two month old moses

i love being moses’s mom. i positively can’t believe how much joy and love this tiny person has brought into our lives. the boy and i are having a lot of fun being parents, amidst the challenges that help us learn and grow.

becoming a mother has changed my perspective on so many different things – it’s pretty amazing and quite beautiful. one thing i’ve been thinking about a lot lately is my “online presence” now that i have a child.


i love blogging because it is an efficient way for me to organize my pictures / keep a personal  history / remember life experiences and because i believe in the power of sharing and have loved connecting with others all over the world through this space on the internet. clearly i am not a very private person – i openly publish a lot of my life on the world wide web – but having a child is kind of a gamechanger. i am eager to share our little mo’s sweet expressions and fun growing-up milestones (because i think they bring happiness and melt hearts!), but i also want to be careful. our baby is a person, and i want to respect him and keep him safe in a changing world that is increasingly connected. soooo, i’m trying to figure out a way to keep recording and organizing and sharing, but not overexposing my child. i think finding the right balance that ian and i personally feel good about will be a work in progress that will likely take a while. i’m really anxious to document baby moses’s life but it’s tricky to do so without comparing, worrying, or getting overwhelmed by stacks of unorganized digital photographs and piles of scattered written memories. i’ll figure out a good system one day!

in the meantime, i just can’t help sharing some pictures of and notes about moses at two months old. {and then i’ll go back and start filling in the gaps from his first week until now – i’m so behind!} i just think he is the cutest baby ever ever ever and i’m completely obsessed with him. he makes me so happy…and i hope these bits and bobs about him will make you happy today, too!

 

moses went on his first flight when he was seven weeks old, and it took him allll the way across the ocean to new york city! he rode on four more airplanes before returning home to london. while we were in utah, in the middle of our trip, moses officially turned two months old. i put him on the couch at my parents’ house in park city and snapped some photos of him so we could remember just what he looked like at exactly two months. please note his halo of awesome hair (especially visible in the photo on the left above) and his myriad of different expressions!

  

moses started flashing alert (non-gassy!) smiles at five weeks old, and he hasn’t stopped since! he is so so smiley, especially when he has a nice full belly of milk. he makes the cutest cooing noises that ian and i just die over pretty much daily. it seems like with each week he gets more comfortable in his body and just more content – he was a bit fussy in the very beginning of his life but now he’s such a happy baby! (that said, he sure does let you know when he’s hungry or wet or tired!)

mosey especially loves mornings. after a 4 or 5am feeding, he goes back to sleep until about 7:30 or 8 and when i peer into his moses basket he is often showing off a wide grin. when i unswaddle him, he stretches biiiiig for a solid five minutes. and then he kicks his legs and waves his arms and smiles and coos like crazy. it’s just the best – we can hardly handle how deliriously happy it makes us. i’ve tried to capture all this on video a few times, but turns out moses is a little bit camera shy…or he just gets fascinated by the big black thing/pink phone in front of him – he gets quiet and focused!

little mo is so bright eyed and curious and expressive – constantly looking around and just taking in the world. he has a tiny dimple on his right side near the corner of his mouth. his hair is the most beautiful colour of auburn and sticks up like crazy, especially after its been washed and towel dried. he is in the tenth percentile for weight and eightieth percentile for weight! – tall and skinny like his dad. we just had to put away his newborn size clothes and he’s finally starting to fill out some of his 0-3 month outfits. moses is used to being worn by both mom and dad in different carriers (we still don’t have a stroller!) and he makes a lot of people on the streets of london smile and/or squeal with delight when they see him :)

baby boy has been especially good natured since we returned to london from our trip to the states. i really think he knew he had come home, because he has been so content around the flat and so happy looking around out on the streets. he’s a london boy for sure … so i had to take some more pictures of him in his darling little london onesie soon after we returned home.



can you even handle these expressions?! i took all of these photos below within honestly ninety seconds.

