Charlotte Pear: week two

Week two was less dramatic than week one. There were no doctor's visits. There was just Charlotte, Matt, and I growing as a family and falling ungracefully into our new roles. Charlotte nurses like a pro, but prefers nursing to sleeping at night, and man, oh man, do I miss the friendship that "sleeping" and I once had. I'm not going through parenting alone, though. Matt gets up with me and changes her diaper before re-swaddling her. When I'm emotional, he's quick to hold my hand and listen. There's been a bunch of apologizing already, as I've been shorter fused and unlovely. We had some rough nights, but we learned about each other, and we're a better family for it.

On Charlotte's second week, we packed up everything that fit her and headed down to the Outer Banks for Christmas with the Nowaks. You can blame my aforementioned lack of sleeping for the absence of pictures. We celebrated Christmas on the third story of a beach house, in front of a white Christmas tree. We sang Christmas carols, and Charlotte heard Luke 2's version of the story of our Savior's birth for the first time. Every time she has a first it strikes me as brand new, like somehow I'm experiencing it again for the first time. She had other firsts on this trip. First time traveling for two hours. First time meeting four of her aunts and uncles. First time going to the beach. First time being carried through the woods. First time receiving dozens of presents.

At the end of week two we headed back home to Norfolk and celebrated Christmas again with the Pearsons, meeting two new great (grand) aunts and uncles and receiving dozens more gifts while soundly sleeping.

Charlotte likes swaddles, car rides, her daddy's singing voice, and her mommy's milk. We'll pretend she also generally like her mommy, but, let's be honest, I'm mostly a food source at this stage.