! He likes to curl up into my neck and rub my face; it's really sweet (he's kind of a Mamma's boy). He likes to cuddle so much that he still will not sleep through the night. Well, he would if I let him sleep with me but that's not too comfortable in a full size bed and not really a habit I want to start (although sometimes I get so tired and that's where he ends up). As much as I complain about Ray not sleeping through the night and pray everyday that he will I know that those nights will come to an end and I will miss the late night cuddle fests and feedings.

Ray loves his big brother, Sam. He is happiest when Sam is around and crawls already (he's only 7 months and has been crawling for a few weeks now) to keep up with him. He likes to "wrestle" with Sam and attack when Sam is getting his diaper changed. It is going to be an amazing process to see the two of them grow up and wrestle and be best buds.

One of my favorite things Ray is doing right now is crawling excitedly to get to his Daddy when he gets home from work. Mike usually walks to the kitchen and the desk to put his things down and Ray frantically tries to keep up with him. It's exciting to see how he loves his Daddy so much!

It's an exciting process to watch him grow and learn new things everyday.

I'm sure I'll brag about the kids some more later for now, I'm getting to bed early!

** I really don't know where "wee man" came from. I think Mike just started saying it one day and it stuck. It also has nothing to do with urine.