Real Men Wear Pink

Let's talk about the newest member of the family for a change. The first thing you should know about our Mac-a-Doodle is that he is huge. Seriously huge. Not fat or chunky - but big all over. He is currently 2 months old and his toes are curled up in the bottom of his 6 month clothes. I think I've mentioned before that people and animals who live in my house end up being fat. Toothless cats, epileptic dogs, newly acquired husbands. I promise you it's not a purposeful act. I don't cook with lard or add fat back to my pancake batter. But I do think I subscribe to the theory that food is love. That thinking isn't do much for my waist line or Jay's. Lois seems impervious to my powers of gluttony. Mac? I think Mac's the newest member of the club.

Mac "cluster" feeds at night. During the day he eats every four hours like clockwork. But after dinner each night it seems like Mac is looking for some more milk every 15 minutes. During the day he polishes off 6 ounce bottles in about 10 minutes. At night, he sometimes eats upwards of 12 ounces at a time. Pick your jaw up from the floor people and tell me what on earth I should do about it?! His desire to chug-a-lug all of this milk has coincided with a much more desirable evening sleeping schedule. He fills up his tummy, goes to bed at about 10pm and makes it until about 4 or 5 in the morning. One night he slept in excess of 8 hours and I had to wake him up to feed him. But I know the amount of milk he's sucking down is totally excessive. Is it time to start cereal? I need the advice of a professional - or at least any of you who want to pretend to be one. When did your kids start taking cereal?

Our happy little guy is a smiling fool - much like his sister was. He's even laughing from time to time, but not at his parents. Mac finds the ceiling fans exceedingly humorous. A small dimple appears on his left cheek when he really gets a good grin on - I hope he doesn't grow out of it. Mac is a good baby. He's never fussy. He eats. He sleeps. He poops. And he smiles.

Last week I asked Miss Judy what the sign was for brother so we could start using it with Lois. Unfortunately, "brother" is a rather complicated, 2 step sign - so Miss Judy suggested we make one up. We agreed upon a hand patted over our hearts as the sign for Mac or brother and started using it with Lois when we talked about the resident butterball. Would you believe last night, less than a week after we started using the sign, Jay asked Lois where her brother was and she looked straight at him and made the sign. I almost fell off my chair.

I'm sure you'll remember that I took a photo of Lois every month of the first year of her life with a big pink bunny named Baxter. I intended to do the same for Mac, but forgot his one month photo and although I did take a 2 month shot, I hate it and intend to redo it. Mac doesn't have to suffer the indignity of posing with a large pink rabbit, though. Aunt Marpa bought him a very cool blue cat who will appear in his monthly photos.


You were feeling sorry for him, weren't you. Worried about his future masculinity. If you saw the large pink papasan chair he spends most of his day in, you'd really worry.