The end of 3, beginning of 4

Our Noah bear is now a 4 month old. Yesterday was the big day. We woke the baby of the month with never-ending kisses on his ever-ballooning cheeks and attempts to hug his fragile yet chubbier frame. He just stared up at the ceiling, babbling and cooing away, as we barraged his baby self with gushing, parental love.

Mommy says that Noah is like a can of Pringles, once you start you can't stop. His puffy cheeks always seem to beckon us to blow on it or unabashedly munch on it, gently of course. And that belly! The big belly! Oh, it asks to be blown on and tickled! Babies are just too much to handle! Every part of them is just adorable. And when the baby is your own, you will find yourself just staring at it, amazed at his growth, amazed that he is even here after being trapped for so long in the confines of your womb.

That's what mommy does many times: just stare at Noah. She is always surprised that he is here, and finds it unbelievable that he is hers. He is her baby. He grew inside of her. For 9 months she carried him and hoped and prayed that he grows well inside her body. Now, he doesn't have that layer of protection that her body provided. She wants to wrap him up tightly again, to protect him against the growing cruelty of the world, but she knows that he has to grow, he has to explore, he has to know and experience life.

4 months has passed since his arrival, but it feels like only yesterday did Mommy huff and puff as she tried to push him out to his new world.

Noah can now emit a few consonant-vowel combinations, such as:

• he-ya
• boo-boo
• huh-huh
• blrrp (with his mouth and tongue together, I think this is called a raspberry?)
• hai
• uhm-uhm
• ma (still pretty rare though to hear this combo)
• ah-goo

He loves to conversate with us, especially when he's being changed. His eyes can now focus better and seem to sharpen with intensity when he's concentrating. He's becoming more familiar to the people around him, brightening and smiling when a known face is near. With strangers he is still quite the gentleman, perhaps he knows that he is now part of a big community and should be polite and not fuss. The only person he'll fuss with when being held is mommy (because of the milk factor). Not cool, Noah bear, not cool at all. :-/

Mommy spent the morning of yesterday on the phone being ping-ponged by the agencies who were supposed to help and make things easier for her. She ended the ping-pong match in tears because well they just seem to know how to make a mother, who is trying to do her best for her son, feel like crap. Uwo didn't help much because all she said was "this is only the beginning". Basically, mommy has only touched the edge of frustration of motherhood, many more moments like this are to come and to be expected. So yeah, toughen up mommy!

Well, can't wait to see what this month brings! Maybe he'll walk?! hah! Unlikely, but then babies can be weird and surprise you...