Done Worse

Aha –

So we have made it to and now partially into week 4… and the crowd goes wild (well, in my head they do, and that’s good enough for me.)

It’s been an exciting week — Jackson is bigger every day, seems to be acquiring new skills AND Jackson had visits from both sets of grandparents – the Gravens and the Jaglos! Good times for everyone.

Highlights of the week in Jackson development land would be:

• Jackson managed to pee on his own head not once, but twice this week! Let’s hear it for good aim and a steady stream little buddy. I was, um, fortunate enough to be present the first time – my mother was the winner of witnessing the second time. The ironic part of all of it was that he got upset that his face and hair were suddenly all wet and started screaming afterwards. It’s hard to know how to feel at that moment: part of you thinks “aww, poor little guy is upset,” and part of you thinks “Hey, he PEED on his own head. What does he expect, really?” In any case, he got his face and hair washed both times. The pediatrician had said we should bathe him a tad more – perhaps this is his way of making sure we do that.
• Jackson managed to get the ‘other sort’ of output all over the far wall next to his changing table twice this week! How far is that you say? About 4 feet – over 3 times his own height!! WoooHooo! If it were an Olympic event, perhaps he would have gotten a medal. Mike was the parent who won the “guess who gets to experience this precious moment” prize on both occasions. While our pediatrician didn’t say anything about about washing the far wall more frequently, it too has seen an increase in baths.
• Jackson has completely started expressing his inner snuggle self. He loves to fall asleep in the arms of anyone willing to hold him long enough for him to fall asleep and stay there for as long as the person can maintain active muscle fibers while holding a burning hot baby. If you put him down, he shows his displeasure by screaming as though he’s being tortured by demons. In truth, it’s a very effective way of getting held for a loooooooong time, the kid may be onto something.
• He is so warm, in fact, that we’ve decided that in order to reduce our carbon footprint we’ll just down the heat this winter and use him as a heat source. We can just carry him to whatever room we’re in and presto: instant room heater, and a snuggly one at that.
• He also seems to have gotten noticeably taller and gained a significant amount of weight. How much you say? We don’t know, but we’re going in for his 1-month visit on Tuesday, and we can report back the stats then. You can be sure we will proudly mention how we’ve really increased the bath frequency, no need to mention the why.

Otherwise, it’s been a total blessing to have our parents visit. I had gotten exhausted to the point that the raccoons at the National Zoo were starting to hit on me, thinking I must be one of them with the dark circles under my eyes. Mike’s parents and my parents were able to go into ful-on Grandparent Mode and take Jackson for walks, give him cuddles, entertain him, show some love and change some diapers to give us a break. I am happy to say that I’m looking more human now, and I’m able to keep a thought for up to 5 minutes as opposed to the 30 second cycle I was on before. Bonus!