As most couples await the arrival of a child, they dream of holding a little bundle of joy. Emphasis on little.

My son Max arrived at nine lbs., 8.8 oz. Barbara and I were a wee bit surprised. We're both thin (at least one friend of ours refers to us as "the skinny couple" to our faces, and I'm guessing a few more do it behind our backs. We don't take offense), and while both of us are somewhat taller than average, we're no giants.

Max, however, didn't stop with being merely a big newborn. Most babies lose weight the first week of their lives as they figure out how to breastfeed and generally get accustomed to life outside the womb. A baby Max's size could be expected to drop up to a pound and a half before starting to regain weight.

He lost a half pound. And regained it within a week.

By the time we was a month old, Max weighed 11 lbs. 12 oz.--95th percentile. Babies are expected to gain about 1 1/2 lbs. a month. Max picked up 2 3/4 instead.

At two months (and a couple days), Max checked in at 15 lbs. 9 oz. That was two weeks ago. At the rate he's been gaining, he's about to pass the 17 pound barrier as I write this. The prevailing wisdom is that babies double their birth weight after six months and triple it after a year. Max should pass 19 lbs. (double his 9 1/2 lbs. birth weight) sometime into his 14th week--a good 2 1/2 months ahead of schedule.

Barbara and I had our first "date" (dinner and movie without Max) last Monday. A family with a baby sat one table over. Her mother noticed us staring at her child. Barbara asked how old the girl was. "Six months." was the reply. The mother saw our eyes widen and then said, "She's a bit big for her age." Thing is, both of us were surprised how much smaller she was than our 11-week-old bruiser. We didn't share this information, instead complimenting the mother on her beautiful baby.

A lot of babies have been born in our neighborhood in the last year. Using his two-month weight (a decidedly out-of-date figure), Max is heavier than the 6-month-old a few blocks away. He's even heavier than the 8-month-old two doors down. Those babies are average-sized. Max is a monster.

If you're concerned about his health, don't be. Our doctor is most pleased with his poundage and has told us many times that he'll probably lose some weight as he begins to crawl and walk. Until then, well, we'll just have to get used to him wearing clothes intended for much older babies (he's making some of his six-to-nine month outfits look tight these days).

If you think I'm bragging about this, you're partly right. Like any guy, I'm pleased when something I have is bigger than anyone else's. Max is the biggest damn baby around, and that's pretty cool. But there are a few drawbacks.

Often Barbara and I have reflected on how we never did get to enjoy a "little" baby. We look back at pictures of Max in his first couple of weeks and realize that he was just a whippersnapper back then, but he wasn't small. At five days he was larger than some of the month-old babies we saw in the pediatrician's office. Okay, so one of those was a preemie. The simple truth is that Max has always seemed large. That's because he is large.

Barbara has often complained to me that most people do not compliment her on Max's cuteness when they see him. No one has ever complimented me on Max when I've been with him. There's a pretty good reason for this. Max is usually asleep in his car seat on outings. This is good, because that way he's not crying and his parents don't feel obligated to minister to his every need while wheeling a cart through the grocery store (or wherever). And to be perfectly honest, Max is not a cute baby when asleep in his car seat. The angle of the seat gives prominence to his huge jowls and also bestows a quadruple chin thing (well, he's down to a triple chin--I think) on him that makes him look like a cross between Winston Churchill and clean-shaven Orson Welles (Paul Masson-era).

When awake, Max is utterly charming. He likes to smile these days (though not when a camera is in the room--he's like his dad that way), and he will go out of his way to talk and gesture at whomever he sees (Mom, Dad, a visitor, Mr. Ceiling Fan--anybody). He squeals and coos and kicks and swings his arms and grabs and generally does all the things that make a baby cute. He is cute. His whole face changes when he uses it. The chins and jowls disappear and he looks the way we figure he will in a year or so. Sitting in a car seat, well, Max resembles a slug. A well-dressed slug, mind you, but an invertebrate nonetheless.

We've managed to keep our self-esteem up despite the lack of appreciation from perfect strangers (our friends have generally caught Max awake at one time or another and so recognize his innate cuteness), but this "problem" is one of the main drawbacks of having a big baby.

There are others, of course. He's already very heavy to hold for more than a few moments at a time. He's a little bit behind in his motor skill development--if he wants to roll over he's got a lot of girth to move. Minor quibbling, I know, but parents have to find something to worry about.

All told, though, I think I'm happy with the big baby. Alright, so I missed out on a month or two of holding a little baby. That's okay. Whenever the big guy fixes his gaze on my face and breaks out into a spontaneous smile, I can't imagine Max as anything other than the joyous being that he is.

Jon Worley was not a big baby, though he did have a few chins by the time he was four months old.