This week, his light turned on. Claire's light turned on at the moment she was born and often times shone a little too brightly for a newborn. I had always heard people refer to the newborn stage as the fourth trimester. Where you baby sleeps, eats, opens his/her eyes for a little while and then repeats. This was not our experience with Claire. Days old, she would be awake for hours at a time, with lots of demands. Not crying, no colic, just an intense baby...and subsequently intense child. I love this about her and this characteristic has made her the amazing child she is, but it hasn't exactly been a relaxing journey. Holden hasn't entirely fit the mold for the "fourth trimester" baby (for instance, we're still up every 2 hours to eat) but he is definitely wired differently than his sister (so far). He actually sleeps the majority of the day and his awake times are on the short and sweet side (emphasis on the sweet).

That said, there is no mistaking, his light is officially turned on. A time where they brush off haze of newborn sleepiness and begin to take in the world around them. Now, he is an eye-contact machine, which I find particularly fun and rewarding. Like a first paycheck...all the hard work is paying off. He's also been practicing his awake smiles. He makes us work for them but they are the funniest little crooked smiles and are totally different than his sleeping smiles. When he first started smiling, Kyle and I would hold him and do the typical overly enthusiastic, eyes wide open, high pitch talking to him to elicit more smiles and Claire looked at us like we were crazy and asked "Does he talk now?". As in, why the heck are you doing that? He's not going to answer you.

He's also mesmerized by his mobiles. He was staring at the mobile on his swing last night and Kyle said "poor kid, it's not even a cool one." Cool or not, he apparently finds it fascinating.

In case you were asking yourself "could he be any cuter?", I will answer for you. No, he couldn't be. He has literally maxed out the capacity for cuteness in any creature. I probably say "isn't he cute" 12 to 43 times a day.