All is Well in Bodeville

As the title of the post says, things are going quite well. Bode seems to be getting less and less fussy each day and has very few melt-downs, although when they happen, get your ear plugs. He's going to sleep right after the final feeding at 11 pm and wakes up between 6 and 7. He'll gurgle around 2 or 3, sometimes for an hour or so. Luckily, my hearing must be going because I don't hear anything unless he screams. Ashley, on the other hand, can hear the slightest noise from the baby's room ("Jeffy, did you hear that?" "What?" "I think I heard Bode's hair grow...") Because of this, she's not able to sleep quite as well as me, but I think most mother's have developed this supernatural sense of hearing. Somehow, though, she seems to not hear me when I ask her to curtail the spending. I guess it's a kind of selective mechanism, eh?

Ashley starts back to work this week, but only half-time. She'll be working from home--hopefully she's better at that than me, because I found even the tiniest distraction at home to be the bane of progress (phone rings, the mail comes, Auburn wants to be scratched, etc.) Bode seems to be getting longer and heavier. We don't know how much he weighs because we don't own a scale; Ashley smashed ours to pieces at month 7 of her pregnancy. He feels heavier when we pick him up. We estimate that he's close to 10 pounds, and if any of you ever birthed a 10-pound baby, you have our deepest respect.

Now for some photos. Despite his growing, Bode is still able to take a nap on my chest. I've found there's no better heater on a cold night than a baby (their skin is always warm!) Note my cool hat. I was going for a Bret Michaels, Rock of Love look.


The next picture was taken when Bode was laying on our dining room table. I tried to get his whole body and also some background items for scale so you can see how big he's gotten. To give you some perspective, Bode is lying on a full-sized beach towel (only kidding :-)


Next, I tried to get some close-ups to show Bode's face. I took about twenty pictures, all of which were blurry. Damn kid wouldn't sit still. The following are the best I could do. He's got some type of smile-thing going in the second picture, but it's not one of his better ones. He'll give ear-to-ear grins to Mommy; the boy certainly knows on which side his bread is buttered.

Finally, a picture of Bode and Daddy. Bode was going for the calm, cool, and collected look. I think he succeeded. I have some goofy gay head tilt going; it's only a matter of time before Bode is too embarrassed to be seen in public with good ol' Dad. Even now, he's probably thinking, "Please, don't let Daddy post this where anyone can see it."
Pleasant day to you all.