Silas at 6 weeks

1.  Almost all of the 1.5 centimeter long brown hair Silas had at birth has fallen out.  He has a ridiculous "old man" ring of hair left.  In the last week, he has sprouted white-blond peach-fuzz hair in place of the brown hair.  Wacky!

2.  Silas went on his longest outing yet to meet his Great Aunt Susan.  He slept in his carseat on the way to Petersham, and then enjoyed stretching, kicking and observing for a while when we got to Aunt Susan's cottage while we had snacks and talked.  (He did produce the most spectacular blowout we've seen yet - good thing Mama and Papa were prepared with a backup outfit.)  We took a hike through the frigid, snowy woods with Silas in the Boba wrap.  He looked around for a while and then fell asleep chewing on his little mittens.  When he was really new he always fell asleep in the Boba and seemed to really like it.  Then he went through a period where he seemed to fuss whenever we put him in, and we got discouraged, but recently we have realized that he just needs to be positioned so that he can look around more easily.  Also, he no longer tolerates having his legs "froggied up" in the wrap the way newborns are supposed to be positioned, and prefers to have them stretched out.

After some tea (and nursing, for Silas), we headed back to Cambridge.  Unfortunately, Silas was not sleepy for the return trip and complained for most of the ride.  He didn't scream; he just made it quite clear that he didn't want to be stuck in his carseat.  Reading him a book helped for about 10 minutes, and then sucking a pinky finger helped for a while longer.  He fell asleep for 20 minutes in the middle of the ride, but once we got stuck in traffic closer to home he woke up.  He was instantly cured by being taken out of his seat and allowed to stretch and kick on the couch once we got home!

3.  After a few weeks of being completely unimpressed by the beautiful German wooden baby gym we are borrowing from a friend, Silas is suddenly fascinated by it. This morning he spent nearly 45 minutes staring at the toys, kicking his legs and cooing excitedly.

4.  His babbling and cooing is full of inflection and hints of new sounds - "y" and "l" in particular.  He's quite chatty!  He seems to love sticking out his tongue at us, too - and he almost always smiles and tries to laugh (hasn't managed it yet) when we reciprocate.  Both Brian and I have felt that he's somehow more engaged, internally animated, and able to focus on us recently.  I have been getting the impression that he's got a mischievous personality! He certainly is quick with flirty grins.