Graham,

It’s hard to believe you have been ours for two whole months! The day you were born our world was forever changed. Before you were here we read all the books and bought all the things. We knew we had no idea what parenting would be like until you were here, but we sure did try to prepare the best we could. Despite our best efforts we still felt very unprepared when we loaded you up in the car and headed home from the hospital.

I guess that’s the thing I see now, you can’t really ever prepare for your life to take on a whole new meaning. You don’t even know what you’re preparing for. Of course there were many late night Amazon orders for things we forgot, but I think perhaps what we were most unprepared for was just how you would change our lives in all the best ways! We love you so big little one.

The last two months have held some of the most challenging days. Becoming parents is hard, becoming parents in the midst of a global pandemic is very hard. We’ve had lots of people cheering for us from afar, but not too many here helping us with the messy parts of new parenthood. Trust me they would be here, if it wasn’t for this pandemic. So mostly it’s just been us, and in many ways I think of it as a blessing. To have had nowhere to go, no one to host, no unsolicited advice, nothing to distract us from you. Just us becoming a family.

We have all come a long way in a short time. You’re becoming your own person right before our eyes, and your dad and I are learning as we go in our new role as mom and dad. You’re starting to smile and interact with us more everyday, and it just melts us both into a big puddle.

You have brought immeasurable joy to our home. You were the brightest light for us, in what was a very dark year for so many. I hope you will continue to shine that light into our lives forever my love. We love you more than all the stars in the sky.

Here are a few highlights from your first two months:

Three days old – meeting your Aunt Jody

Three days old – meeting Bertie girl

Four days old – meeting Dadima and Grandpa

Four days old – first trip to the pediatrician

Six days old – first stroller ride

Six days old – Mom and Dad’s first solo outing (Chic-Fil-A obviously)

Ten days old – your first sink bath

Two weeks old – Daddy went back to work

First solo day with Mommy

You started sleeping in your crib in your room

Your first Christmas

Two weeks old – what meeting friends in the time of Covid looked like

Three weeks old – first road trip to the beach – during our trip to the beach is also when you figured out the difference between day and night! Thank Goodness!

Three weeks old – first time on the beach

First New Year’s Eve at the coast

One month old – you started smiling

Five weeks old – fresh out of your first big boy bath

Six weeks old – Aunt Jody came again to help Mommy get her second Covid vaccine

At six weeks your smiles were more intentional and just the best thing ever for us to see. Between six and seven weeks we finally fell into a bit of a routing which was a huge success for all of us!! As our schedule became more predictable we start to venture out with you a little more also.

Six weeks old – first brewery

You got new reflux meds and started only waking up once during the night at seven weeks old!

Eight weeks old – first trip to the vineyard

Eight weeks old – Carolina beat Dook for your first Tobacco Road rivalry game!

Bertie has been everywhere you are for the last two months!