No Joke:

According to our Italian Mobster Pediatrician, Nathan is now 26in. and 16 lbs. Long and skinny. I asked if I should be worried about his growth, and the pediatrician said no, but I did get the go ahead to feed him some rice cereal if I wanted to. Pretty sure my sister and her behemoth children were strongly deterred from any supplemental food until at least 6 months, so either all children are not created equal or I don’t produce quite as rich a cream as my sister!
Sadly, it took my little tike 4 months and 2 days, on April 17th I finally got a genuine laugh out of him. I remember thinking he was chuckling in his sleep, which he was (I know since I recognize his actual laugh now) but we couldn’t get him to consciously laugh. Scott was assisting one of the 4th year dental students on his board exams all day Saturday and I had to rub it in by informing him that he missed a first. He giggled a lot for me; wish I could figure out what he found so funny because he is a tough audience. Scott tried and tried all Sunday to get another laugh out of him to no avail; and to be honest, I couldn’t get any either, but on Wednesday at his doctor’s appointment, the breast-feeding bashing, no-Tylenol-for-shots-giving Italian Mobster pediatrician got a laugh out of him! Needless to say, we are now the absolute goofiest people I know, trying all we can to get laughs. They are rare, but sure worth the effort. Don’t get me wrong, Nathan is a happy baby – he smiles so big he’s all gums – and he talks up a storm, I just figure we are not funny enough for him . . . yet!
We can actually claim that there is an official favorite toy. Nathan’s great Aunt Sharon gave him a book called Snowy Bear and it is grand. It has the stuffed head of a polar bear on top of a red plastic tube; the front and back page are crinkley and there are rings with ribbons attached to the side of the book. Oh so many fun things to touch and feel and taste. He takes it in his stroller, carseat and his favorite place to play is in his swing where he took a nap with Snowy Bear last week and in one of his wake-up-and-rub-your-eye moments rubbed his crinkley page on his face and STILL went back to sleep.
I love nap times and second bed times. My big boy is learning to put himself to sleep – or at least back to sleep. Instead of requiring rocking, walking, or nursing time, he has now, several times, after waking up, played for a while and talked to himself, rolled back over to his tummy (the obviously most comfortable sleeping position) and GONE BACK TO SLEEP – Bless him!