Our Happy baby!

I am not sure why the idea that baby's first smiles are really gas didn't get thrown out with equally ridicules notions like newborns don't feel pain, or should not be spoken to or held too often in order not to spoil them. Of course Ben is smiling, he is happy and he is displaying the natural reaction to contentment, just as he screams his head off when he's hungry. I wouldn't ignore his cries of hunger as "exercising his lungs" just as I won't write off his adorable little grins as "gas." Of course babies are born with all their emotions available to them... happiness doesn't "develop" over time, he started displaying it hours after being born. Who gets to decide which smile is the first "real one"? I think as his mother I do... and it was four hours after birth, he looked right up at his dad and released a small, deliberate flicker of a grin...we were hooked!

Overalls and little feet

When I found out we were having a son these are two things I was looking forward to... Ben wore his overalls for the first time today and made his mommy very happy! You may have noticed my multiple references to his feet as well, as they continue to be an ongoing obsession! I don't know what I will do when the weather forces me to put socks on him...

The Many Faces of Ben

Many people, as I was, are under the impression that newborns are boring... this is not so. Ben is actually very entertaining... especially when he is practicing all his expressions.

The Most Beautiful Baby

I am waiting in line at a store I don't care to name because I hate going there (it starts with a W and ends with Mart...) and as I was leaving a woman stopped me and said "I just have to tell you- you have the most beautiful baby" I smiled and before I could think said "I know- I mean thank you!" Ha... the problem is I do know.. he's the best thing I've ever done by far- I want to just put him over my head, parade him around and yell "LOOK WHAT I DID!!!"

6 hours of sleep!!!

Knock on wood...

After a night of waking every hour and a half and a mother who was about to lose her mind...Ben has decided to give his mum a break! Last night he slept...count em- 6 straight hours! Now that he's over 10 Ibs we don't have to wake him every 2.5 hours to feed him (we have had to for the last 2 weeks because he lost too much of his birth weight as a result of my poor milk supply). Today I feel like a brand new person! Thanks Ben! (he;s sleeping again as I right this...) What did I do to deserve such a great baby! As my dad said this is NOT the baby they wished on me- who cried 20 out of 24 hours a day as an infant... Since Ben looks just like me he said "ah so this is what you WOULD have looked like with your mouth shut...HA!

An Elvis/Daddy Fan

Ben loves music. He will immediately calm right down if he hears music so we try to play it for him at night when he is sleeping. During the day I *try* singing to him... he doesn't seem to mind my voice at the moment...only Jon complains. What he REALLY likes though is when his dad sings Elvis too him. It is awfully sweet and is making a fan out of me as well! He is definatly a daddy's boy as he gets very alert when he hears Jon talking. I am lucky I have the food source otherwise I would never get to hold him! I do love watching them together though. I forget that I have had nine (almost 10!) months to get to know him but Jon is really just starting his relationship with him.

Bubble Baby

I am trying not to be the kind of mother who fusses and worries and keeps a blanket over the baby's head at all times. I do however constantly fight the urge to do these very things. I would really like to put him in bubble wrap when we leave the house and put a FRAGILE sticker over his forehead. He has been going out of the house on various outings since he was a couple of days old and is a great little traveler. We went out for lunch today with a few friends and he was wonderful, he has also been to a BBQ, baby shower and had his pictures taken professionally. He is always very well behaved and never cries. My concern is for the people around him. I know tiny babies are irresistible but PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH! At the grocery store the woman behind the meat counter came out and touched his cheek before I could stop her... with her gross meaty hands!!! we went home immediately so I could scrub the E. Coli off of him. It was during this scrubbing that the bubble wrap idea came to me. I have a sling now to counteract the people who can't keep their dirty, diseased hands off my new baby. He loves the sling and people can't get too close.