Morning breath

When Will was first born, the thing that I most remember was how familiar he seemed to me. It really felt like I had known him forever. I couldn't stop looking at him because he was so beautiful. Every little thing about him was absolutely beautiful and perfect.

In all my staring at him, there were many things I noticed about him, of course. For instance, he had pointy toenails. I thought they were lovely. I thought maybe pointy toenails were a general newborn baby thing. Six weeks later when Cara and John had their baby, I went to visit them and snuck a peak at Baby G's toenails. Not pointy. Hmm.

Will also was constantly sticking his fingers in his eyes. Seriously, unless we had him tightly swaddled, he would shoot his little hands up to his face and stick his fingers right into his eyeballs. I was so afraid he would poke his eyes out.

During one of those early days, when everything was new and hazy and kind of terrible but also kind of wonderful, I remember that Rob and I stood looking at Will after he had fallen asleep one evening. We had no idea how much time we had before he would wake and the screaming would begin again. We whispered to each other about the things we loved about Will. His knees, his nose, his mouth, and yes, his pointy toenails. "I like his breath," Rob added to the list. He probably doesn't remember saying that, but he did. And Will did have really great breath. So sweet.

About a month ago, we'd been at the Gutzvilles for John's birthday. Will ate his avocado and fruit and Cheerios for dinner, and then he fell asleep on our way home from the party. He actually stayed asleep as Rob unhooked him from the carseat and carried him upstairs to his crib. That had never happened before. I thought he'd wake up pretty soon-- he hadn't nursed before falling asleep. But he slept and slept. Finally he woke up around 3 in the morning, suddenly furious that he had been put to bed in his clothes and without a final drink of milk. I hurried across the hall to his room and lifted him out of his crib. As I held him close and he breathed on me, I noticed for the first time ever, he had morning breath!

Sweet breath or not, Will is great. Today he even took a nap in his crib-- something I haven't been able to get him to do for more than 2 months. It was nice that I could get some things done, but there was a part of me that missed just holding him in my arms while he slept.

Thanks for reading.