Our newest and best gadget is this jaunty maroon-and-orange sling. It enables one to stuff the baby in a sack. The sack has a cellphone pocket, for people who either leave the house (not us) or are too lazy to find the other phone (more likely). And babies like vibrations, if not loud ringing or Beethoven's Fifth, so it might be soothing. I am sure that there are people so desperate for sleep that they put the phone in there on vibrate and called themselves over and over.

For Max the sling makes a sort of cave, and as he is still essentially a wild animal, he likes it a lot. And I didn't make up the wild animal thing, either. We read it in section of a parenting book on biting, which said that since babies are just mammals learning how to be civilized, they might bite you if they get mad. We have not seen such ill behavior, but then, there are 17 years and 49 weeks to go until we can stop caring about his manners, so time will tell.

Max's 3rd week birthday came at the end of a long week for me in which I did not have to set an alarm to catch a 5:30 flight on Wednesday. Thanks, Max! Then, I began working at 4:30 on Friday. All in the service of children, I suppose. Upon returning home Friday night, I went immediately to sleep. Then, on Saturday, some friends brought us a celebratory lasagna. We are madly in love with casserole/freezable-microwaveable foods. Keep 'em coming.