Zeke.

Little-known facts:

He does NOT like to have a soiled diaper, thank you very much. Luke never cared. This fellow gets instantly irritable with a dirty behind. We don't blame him.

When we place him on his back to change his diaper, Zeke is happy instantly. He is on his back (which is his favorite position, except when he cuddles on his tummy in the Moses basket to go ny-ny), he can see us and smile at us and coo, and he knows his boom-boom will soon be clean. Three reasons to be veeery happy.

Zeke's toes are getting less tangly.

His fingernails are long. About time for their first cutting.

Zeke's hands are lint warehouses.

He is a professional fist-sucker. Slurp, slurp.

Zeke's favorite things to look at (besides his mama, of course) are the black-and-white photos on our wall.

Hobby of preference: flailing arms around speedily, while kicking legs so fast it looks like he's running a track race.

Zeke is just a big love. He likes to be held chest-to-chest, head peeking over our shoulder, and often just cuddles there as he looks around. If we dare put him down, he just hangs out wherever we put him; but if he catches a glimpse of us, out comes a big grin.

Depending on the light, we have altogether different opinions about his complexion. Sometimes we think his hair is coming in brown. Other times we think it's blond. Not that it even matters, but hey. And as for those eyes, they are dark as ever; who knows what color they'll turn. His skin is lightening up and is flawless. He seems to have escaped the baby-acne phase altogether, and even his eye goopies have cleared up.

Speaking of clearing up, we made a great (dismal) discovery last week: Our poor boy has been plagued with thrush, a yeast fungus takeover of the mouth. Yum! (Common in c-section babies when the mom's antibiotics, transferred to Baby, kill off the good bacteria in their systems.) So we started the good ol' Nystatin treatment, squirting cherry-mint-flavored medicine into the little man's mouth every six hours. (Why, may we ask, would the medicine be cherry mint instead of something more kiddish like banana, as Luke's was?) (But we needn't worry. Zeke is such a sweet little fellow; he just sucks on that little dropper like he is nursing it. Bethany last night: "You know you have an easy baby when your only trouble with giving medicine is that it won't go down because he's smiling too big!")

Easy baby? Yes. The first two days of thrush treatment, Zeke was all out of sorts, fussy and crying all day, both days, without his usual midday three-to-four-hour monsternaps. The yeast was working its way through and even gave him a diaper rash. The books say to expect symptoms to worsen for a couple of days and then drastically improve; lo and behold, on the third day, we had an altogether new child. His first seven weeks of life he spent pretty miserable and fussy. Yeah, he slept pretty well, but wow, he cried a lot. A LOT. Now that the thrush is gone? He is soooo happy, and we now realize we did get a very, very easy second baby after all. He was happy literally all week. No more evening colic. No more crying, period. (Except in the car seat... he still screams there. Arg.) He falls asleep anywhere at any time, without requiring any bouncing or shhing, and he grins at us when he wakes up with smiles that make his face look like it will crack in half. Makes us realize how miserable he was! :-(

And now for a few photos of our new angelbaby boy!


Though Zeke is a happy baby now, we like that he hasn't lost his impressive eyebrow furrow.


Yeah, you!


Try giving medicine to a boy like this. It's harder than you think.


Lest we forget about Luke... Try to find him.


Haley's "HAPPY" hat was prophetic. We put it on Zeke last Sunday, the second extra-fussy day of thrush treatment, and thought of how ironic it was... Ironic no more. Hurrah!


Family trip to the arboretum in the rain on Sunday. Where's Zeke?


And where's Luke?


Try to spot him now!


Excitement: chasing ducks into the water. (Poor little things.)


Even greater excitement: a mossy pipe. Our whole afternoon, we were surrounded by beautiful plants and cute ducks; yet, Luke got most excited about this.


Monday morning, 7:15 AM: It's still rainy, but that won't stop the men from getting out the remote-control truck (which Richie got years ago from his parents) and watching it GO! Luke has an awe-filled fear of the truck. Too scary to get close. Too amazing to stay away. Must follow Daddy to enjoy it in safety.


Another night it got whipped out again, and Richie set up an impressive ramp. Bethany was not too fond of the babydoll at the bottom of the ramp. At least it wasn't Zeke.


This is the papoose Luke used to ride in on our backs. Now it is what Zeke lives in most of the day. So cozy!


Bethany and Luke show off the bottle of cherry-mint (Yes. CHERRY-MINT.) Nystatin.


Our new favorite picture of our new happy boy.


Zzzz!


Happy happy happy... too cute to resist.


And Luke truly couldn't resist. Here's an earpoke.


And some handtorture.


The Armstrong Brutes. Don't mess.


Back to Happyman...


...who even fell asleep on Daddy in the shower!


Tuesday morning Luke wanted to go with Bethany to Bible study dressed like this. Why not. Engineer hat, camo vest, surf sweatshirt, shorts (in the pouring rain), and frog boots. Killer combo.


At least he didn't go like this! Mr. Choo-Choo Bootie!


Luke is so desperate for Zeke to play with him; he even got out his book to read aloud to Zeke the other day. Zeke paid no attention, but Luke pretended to read it anyway and declared "END!" when he was all finished. He makes up words and talks gibberish when he pretends to read. It is hilarious.


Morning walk: Luke insists on bringing his tool box from Tatum.


All of us before we walk Richie to campus for work.


Richie dropped off, the rest of us meander our way back home. Must stop to chase ducks into puddles. Notice what is still in Lukey's hand. Yes. It is the tool box.


Another stop on our way back. The cows. This particular morning, we were in for the excitement of a lifetime: The feed tractor was MOVING.


Finally, a few shots from this afternoon: a hot-wheels ride around Orchard Park.


The New York Stock Exchange has its equivalent here: the Orchard Park Hot-Wheels Exchange. If you could have only seen the look on Luke's face when he exchanged the yellow-and-red hot-wheels for the "motorcycle" version with music buttons... Wow.


This share is worth millions.


Having a whale of a time? Yeah, you could say that.