Three Months: A Letter

Dear Nicholas,

Today you turned three months old. It's hard to believe that a quarter of a year has already passed since you were born. It seems like just yesterday, and, yet, when I look at photos of you from just a few weeks ago, I can already see how much you've grown. This would make me sad if we weren't having so much fun watching you change and become more interactive everyday. Your little personality is starting to really show itself and we love it. You continue to give us lots of smiles (except when you're hungry-- then you're all business), and in the past couple weeks you've started to giggle a little bit-- or try to. It's a funny sound somewhere between a hiccup and a laugh, but it's always accompanied by that open mouth grin, so we'll take it. In fact, we'll do just about anything to elicit that funny little laugh from you. Your Dad runs you through a strenuous workout of boxing, pedaling you legs like Lance, and doing the backstroke with your arms, which you love. This gets a laugh about half the time. Today you also sort of giggled when I was singing along to a performance of "Livin' on a Prayer" on The Voice. This probably doesn't say much for my vocals, but I love doing anything that makes you smile!

Based on my highly scientific procedure of weighing myself while holding you, I am guessing you tip the scales at somewhere between 13-14 pounds. You are now wearing all 3 month clothing, some of which is already getting too short for you (particularly the footy pajamas) and some 3-6 month clothing. You are wearing size 1-2 diapers. We'll get your official growth stats at your next doctor's appointment when you turn four months.

As with the prior two months, this month brought more visitors and some additional firsts. You met your Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle John ("great because they're awesome!"), and we showed them around Austin, including a trip to the Zilker Park Botanical Gardens. You also had your first non-family babysitter during their visit. We found a great girl who is a senior at UT to watch you while John and Mary took us out to a delicious dinner at Lambert's. I was a little nervous leaving you, but everything went great, and we've already booked her again for a night out in May.

The wildflowers bloomed during your third month, and we took part in a grand Texas tradition: bluebonnet photos. They turned out cute, but I'm looking forward to next year when we'll be able to sit you upright in the flowers-- if we can get you to hold still long enough!

Over the course of the past month, you've become a fantastic night sleeper. We moved you into your own room at about 8 weeks, and you've continued to sleep longer and longer stretches before waking up. For the past few weeks, we've put you down between 7-8pm each night, and you typically haven't woken up until 3-4am for a quick snack before going back to bed until about 7am. Heaven! This morning, I woke up at 6:15am in a panic because I realized you hadn't been up at all. I frantically ran into your room to check on you, but you were snoozing peacefully, and had been for over 10 hours. We're hoping this isn't a fluke! On the other hand, you are not a great napper. You fight naps, and only sleep for a maximum of 45 minutes several times a day. By the evening, you are one cranky little guy and we sometimes struggle to keep you up until your 7pm bedtime. But maybe this is what makes for your great nighttime sleep? Time will tell.

You still love bath time, staring at the ceiling fans (on or off), and spending time outside. This month you also discovered your hands. You will hold one hand out at a slight distance and then slowly move it around as you carefully observe it from every angle. You seem to favor your left hand for both hand-staring and batting at the toys on your activity mat, so we're guessing you're a south paw like Daddy, Uncle Geoff, and both of your Great Grandmas. You've also really started trying to suck your thumb. You showed some thumb sucking tendencies early on, but you've really been working hard at it this month. Unfortunately, you can't quite figure out how to get just your thumb separated from the rest of your fist, and often you just jam as many fingers from either hand as you can fit in your mouth. You also do this when you're hungry, making loud smacking noises.

You are still not a big fan of tummy time, but you've gotten pretty consistent with your ability to roll from stomach to back, so you never have to endure time on your belly for long. Despite this, your neck strength is increasing quite a bit. While we burp you, you'll pull your head and upper body away from our chest and you are strong enough to hold your head up and peer around the room. Your head will bobble a little bit here and there until you get tired, and then you'll crash your head back down on our chest. We call this move the meerkat, because you look like the little desert animal peering out from its burrow. We love the meerkat and will miss it when you have complete control over your neck!

Nicholas, you are more and more fun each day, and you bring so much joy to our lives. I wish time would slow down, but I also can't wait to see what's next. I know it's only going to get better.

All my love,

Mommy