Mark, 12 Weeks and One Day

On Jan­u­ary 12, 2013, Mark is turn­ing three months. The past few weeks have been a steep learn­ing curve for us, new par­ents, but we’ve taken things in stride and Mark rewards us with big smiles and cud­dles. Lit­tle by lit­tle we are tam­ing Baby Dragon and we are becom­ing a team of three.

Becom­ing a mommy is quite an adjust­ment but it’s an inter­est­ing and reward­ing adventure—as cliché as it sounds. As Mark is open­ing up to the out­side world and observ­ing every­thing with his Canadian-Chinese-French eyes, I can’t help feel­ing proud. Feng and I made a kid, a new human being! How amaz­ing is that?

I don’t check baby’s devel­op­ment mile­stones charts reli­giously since 1) It won’t make him learn any faster 2) He looks just fine and on track for his age 3) I’m not going to start stress­ing out about a few weeks old baby “aca­d­e­mic achievements”.

Mark did gain weight and he now has lit­tle chubby cheeks. He grew quite a lot too judg­ing by his clothes. His move­ments are more coör­di­nated and he can com­fort him­self for a lit­tle while. He smiles a lot, laugh, and, gen­er­ally speak­ing, he is very expres­sive. He has bet­ter mus­cle tone and can hold and turn his head very well. He has a strong grip too—when he hold my fin­gers, he doesn’t let go eas­ily! And he looks like a lit­tle hip­pie with his long hair. I should cut it a bit but I fig­ure it keeps it warm for now (plus let’s face it, I like the hip­pie look!).

So after month one and month two, here is month three… in numbers!

Per­cent­age of time Mark actu­ally man­ages to put his fin­gers in his mouth: 50%. Well, it may seem like an easy task—bring fin­gers to mouth, add saliva, lick and enjoy—but for a baby, it’s not. Ah, the things you learn…!

Num­bers of words in Mark’s vocab­u­lary: Three. There is “awaaa”, “aheu” and “maw”. A team of highly-skilled trans­la­tors is on it—I’m sure it’s very deep and philosophical.

Num­ber of bags of clothes that are too small: One large Roots plas­tic bag. Ungrate­ful brat is grow­ing faster than I can find bar­gain clothes. Oh, and he doesn’t fit in the bathroom’s sink any­more, we have to use a proper baby bath­tub. Damn, the sink was so practical!

Num­bers of movies Mark watched with us: A lot dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. And weird movies too, like Killer Joe, Cos­mopo­lis (do NOT watch it, waste of time!) or Arbi­trage. He didn’t seem to mind though, although he always cries when Fox News Chan­nel is on—he doesn’t seem to like the con­ser­v­a­tive chan­nel (nei­ther do I!).

Num­bers of pic­tures taken: I’m ashamed to check my “pic­tures” folder but a lot, as in “need-to-charge-the-damn-camera-again” a lot. What? I’m a proud mom! You can see the Baby Mark Floyd set on Flickr.

Num­ber of Happy New Year kisses received: One from mommy and one from daddy, plus tons of vir­tual ones from fam­ily and friends. How­ever, Mark is show­ing his Asian side—he is not a huge fan of kisses.

Num­ber of times I dan­gle him in front of the web­cam for my par­ents: At least once a week. He is very curi­ous and stares at the screen when my mother sings French lullabies.

Num­ber of trips taken to the mall: A lot, since it’s a bit cold to stay out­side for long. Mark is usu­ally in the sling and loves look­ing around. But he pre­tends he is sleep­ing when ran­dom strangers coo over him (or make dumb com­ments…).

Num­ber of snow storm wit­nessed: Three big snow storms in Decem­ber. Like a true Cana­dian, Mark enjoys watch­ing snowflakes danc­ing in the wind. But he is absolutely no help shov­el­ing the dri­ve­way. Note to self—train him.

Num­ber of times Mark pukes on daddy: At least once a day. And every time I see the white spit-up on our clothes, I can’t help think­ing of the “hair gel” scene in the movie There is Some­thing About Mary…!

Num­ber of times Mark peed on me: Zero this month! I’m pretty sure I have just jinxed it though. Or maybe I finally mas­tered dia­per chang­ing. It goes like this. “Okay Mark, don’t pee on me, alright?” [Unfas­ten dia­per BUT leave the lit­tle penis cov­ered. Grab wipe and new dia­per.] “Mark, no pee­ing, okay honey?” [Fas­ten new dia­per in less than two sec­onds. Sigh with relief.] “Good job Mark!”

Num­ber of times we say “Good job, Mark!”: Every time he burbs, fin­ishes a bot­tle or has a big poop. Yes, I know, we have to stop con­grat­u­lat­ing him on these “achieve­ments” before his teen years!