Hank the Crank

It seems Henrik's been going through an official "fussy period" for a week, or two, now and we're getting a healthy introductory taste of the challenging side of parenthood.  We don't think he's what you'd call colicky, but as Henrik spends more time awake each day, he's been revealing more of the grouchier aspects of his developing personality, which serve to balance his undeniably cute and sweet character demonstrated during quiet alert time.  In viewing these two sides of our little man and how quickly he can go from one extreme to the other, we've come up with an alter ego for our sweet tot.

Meet:

Sweet Henrik

And his alter ego:

Hank the Crank

From what we've heard from other parents and parenting "experts," as well as what we've read about child development, we're attributing most of this phase to Henrik's pre-smile frustrations.  He has appeared to have been on the verge of smiling intentionally for a couple weeks now (not the endearing grin he gets when falling asleep, or passing gas [as shown in the "Sweet Henrik" photo above], but a real open mouth smile while he's fully awake and looking at you), but he's not quite there.  It's fun watching him try, though - opening his mouth and flailing his arms about in an effort to will the corners of his mouth up, inevitably ending in frustration.

Hitting the Bottle

Breaking News:  Mama Dawn is no longer required to be available every two hours, or less, at the whim of little Henriks hunger pangs!

Yes, it's true, on Thursday afternoon Dawn pumped 2 1/2 ounces of breast milk, then, cradled in Dad's left arm, Henrik accepted the bottle almost instantly and drank it down like he'd been doing it all his life.  This was all done under the expert oversight of Doula Jennifer who facilitated the smooth introduction of the bottle.  Many thanks to her.  Chalk up another milestone.

"What can I say?  I'm a quick study."