Random thoughts

1. Jolly has a mole on his left palm, and it's super cute. I am pretty sure he wasn't born with it. (He did have a birthmark on his back that he still has, though it might go away with time.)

2. Eating is rather distracted. It always has been, and maybe the sole symptom of the teething is that it's gotten even less focused. However, today I decided that if eating out of the bottle was not exciting enough to keep his attention, we were going to switch conveyance mechanism to make the whole eating experience more interesting and novel. It turns out that coffee cups (the ones that resemble teacups but with a slightly steeper side and thicker rim -- not mugs) are perfect for a baby that has always liked chewing on porcelain, because in the chewing process you can actually get him to drink a fair amount of milk. Any spilling was totally my fault for filling the cup too full on the second attempt after he's snaffled down the first ounces, so I think we'll try alternating cup feeding with the bottle.

2b. Jolly loves shoving things into his mouth and gnawing on them in general; he's far less excited about being fed things these days. Baby Mum-mum crackers and cake cones are the most exciting things, but apples that have been lightly cooked are also pretty fabulous and glee-inducing. Avocado and broccoli still get this startled face but he keeps shoving them in so we figure he can't dislike them too much.

3. The scaly lizardy patches on his cheeks (and behind his ears) that we thought might be eczema seem to have gone away as a result of remembering to regularly moisturize (with the salve from Israel, but honestly, any kind of oil would probably work just as well). They never seemed to itch him, so we've just carried on as usual. Now he's just back to being very rosy cheeked.

4. Man, did we ever luck out with giving our child a name that traditionally nicknames to Jolly. I was kind of under the impression that this would be a jinx, just like any other virtue name seems like it might engender the opposite in your child. Jolly still seems to be tremendously jolly, though. He's just so incredibly cheerful all the time, even when he's spewing snot and getting teeth. Pretty uncanny, and I expect that he will get us back sometime in toddlerhood or teenagerhood, but we totally owe him big time.

5. Sleeping is going well, still. I often put him down to nap unswaddled, but we still need to do it for nighttime before bed feeding. I think we'll try unswaddling him after he eats, though!

6. My cousin had a baby exactly 6 months after we had Jolly! That's pretty exciting, especially since we have about a 10 year age difference, so it is extra unexpectedly cool that the next generation is synched up again. I'm really excited for my cousin and her adorable new daughter... but sadly, I only know she's adorable because I googled the hospital birth gallery after hearing the news (and name) from my mother. What makes me kind of sad is that my cousin isn't exactly on speaking terms with our family, although we do try (we sent her a birth announcement for example). She's on occasional correspondence terms with my parents, but even there very studiously avoids issues regarding our nuclear family, I think out of reasons of her faith leading to her not approving of our non-traditional family structure. This baffles me a bit: she's now an unwed single teen mum, so it's not like she's the embodiment of the traditional family structure, either. I so much wish that judginess wouldn't keep us from enjoying what could potentially be a very cool connection to have (she's my only cousin on that side).

But, beyond that, it does put me in an odd spot in regards to what etiquette to follow. Given that we were not directly informed of the birth, should send a gift, just a card of congratulations, or perhaps just pass on an email note via my mother? She IS my cousin and I AM really excited for her, and I'd like to keep sending the message that I'm open to having more of a relationship with her and her child if she ever changes her mind.

7. We just found out that Ephiny's favorite cousin is also expecting! We're looking forward to a more mutually exuberant, happy, uncomplicated relationship with that new-cousin-on-the-way. :)

ETA - 8. OMG, I can't believe I forgot to mention this. The other day I came home really late after work and Jolly and Ephiny were both in bed. However, there was a lovely note on the table that had an arrow helpfully labeled "Earwax. Woah." pointing to a great big gob of earwax that was apparently found in Jolyon's crib but had been helpfully relocated to a piece of paper for my enjoyment.

Lesson: Parenting is awesome, but co-parenting with someone who has your sense of humor is truly priceless. Also, Jolly apparently has MASSIVE earwax, just like Ephiny does.