3 Months Old-December 9, 2011

Time if flying by!  It just seems like yesterday you were born and now you are officially 3 months old! Your Daddy and I both took off work today so that we could spend the day with you!  We always take off one day during the month of December to spend the day doing our Christmas shopping and we thought today would be perfect!  We left around 10am and headed to the beach.  You were a little ANGEL!  Well, when are you not?  You don't cry unless you are hungry, wet, or tired.  And then, I wouldn't even classify it as a cry...more like a little sheep baaaing!  We had lunch at Texas Roadhouse before our shopping trip officially began.  We dressed you in one of your cute Christmas outfits (1 of about 20 you have altogether!)  Everyone we passed by or came in contact with thought you were just the prettiest baby they have ever seen!  They couldn't believe how good you were being in stores!   You love your stroller and are now big enough to sit up in it verses laying back.  You are quite the nosey little monkey and want to see everything around you!  We shopped for a total of 8 hours and not one time did you cry!  You took naps in your stroller, we carried you around, and you spent a lot of time just watching us pick out Christmas gifts for our family!  This is the one time of the year that your Daddy and I LOVE buying for our parents!  And now YOU!!!  I have to say, you're going to be one spoiled little 3 1/2 month old on Christmas morning when you get your first Santa!  I made Daddy take you out of a few stores today so that I could purchase a few items for you!  Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year but having you now makes it even more fun and special!  We don't want you to grow up too quick, but we are excited for what Christmas will be like as you get older! I want to instill in you the greatfulness and the true spirit of Christmas.  Yes, I do enjoy buying presents for our parents and your Aunt Kati, but I want you to know Christmas for the sweet spirit that is in the air during the month of December and for the reason that we celebrate.  The birth of Jesus because without him, you wouldn't be part of our lives today!  After 8 hours, we only have a few more gifts to purchase for our parents and we will be finished! 

When we got home from our little shopping trip, you got your nightly bath, fed and drifted off to sleep!  You are such a good baby!  We are so blessed to have you in our lives.  Shopping trips have always been fun with just the 2 of us, but it was even more special this year because we were able to show you off to many strangers! 

3 month highlights:

• You have found your hands and toes.   You will grab at your toes occassionally and have started sucking on your fingers some....I'm hoping this doesn't continue because Mommy doesn't NOT want a thumb sucker! 
• You now smile at most anything.  For a while, you would smile and while some thought you were smiling at them, it was really just the occassional mishap that they caught you smiling.  But now, you smile when we talk to you, play with you, etc.  You are such a happy baby!
• You are most definitely on a schedule and I prefer to keep it that way!  You get up around 5 every morning to eat.  You eat every 4 hours, take a nap in between feedings, but are up a majority of the day now.  You will sleep for hours upon hours in my arms, but the second I put you down for a nap, you wake up within 20 minutes! 
• You LOVE LOVE LOVE your bath time!  You are now filling out the tub really well and like to try to slide down in the sling inside the tub.  You think you're a big girl!  You expect your bath somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30 each night.  We've gone over a few nights and you've definitely let us know it!  We finish bath time, lotion you down with Johnson and Johnson's so you smell so fresh and clean, put on our pj's eat and then you're ready for bed!  I rock you to sleep and we snuggle EVERY night for about an hour before I finally decide it's time for me to go to bed too. 
• You've started talking to us some and it's quite cute to hear you begin making little sounds!  You still LOVE your swing.  You are facinated by the mobile on the swing and are fascinated by the TV.  Anything with movement catches your eye!  The first time that you really watched the television was when Rudolph came on one evening.  You couldn't quit looking at the show and that makes me happy because Rudolph is my favorite Christmas classic!
• Lulu and Elsa are fond of you now!  Your fur sister Lulu didn't prefer you at first but she's come around to love you! Your Daddy will fuss if I let her lick your head, but she's come a long way with you and I feel like that's her way of saying she now accepts you and loves you.  In a few months when you start crawling, I'm sure you'll be in her food bowl anyway, so a little friendly kiss isn't so bad now and then. Plus, I feel like if I continue to fuss at her every time she's around you, she's going to dislike you forever and that definitely won't be good!  Elsa, well, she still ignores you as much as she did when you came home.  As long as she is under a blanket sleeping, she could care less!
• You do NOT like an unclean hiney!  The second you tinkle or poop you want your diaper changed....you get that from Mommy! No, I don't tinkle and poop in my pants, but I don't like to feel unclean in certain places either!  I'm sure you'll hear many stories one day about me wanting to keep clean in certain areas!
• You are still sleeping in your pack n play beside my side of the bed.  We sleep well at night but I like just knowing you are there!  The only time you wake up is if you have a wet diaper in the middle of the night!  Then, I just give you a  paci (which we have decided we are going to call your doodle-bug) and you drift off to sleep!
• You still sleep through the night, thank goodness!  Now that you have proven you can do that so well, I don't get up to feed you anymore!  The doodle-bug does the trick to get you back to sleep!
• If you happen to wake up when I lay you down at night, you LOVE watching the mobile we bought that projects a picture on the ceiling.  It rotates through different images and you love watching it!  It usually puts you right back to sleep.  Daddy like to listen to the music play when it's on as well! 

You didn't have to have a 3 month wellness check up...thank goodness we bypassed shots again until next month!  I assume you are about 14.5 pounds now and have grown a little in height!  You are wearing 3 month clothes exactly, although in the next few weeks I'm going to have to move you up to 6 month sleepers.  For some reason when I dry them, they shrink in length.  Your regular clothes do not do that. 

We are still over the moon with you.  We can't get enough snuggle time with you after work each day!  I cannot wait to be home with you during the day.  Only a few more days....12 to be exact and then it's Mommy and Maribelle time all day everyday!  We are enjoying watching you grow and learn new things!  We are so thankful that you are such a happy baby!  We love you to pieces and we thank God for you everyday!