3 months: little love letters

Oh my dear little Hadgey Padgey,

You are getting so big!! You are, also, developing quite a little personality. It has been so fun watching you change and grow. I can't imagine doing anything else in my life. Today you are 12 weeks old. You don't go to the doctor today, but I'm still going to attempt to write for you 12 week letter.

-Growth: Since you don't have a doctor's appointment today I don't know your current, exact, weight or length. But what I do know is that you have gotten longer. And chunkier! :) We have had to lengthen the belts in your car seat 2 different times now. Once we had to lengthen it for an actual length purpose. Then I swear it was the next day we had to make the belts bigger again because they were a little tight around your chunky belly :)

-Eating: You are now taking 5 oz every 3 hours during the day. Right before bed time you take 6 oz. This past month we have had a hard time getting you figured out in the eating department. One day we decided to let you try some rice cereal. You do not eat this on a regular basis. Actually, you haven't had it since the "taste-testing" day.  I think you hit a growth spurt because you were wanting to eat all the time. Instead of deciding to permanently introduce cereal, we opted to bump you up to 5 oz of formula. This has done the trick...for now. Here are a few pictures of the "cereal taste testing" day:

You were really excited to try the rice cereal

....then you weren't so sure about this stuff

-Sleeping: You have been sleeping pretty well. During that growth spurt, you kept waking up at 3 am every night. That was miserable for everyone, but you seem to be doing really well again. Also, you have started taking naps. For the past 3 weeks, I've been laying you down for an afternoon nap about 1:30 pm/ 2 pm. You will usually sleep until 5 or 6 if I let you. This past week, though, I've started noticing you don't sleep in as late as you usually do (until 10:30 am). You have been waking up around 8:30 am or 9 am. Then you will take a bottle and play for a little while and then you want to take a nap around 10 am or 11 am. Today you got up and ate around 9:30 am and stayed awake and watched tv with Daddy. Then you played for a little while and about 11:30 am I noticed you would not stop crying for anything, so I decided to lay you down. That did the trick. You were sleepy! I think you're starting to develop and work into your own little schedule.

You still wake up all smiles and as happy as ever! :)

-Play time: Now that you are getting bigger and staying awake more you are really starting to enjoy toys/playing. We were giving a wonderful exercise play mat that has a jungle (literally) of toys that dangled and make noise. Your favorite part is the lights on top that flash different colors. You weren't too sure about the play mat at first, but you love it now! You have never been much of a "hold me all the time" baby. In fact, you don't like to be held too often at all. So now that you are bigger you really enjoy laying on the mat and looking at the toys/lights and looking all around the room. You have even been able to accomplish grabbing the toys hanging about your head. You get really excited when you get one! It's cute!

Playing on your jungle mat

This is your laying on your mat, but trying to roll over to watch tv! And Copper wasn't too sure about this contraption either. He doesn't seem to mind it now.

-Strength/Movement/ Tummy time: You are getting very strong. Your "new thing" is that you like to be held up to you can stand on things. This is good, as your legs are getting stronger every day! We bought you a tummy time mat that came with a pillow with attached toys. I thought this was going to be a great thing because the pillow keeps your face propped up so you don't lay right down on it. Then with the toys attached to the pillow they will give you something to reach for and play with while laying there. Well, I was wrong! I wouldn't have been wrong except you figured out how to push up on your toes and push forward (like crawling, but instead on your knees you use your toes) and push yourself head-first over the pillow. Bummer! This makes you super angry, which I can understand because it does not look comfortable at all. In fact, you hate tummy time in general. But you've got to keep trying to you can figure out how to roll and crawl one day. But at the rate you're going you may figure it all out sooner than later!

Laying on the tummy time mat and pillow

Pushing up on your toes and rolling over head-first. Oopsie!

You figured our how to get off that pillow and wiggle off the mat. There she goes!!!!

-Events: Two weeks ago you went shopping with me and Nammy at JBF. I wanted to go buy you some pants and a coat for the winter. We were in and out in an hour and a half, which I thought was good. Come to find out, you hate shopping! You whinned and some what cried the whole time we were there. We will have to work on this later. We can't be having this "shopping-hating" attitude! But your biggest experience was your first road trip this past weekend. We (just me and you!) traveled to OKC. We traveled during your afternoon nap time so luckily you slept the whole way to OKC and the whole way home! You did so well.

-Funny/Cute Moments: The absolute cutest thing that you've started doing is that while we are traveling in the car somewhere, you have started talking to the elephant on the top of the mirror you look at. You talk and laugh at the elephant the entire time we are in the car. I'm so glad that you are happy in the car and don't cry the whole time. You only start crying if we stop at a stop sign or light. Or you start crying if you can't hear the music...OR if you don't like the song! Oh geez. You already have very strong options. Another thing I never want to forget is how you first started laughing when Daddy would hold you and kiss on your feet. You thought this was hilarious. When he would stop you would extend and hold out your legs as far as you could to put them on his mouth. You loved it! Here is a little video of me kissing your feet and you laughing out loud. We love your little laugh! It is the sweetest sound I've ever heard!

I'll love you forever and ever. I promise!

Love,
Mommy