Favorite Things

In true Dave Letterman style, here's today's top-ten list.

Nicholas's Favorite Activities

10. Smiling with a toothless, mouth-wide-open grin (sometimes this is accompanied by a sharp intake of air that sounds like a laugh -- and maybe it is!)

9. Laying on the floor

8. Staring at lights

7. Crying

6. Creaking (he makes a lot of sounds, the most interesting being his ability to sound like an old, unoiled door being opened, i.e. creaking -- a noise he makes whenever he's doing activity #1 or pooping)

5. Sleeping

4. Watching his mobile endlessly turn round and round over his head

3. Peeing all over mom or dad (this often leads to big smiles... see #10)

2. Sitting with one of his big brothers

1. Eating

A mother's concern

Nicholas has some kind of very red, very itchy rash covering his face, chest and back. I am quite concerned. Steen and I think it might be an allergic reaction -- the question is "to what?". We'll see the nurse about it tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving (one day early) to all of our friends and family in the US and to those who are celebrating it elsewhere. I think we'll be holding our turkey-fete on Sunday if anyone would like to join us, so hop on a plane and head on over!

Focus

Ulla teaches Nicholas how to use a pacifier (a heatfelt "whoopeee" is appropriate here!)

OK, so the store only this type of pacifier in pink, much to Steen's chagrin

... At least it's staying in his mouth!

Lucas and Nicholas hanging out

Meeting Ingelise and Nicoline for the first time

Nicoline and Matthew share a bit of play time

Not much time to write, but wanted to say that our little boy is doing well. I cannot believe that four weeks have already flown by. We saw the nurse yesterday, and he now weighs over 5 kg and is 57 cm long -- in other words, healthy and growing as expected.

He's now able to focus on our faces, and when he focuses on my eyes and really looks at me, it makes my heart skip a beat. He's also been awake in the evenings the past few days, which is great -- gives us some more time to get to know him. He's a sweetie... although I'm a bit biased about all of my boys!

You know you're a mother when...

Yesterday I turned 36. To celebrate the day, my kind, loving, caring husband sweetly informed me of the following as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning:

"Honey, now you're closer to 40 than to 30!"

I failed to come up with a smart rebuttal fast enough and promptly closed my eyes again. I should have pointed out that we're only the same age for five weeks... at the end of which, his age-o-meter will click up another notch.

A few minutes later, while eating at a very festive birthday breakfast table, Matthew looked at me and said:

"Hey, mom! Now you've been 9 years old four times!"

He then proceeded to also inform me that I've been 18 twice, and 6 six times. At least my birthday was good for some multiplication and division practice!

Regardless, I had a great day, hanging out with all of my boys and walking through the frosty forest nearby. Did I mention we had our first snow on Friday night?

Back to the headline. Here's the situation setup: your baby decides to take a middle-of-the-night poo while you're changing his already dirty diaper. The poo happens to come while the diaper is off and shoots out of him like a rocket. You know you're a mother when, in order to save the wall and the curtains from a mustard-yellow poo stain, you reach out to stop the flying poo with your hand! ICK!!!