Charlie,

Two weeks ago Thursday you surprised everyone by coming 10 days early.  You were ready to be in the world and weren’t going to wait on anyone; not even for your Mama to pack her hospital bag.  In hind sight, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.  Your Daddy did a great job of packing everything that we needed while we were at the hospital (he sent me photos from his phone to make sure that he had everything right) AND I have already had two precious weeks with you- what more could I ask for?

I am over the moon for you little man; you are precious beyond words and continue to take my breath away daily.  As I write this you are snuggled in on my lap and along with the soft Christmas music I can hear your tiny baby snores… bliss.  Wrapped in two blankets and bundled in your southern miss hat you snooze and I am amazed that you are mine and that I get to be your Mama.  It has taken a while for us to get to know you; you are so different from your brother and so alike at the same time.  You love to be snuggled up, the cozier the better- hence the two blankets, but you don’t want to be swaddled tightly like your brother did.   You like to have one or both arms out of your blanket and near your head (this is a Daddy pose little one and I think it was passed down from Pepere).  Your cry is louder than Jay’s was and you make these brief little hiccup noises and grunt a bunch where Jay sounded more like a pterodactyl when he was your age.  You are a great eater, nursing almost every two hours during the day and less so at night (I thank you for this) and growing like a bad weed.  You weighed in at 8lbs 12oz when we were at the doctor today, having gained 14oz in 2 weeks- wow, little one, wow!  You have a round little face that I recognize from my baby pictures, soft squishy lips and the same button nose as your brother- you are cute, I mean really cute :)

Being a family of four has taken adjusting to.  It hasn’t been a smooth process and we are nowhere near over the adjustment period but we are continuing to work out the kinks as we go and taking it one day at a time.  Jay was a bit jealous when we first came home from the hospital and mostly chose to ignore your existence but he is warming up to you daily.  He refers to you as ‘baby Charlie’ (I really need to get that on video- it’s precious), brings us a paci when you are crying and hugs and kisses you from time to time- although the hugs are more like head locks at this point.  We are working on the concept of being gentle with him- I promise; hopefully it will catch on soon. I can’t wait to see how your relationship will continue to grow and I hope that you will become fast friends.

I can’t cuddle you enough and don’t want to blink because I am afraid that when I do I will open my eyes and you will be a toddler (it happened with Jay- I swear) and I don’t want to miss a minute of this tiny squishy phase.  But at the same time, I love seeing you grow and change before my eyes, what a miracle.  I can’t wait to see what your personality is going to be like and already can’t imagine all that you are going to do with your life.  I have big dreams for you little man, big dreams indeed…

I love you more with each passing day and am so excited to see what tomorrow will bring.  Thanks for coming early to meet us, I love you.

Love,

Mama

p.s. Your two week stats from the doctors visit today are as follows, you know for posterity’s sake…

8lbs 12oz, 21 inches long- and both are in the 50 percentile- but anyone that has been able to cuddle you knows that there is nothing average about you ;)