Finished with the Fourth Trimester

Gabe is into his fourth month of life now. He is done with the “fourth trimester”, that period of babyhood which has much in common with a potted plant. Now, instead of being just a cute eating-sleeping-pooping machine, he is a cute eating-sleeping-pooping machine who also plays with toys and can hold entire conversations with the vowels “ah” and “oh”. He is in that golden stage of babyhood where he is social and entertaining and capable of entertaining himself, but doesn’t yet have to be chased around while he attempts to kill himself with wall outlets and pointy furniture edges.

Watching a baby grow from scratch is so much more interesting and enlightening than seeing someone else’s baby now and again. This week, Gabe is grasping at toys with both hands at once. He wasn’t doing this last week. It’s such a simple thing and yet because I have seen where he started, I am astounded by what he is doing.

The complexity of his cooing is also new and breathtaking. He likes being talked to, and he likes talking back, even though the conversation is nothing but sound. The older kids at the daycare speak entire sentences of nonsense. Gabe so far generally just says one syllable at a time, but sometimes that one syllable gets stretched out into a long, singsong sound, hitting various pitches. Sometimes he seems to startle himself when he yells a syllable loudly.

Giggling is still a rare, and delightful, event. His smiles are easy to come by, but no less magical for their frequency.