Amy and Peter adventure: day 1

Peter always has his thumb tucked into his other fingers like this.

Mr. Happy, about to laugh?

It should surprise no one that my first order of business, on my first morning of erstwhile single-parenthood, was to call Peter's doctor.

Yes, yes, I am a bit of a hypochondriac. But, he did have a fairly high fever for a newborn (100.1), and parts of him were...missing. I'd be more specific, but that level of specificity may raise red flags. Let's just say it wasn't easy trying to research his symptoms on the Internet.

I'll save the suspense lest you think Peter really was ill. He wasn't. But, today's visit with the doctor brought these factoids/events:

(1) Peter now weighs 13 pounds, 11 ounces. His furious rate of growth has slowed, for now, which means we might be able to eek a few more weeks out of his bassinet. (This is good news as we've not really done anything toward showing him that his new crib is for sleeping and not only for playing.
(2) Peter looks like Kevin in the brow region.
(3) Peter is a "big boy" and a "strong boy" and "is very vocal" and is "as happy as can be."
(4) Peter pulled out several strands of Dr. Soriano's hair.
(5) Peter also peed all over Dr. Soriano, breaking her 6-year pee-free streak. I'm ashamed to admit I'm a little proud of the booger.

Clearly nothing could top that, and we didn't even try. I took Peter past all of his favorite stops on Castro Street, including the fish store. He really likes to look at the fish and the lights in the tanks. I also took Peter to the park by the library for a little photo shoot, where he might have laughed for the first time. I have to wait for Kevin's confirmation to be sure, but I really think it was a laugh.

Peter's development is so funny for me to watch, because it's so - for lack of a better word - spurty. He'll be hard at work on finding his fingers, only to be distracted by a new talent, like talking. Or, he'll go a day or two without saying anything, mostly because his hands are jammed into his mouth. I guess it's pretty normal for babies, and who can blame them? They have the whole world to explore, and their whole lives ahead of them. I just hope I can be patient enough to let Peter find it all - his fingers, his words, his homework, his college major - on his own.

His new "Kevin's away so the baby will play" trick is to be a wee bit more difficult to put down. (Note: Kevin hates it when I say "put the baby down" in reference to putting the baby to bed; it makes him think of rabid dogs. He also doesn't really like it when I call Peter "the baby," which I kind of do a lot.) But, n=2 does not a good sample make, so I will reserve judgement until I have additional observations.