17 days

That's how old my son is today.

17-day-old Jake

His personality is already obviously different from his sister's. He's quite mild, and very chill. He starts off with grunting/fidgeting/letting his unhappiness or discomfort be known and only when beyond frustrated, does he break out into a cry.

He does fuss, and there are some days that it's tricky handling him (nothing out of the extraordinary) where we have to cradle all day, or feed every hour to appease him. But besides these moments when he's obviously unhappy or not feeling that great, he's generally an easy baby. I say all this in comparison to Kate, as that's our only other point of reference (& Kate was an obvious fiesty baby).

Jake's a frowner - his face is mostly serious and it took my mom and I nearly two weeks to discover that he has dimples! (The husband still hasn't seen it/them properly yet!) Till now, I've not been able to snap a pic of them because Jake's so cool it's rather tough to get him to break into a smile. When he does though (very seldom), his face changes and he becomes the cutest little munchkin, very different from the serious man-face. I guess I just have to be patient and wait for him to be ready to show us his charm - and I expect him to be because he's a little man. I'm sure the husband will teach him to be the gentleman that the world needs, and how we wish our son to be.

When I first saw him, I felt as if I'd already known he'd look like that - though of course, I didn't. And everyday, when I look at his little face, it grows on me and it really sinks in that I have a son.

Slowly, as time passes, I get more used to providing for him - feeding him, changing him, burping him - it can get terribly unexciting and boring (wash-rinse-repeat-25,000 times!) - but I also know that this phase will pass and Jake will only be two/five/ten day old once and I wish to remember how he is at this little newborn stage.

Another 10 days till his first-month party (Yay! Civilisation and normalcy for me!) where I get to show him off proudly (in person) to friends and family.

And the rest of my life to watch and learn and educate this little boy of mine.

Dear Jake,

You're finally here and sometimes, I stare at your beautiful face and I think how fortunate I am to get to be your mother. I love you so much and you're the perfect child, just the way you are.

Love, Mommy