Busy, Busy...

We will leave our house at about 7am tomorrow to head off to the airport. I don't think I have mentioned it here, but we are flying back to the states for the holidays for Nehemiah to meet his grandparents and aunt and uncles. He will even get to meet not one, but TWO of his great grandmas, as one will be flying in from Florida just to see him. This is truly a great blessing.

I've been teaching again, so between that and trip preparations (and figuring out Christmas gifts!), there's been a lot on our plates. I teach for no longer than 2-hour stretches, and we've got a great schedule going where Nehemiah doesn't often need to take a bottle of pumped milk so that I am able to just feed him right before I leave and right when I get back. I am a little anxious over how the trip will affect our schedules, but it will be fine in the end.

I haven't pushed any schedules on him, but he has pretty naturally made his own. His poops even follow one! It's nice that this has naturally happened because it has enabled me to learn how to better take care of him when he is fussy or what have you. For example, he's often really fussy at about 7 or 7:30am. Putting him in his bouncer helps him feel more comfortable and relaxed at this time so that he is able to thank me with a nice present. (And boy, are they starting to get stinkier!)

I've documented Thursday of last week (the 17th) as his first official smiles day. I had a few before that day, but that day really seemed to start it all off. He smiles more and more each day. He has also started making "cuter" baby noises instead of only grunting. Today was a pretty big increase. We are both in love with these sounds. Nehemiah loves bath time so much, so we get a lot of adorableness out of him from that.

It seems silly to note this, but one day before he turned 4 weeks, he shed his first tear. It broke my heart. I was doing something in the bathroom (probably rinsing one of his diapers) when he started crying, and he got so upset that he shed a tear. My poor baby. ;~;

We are both in love with how much cuter he grows each and every day. It truly is amazing.

His eyes are actually currently blue. We thought they were brown and even noted such on his passport application, but they are a dark blue for now. They will almost certainly turn brown by his first birthday. I checked to make sure eye color is not noted on the printed passport just in case, and it's not. ^.~

I am a little anxious about all of the flights going smoothly, so if you could pray about that, that would be wonderful. I am, unfortunately, the type of person who imagines a lot of what *could* happen but probably won't, and I let it get to me. This is why the internet and the news are sometimes dangerous for me. It's not even that I am afraid of flying itself--I love it! It's other little things, so just if you could send some prayers, they would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway, I have a bunch of things to get done that I am obviously not getting done by sitting here. For the family and friends back in MN reading this, see you soon!

Much love and many prayers to you all~