Now, I don't mention it often on this site, but I was not an only child. The reason I am generally vague about siblingness is that there are members of my family who prefer not to have any information posted about them on the internet. This is completely reasonable in this crazy world, but I obviously have made different choices. In an effort to respect the wishes of said family members, however, while still discussing issues of import to myself, I tend to be vague about these family members and only mention what little might be necessary to make my point.

I had noted earlier on these pages that a client of mine was (is) a second child and lamented the lack of photos of her childhood. When I mentioned this to a sibling of mine (who, as you might surmise, is younger than me), I was greeted with similar concern. Second children, it would appear, may be made to feel as if they were not quite as big a deal in their parents' lives as their elder sibs.

[Let's leave for another day the discussion as to whether these feelings are justified because hey -- people feel the way they do regardless of any objective "truth."]

Nolan may not be quite as well documented yet as his brother was at this age, but he's doing quite well, nonetheless. He continues to enjoy a very pleasant disposition, which means that if his cries of discomfort are more rare, they are also responded to a bit more quickly than his brother's were at this age.

He still loves to smile at anyone who smiles at him, and his eyes remain the most fascinating shade of blue. True, Alexander's eyes were still blue at this age (they are currently fluctuating between a kind of grey-blue and a greeny-grey hue), but not like this. These are, as any silk-screen printer would recognize, an uncompromising "reflex blue". Nolan has a strong neck and holds his head up high. He remains proportionally large for his age -- something like 97th percentile for height and weight and 95th for head circumference.

As with anybody, these physical attributes are highly subject to rapid change (they certainly did change for Alex between four months and one year), but they remain the first things you notice when you meet him.

He's increasingly alert, and he loves to be around people. As I think I may have mentioned before, he also loves music. He kicks and gurgles and coos whenever something's playing. He has recently started to practice with his voice -- every once in a while, I catch him making different sounds in a very experimental fashion. "Ahhhhhhhhh. Ahhhhhhhhh? Ahhhhhhhh. Gheeeeeeeeeeeee. Ahhhhhhhhhh." If his talkative older brother ever lets him get a word in, edgewise, I think he'll be quite a talker, himself.

Today, Nolan spent much of the day trying to roll over from being on his back to being on his belly. He didn't succeed, but I think I learned a valuable lesson from his attempts: no matter what your goals in life, no matter how trivial they may seem, you may as well give up now because you are doomed to failure.