Rowen's First Snow

Yesterday afternoon the snow started to come down, and Rowen simply couldn't contain his excitement!  We didn't put him in the full snow get up just yet, we may save the snow pants for a day if and when we get several inches of snow, and despite the frigid temps, Rudy took him out to walk about, and he absolutely loved it!

~Finnegan James - 2 Months Old~

Dear Finnegan,

Finn Finn, Finny, and Finny the Finns, you have been with us a whole two months, and while this is a short time, it feels like you have been with us forever.  Day by day we watch your personality, and your sweet cheeks, grow.  

This month you have begun to smile.  You are very selective about smiling, and while I try all day to get you to smile, you usually give your smiles freely to your daddy when he gets home.  Maybe you just think he is pretty funny.  This is probably my favorite milestone of the month!

One other distinct little personality trait we have seen is that you our sweet boy are a chatter box.  You LOVE to talk, and babble, and ooo and ahh all day long.  And if I sit and talk to you I swear you think you are talking back to me.  You are a loud baby and we think you will be an early talker. 

As far as eating goes, you eat about 7oz every three and a half to four hours.  You are still a lazy eater, and definitely a sloppy eater, so while your brother hardly used a bib, you are getting excellent use out of them.  We typically wake you up for your last bottle around 930 or 10 pm, and then you go down for the night.  You are exceptionally gassy and we haven't quite figured out to fix this, but we go to the doctors tomorrow so hopefully we will have some answers.

In the sleep department, you are great, sort of.  You sleep in your crib every night, in your carseat.  We think it helps with the gas, and if it means you sleep until almost eight every morning, then we are happy to do so.  We have been working on taking more naps on your back in your crib so hopefully we will be able to transition you out of carseat sleeping soon.  

This month there have been a few firsts for you.  Your first road trip north, which you did great on.  Your first New England Christmas, where all of your aunts competed to hold you all the time.  And your first New Years.  Just a few important firsts to note.

We have been so blessed to have you in our lives and our love for you grows each day.  Your brother Rowen we are pretty sure can't wait for you to grow up and play with him.  Happy two months our sweet Finny! 

And just for comparison here is Rowen on the left and Finnegan on the right both at 2 months...

Choo Choo

Over the holiday break,  Rowen developed an unhealthy obsession with trains.  In the toddler babble we hear all day we hear three words most often: no, thank you, and choo choo, priorities people. We can blame Grandpa on establishing a love of the locomotive in his little heart, and on Christmas morning he wanted nothing to do with any of his gifts except for his little Thomas the Trains.

We had underestimated how much he would love trains, and had thought to hold off on purchasing him a train table for a few years.  But upon seeing his new found love, and since we really didn't get him anything for Christmas ourselves, we decided a train table might be in order to pass the winter days away.  

Rudy and I set it up on New Years Eve, yes we are party animals like whoa, and we were able to surprise Rowen in the morning with his own little city! 

Choo Choo!!

Wrap Me Up Tight

Today my sweet Finny turned seven weeks old, how that much time has passed escapes me.  While we continue to figure out the little things that make up his growing personality, one thing we know for certain is that Finn loves to be swaddled and tight.  From the day he was born he has loved the security and comfort of a swaddle, and today the easiest way to calm him is to wrap him up just right.  

This afternoon between attempts to take his picture with his brother, and almost getting crushed by said brother, I caught a few pictures of my little burrito baby all wrapped up.  Rudy says he looks spot on like Rowen in these pictures, I disagree...

And oh my gosh, how can you not love his little spikes of hair???

Saying Goodbye to 2012

If I had to sum up the last year in one word, I would call it Magical. Now I'm not going to sit here and say the whole year was sunshine and rainbows, because lets be real there were days that weren't so pretty,  but on the whole, it was an amazing year.  Not only did we grow in size as a family, I believe we grew in so many aspects of our life--our marriage, our home, our patience, our hearts, our faith--the list could go on.

While  I thought about doing a recap of the year, I don't think I'm going to because I know there will be something that I forget to include.  I just want to remember the moments, like the day we found out we would be gifting Rowen with one of the most amazing things we as parents could give him, a brother, our dear sweet Finnegan, who doesn't yet know how much joy he has brought to our family.  Its moments like these, that made 2012 magical.  So here is a list, with not a whole lot of detail, of some of our moments of 2012:

-Finding out our family was growing
-Celebrating Rowen's first birthday
-Rowen taking off walking
-Taking Rowen to Disney
-Summertime swim days
-Seeing Joe graduate
-It's a boy!
-Rehoboth Beach
-The great raisin incident
-walks, walks, and more walks
-EAGLE
-Watching a dear friend marry her best friend
-Visiting the zoo
-Doing over two little boy rooms
-Day date
-Trips to the pumpkin patches
-carving pumpkins
-eating ribs
-Halloween
-A visit from grandpa and a first trip to the train store
-Seeing Flight
-Meeting Finnegan!
-Seeing my boy's meet and grandma meeting Finn
-Our first Thanksgiving as a family of four
-pneumonia and a three week (the worst week ever)
-Driving lights, Christmas trees, and a purple hippo
-First family road trip
-Finnegan's first New England Christmas

2012 was a glimpse of great years to come.  When my boys are teenagers, and hopefully best friends, I will remember these last few weeks of 2012 as their first few weeks together, the beginning of their bond as brothers.  

So Goodbye 2012, you have been great to the Rivera Family, and we will remember you fondly in the years to come.

Our Christmas

Merry the day after Christmas, isn't it sad that the day has come and gone? We had a wonderful Christmas and made the most of the day as a family.  

On Christmas Eve, Rowen spent much of his day running his choo choo.  My dad built a train table at his level, and since we have been here he has been obsessed with this table. I'm pretty sure he will miss it when when we go back home. 

One of my favorite things about Christmas at home is all of the decorations around the house.  I could write an entire post on each room filled with Christmas cheer, and its definitely one of the things that helps make everything 'feel' like Christmas.

Everyone that joins the family gets their own stocking, and over the years the entire mantle has been filled up. I also took a picture to capture my sweet little family of four's stockings this year, with the newest addition being Mr. Finnegan's stocking!

That night my mom surprised us with matching pajamas and we herded the cats to try to get a picture or two!  Finnegan was sleeping, and we were hoping for a little sleep through the night so we didn't wake him to join the picture.

Before bed Row enjoyed a little train time with Aunt Regan.

On Christmas morning we were woken by this little angel. Everyone else got an extra hour of much needed sleep and we enjoyed cuddles with Mr. Finn.

Once everyone was up we started opening up gifts...

Rowen loved his mini trains so much that he pretty much couldn't be bothered to play with any other toy for the rest of the day...

We spent the rest of the day hanging out, laughing, and eating way too much delicious food.  All in all Christmas 2012 was a wonderful day, spent with all of the people I love most in this world!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!