Great Wagon Race of 2010: How Many Days?

When we first had our beautiful baby boy, I often wondered... "How many days will it be before we go an entire day without taking his picture?" There were flash bulbs going off all the time. The paparazzi were just going nuts over him. And really, who wouldn't?

Day one: our little peanut

Well, the question's been answered. It wasn't with any dramatic bells and whistles, but one day, I looked at the camera, and I realized, "Hey! There were no pictures from yesterday!"

Day two: welcome home!

"In fact, I don't even know if ANYone took any pictures of him yesterday!" And then I reflected on who had come to visit the previous day... I looked at our cell phones to see if there were pictures there... I checked our video camera... no pictures to be found from the previous day.

Day three: cuddle time with Mom

So, how many do you think it was? (If you guess less than four, you obviously haven't looked at the captions for the previous three pictures.)

Day four: cuddle time with Dad

It almost made me feel like a bad father. Why WOULDN'T I have a picture from the previous day for my handsome son? I mean, what if his future wife some day asks me, "Hey, what did Noah look like when he was ___ days old?" and I don't have anything to show her?!?

Day five: hanging with Grandma Egle

Then I looked back at the expansive library of photos we had already accumulated of our son. In the digital age, I realized that his young life was already much better documented than either of his parents, and that made me feel a bit better.

Day six: cute little hand

Have you come up with a guess yet? If you haven't, you really should. I mean, we've already eliminated anything less than seven as a possibility, and any more would be just plain cheating.

Day seven: growing into his clothes

It was fun reflecting on all of the pictures we had taken, even if we now had a gap day. He's grown a ton... he's a chunky monkey, now.

Day eight: still recovering from the strenuous process of birth

He definitely is getting cuter and cuter... which was hard to imagine possible when he was first born. He's been so cute that Libby and I have struggled to figure out who he looks like - neither of us are as cute as he is.

Day nine: striking a pose

So, this is my last plea... pick a number, if you haven't already! (Is that a hint? Hmmm...)

Day ten: cool, calm, and collected

So, what do you think? I'm posting this shortly after Noah hit the two month mark. What are the odds that I would be prompt in posting this right after we had our "gap day"? That's definitely a hint...

Day eleven: tummy time with Grandma Asai

It was a little bit like a burden was liften when I noticed our gap day. Maybe it's a little bit of my OCD shining through, but I kept thinking about my previous wonderings... "If I don't take a picture today, then today might be the first day of Noah's life that isn't documented! Horror of horrors!"

Day twelve: what a cute little guy!

In the end, my thoughts/concerns about documenting his life were silly, I know. I don't think that I artificially lengthened the streak of picture days but taking photos on a day when we otherwise wouldn't... and I didn't even notice the day that we didn't take pictures. Hopefully that OCD tendency isn't genetic, for Noah's sake.

Day thirteen: happy to see Aunt Kay!

Hmmm... we're all the way to thirteen. Have we passed your guess yet? Are you still reading my little blurbs, or are you just looking at the cute baby pictures? I don't blame you if you've stopped paying attention to me. Noah is by far more entertaining.

Day fourteen: Tada!

So, as the astute blog follower that you are, you know that Libby's family was visiting for the first two weeks of Noah's life. Obviously, anything less than fourteen would not have been permissible with new grandparents and a new uncle around. So, if you guessed less than that before, here's a free pass: guess again.

Day fifteen: dancing with Mommy

Once Libby's family left, though, that left the two parents alone, to fend for themselves. Would they be overwhelmed immediately and forget to document?

Day sixteen: playing in the jungle!

Or maybe since Jonathan had a week of vacation after the Asais left, it wouldn't be until he was three weeks old...

Day seventeen: who looks sleepier?

I'm running out of clever little interludes... I hope we didn't last too many more days...

Day eighteen: a true ladies' man

Do you think anyone will notice if I skip a day? Or maybe I did already? What if I'm playing a trick on you? Maybe the number was really seven, and you just didn't notice!

Day nineteen: Cousin Michaela likes him!

Did you go back and check to make sure I wasn't tricking you? If you did check, and you found out I was tricking you, let me know because I wasn't trying to, so that means I made a mistake. The real answer is greater than nineteen!

Day twenty: meeting a new generation

Maybe you guessed 64. Maybe you think that today is the first day that he has gone without a picture. But if you think that, then you don't know that I'm currently 1,954 miles away from my son, and I wouldn't know if today's the day.

Day twenty-one: dressed up for Halloween

Maybe I'll just give up and let you look at the cute pictures and figure it out for yourself...

Day twenty-two: he does wake up sometimes... honest!

Day twenty-three: no more umbilical cord!

Day twenty-four: chillin' in da crib

Day twenty-five: peaceful dreaming

Day twenty-seven: first bottle!

Day twenty-eight: recovering from first bottle

Day twenty-nine: playing with Daddy

Day thirty: burp time!

Playing in the jungle!

Big smile!

Woohoo!

Ahhh... bath time!

Wait! What days were those pictures from?!?! Did you forget? Don't you know?!? I'm on the edge of my seat!!! AARRRRRHHHHH!!!!!! What's going on???

Relax. Day thirty-one, there were no pictures. None. Whatsoever. November 10 has not been documented. If Noah's future wife asks what he looked like when he was 30 days old, we'll have to draw a picture. If you want to offer your own rendition to fill the gap, we're accepting submissions now.

So, what are all these other pictures? Just proof that he's still cuter than ever, even though we're on the other side of "gap day."