The answer to life, the universe and everything...

...is also the percentage increase of weight that our little Zachary has accomplished since coming home from the hospital!

For those of you who aren't geeks like me and haven't read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams (and therefore have probably not painted a mural from it on a friend's wall during college), the answer is "42". And that is how much weight Zachary has increased in the last 4 weeks: an additional 42%! He is now 6lbs 14oz (he was 4lbs 13oz when we took him to his first check-up). He's almost the size of an average newborn! He's gained 14 oz in the past 10 days . This is really great, especially since we've stopped supplementing him and are doing only on-demand nursing. And boy, is he demanding. But we're glad he is, because we want him to gain weight as quickly as he can! Right now he's only in the 3rd percentile for weight (and 10th percentile for both length and head circumference -- 20.25" and 36 cm, respectively), but the doctor said he'll catch up eventually.

We also discovered that Zachary has the typical birth marks of both sides of his heritage! Not only does he have a "Mongolian spot" (occurs in 90-100% of Asian babies) on the right side of his lower back and bottom, but he also has a tiny little "stork bite" (occurs in most Caucasian babies) on the back of his neck. Way to be an equal opportunity baby.

Zachary spends his days doing pretty much the same things he's been doing for the past month -- nursing, sleeping, and soiling diapers. He has some awake times, but they don't last very long unless it happens to be 2 AM. Then he's ready to party (i.e. fuss and cry) all night long.

He has started to make more noises in addition to his usual grunts and squeaks, and he can hold his head up and turn it from side to side when he's on his belly. He does a little half grin and almost-smile spontaneously, and we are really looking forward to his "real" smile because we can see already that he's going to be a charmer! Also, his little water pistol trick is starting to backfire on him now -- twice he's squirted on his own head. But even that doesn't deter him. He's a crafty one, and every diaper change is an adventure!

Today is Zachary's first Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day -- a German holiday) and he woke up to find a crib full of Weihnachten Schokolade (Christmas chocolates) and a new piggy Tannenbaum ornament. Mama and Daddy will celebrate with A-mah and Opa this evening with some Lebkuchen and Glühwein, and Zachary can enjoy his chocolates second-hand via Mama over the next several weeks.

We're getting close to the time when he will be released from his house arrest, but the doctor told us today that we still need to be careful with him. Zachary's immune system is delicate and we are in the midst of cold and flu season, so the doctor recommends that we not let people hold or touch him when we do take him out. So although we plan to start getting him out and about soon, he will be safely nestled in a sling.

So that's the latest news about our little man! I'll try to post some more pictures this weekend.