DAYS OF GRACE: Two and a Half Months

I've got a lot to catch up on from these last couple of weeks! Anthony is continuing to stare at his arms and hands, but is doing so more often now, as well as smiling and cooing even more. He still loves to read books and has a couple of favorites that he goes wild over. He gets so excited and his eyes jump from page to page, and there've been times that I've read to him for what seemed like forever...he just doesn't lose interest at all. Also, since the weather has been so much nicer these last couple of weeks, we've been taking lots of trips to the park and walking track. In my last update, Anthony had just started sleeping longer his first stretch at night, normally six or seven hours. In the last two weeks though, he's even going longer that first stretch at nine or ten hours. We've been putting him to bed around 7:00 or 8:00 and then he gets up between 4:00-5:00 to eat and then goes back to sleep until 8:00 or 9:00. It's been so good for me to finally get some really long stretches of sleep too! My birthday was last week, and David and I enjoyed a night out in Chattanooga. Thanks to everyone for all of your birthday wishes and greetings...it was a really great day! Anthony had his first trips to church these past two Sundays, and David and I were glad to be back as well. He also made his first trip to Atlanta over Labor Day weekend when we went to check on the house for the first time since the end of May. Anthony traveled really well and kept looking the house over since it was a new place for him. We had planned to do some cleaning and work in the yard, but someone had been taking care of things for us because the house was spotless, the yard looked great, and the hedges had just been trimmed. Not sure if it is our neighbors or realtor or someone else, but thank you so much whoever you are...it really means a lot to us, and we really appreciate it! So, we were able to do some extra cleaning and work we hadn't planned to do to the house that weekend and also decided to head back to Tennessee earlier on Sunday ahead of the rain that was coming from one of the tropical storms. We were able to have a quick visit with our friends, Laura and Lee, but unfortunately, we didn't really have time to see anyone else since we spent the majority of our time working on the house and also cut our trip a day short. I'm planning another trip to make a visit to the Board and to see some more friends and that should be here soon in the next couple of weeks. Here are pictures from the last two weeks:

Even though Anthony traveled well on the way down to Atlanta, I felt sorry for him being stuck in his car seat for so long so as soon as we got to the house, I put him in his pack-n-play. He stretched and stretched and then conked out.