Eight Weeks Today!

Daniel Peter is eight weeks old today! He has grown so much and is getting heavy! I think he is about 11 pounds (Jonny likes to remind me that he now weighs the same as our cat!) and you can now see the extra fat on his thighs, arms, tummy and face - very cute! He is also so much more alert, opens his eyes nice and wide, likes to flail his arms about, is smiling at times (though not frequent yet and it's a big deal when he does) and definitely gets excited and happy.

Jonny officially started Daniel's football training today - or "soccer" as our American friends would say. I'm praying that Daniel will love football as much as his father does but I've already warned Jonny that this may not happen so we'll just have to be prepared and see what sport he will like! Here are some pictures of Daniel kicking the soccer ball for the first time:

We had a nice weekend; the last before my mother and step-father leave on Friday :-( and Peter and Jennifer arrive from Paris :-). We visited the National Arboretum in DC on Saturday and it was a hot summer day and Daniel got to wear short sleeves for the first time! We loved the arboretum, it is really beautiful and we never realized it was so close to us and free, so we expect to make it a frequent place to visit from now on as a family. On Sunday, we had brunch at my work colleague's house so Daniel has been getting around!

All in all we are doing well and enjoying little Daniel so much. The hardest part of everything still continues to be the sleep deprivation. Right now bedtime is between 9:00 and 10:00 PM (which is ours too, we are exhausted by the end of the day!) and he will generally sleep about 4 hours, then another 2 and another 2. For a few nights he slept for almost 5 hours the first stretch but that's still not common. We've read that babies between 8 and 12 weeks start to sleep 6 to 8 hours straight so we are hoping that will begin soon. Daytime napping has been quite inconsistent - one day some of his naps will be almost 2 hours long and then the next he will wake up after only 30 minutes. I'm interested to see how things will settle in the next few weeks...

One of the most special moments of the day is bath time, usually between 8:00 and 9:00 PM, which he absolutely loves! You can see his excitement and anticipation in his eyes each evening, as we are getting him ready. So far it has worked best for him to bath with us (we take turns) and we love it too!

Here are some photos from the last few days:

Getting ready for bath time: look at Daniel's excitement!

Visiting the National Arboretum in DC - Daniel wearing short sleeves for the first time!

Visiting tia Lucia: