seven months old ... already

It just seems like yesterday that we were celebrating Daniel's six-month birthday, and before I can get used to it, another month has gone by. (Suddenly the Pixie's lyric is running in my head: "If the devil is six, then God is seven." Which is appropos to ... nothing.)

Anyway. I've also been thinking this week that it was about a year ago that we had our big ultrasound and found out that we were having a boy! We started calling him Daniel right away, but only in private. It was hard to keep his name a secret for the next five months, but we didn't slip. We hadn't made a final decision on a girl's name, but we knew early on that we'd name a boy Daniel. It's a name we both love ... strong, classic and biblical, and it's common in Ireland, even though it's traditionally a Hebrew name. We didn't decide on Joseph (the name of my great-grandfather and my brother) as his middle name until later, though. We tested out a couple of options, including Connor, after the Connor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula in western Ireland, where we once climbed rocks and enjoyed an amazing view. I'm glad we stuck with Joseph, though.

Daniel's fever, which started Wednesday, stuck around until yesterday, and we were beginning to wonder if we should get it checked out. But then it went away, as mysteriously as it came. He never had any symptoms of whatever infection his body was fighting, although we think it might have been a stomach bug of some kind, based on our powers of diaper-changing deduction. When Steve and I took his temperature last night (under his armpit) and saw it read normal, we threw our arms around each other and practically danced across the bedroom: We survived his first illness and didn't freak out! Yay us!

It's been a good weekend all around. The weather is warm, and Steve and I have been able to get in some good walks with Daniel in the stroller, which is really the most time we have together to just talk and dream and have something resembling a date. And we even managed to grab some good opportunities for ... um, sexytime, as Borat would say, and that's no small feat considering that Daniel is in our bed when he's asleep and doesn't like being left alone for too long when he's awake. I guess the stars were smiling upon us. :) (And no, don't read that last sentence literally.)

Last night we drove to Rochester to have dinner with a fraternity brother of Steve's and his wife (who works for the Mayo Clinic, which is why they live in Rochester). They had their second daughter three weeks after Daniel was born, and they announced last night that she is pregnant again! That would mean she got pregnant four months post-partum, which I find amazing. (So do they!) On the drive home, Steve and I had a discussion we've been having a lot lately: Do we want to have another baby? Would we be happy having just Daniel? Would Daniel be happy with no brothers or sisters, or should we give him a sibling or two? We really do go back and forth about this. And if we do have another baby, will we adopt a little girl from China, like we'd talked about doing before he was conceived? Or will I get pregnant again on my own, or even by accident? If that happened, I would welcome another baby with delight. But if I can't, do we have the energy to revisit the topsy-turvy rollercoaster of fertility treatments? These questions have been on our minds a lot lately, and I don't think we have any answers.