Busy time of the year...

Here it is, almost 3 weeks away from Christmas, can't believe it's coming upon us so fast. My brother and sister in law are here visiting from Italy, so we celebrated Christmas with them a few days ago. River got to open his first ever Christmas presents and didn't give a rip. :) He loved the ribbons though, just like we knew he would. River is growing so fast, I know I say that a lot, but I'm his mom and he's my first and I can't help it. I took him to his 9 month well baby check this morning, he is 19lbs 10oz and 28 1/4 inches long. He's around the 25th % for both weight and height, he's our average little man. He's learning his words and has started mimicking us when we say "mama" "dada" "baba." it's wild. :) I think his biggest accomplishment in the last few weeks has been CRAWLING. That's right, he's mobile and I finally understand WHY parents need playpens. He's all over the place, just wait until he's RUNNING all over the place. I'm so not in a hurry for that to happen. :) Of course, with the crawling, there has to be room for learning boundaries, and we are REALLY teaching him that the Christmas tree is a no no. He does understand the word no, but he sure doesn't like it. :) He also has his first head cold and Daddy and I are both starting to get it. woohoo. His sleep schedule has been pretty crazy these past few weeks with Ben and Ashley and her family here at night, so hopefully it will go back to normal once they fly home, which is tomorrow. It's been great having them here, but I think we all are ready for our routines to come back. WEll, I can't think of much else to update, just so thankful to have a healthy, happy baby. We don't realize how lucky we are until a tragedy hits someone close to you. Dan's cousin Kimberly and her husband Shawn recently welcomed their baby girl, Juliana Rose on Thanksgiving Day. Juliana lived for about 1 1/2 hours. She had Potter's Syndrome and they were expecting her to either be stillborn or to live a short while. My mother in law was able to attend Juliana's funeral and said it was "profoundly moving." I start to tear up just thinking about it. As a mother, I can't imagine what Kimberly had to have been feeling or is feeling today. Knowing that by giving birth, your child will be dying...too much to fathom. We are sending our thoughts to Kimberly, Shawn and Nicholas and all of the Burkempers. They have their faith which I am sure is helping them move forward. It just reminds me to hold my son a little closer to me and be thankful that he is here with me.