Tristan: Three Months

I know it's a tired expression, but in this case, the time really has flown by. I don't know if it's because I have two kids, or we've kept busy, or maybe because Tristan is just gargantuan, but I feel like my little baby is gone already at 3 months!

Tristan is such a joy and at such a fun age right now. He is such a happy, smiley, LOUD baby. He will tell you all about it and then some, competing to be heard over big brother's constant jabbering.

At three months, Tristan weighs SIXTEEN pounds. yes. sixteen. He's very tall and has a budda belly as well as some mega-thighs :) I would swear he is older than he is if I didn't know better, he looks more like a six-month-old than an infant half that age!

He has great control of his arms and found his thumb a couple weeks ago. I know it's not a good habit, but it is just adorable to see him sucking his tiny thumb. He loves to lay on the floor and play with toys suspended over him. He is quite good at batting or pulling on toys, and loves when people play with his feet.

He seems to look less like Brady all the time and more like me. But one thing that is a total deja vu moment for me is when he gets excited about something. He stands up (with assistance of course!), gets this serious, Zoolander "Blue Steel" kind of look, and shakes his arms. It's really cute, and exactly what Brady used to do when he was excited, too.

Praise God the colicky phase is over, but now he might be teething....it's early, but he chomps and drools, and just gets kind of crabby. He loves gnawing on my knuckles, and kind of seems like he might be trying to cut some teeth soon.

I figured out I wasn't drinking enough water to keep up with his appetite. Since I have been forcing myself to drink more, I've been able to keep up with nursing much better. Obviously, his weight isn't suffering :)

Tristan is in size 2 diaper, and is in size 6 month clothing, although I think he will be out of that pretty soon. I can't get out the next box of clothes and get them washed up fast enough, he starts outgrowing them immediately.

I feel kind of bad that all of his nicknames revolve around his size. chubber, chubber cheeks, budda belly, chunky monkey, to name a few :) 

He may be a big boy, and I do miss my little baby, but he's super snuggly. My favorite is when he rests his head on my chest, wide awake, and just lets out a few coos and gurgles. He's just happy and content to lay with his mommy, and it's those moments that I wish I could just bottle up and cherish forever.

The Pursuit of Happiness

What is this perpetual pursuit of happiness to which our world is addicted? What does it even mean to achieve true happiness?

I've spend a lot of my days trying, and failing, to attain a level of happiness I thought I should have, that others had. You know what I'm talking about: those people who always seem to have everything together. Like nothing could ever rock or phase them. How did they get so....happy.

I actually think the problem lies in the question itself: "How do we achieve happiness?" I mean, the very word 'happiness'; is the culprit. If we strive for constant happiness, we are going to be constantly disappointed.

The Bible clearly states this life will not be without it's struggles, disappointments, hurts.  "Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows" - John 16:33. So it would be impossible to attain pure happiness in a world where bad things happen, where evil exists and temptations lurk.

Pursuing happiness will always result in dissatisfaction, in UNhappiness. We should instead strive for an underlying joy that supersedes happiness, which allows us to be thankful in the midst of suffering, find beauty when we are hurting, rejoice in the Lord when our flesh tells us we are down.

Back to those people who have it all together. They have happy days and sad days, great days and horrific ones like we all do. But their underlying joy in life is what takes them away from the pursuit of what the world says is true happiness (cars, money, houses, wealth, good looks, career, etc.) and lets them rest in the fact that the next thing God says after telling us this life has it's burdens is to "Take heart! I have overcome the world." He is giving us permission to be unhappy with life on Earth at times, and assures us that underlying joy can co-habitate with unhappiness because of salvation and His eternal promise. 

To help do that and remember the things that bring me joy, I've made a joy list. In the hustle and bustle of life it is easy to forget the very things that we love most about life: a list helps bring those to the forefront of your mind so that when you see a newborn puppy or a rainbow or get a kiss from a loved one, you don't simply take it for granted but remember to recognize the joy simple things bring to your lufe, and to thank God for the joy, even if it's hard to be 'happy'.

I'll be sharing my joy list over the course of a few postings as it's quite lengthy - I hope you'll make your own, and even find some on my list to get you started.

Tristan's Milestones

I plan to keep this post updated with Tristan's milestones. For now we don't have many, but that changes daily as he grows into a happy little boy!

First roll (tummy to back): March (yes, MARCH!!) 23

First (real) smile: April 11