    

this little guy has lots of nicknames – we call him everything: moses, mo, little mo, mose, mosey, mosey bear, mosey boy, momo, little moses, little man, little friend, little boy, little son, little love, love boat, love bug, sweetie love, and when he has made a bit of a mess: little stinker boy. i mention the mess because homeboy is a major spitter-upper these days. he goes through about four outfits (which are pretty much drenched by the time i change him) per day. he’s not bothered at all by all the upchucking, so we are hoping it will fizzle out within the next few weeks/months.

since returning home, moses and i have had some fun little adventures around the city. a few days ago we took a trek out to bromley-by-bow to see this random, gorgeous wall. <— i had noticed this magical mermaid-scale facade popping up all over instagram and had been wanting to see it in real life. when my friend mentioned they were taking it down soon, i decided we had to go!

it’s the front of a super random warehousey building in an even more random neighborhood that is a 45-minute tube ride away from our flat. but it was worth the journey! isn’t it so pretty?!



and look how darling baby moses looks cuddled up in his ring sling in front of the wall…!



often in our walks around town (running errands or just getting out and about), i am stopped dead in my tracks by some beautiful, charming sight. a slight nippy chill of autumn has arrived to london, but the summer flower boxes are still up! to be honest, it was hard for me to leave utah at the end of our trip to the usa – i was aching for more time in the mountains. but coming home to london has been amazing – this city is magnificent and i love love love living here. moses adores walks around these lovely, lively streets and he makes so many strangers smile along the way!


a couple days ago we met up with a friend at maitre choux, a tiny little pastry shop in south kensington that likely has the cutest storefront and most amazingly decorated eclairs in the entire world. (the eclair we shared was pretty yummy too, but the chouxettes were out of this world delicious.) while i was waiting for my friend, two random ladies stopped on the street and admired moses, sleeping in the sling. then one of the women asked if she could take a picture for me. she then proceeded to pose me – “no, look down at him and smile.” it was pretty funny.


moses absolutely despises tummy time. but it’s definitely helping him develop some strength and learn some new tricks with his body, so we try to do it every day (and suffer through listening to all his sad noises and seeing him struggle!). before we left for the states, when he was just six weeks old, moses rolled over from tummy to back! we were pretty shocked that he did that so early, and thought it might have been an accident, but then he kept doing it! now it’s pretty hard to keep him on his tummy during tummy time because he is getting really good at rolling!

this blanket, that moses chills out on a lot, was lovingly handmade by my dear friend dani and her mom. we all love it!

 

mosey loves taking showers with his dad, and actually doing pretty much anything with his dad! ian has been such an involved and excited father, and is totally obsessed with moses. i absolutely love co-parenting with ian and am so grateful for all he does for the two of us – he works so hard at the office all day and then comes home and jumps right in to taking care of baby boy. he makes sure that i get time out of the house on my own and am able to go to the gym and to yoga classes and serve in my church callings. he never ever complains about helping with moses in the middle of the night (he actually loves it!) and he still makes sure we have fresh flowers in the flat all the time. he’s the best, best, best. 

i think little moses is feeling more and more confident in being a human every day. he’s gotten into a good little routine of eat, play, sleep, repeat during the days. he’s happy to chill in his bouncy seat while i get some things done (a big change from the first few weeks of his life!) and to snooze in his swing for four naps a day.

 

moses also really loves the mobile that i made for him that hangs above his little changing station <—he stares at it, mesmerized, and kicks his legs with glee.

annnnnd i just edited this post to add that little mo slept through the night for the first time last night!!!! 10pm-7am … i’m still processing that, and it’s 10am now! :) i feel amazing and am so glad, but to be totally honest, i kind of missed seeing his sweet face and nursing him in the dark, wee hours. i don’t know if this sleeping through will last, but i’m glad i cherished rather than resented the middle-of-the-night feedings, which i think are really special.

and that’s a little update on our two-month-old, sweet-as-sugar, wonderful baby boy. after that disclaimer at the beginning of the post, i think i’ve successfully overshared…i’ll figure out the right balance eventually :)

we love you so so so so so sooooo much, little mo!! – more than we could have ever imagined.