Paulette and Baby Alexander are safe at home now. We had a pretty good "Day Five." Highlights included: getting through our first night at home, discovering that pacifiers can pacify, even when baby is getting an immunization shot right in the thigh (he didn't cry, the little guy), having Alexander fall asleep while resting on my shoulder for the first time since he went into "the Box."

As we left the hospital with our baby yesterday, and none too soon, I had to take a snapshot of part of the sign that graces the entryway to the "birthing suites" (hospital rooms with baby stuff) because I had walked by and read it several times every day for the first four days of Alexander's life. It's a depressing thought, really, attributed to Charles Dickens. Something along the lines of "Each baby born is finer than the last."

Every time I walked by it, it seemed to me that by Chuck's account, our baby was getting less and less fine, relatively speaking, with every passing moment. I must disagree on that score.