Baptism by fire

During the past 24 hours, I have had to repeatedly list to myself all the things I love about my son. I know that may sound horrible, but having a high-need baby can really put one through the ringer. Here's just a small sampling of Henri's, for lack of a better word, "preferences."

• He loves to be held facing the world - his back to my tummy. Unless he's a nanosecond from falling asleep, he will throw a holy fit if you try to hold him any other way. This can make burping him after a meal extremely difficult and getting him to sleep at night nothing short of a full-body workout. Oh and did I mention you have to stay on the move? Swaying in place doesn't count.
  
• It's next to impossible to get him to turn his head to his right while he's lying down. We think this is because of how he was squished in utero, but outside the womb, it's resulting in a flat spot on the left side of his head, behind his ear. The physical therapist gave us all kinds of stretches to do but, well, Henri is not a fan. As I'm sure you can imagine.
• Tummy time is only acceptable in the mornings. It gets less and less fun as the day goes on.
• Car rides are okay as long as someone (*cough* me) is keeping up a running conversation or reading aloud to everyone in the car and the car is moving.

Sometimes it's easy to look at these as fun little quirks. And at least they are part of what make my baby unique. I guess Nathan was quite the particular little thing, too - apples and trees, am I right?

So onto the list of things I just adore about my little bear cub.

• He loves baths, especially when he takes them with me. There is just nothing better in Henri's world than splashing around in the tub.
• He's learned how to put his lips together and blow bubbles with a really good "mmmbbbbbbbbbppppppppz" sound. He heard me doing it last week and picked it up in no time.
• He smiles at the ceiling fans. He thinks they're silly 'cause all they do is go round and round.
• He gets really excited when we're playing on the floor and one of the cats walks up. He stares with his mouth open in a little round "o."
• He is a morning person *and* a night owl. He will NOT go to bed before Nathan leaves for work, which means we like to sleep in. But when we do wake up in the morning, he is a little ray of sunshine, all smiles and exuberant squeals.

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I achieved a miracle tonight and got the little grizzly to sleep before 11:00, so I'm off to catch some shut-eye while I still can!