Oh, For Laughing Out Loud.

This week marked Noah's 5 week Dr. appointment--our first visit since several days after he was discharged from the hospital after his birth (with the exception of a late Friday night urgent care visit for a swollen boob that turned out to be nothing more than a "normal response to mom's hormones still swimming around in his body" and an event that gave Daddy the ammunition he needed to fire frequent "man boob" insults at Noah Finn).

Noah's check up went swimmingly. His current weight is 10 lbs. and 14 oz. and he measures in at 21.5 inches long. According to Dr. Zibari, this places him roughly in the the 70% percentile for weight and 20% percentile for height. I'm not sure if you're doing the math here while reading, but numbers like these indicate a baby of munchkin sumo proportions--in other words, short and chunky. Perhaps we're just doting parents blind to the technicalities of scales and tape measurers, but we think he's simply perfect--or else we'll just have to cross our fingers that his height catches up to his weight before the blinding glow of this new parent honeymoon wears off. If not, we might have to stock the house with step stools and seat belt extenders.

Other notes of interest include Noah Finn's new propensity to mingle giggles and laughs in with his googs and gaas--especially in response to his daddy's "mad scientist" laughs and coos. Nothing truly warms the heart of an exhausted and poop covered new parent than the sweet sounds of a warm, cuddly, gummy giggle from the milk covered lips of your new little bundle.

Life otherwise is beautiful and everyday brings with it new sweet rewards. The days are hectic and are filled to the brim with breast feeding, breast feeding and more breastfeeding and diaper changing, diaper changing and more diaper changing--we're just trying to keep our heads above water by keeping up with this little guy's basic needs. We try to emerge from the house for walks daily--if not several times a day. Though we ventured just about every where other than Cairo when my parents were here, we have taken a more laid back approach to the last week or two. In his stroller, he usually sleeps or fusses before falling asleep, but today was the first day that he observantly took in all of his surroundings--bright eyed and bushy tailed, he observed every single bush and cloud and conversed with every bug and bird. Yesterday marked his first trip to Trader Joe's with mommy and daddy and his first time out and about alone with mommy earlier in the day. We ventured for a walk with the BabyBjörn to the post office, the bank, Robek's and to the salon to get mommy's bangs cut. He slept like a baby beneath my barber's apron while strapped onto my chest sleeping.

We both emerged from the trip with a freshly cut confidence for the life without dad that is all too quickly approaching--well, dad will still be around, of course, but not 24 hours a day . . . cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, washing dishes, changing diapers, bathing the baby, washing diapers, grocery shopping . . . okay, we're not that confident, but we're getting there. Noah, perhaps, is as nervous about my capabilities as I am?!