milestones

Having a boy means different milestones abound... Like the first time he peed on his father (December 31, 2006), or the first time he peed on his own face (January 3, 2007), or the first time he peed on his mother (not counting in utero- January 5, 2007). At this point, we've lost track.

Then there are the typical milestones, the first day the three of us went out (January 5, 2007) the day he lost his umbilical cord (January 17, 2007- three whole weeks!), the day of his first bath (also January 17, 2007), the first time he held his head up (January 20, 2007, although to be fair, he's been holding up his head for short bouts since he was born), the first pumped bottle (January 16, 2007), the day I caught the dog, Tango, eating diaper shit (January 14, 2007).

Every day brings something new, some of the moments are important and some of them are not, but at the end of the day I find myself wishing that I could write all of these things down because I hate to forget them, even the little things. For the first week we were home, Josh and my mom kept a careful tally of when Gabriel ate, peed and pooped. I found this secretly hilarious, but to their faces I'd pretend to take it as seriously as they did. Josh even put together a chart on Excel, with different columns and different methods of recording the pees and poops. He even had a section for comments, you know, like "peed on Dad", "pooped on couch". After we went to the pediatrician and Gabriel was gaining weight well, and his dirty diapers were happening at a record pace, the two of them eventually phased out the chart. I forgot about that chart until today, and that made me a little sad.

Last night Gabriel smiled at his Daddy, and to avoid any doubts, he did it a couple times in a row in response to Josh's singing. After Josh left the room, I told Gabriel in no uncertain terms that the smile was sweet and all, but if he wants the milk to keep flowing, he better produce some gummy grins for this mommy asap. Josh burps him and changes almost all the dirty diapers, but I feed him, and damnit, that better count for more.

Before I forget, yesterday was a series of milestones. We went to the mall for the first time, breastfed and changed him in a department store fitting room, we had to pull over to breastfeed him in the Post Office parking lot, I had to change a dirty diaper on my lap in the car, and then he peed on me in the middle of the changing. We also went out to dinner for the first time, I breastfed at the Olive Garden (covered up) and got my first disgusted look for doing so, even though the woman could see neither breast nor child underneath my cover. It stung a little.

Things are still wonderful, though. Gabriel is the sweetest baby. He never cries, literally never. The last time he uttered any wails was the day of his bris. He will let out solitary squawks when he is displeased with us, and he scrunches up his face into the most pitiful pouty face you've ever seen, but he doesn't actually cry. He lets me sleep 4-5 hours at a stretch at nighttime and feeds every 3 hours in the daytime. Every day he stays awake for longer and longer, and is contented to listen to me babble to him. He is a dream, I can't believe our luck. And he's pretty cute to boot- don't you think? We're definitely keeping him.