theo jeremiah

Our son is a wonder. Such intimacy in caring for his daily needs, and such mystery behind his eyes and in the days and years to come.

As Josh says, "He's good, he's little, and he's a guy... He's a good little guy!" We have other nicknames for him, too, depending on what we're up to: little wonton, dumpling, cabbage roll when he's wrapped and cozy in a blanket; squirmy worm or flopsy when he's working out some gas or being burped; sweetums and son. Funny that I, never a self-professed baby person, am so comfortable in all this baby talk, and so proud of things like healthy burps and regular poos.

Theo came right on time, and he took his time... my water broke on a Friday morning, the day before his due date, and we delivered Sunday evening, the day after. I now know the incredible high that marathon-runners get when they push through the pain and exhaustion to the body's natural answers: endorphins and adrenaline! This isn't to say it was as difficult as it may sound: although it was a nerve-wracking Thanksgiving weekend for our families, active labour probably only lasted about 6 hours for me, and the pushing was a solid half an hour of sweet relief, thinking, "Finally! Our little one is almost here!"

Theo is healthy and tough (he probably handled his circumcision better than I did), and loves to eat, eat, eat, and sleep, sleep, sleep. Most nights he has what Josh calls "happy hour," when he cluster feeds for about 3 hours, gets more and more riled up, and eventually konks out for a good 5 hour nap. His gassy faces are alternately blissful and agonized, and he sometimes has an Elvis lip-twitch going (he's got the sideburns from Josh to match!). We're enjoying the sleep we manage to get, too; these sleeping pictures are turning into quite a theme...

We named him after Josh's dear friend, Ted Vellenga, and truly believe the meaning of his name: "Gift of God."