I am consistently amazed by him, by his strength and determination. The weekend before christmas, we had a family christmas party for my dads side of the family. And Ronan was, well, there is no other word for it, horrendous. It was a long drive there, a full two and a half hour drive, and by the time we got there, he was cranky, out of sorts, and just bloody irritated. We stayed for maybe 3-4 hours and he screamed and yelled his head off for most of it. By the time we got home we were wrung out and exhausted and our hearts were aching for the poor wee bairn, and because of this we were absolutely terrified of the two and a half hour treck on christmas day up to M's parents place. We planned to stay for two, perhaps three days, but we wondered if he would be upset for all of this time. He shocked us both by being a perfect angel. I've never handled an *easier* baby than the baby he was while we were up there. Of course as soon as we returned home, he returned to his usual cranky-as-a-default-setting state, leaving us with the theory that he just really likes country air. Which would make all three of us really. Pity moving back to the country isn't plausible at this point in time.
We are getting more smiles these days, he is still not a *smiley* baby by any means, but we get them more often than we used to - we can now pretty much count on a smile at every feed, as he loves to smile at his food. Can't say I blame him though as I am rather fond of food myself. He is not rolling, though he is trying very hard to do so - however I don't think he will get it anytime soon without tummy time, as he HATES tummy time with a vengeance and screams the house down. He can hold his head up very well of his own accord, and is doing everything within his power to be able to sit up on his own. He is also now over 11 pounds. He has come such a long way from the tiny wee thing he was when born. His spindly legs and arms we were terrified of breaking are now gone, replaced with robust limbs with muscle definition no less. His tiny shivering chest through which we could see his ribs has now been replaced by a chest of the broad barrel variety, to match his shoulders. He has become that which he is now nicknamed - a bruiser. His strength matches with mine frequently and finds me losing and covered in bruises, from where he has pinched me while we were playing and/or he was feeding. He's growing in leaps and bounds and I can't believe the change in him from one day to the next.
It says alot about my state of mind though, that when the new year rang in, I turned to M and asked him if we could have another baby next year. I love my boy so much that I want to have many more babies, as crazy as that sounds. I will do my very best to wait until he is one, but he is so delightful, it makes me want more straightaway. Greedy, greedy thing that I am.
11 weeks 4 days old
