Two weeks and counting

So here we are at the two week plus marker. Max is thriving and his parents are coping, admirably, in their own humble estimation. There are a few things to record at this stage and I'll try and do them justice.

The first thing I would love to remember are Max's facial expressions in his early days. They are wild. They range from the now infamous 'windy smile' to the 'whistley pout' to the 'skeptical wince' to the 'generic frown'. It's not easy for a two week old child to maintain such a varied portfolio of looks. If Zoolander had Blue Steel, our young Max has Green Aluminium, Brown Bronze, Green Copper and Red Sodium. All classic looks, I'm sure you'll agree. The real skill is knowing what each look means, if it means anything. When they are combined with a cry, the message is clear, it's one of three; hungry, dirty, windy. However there are about twenty different looks and mixed with about four different cries there are eighty different conditions. I'm not sure I have that many states of mind and I'm 936 times his age (give or take).

What adds an extra element to all of this is the flailing of his arms and the kicking of his legs. There is no need for gyms or treadmills or spin classes. He is hardcore and not afraid to show it. All this exercise must be matched with appropriate levels of food intake, this can be the struggle. The extreme of this was last Friday and today. A suspected growth spurt or difference between flow and demand.

If the young man feels hungrier than the food supply supplies then he will suckle more frequently and will let you know at great volume. The more he feeds the more the glands produce. Sometimes the two get out of sync and this leads to monumental hissy fits. It's called cluster feeding and is nature's way of getting one system to match another. It could also be a growth spurt but I like the supply and demand idea better. He's not ready for a growth spurt, sure he's only a little fella.

Another great milestone has been passed with Tummy Time. I can't recall if I have mentioned this phenomenon of the modern age or not yet, but here it is. The tragedy of cot death has meant that kids now sleep on their backs. That's brilliant. The drawback is a generation of kids who spent no time on their stomach's and who can't crawl. So the invention of 'Tummy Time'.

For five or six minutes a day, little Max is put on a blanket on the floor and he flails around. We shout supportive slogans from the sidelines and try and get him to move his head and flex his muscles. So he turned his head from left and right today. He lifted his body and turned his head from side to side. He also pushed his way across the blanket. Now I am no child developmentalist but that sounds like a crawl to me. I didn't crawl until I was twelve months old, so already my child out-strips me. I have a feeling this will be a long repeated pattern.