Photo catch-up

Photos from week 8 are being shared at the same time as the photos from week 7 because we had to clear them by other people who were in the photos.

A lot of fun things have happened during this time. Jolyon has discovered how to make really big whallopping kicks in the bath, and he is also becoming ever more expressive verbally. Most recently, over the last day or two, he's really "found" his hands - they are no longer whacking him in the face like some unknowable entity out to scratch his cheeks and gouge his eyes. Rather, he has been bringing them into his mouth with what seems to be more deliberate action, and he's started sucking on individual fingers rather than the whole fist which he sometimes fortuitously encountered. He's also been staring at them a bit as they wave around (and that hasn't changed, he's still a very flaily baby who loves to move). This is totally hilarious to watch.

He's always a pretty contented, cheerful baby, but at his peak happy-times, in the morning and again in the evening, it's absolutely amazing how much he smiles and almost-laughs, definitely context dependent. He does this thing where he opens his mouth and then smiles that I think is absolutely adorable. It was captured pretty well by my photographing this morning's very happy smiley period, but ha, you'll have to wait until Sunday to see it, for it is in week 9!

When I sing to Jolyon, he absolutely responds. Even when he is cranky-tired and fussing, he quiets down when I sing "Schlafe Mein Prinzchen" and he always smiles at the part of that goes, "Everything obtained and ready, only that my little prince doesn't cry, what will that lead to someday?" which I hope is not foreboding. I should also point that I switched the second and third stanzas because it seems to work better for me, such that the second verse praising how happy his life is and third verse ending with the sentiment that everyone else is sleeping and so should he.

A friend of ours posted on facebook that she had been made redundant by a swaddling baby swing (but at least it can't teach her daughter physics). If that's true, we have been made redundant by a flat surface with kicking room. Jolyon doesn't mind being held, but eventually, he does gets cranky, and the solution is to put him down on the floor and let him kick and motor his arms around, which usually restores him to happy burbling instantaneously. It is reassuring that he does prefer our company in doing so - he loves spending time with us, he'd just rather not be held during all of it. Apparently Jolyon failed to read the attachment parenting handbook, which we are violating all over the place what with the strollering and the sleeping in the crib, but really, the most important thing is following our baby's cues and everyone in the family is having a good time, which we all are.

We've been on a big Forsyte kick because Stephanie finished the book, and then her sister has been joining us for an installment of the 2002-2003 miniseries most evenings, since she wanted to know more about what we'd named our son after, and we hadn't watched them in a while and were curious to compare to the text. Thus, report of this week would not be complete without my saying that I just found out that the Forsyte Saga has, not one, but TWO sequels, entitled "A Modern Comedy" and "End of the Chapter", each comprising of three novels, plus some interludes! I am SO excited!! There is even an additional volume of short stories that Galsworthy wrote when he just wasn't quite done with the original Forsytes. When I finished reading the last novel in the Forsyte Saga I complained that I was not ready for it to be done yet, and lo, neither was Galsworthy! Thanks to the magic of the internet, all of the above out of print volumes are making their way to our home. However, it is unlikely that our next children will be named Kit or Dinny.