We are so thankful this year for the best Christmas present EVER, our little baby Luca!
Daddy and Luca had (sorta) matching jammies for Christmas morning at Mimi and Grandpa's. 
Can't wait for the Christmases to come once the little guy really "gets" it!
Luckily for us, Santa made an appearance at the Confirmation class' Pancake Breakfast last weekend at St. Louise! 
Luca is now 7 weeks old and this has been a really fun week! He is now ACTUALLY smiling at us, not just accidentally...it took me a few attempts to get it on camera, but I finally caught one by day three...
Another milestone we reached this week was some substantial stretches of sleep - 6 hours, then 7, and even 7 and a half! He's actually pretty much stayed on target of 4 hours at 4 weeks, 5 at 5, etc...at this rate, I cannot WAIT for 12 weeks!!!
Luca joined the Lima Ladies for his first fig cookie day...
Also in attendance were two WEEKS old little Ady and adorable-in-her-apron Kendra.
He slept most of the day, but sure lookes cute... maybe next year, he'll be able to hold the pastry brush!
Well, my intention was to take a picture of Luca each month next to his monkey to "chart" his growth, but I already forgot the first month! So...we're starting with six weeks! (Yes, we are in love with monkeys over here!)
Eat, sleep, poop...that is pretty much the schedule around here...and monkey jammies (for both Luca and Mommy!) are the usual attire. Now that he is three weeks old, we are also seeing increased awake/alert time moving into the window between eating and sleeping - 
AND, I am happy to report that he seems to be success- fully distin- guishing his days from nights, sleeping consistent 3 hour stretches, even spoiling me with a few hour stretches some nights! (Hope I haven't jinxed myself!) 
I definitely underestimated the whole sleep deprivation thing that comes along with a newborn, so I am eternally grateful that we are getting to stay with Mimi and Grandpa this first month... mom and I have gotten the whole tag team routine down... yesterday afternoon was an example of a perfect session where I hand him off to her after feeding him so I can go pump while she burps, changes, and cuddles him - then, after I'm finished and she's rocked him back to sleep, we enjoy a glass of wine together in the quiet early evening...a happy hour, indeed!
Tony is very cute with Luca, but he can't seem to just let Luca "be" - here he is trying on Daddy's sunglasses while waiting to see Dr./Zia Angela...
...and of course, we couldn't show up to watch football on Sunday without getting him decked out in his new Colts gear...
Oh, and their favorite father - son activity so far? 
Tuesday morning, after a very anxious night of antici- pating the actual arrival of our little one, we headed to the hospital shortly after 5am. 
The doctors and nurses at Cedars were so wonderful, totally keeping me at ease through- out the whole c-section process, with Tony keeping me in comic relief, of course... 
we headed into surgery at 7:30am and at 7:58, in the midst of all of the "surgery speak," all of a sudden, we heard a baby's cry, OUR BABY'S CRY! What a beautiful sound...immediately followed by the sweet words, "It's a Boy!"
I was stuck on the operating table, but Tony got to hold him right away and, all at once, I fell in love, first with my beautiful baby boy Luca, and then, all over again, with Tony, watching him hold our baby. 
Luca got to put up the Baby Jesus on the Advent Calendar - well, sort of : )
