He was 19 days early and there’s no doubt that his due date was calculated correctly. Though there was some careful watching for jaundice due to ABO incompatibility issues, Henry did not require treatment. 

Henry’s father says his son takes after his mother — aces all the tests and finishes early. 

These photos were taken when he was 13 days old. Since then, his arms and legs have filled out a lot. He’s got a good appetite and has had very few nursing issues.

His Mom & Dad are pretty awesome also. They were so calm and laid back that some of the hospital staff thought this was their 2nd baby.

Not only that, but my daughter simply never had the appearance of just having had a baby. I won’t say her labor was easy. It wasn’t. But most women don’t look as good as she did after having been up for 24 hours even when they didn’t give birth during that time. Makeup or no makeup.  

Dad looked much worse in the day of birth photos, prompting many jokes. But that was just beard stubble. And his refusal to even consider makeup.

Now I understand that most of you are going to say that I’m just a besotted grandmother when I tell you how exceptional Henry is. That’s OK. I know better. Even his pediatrician noted at his 2 week check up that he’s focusing and tracking movement.  

Henry has his parents’ laid back attitude. The only time I heard him cry the first few days I was there was when his diaper was being changed… and I think that’s entirely attributable to temperature and expertise of the diaper changer. He didn’t like the cold wipes. And he didn’t cry as hard when I changed him. (Probably because I held the wipe in my hand long enough to take the chill off it, but I’m still chalking this up to he just loves his grandma.)

 By the time I left, Henry was expressing himself through crying a bit more forcefully. Though he’s easily pleased (food, warmth, cuddles) he is already teaching his caretakers how to know which one he wants.

My daughter jokes that his expressions in the last two photos are variations of him thinking “do you really know what you’re doing” and “so, there’s really no returns or refunds on parents?”

I’m impressed by how often he folds his hands together as he’s doing in the first photo. He expresses himself with his hands and let’s you know he doesn’t want them confined even if they do feel cold. (The old “I’m cold, you need to put on a sweater” maternal reflex.) Unlike the other newborns I’ve held and loved as a grandmother, he doesn’t often clench his hands into a fist though he does love to grasp a finger or toy.

Though I insist I’m not simply besotted, I concede that I’m easily impressed.

Of course, I’ve heard that babies this young appear to be smiling when they have gas. Henry is (of course!) different. He smiles when he’s drifting off to sleep. I know this isn’t a smile in response to any outside stimulus but I do think it’s a harbinger of his personality – it’s going to be easy for him to smile and be happy. Twice, he’s made a sound that sounds like laughter… or a chuckle.

OKAY! Maybe I am besotted. I’m fine with that. It’s not the first time, you know.

UPDATE: How could I forget to give kudos to the photographer. These photos were taken by Henry’s aunt — my oldest daughter… I mean “older”. And just a tad bit older. Not much.

She’s been working on her skills this past year and these were taken without the use of autofocus, autowhatever, etc. The most amazing photos aren’t posted here because… well… I don’t know why, but I don’t post (recognizable) photos of my grown children. It’s a privacy thing, I suppose.

Cutest TCU Fans

Go Frogs!

But then I got this photo in an email today. I bought the doll she’s chewing on for her before she was born, hoping… no, intending, that it would become her “lovey”. I accidentally stumbled upon the doll that serves as her older sister’s “lovey” and it has meant a lot to me that she loves that doll so much.

“Lovey” status isn’t quite there yet, but I’d say maybe it’s well on the way!

I asked her what she should do if her clothes are on fire, and she said “put on different clothes and put the other ones in the hamper!” When I asked her if she’d like to be a firefighter one day, she said “no thank you, I’m going to be Sleeping Beauty because I already have that dress.”

Now, you must admit there’s a certain practicality in her thinking.

Usually when I do this it’s because I’m vacationing in the comments on other blogs, but that’s not the case this time. I’ve actually been away from home for 10 of the 20 days since my last post. It’s not that I’ve lacked a connection to the internet, but that I really really am not flexible when it comes to using laptops or other people’s computer setups.

Oh yes, I am spoiled by my messy, but convenient for me, little office space.

I’ve also read four novels recently. Don’t worry; nothing particularly uplifting or literary. It’s just that for the last 10 years or so, I’ve read mostly non-fiction and a lot of that could be considered educational. That was a major change from my previous habit of consuming 3 or 4 novels a week.

I spent the Labor Day weekend with two of my grandchildren. It’s so very, very nice to have them only a 3 hour drive away instead of 20 hours. The 5 month old is just the sweetest baby. She’s fun and easy to care for. When she’s awake, she’s constantly cooing, laughing, or enjoying her new found manual dexterity.

The 3 year is not so easy, but she’s definitely fun. The theme of the visit was words beginning with P. She put together a 24 piece puzzle by herself. Her parents didn’t believe that I didn’t help her beyond verbal suggestions, but they should have. Did they really think *I* was going to actually get down on the floor with her? HAHA!

The other words were Papa, pizza, and piano. She has a little notebook that she wrote all those words in. There’s still a little work to be done in always pointing the z in the proper direction. I like the notebook because I found out that chalk dust really does a number on my nose and throat. She tends to erase her work with enthusiasm.

I was home for a few days and got word that my father was in the ICU with pneumonia. He’s 87 and a two-year lung cancer survivor, so that was scary news. I thought my step-mother would need help caring for him when he got home because he seemed really weak in the hospital.

Well, she didn’t because by the 2nd day he was home he had pretty much resumed his normal activities. Though the bug he got knocked him down quickly, modern antibiotics knocked it out almost as fast.

One of his current normal activities is running for mayor of his small town. I stayed another two days caught up in those discussions and helping a little with the campaign.   

That reminded me that my husband and I have to get absentee ballots this year because we’ve got a wedding in S Carolina to attend the weekend before the election.