Baldy

Is my little boy a month old already?

It blows my mind to think of how much my life has changed in four short weeks. Happily, I have had a fabulous experience with everything from delivery to new motherhood. I am so thankful that I haven’t struggled with feeling depressed or overwhelmed. It might be good fortune, good genetics, good preparation, or the goodness of God. It’s probably all of these things.

Judah makes us laugh every single day, an amazing feat for a nine-pound human with almost non-existent motor skills. The crossed eyes, the silly faces he makes, the loud grunting that accompanies each one of his bodily functions, the dramatic panic in his voice when his demand to eat is not immediately met. My new favorite thing is the way he instantly calms down when I pick him up, no matter how upset he was the moment before. He’ll look searchingly into my face with his big, “intense blue” eyes (as my friend Ana calls them) with this look of innocent surprise and relief. It’s like he’s thinking, “Oh, it’s you! The one who will make it all better.” It’s a wonderful feeling.

Yesterday I picked up one of his blankets and was astounded by the familiarity of his own little personal ’scent.’ And like any new mom whose thoughts often run to the morbid, my next thought was that if anything ever happened to him, I would sit in his nursery and smell every single on of his belongings, cherishing that little scent. And then I went and picked him up, kissed him all over his face (much to his annoyance) and promised him that nothing would ever, ever happen to him. Because even though I’ve known him for only four weeks, I couldn’t live without the little bugger.

Whew! Now that I’ve made myself emotional, I’ve got to turn the subject to something humorous (my sister Jackie can relate to this tendency). Our big milestone this week isn’t really a milestone at all, but a tragedy. By this I refer to my son’s male-pattern baldness. As cute as he is, we’re a little embarrassed by the fact that we’ve given birth to Ron Howard.

This is what his hairline looked like one short week ago:

A few days later. (Going…)

And now. (Gone.)

Jared thinks he needs wire-rimmed glasses, a pipe, a houndstooth sport coat and a book of philosophy. I think it just gives his face more kissable surface area.