Three Months!

Little Bug!  You are three months old!  You're past that "missing 4th trimester" that people talk about!  Woo hoo, we all made it!  You are growing into such a fun little boy, your mommy and daddy just love you to pieces!  We don't have a 3 month doctor's appointment, so we don't have any official weights and measurements of you, but by our best calculations you're about 12 pounds 10 ounces and I have no idea how long you are but I do know you've completely out grown all your 0-3 month sleepers.  We're definitely into 3 month clothing with you.  In the past month you have come so far working on your tummy time and lifting up your head--you no longer howl at us when we put you on your tummy, and you are doing quite a wonderful job at lifting your head up off the ground.  It's hard work, and you still get tired easily, but we are so excited to see you actually working on it!  

This past month you got to meet one of mommy's best friends, Missy, when she came down to spend a couple days with us, and you took another trip.  You're going to be quite the well traveled baby!  This time you and Mommy flew to Minneapolis to your Grandma and Papa's house while your daddy went on a mission trip with the church.  They went to build houses in Arizona and you and I went to play and take naps and spend time with Grandma and Papa. 

Another fun thing is that you have started figuring out that you have hands!  You like to suck on your hands sometimes and you are paying more and more attention when your hands accidentally whack one of your toys or stuffed animals.  You like to reach out and touch the stuffed animals that are propped up on your changing table.

Your smile is getting brighter and brighter and you're trying so hard to talk!  We can tell you have a lot to say, and you'll lock eyes with mommy when feeding and stop eating to smile and talk to her.  This morning you laid in Mommy and Daddy's bed and told us all kinds of things--I think you were telling us all about your night :)  You have no idea how much I adore these "conversations"--I could spend hours listening to you "talk" to me.  

Every day it seems you become a little bit more aware of what's going on around you, and more interested in looking at the world.  You have come to love your baths and kick and splash (even though I am not sure you realize it is your own arms and legs making the water splash!).  Mommy gives you a bath most nights because it helps quiet you when you're getting fussy in the evenings before bed.  It is so much more fun now that you can kind of sit up on your own in the tub instead of having to have Mommy hold you!  

We've spent this past month working on sleep with you--I realized about a month ago that babies are supposed to take naps after being awake only an hour and a half or two hours, and that has made a huge difference in our house!  You're only napping for 20-30 minutes each time but it seems to be enough to help you "reset" your little brain and body and makes you ready to be awake and play again for another 90 minutes or so.  This probably goes against every baby sleep book, but your afternoon nap is still almost always in Mommy's arms, laying on my chest.  We lay down together and that seems to help you get in a bit of a longer nap than 30 minutes (today you slept for an hour and a half!) and it lets Mommy get a much needed nap and some baby snuggle time.  You have no idea how much I adore the feeling of your little body snuggled up next to me.  Someday we'll probably have to stop these little naps of ours, but for now I will treasure every afternoon we get to snuggle together.  

Another exciting thing of the month is that you've started paying a little attention when we read to you! You will stare at the pages of a book and actually let us get through most of a short story, which absolutely makes me beyond excited!  Your favorite book this month is Chick a Chicka Boom Boom about all the alphabet letters that climb the coconut tree and then they all fall down!  Oh no!  We have read this book a LOT this month (well in the last two weeks, your Grandma gave it to you when we went to her house and we've read it every day since then).  Here you are with Papa, he's reading you Good Night Moon and you were pretty fixated on the pictures!

It was your first big holiday this month too!  Easter!  We went to church and then had a beautiful lunch at Jim and Chris' house.  You had fun for awhile but got awfully tired and couldn't settle down to take your nap with all the people around, so we finally brought you home to sleep (and you slept for 2 hours, woke up for an hour and then went to bed for the night!  Poor baby, Easter really took it out of you!)  Here's our little family at church on Easter.

Aidan, your Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more in love with you!  You are going to roll your eyes when you read this later in life but almost every day I look at you and I get teary just thinking about how perfect and amazing you are.  There are tough days, days when I can't seem to figure out what you need, but those are getting fewer and father between.  You crack me up all the time with silly expressions like this one in this photo and you melt my heart with your smiles, coos and attempts at laughter (which right now is more of a one syllable "ha!")  I love the way your eyes light up when I come into the room to get you from a nap, and I love the way you never ever stop kicking your feet if you're awake.  (Changing you is quite the challenge!)  Every night as you lay snuggled in my arms in the rocking chair as I rock you to sleep I  am overwhelmed at how God has blessed us with you.  I never knew that when I became a mom I'd know you better than I know any person on the planet.  I know what your perfectly round little cheek feels like against my lips.  I know your scent.  I know the temperature of your forehead and little ears and now I know how my mom always knew if I had a fever by kissing me.  It's because she spent an exorbitant amounts of time kissing my forehead so she knew if something changed.  

We love you so much baby boy!  Happy 3 months!