Week 12: Magical Sounds & Nasty Colds

Today, he laughed. Not like a tiny giggle, or a "maybe that was a laugh" but a real, bonified, tickled-pink laugh. Fernando was making silly faces at him, and when he started doing raspberries, Daniel let out the most incredible sound we have ever heard. I came running, and we both started doing silly "tongue out" faces, and he just kept going for at least a minute. We starting laughing, of course, and that seemed to perpetuate his laughter. There we were - all three of us on the bed, unable to stop laughing.

By far the most magical sound he's ever made - and while getting a smile out of him is still so much fun, nothing compares to the feeling of him laughing with you. After a few minutes of it, his laughter turned to tears (just like mine does when I'm really tired...) and we put him down for his evening nap.

We have all been sick for the past two days - home from work and daycare - as we have managed to pass a pretty nasty cold around between the three of us. We took Daniel into the doctor, and he came out with apparently the least amount of discomfort - just a low grade fever and a little congestion. Fernando and I wound up with a big ole cold, complete with headache, sinus stuff, coughing sore throats, etc. So the place is now littered with kleenex and empty containers of Vicks Vapor Rub. We couldn't resist taking a picture of the three of us in bed - not the world's greatest picture, but we weren't exactly feeling fantastic either. Unshowered, in pajamas at 3:00 in the afternoon... you get the idea.

While at the doctor, we found out that Daniel weighs just under 17 pounds... pretty impressive for a kid who's not even 3 months old yet. The doc said to keep up what we were doing - not to decrease his feedings - that he's just going to be a very tall little boy. (He's eating 7 oz. five or six times a day). He was also amazed to hear that Daniel's been sleeping 9.5 hours a night - and has been through the night for almost a month now.

A few other "week 12" tidbits (even though it's only the beginning of week 12)... 1) Daniel's still running marathons when he's laying on his back - those little legs just pump like crazy for really long stretches of time. So cute :) 2) He's still obsessed with his tongue - sticks it out all the time, and loves to watch other people stick their tongues out. 3) Daniel has started reaching for objects in the past two days. It's not consistent, but today when he was playing on his back in his little jungle gym toy, he figured out that he can smack the mirror part with his hand and it spins in circles. It's fun to watch him make little discoveries like that. 4) His head and neck control is amazing - he loves to sit up (usually propped up against our stomachs) and can look around the room and control his head with almost no help. 5) His love affair with ceiling fans grows more intense by the day...

Wow. We're only two days into week 12 and he's already changing so much. He'll be 3 months old next Monday - feels like yesterday that I was 3 months pregnant. It's absolutely impossible how much we love him, too. Tomorrow we all go back to work (and daycare, for one of us...) and while I'm glad we're all feeling better, I'm a little sad not to have just one more day of being sick together.