Finally an update...

Whew....The Dolans have been busy!  What a year it has been so far.  Will turns 8 months old this Sunday.  Geremy is in the middle of switching jobs at the church.  I have recently cut back my hours to only working 24 hours (3 days) a week.  Geremy is back in school and will be working towards finishing his professional counseling degree.  That is just a little of why we have not had time to update our blog in so long.

Will is more fun every day.  I know for sure that I love him more every day.  He says "da da" all the time.  He can pick puffs up with his hands and feed them to himself.  He is a great sleeper.  He goes down about 7:00 like clock work and starts waking up around 6:00 every morning.  Although 6:00 is so early, we are hopeful that it will work out in the future.  Will is almost crawling, but not quite yet.  He would love to crawl, and walk, he just loves to go, but we are enjoying this stage and certainly not rushing the next.  He has 4 teeth and is a phenomenal eater.  We are so grateful every day for Will.

That is it for now.  I hope to update more often.  Here are some recent pics.

Will's 3 month pictures

We had 3 month pictures done with Jason Pendley in early January and they turned out wonderful.  We have been way to slow on posting them.  Here is the link

http://www.jasonpendley.com/Clients

Just click on Will Dolan and scroll through.

Here are two of our favorites.

Learning and Growing

Since Will has been born, I think that we have been learning and growing as much as he has.  The other day I found some old journals from college and started to read them to Geremy.  I realized how much I miss journaling.  I loved reading through little snippets of my life going back as far as 8th grade through recent years. Since Will has been born, it has been a rare occasion for me to sit, ponder and pour out my heart to God on paper.  Most of my prayers are quick, hurried requests for wisdom, safety and understanding of how to care for this most precious gift.  I know that having a baby changes things, especially with your time, but it has been such an adjustment.  Having Will has been the start of a new chapter for how God is teaching us and growing our hearts to be more like his.  It's funny how this is all happening.  The other day I thought I would start reading more to Will.  I pulled out a book that someone had given us called, "Hermie".  The book is a simple story of a caterpillar who keeps asking God why he didn't make him like the other animals he meets.  God keeps telling Hermie not to worry, God is giving him a heart like his.  I think prior to having Will, we definitely lived life in a hurry.  I in particular tend to be a very industrious person, always looking for the next thing that needs to be done.  Now with Will, I can't do things as fast and I don't think God wants me to any way.  I think he wants me to slow down and wait on him.  To let him give me a heart like his.  I am excited about this new part of life and so grateful that it is by God's grace that he leads me and teaches me each day.  I am glad that we will always be learning and pray that we will set an example to Will that lifetime learning and growing is a great thing.

Where did my little boy go?

It has been far too long since I updated our blog.  Most of this is because I have been back to work since the middle of December, we had the holidays, and then Will has been sick and well, then sick and well since the new year.  Our son now weighs a whopping 15 pounds and is almost 26 inches long.  His hair is still very light (just like ours when we were his age) and you can barely tell it's there.  His favorite things these days are his hands, his feet and time with Mom and Dad.  He has started looking up at us while we are holding him.  It is almost as if he is checking to see if we are still there, then he looks down and then 5 seconds later, back up. It's so funny.  Yesterday, he laughed for me. That was really fun!  I would make a funny sound with my mouth and then he would just giggle.  You would never had known that he had a 102.3 temperature.  We spent late last night at the urgent care center having blood work done only to find out he just has a virus.  He was throwing up with other symptoms last week, but hasn't thrown up since Thursday.  The fever started yesterday.  We are hoping it leaves today.  It seems like Will turned 3 months and then he caught a cold and now it's his bought with a virus.  The little one is working hard at building up his immune system. :)

Here is a recent pic of him taking a nap on Friday.  The seahorse was a recent gift from a friend and he loves sleeping with it.  It usually isn't so close to his face, but I was supervising this nap so I let him hold it.

Updated Stats

Will went to the Doctor this week for his 2 month appointment.  He is now 10 weeks old.  He weighs 11 pounds 6 ounces.  He is 23 1/2 inches long.  He is now wearing clothes that are between 3 months to 6 months in size and is getting a little better at sleeping through the night.  He can do a 6 hour stretch now, but we are praying this becomes 8 by the time I go back to work on December 14th.  Here are some more pictures from this week.

Boys wear pink, right?

I have been so excited about the Christmas season.  I love it!  Yesterday I wanted Will to wear a Christmas outfit but it was freezing.  The only Christmas outfit I had that was warm enough was pink with brown holiday graphics on it.  I thought it was appropriate for a little boy, but Geremy took one look at it and said "what is he wearing?"  I explained what I was thinking and we headed out to breakfast.  That morning, several women asked how old our daughter was.  I politely responded that HE was 10 weeks.  We had a good time out, but as soon as we arrived home, I changed his outfit.  Needless to say, he will not be wearing pink again for a long time.

Pure joy

Earlier this week I sat Will in the Bumbo seat for the first time.  He is now 10 weeks old so I thought just maybe he could hold his head up.  He did great.  I took this picture.  We had so much fun that day.  We did all the fun mother/son stuff like reading a book together, he watched his mobile in his crib, played on his play mat and we just sat together in the chair.  It was pure joy!