Geo-Geo

 I keep smiling, randomly throughout the day. I hope none of my patients, fellow residents or attendings are paying close attention to me, because they might think I am "special".  My children are causing this spontaneous smiling condition, and since the day Brock was born, I have never been able to get rid of it.  I must admit, it worsens with each child, and the frequency increases while I have a little, nugget baby, such as George.  The image of him - just chillin' with his huge double chin, kind of looking a bit serious and/or worried until his eyes meet another person, whether it be me, his dad, his brothers, or even a complete stranger at Starbucks, and then a huge grin erupts - keeps popping up in my head.  And I smile.

I remember Matt coming down the stairs laughing, after putting Curtis and Brock to bed in their shared room. He told me, that as he left the room he said, "Goodnight boys, and Brock, no getting out of bed." To which Brock replied, "You got it, Dad!"  First of all, never heard him say that phrase, second of all, he is never ok with going to bed and not coming downstairs. And, he didn't get out of bed.  Ha! You got it, dad.  He didn't even need to say that for me to smile at the image of Matt putting those 2 to bed.  The whole situation is adorable and hilarious (and frustrating).  Curtis loves brushing his teeth, in fact, he has a meltdown, every night, when you take away his toothbrush.  He also loves imitating his brother.  So we have 2 boys jumping on the bed while Matt attempts to PJ them, and a giant hound dog puppy barking at the chaos, every night, while I try to feed and settle George to sleep.

I still look at George and try to figure him out.  Recently, Matt and I looked through some baby pictures at the O'Laughlin's house, and yup, George is a spitting image of his father.  Chin and all.  A while ago, I decided he has his father's demeanor, but now I know he has his looks as well (as if it was ever any question that George was all O.)  George is by far the fairest of them all.  And his body type seems drastically different from his brothers - not that Brock and Curtis match with the older being long and lean and younger being quite thick, but they are both real solid.  George is mushy, and seems just a bit more unsteady. He can only sit for about 3 seconds - the others were pretty much sitting up on their own by this point.  He does roll all over the place, front to back, back to front, and even uses his hind legs and pushes himself forward.  So I think he's got the strength, and even coordination, but it's not the same.  Perhaps, it is lack of practice, I spend so much less time with him, he is getting poor training.  He did giggle before the other 2, and is extremely vocal.

I was trying to look back through the the other 2 boys 4 month posts to see where George stacked up.  And overall, despite what seemed like a 1 pound head start, he trails his brother's by quite a bit.  He is almost a pound less than my skinny little Brock!  14lbs 14ozs.  Curtis weighed over 14lbs at his two month check up!! And he is a half an inch shorter.  And he still wakes up once a night.  But just once. And he doesn't always need to eat.  And sometimes he sleep all night.  But either way, he is behind.  I am kind of fine with this extended infant period.  It makes it seem like he and Curtis are further apart than only 15 months, and I love babies.  If he keeps this up, perhaps it will stave off the baby fever a bit longer than usual.