One month!

Today Luke is one month old! Our baby book lists several milestones. How does Luke measure up according to these hypercompetitive, mind-numbing comparisons with the median baby (which, however obnoxious, do make a good premise for a blog post!)?

"By one month, your baby . . . should be able to:

• Lift head briefly when on stomach on a flat surface [CHECK!]
• Focus on a face [CHECK! He'll even stare at the fake space-alien face Dad drew and set up by Luke's play mat!]

...will probably be able to:

• respond to a bell in some way, such as startling, crying, quieting [Umm, a bell? Like a dinner bell? Or a church bell? A cow bell? We haven't exactly tested this one.]

...may possibly be able to:

• lift head 45 degrees when on stomach [CHECK! As the book mentions elsewhere, today's babies don't do things like sit up and crawl as quickly as babies used to {"back when I was a baby, we....!}; since the SIDS scare, doctors tell parents to put babies to bed on their backs. So we dutifully do so with Luke; but despite this handicap, the boy thrives during his supervised stints on his belly during playtime!]
• vocalize in ways other than crying (e.g. cooing) [Does adult-volume grunting count? Then triple-CHECK!]
• smile in response to your smile [As noted in earlier blog postings, Luke definitely smiles occasionally, though so far the only 100% verified smiles seem to be smiles during and on the way to sleep. Last night provides a painfully cute example. Luke was fussy, so Dad was rocking him to sleep and telling him a bedtime story. One was about what Luke would do the next day. Play with Auntie Sonia, take a stroller ride, etc. Towards the end, when Luke's eyes were firmly shut, Dad said, "and then Daddy will come home and play with you." I kid you not, the boy smiled in his sleep at exactly that moment. Coincidence? Gas? You be the judge.]

...may even be able to

• lit head 90 degrees when on stomach [I didn't exactly have a protractor out, but in one of Luke's previously-mentioned bouts on his belly, he pushed up surprisingly far!]
• Hold head steady when upright [Does it count if he's surrounded by pillows?]
• Bring both hands together [CHECK! He started doing this last week....cute!]
• Smile spontaneously [See above!]

Well, that's the one-month Luke report!