6 week milestone

We are coming up on the 6 week milestone this Sunday! This week completes my official recovery from childbirth and I’ve been given the OK to start exercising. This is also an important milestone for baby, as this is the week he is said to develop the social smile. :) Indeed, Caleb has smiled at me a couple of times this past week. He has a beautiful smile! It’s an open mouthed smile that begins at his eyes and ends in a big grin. Before now, he only smiled in his sleep from about 2 weeks of age, which was thrilling in and of itself. But now he smiles in response to stimuli from us, which is really wonderful. I will try to capture one of these smiles in a photograph soon.

Caleb is also old enough now to be taken out more and we will start going to places with him more (especially as winter starts coming to an end). I’ve taken a couple of walks with him in our neighborhood in the past weeks, on days when the weather was unusually warm. He also took his very first trip to the grocery store last week; not that he saw much - he slept soundly through it. We took him to see my friends at Monte Carlo Restaurant, and we also revisited the Mexican restaurant. And yesterday, in the bitter cold, I ventured out on my first solo shopping expedition with him to Target, where we picked up several baby items (including a Diaper Champ – about time!) and browsed for a leisurely hour. The trip was very successful and I was so proud of Caleb; he was mommy’s shopping buddy, behaving so well. I think he understands that when we are out, his place is in the car seat, where he’s supposed to stay and not make a fuss. I have high hopes for similar shopping trips in the future. (Funny how ordinary shopping trips have become exciting things to report on!)

I still have to pinch myself sometimes that I have a son, that this little boy is truly mine. It seems that it all happened so quickly – the pregnancy, the birth, the first weeks home. I think that I am still in a daze that this truly happened to us: we made a beautiful child, God blessed us with a son. (Maybe it’s so unbelievable, because we had waited so long to have a child, always planning, but taking our time getting to it.) Now that he is here, we can’t imagine life again without him. He has carved out a place for himself in our family and it’s as if he’s been with us always.

Happy 6 weeks to you, son!