I just realized my kid is awesome: The List

You may not know, but it's Preemie Awareness Day. I'm not ready to talk at length about how prevalent birth before 37 weeks is (1 in 8) or how only 6% of those preterm births happen before 28 weeks. B is a rare animal in so many ways.. I think for now I'll just talk about how incredibly, incredibly awesome he is. Stay tuned for edumacational stuff next year.

I have a few friends with kids between the ages of 8 months and 2 months - all long distance unfortunately, but still wonderful - and in talking to them about baby raising, I have realized how kick-ass B really is. And these are just the normal things that make him rock. Consider all the problems most babies have after being so premature and undergoing so much surgery? It's enough to make a mom a little misty.

In no particular order, here is the list:

• B sleeps like a log. "Sleep Training" is a completely foreign concept for us. We sleep, he sleeps. He eats, he sleeps. 
• B fusses and sometimes yells, but the soul piercing shrieks of your average baby? Nope. He doesn't even cry when he's hungry. He has me trained to wake at the sound of furious hand-sucking or midnight babbling.
• Diaper changes are the best parts of B's day. He loves loves loves the changing table. Of course, he seems to think it's the perfect time to show off his dance moves and tell some new knock-knock jokes, but that just makes him all the more lovable. 
• He'll take a bottle. Sometimes not perfectly, but I still get to sleep in past his 6 AM feeding every morning while Andy takes one for the team. It's incredible.
• He loves tummy time. And now that he can roll over, it's all the better.
• He happily plays on his Infantino play gym for ages. Great not just because it builds all the skills he needs for physical therapy, but also because he loves the damn thing. At least twice a day, he is DONE with mom and dad. Leave him alone, there is a lion rattle that needs eating, people.

A tame version of B terrorizing the villagers - he totally knows when he's being watched.