different but oh so similar

Our sweet baby boy is already three months old and we couldn't be more in love.  He is no longer the tiny sleepy baby we took home from the NICU two and a half months ago.  Instead James has grown into a beautiful chunky happy boy.  His chubby cheeks and endless chins are impossibly irresistible and I am obsessed with his tiny upturned nose.

In many ways he takes after his older brother, but in others, he is all his own.

1) Like Jake, Mommy is James' lovey.  "Cuddling" (aka nursing) is his favorite activity (obviously, by the pound a week weight gain) and he loves to take naps cuddled up on my chest.  His new thing is to grab a small handful of my hair and just hold onto it while I carry him around.

2) Since his NICU days, James loves to sleep on his tummy (Jake hated that).  But whatever keeps him sleeping through most of the night.  Not to worry, he sleeps 6 inches from me.

3) Something about having Mommy close bye must inherently trigger whining because now both my boys do it.  While I know it won't be cute forever, I can't help but laugh (and give in) to James' dramatics.  I think it is the pouty bottom lip that gets me.

4) Baby smiles are gifts from heaven.  James has a couple different ones and each one melts my heart.  He has a love look smile, where he looks straight into your eyes while the corners of his mouth just barely turn up.   Then there is the huge open mouth smile, where his chubby cheeks ball up and his eye are nearly closed.  If it is possible to pick, I think the third is my favorite.  It is the silly half smile.  It is so goofy and playful that I can't help but giggle every time he does it (still working on pictures of all these).

5) James has also turned into quite the little talker (but would you expect anything else coming for our family).  He can get so excited that cooing becomes a full body experience with busy arms and wildly kicking legs.  We all get pretty excited too so he usually has quite an audience. 

6) Unlike Jake, James doesn't fight sleep.  When he is tired, he sleeps regardless of where he is.  That may seem normal to most families, but it still surprises me every time it happens.

trying to recover from his first cold

7) But like Jake, James loves sleeping next to Mommy at night.  He starts the night in his co-sleeper, but once he wakes up to eat, he falls asleep next to me (this is also about the time Jake finds his way into our bed too).  So by 2 or 3 in the morning our bed looks something like this (imagine Mommy in the middle) as both boys wiggle closer and closer until I literally cannot move.  I might be crazy, but most of the time I love it.

8)  Most of the time I think that James looks really different than Jake, but then I take a picture like this...

James

Jake