Don’t blink or you’ll miss it!

Carter has started to smile!  They are the sweetest, most melt-your-heart things.  I wrote down that Carter had his first smile on September 10th, 2012 at 1 month, 7 days old. 
I took some videos, but you will see that he still needs a lot of coaxing and the smiles are quick, so don’t blink or you will miss them (1 month, 7 days old):

 
We did a freeze-frame from the first video to create this picture of Carter smiling (1 month, 7 days old):

Now, Carter’s smiles are much bigger and more frequent and still just as cute.  A few weeks later, I attempted to get another picture and ended up with this sequence of shots, although none of them caught the peak of a smile (1 month, 24 days old):

The sequence of pictures above was actually taken in the waiting room of the doctor’s office, just before Carter’s 6-8 week checkup.  Those are the only pictures from the visit because I had Graham with me, so once we actually got into the exam room, my phone was repurposed to provide Graham with some video distractions while I spoke with the doctor about Carter, so I couldn’t use the phone to get anymore pictures. 
Carter checked out healthy and happy.  He is right on target with all of his milestones – smiling, cooing, and continuing to gain head and neck control.  His clogged tear ducts/sticky eyes are still a problem, but after trying some antibiotic drops (that didn’t seem to help), we have decided to do nothing and wait for Carter to outgrow the problem.  We clean the ‘stickies’ away during bath time and leave them alone the rest of the time.  The doctor said that it is not uncommon for it to take as much as 9 months to a year for the tear ducts to unclog.  In the meantime, we are sad that Carter’s beautiful blue eyes are surrounded by gunk, but it doesn’t seem to bother him at all, so we are happy to just leave well enough alone and let the problem resolve on its own.  Apparently, Daddy had the same problem as a baby and he turned out OK ;)
Aside from checking Carter’s growth and development, he was also given his first set of vaccines.  He was a champ and just like his big brother, he seemed to come through unscathed.  I fed him during the shots, so after a very brief cry, he went right back to eating.  Afterwards, he seemed uncomfortable so I gave him some baby Tylenol, a first for me, Graham has never needed any, knock on wood.  The combo of the Tylenol and a long nap seemed to make Carter forget that anything had happened and we are now back to normal. 
Stats:
11 lbs, 12.5 oz = 47th percentile
22.25 inches long = 30th percentile
15.35 inch head circumference = 55th percentile. 

It seems strange to me that Carter is registering as smaller than Graham, because he seems MUCH bigger than I remember Graham being at the same age.  I enjoy charting both of the boys’ growth but I don’t tend to put too much stock in the percentiles, especially given the fact that they fluctuate so much depending on what growth chart you use.  The percentiles I report are from the World Health Organization (WHO) chart (which is recommended for use for children under 2 years of age), but, just to give you an idea, if I had plugged in Carter’s numbers to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) chart (recommended for use after 2 years of age), Cater would have come in at 75th, 48th, and 45th percentile (respectively). 
So, big boy, just keep on growing, but not too fast!