6 weeks!

Dexter is 6 weeks old today! The experts say this is the point where babies start to move beyond the early newborn state, settle in a bit and develop some personality. And it's true. Dexter now loves looking at faces, flashes his cute smile more and more, and has added sweet coos and goos to his existing repertoire of snorts, grunts and cries. Nighttime sleep is still hit-and-miss. Some nights he is very restless and doesn't sleep for more than 2 hours at a time; other nights (like last night), he's calm and sleeps in nice 3-4 hour chunks. It's amazing what a difference it makes to my mental state the next day. As long as I get one of those "long" sleep blocks, I'm fine. And when I don't get a long sleep block, Tom lets me sleep it off in the morning. So for a new mom, I feel pretty good.

As I predicted, his fluffy newborn hair is falling out. All that's left is a thick fringe around the back of his head. Hopefully that will go soon--it's not the best look for him. Completely bald will be better.

Since Tom and I are both on leave right now, family life has been fun and mellow (in between bouts of exhausting childcare, of course). We've been taking the boys to the park or the athletic field down the street on sunny days so we can run around like maniacs and kick a ball while Dexter sleeps in his stroller. Henry is in a phase right now where he declares every possible forward movement a race, so these park visits can be a real workout for me. Speaking of workouts, I started going for short runs on my own about two weeks ago. I'm jonesing to get back in shape, but it's going to be a slow process. Most days simple exhaustion from lack of sleep is the biggest hurdle to overcome, but my leaden legs don't make things easy, either.

Finally, I decided to push my parenting boundaries last weekend by taking both boys to the dinosaur museum BY MYSELF! The trip was Henry's reward for staying in his own bed until 7 a.m. that morning (he'd been getting up at 3 and climbing into our bed on a regular basis). That kid will do anything for a trip to the dinosaur museum. I can't believe he's not bored with the place, since we've been there dozens of times. Anyway, the trip went smoothly. Dexter travels very well (i.e. sleeps), and Henry knows the museum well enough to need very little guidance. I managed just fine, and Tom got a few hours to himself. Horray--progress!

Here are the boys at the museum.