2 months

Dear Samson,

Today, sweet boy, you are two months old, and what a month it's been! You have stolen all our hearts with your easy smiles, your delightful chuckles (yes! chuckles! At only a month old!), and your sweet, sweet snuggles. And you have shown us that the spirit of competition is alive and well within you, beating your older sister on things that I would never have dreamed possible. I can already tell you are going to be the perfect sibling for her, and I can't wait to see y'all grow up together and challenge each other in all that you do!

I think the most incredible part of the last month was the first night you slept all the way through the night. Yes, my sweet boy . . . when you were just six weeks old, you slept for 9 hours straight! Twice! And ever since then, you have been sleeping anywhere from 7 to 9 hours consistently. I thought we could never have had a better sleeper than your sister, who first slept through the night at 8 weeks, but you surprised us all! Most nights you sleep until 4:30 or 5, at which point your daddy gets up and rocks you back to sleep. And even though it's hard for him to get up, I know that he will always treasure those moments, in the small, dark hours of the morning, when it was just you and him, together.

Many times the reason you seem to have woken is because you are already breaking out of your swaddle--a miracle blanket, a swaddle that is supposed to be inescapable! But you are showing us all the time how strong you are, and the dominance over the miracle blanket is only one example. You are constantly standing up, pushing off your legs, trying to bear your own weight already. Everyone who holds you exclaims what a strong boy you are! You can hold your head up on your own now, and can lift it high when we put you down on your tummy.

But you temper your strength with a soft, sweet personality. You love when people sing to you, and your favorite thing in the world is to watch your family--me, your dad, and your sister--around you, flashing us all your big, sweet, gummy smile. And you're a talker, too. You have the most delightful conversations with us, cooing and oohing and making the most expressive faces. You are going to be a little boy with a lot to say, I can tell!

I have delighted in every second home with you this month. Every smile, every coo, and even every tear, every fought nap, every time you've peed on me mid-diaper change or spit up on me after a soul-satisfying burp. I go back to work in three weeks, and you'll start school, and our time together, our 12 weeks of getting to know each other, will be over.

But until then, I'm going to soak every second of you up. And such a delightful soaking it is.

You make my world a brighter place.

With love,
Mom