Baby lion is growing up

My parents are in town, so we ended up watching a bunch of our hospital videos that Alexey shot, and I was struck by this little creature, maybe half an hour old, at most, being encouraged by Anna the midwife to feed. “Come on, we need to get those reflexes going!” Anna keeps saying. “Come on, it’s about survival at this point!” But Lyovka is tired after being born and his face is saying, “Bugger off.” He knows he’ll get to feed later. He trusts mom and fate.

Babies change quickly. I remember what it was like with my brother, so it didn’t take me completely by surprise – but still, it leaves you pretty breathless. Lyovka’s new thing is cooing to me whenever I rock him to sleep. It’s like he’s got a bunch of things to get off his chest before he settles down for his nap.

One of the Best Things Ever is waking up with him in the morning – when he starts looking for me and then finds me, and grins widely, like I’m the most awesome person that he’s ever seen. Both Alexey and I try not to let it go to our heads. Before long, Lyovka will have his own hobbies and political opinions, and mom and dad will just be these two annoying people who exist solely to embarrass him. Until then, we’re busy learning to play with various rattles and discovering the joys of Ray William Johnson (it’s never too early for dick jokes and cat videos, is what I think).