3 Months Old Today

I have started half a dozen posts in the last few weeks and haven't been able to finish them before something demands my attention, or I fall asleep...;-) Hopefully I'll be able to play catch up soon, but I wanted to at least post some pictures and a few notes and thoughts today.

Emiline is 3 months old and the time has gone by fast (mostly, thankfully). It's amazing how quickly kids can just mesh into the fabric of a family and it becomes strange to think about them never having been there. I really like this age, partly because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel (earlier bedtimes, regular napping, etc), but also because their personalities are really starting to show. I've said before that children are like presents from God that you spend your whole life first unwrapping and then figuring out how they work. At three months, I'm starting to rip off enough paper to see what this child could be. She is SO DARN smiley which transform her whole face. She loves to have little conversations with whoever will sit and "talk" with her and she doesn't like to be alone. She prefers Jane's noise and being in the action to being left where she can't see anyone.


She quite likes her play mat

(so does Jane, or Jane likes Emiline on her playmate, she's always getting down to play with her. In this pic she's actually "feeding" baby sister from her kitchen. It was way cute but I got the camera out too late and missed getting a good shot) and has started to grab at things and put them in her mouth. She kicks like crazy which has made me think that Baby Legs (the leg warmer looking things she's wearing here)

are the best thing ever for keeping her warm, otherwise she just gets too cold with all that movement. She's incredibly strong in the neck, back, and legs and if left alone on her mat or the bed, she'll turn and scoot and roll a bit and I can't quite figure how she's gotten there...and she LOVES Patty Cake with Daddy. We've finally started reading stories to her here and there and she seems to approve.



She's going to bed a bit earlier these days, 10:00 or so, and she slept totally through the night for the first time a day or two ago (heaven!) and right now she's waking up usually around 2:30 for a bottle (yes, we weaned. *sigh*) and then usually sleeps close to 8:00 (which is useless because Jane is usually up by 6:00. *double sigh*). The darling usually obliges me by taking at least one nap during Jane's afternoon nap so that's been a life saver.

As for eating, I don't think she eats enough. She's 12 lbs 10 oz with clothes on as of Friday (she has some mad butt rash, bleeding and everything, that we took her into the clinic Friday and they weighed her) and still in 0-3 month clothing. Jane at this age was already in 6M and was only in 0-3 for a few days (OK, a week and a half) so it's kind of strange to have such a skinny kid on my hands. She takes 4 oz of formula a feeding (this is what happened when we tried 6 oz...)this was after I had been looking around the room for a few minutes to find the camera, so a lot of it had already soaked in...she had a puddle completely around her head.
and seems to be adjusting. She was really pukey (yea, those pictures above give you a slight idea of how pukey she was, knock on wood) for a while and gassy and then had a crazy number of poops a day (hence the diaper rash) which we think was the formula's fault (yes, mom feels guilty about weaning even though she knows it was the best thing for the family) but we're going to keep her on this particular brand a bit longer to see if she adjusts better.

It's so strange how busy I've been this week, I've felt like I haven't spent much time with her just playing with her and looking at her and bonding. I got 45 minutes in today though while Jane was sleeping and I just adored adoring her. Here are a few shots I snapped this afternoon.



I'm so pleased to be Emiline's mother (by the way, we've test-piloted a few nicknames: "Millie" or "Millie-Bird" and "Rhys-a-Roo" here and there, but so far we call her the full three syllables most of the time. I also call her "Pukey Tuesday" when she has puked whether it's Tuesday or not...don't ask. I have no idea why I call her that). I hope I can do right by her and be a good mom and not let Jane's extreme neediness lately deprive her too much. I hope I can always take the time to listen to her and her needs and make the time to love her and bond with her. I'm so glad we've had ourselves a "magic baby." She is a joy.

Happy 2 Jane!

This one's for you, Mom. You said you wanted lots of pictures!


Heavens I wish I'd had a camera when Eric and I walked into Jane's room that morning to wish her a Happy Birthday. She was sitting up and the second we started singing, she started shouting "No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" A perfect toddler start to the day!

I had printed out a big schnazzy #2 and put it on her place mat, we had all her presents wrapped and sitting on the kitchen table and she got to eat her favorite cereal-Marshmallow Mateys (I wish I'd never let her try it, it's all she wants these days!) Then we let her open a couple of presents before her party at the beach and park near our apartment. She opened up some sand toys and a Wiggles movie.

We had a party at the park/beach

with some friends

and some of my family that had come into town for a man-cation up north. It was a wonderful coincidence.



We planned well and prepared well so it was pretty low stress. I had a couple of girls from my primary class present and past to help with Jane and the baby. They where fantastic!!

We swam


We played "Silly Simon Says"


ate snacks

played in the sand


enjoyed the nice weather

blew out a candle (OK, so Jane totally freaked out about the candle. She knows fire is hot and had no desire to get too close...the light breeze blew it out)

and enjoyed some cupcakes and frosting (an improvement over last year's fear of frosting and a nearly untouched birthday cake)

We decided to open presents at home to avoid anymore untoward displays of emotion (did I mention Jane was up at 5:30???) and the rest of the day was spent playing with all her loot:

It was a long, beautiful, exhausting day. I was emotional (more on that later). Eric was tired.

Sisters, Sisters

I just want to say how much I love my sisters. Last night was filled with talking to them and it was so delightfully happy to do so. My sister just younger than me, "the army one" as she's known to my friends around here, is such an amazing person and has had some unique challenges in her life that she's just blasted through. We were on the phone last night til midnight, til my cell phone died and I couldn't find the plug AND keep a sleeping/nursing Emiline sleeping/nursing. I would have talked all night. Or at least until 2:00 ;-) We had this awesome conversation that reminded me of my college days- when my brain worked a bit more spryly and there was great delight in waxing philosophical every now and then. The older I get, the more glad I am that my parents had lots of kids (and more respectful of the job that is!). I have such cool siblings and they are some of my best friends. They are so supportive and loving and accepting and did I mention cool? Go Mom and Dad and GOOO SISTERS!! (And brothers are cool, too.)

My Little Artist

Jane loves "colors" (i.e. crayons, markers, colored pens, colored pencils, paint, chalk). I love to watch her color and write letters (little zig zag lines). She's also been working on circles. She LOVES help tracing her hand or for us to draw different shapes for her to color in. We've been going to the gym pretty regular these days and when I go to pick her up from the babysitting they often tell me how much time she spends coloring. At nursery, they've noticed how she holds a crayon just like an adult holds a pen. It's cute to see her try and color specific objects. Fine motor skills have always been a strength and it's fun to see her use it in something she loves so much.

It's hard to get smiling of pictures of Jane these days, she wants to see the camera herself, so I only get one shot before she starts to "freak up."

Laughing

We're pretty sure that Emiline was trying to laugh at us last night. All of a sudden during a smiling cooing fit she let out this loud, cough like noise with such gusto and glee it must have been a laugh. We laughed back and then she laughed at us and repeat. She laughed until she cried and then she cried a lot. Then she had another one of her inconsolable crying fits that drive us crazy. Luckily they have been a lot shorter and less frequently.

I remembered again last night how much fun being a parent is and how the joy they bring is exponential as they grow.

These pictures are several weeks old, btw.

Narrating

The bulk of Jane's language abilities are spent on narrating her life. Such was the case yesterday as she was walking into church with Daddy. She'd say things like "Jane's carseat. All done buckle. Bye bye car. Daddy and Jane walking. Walking to church. White shoes. Jane wears a white shoes. Walking to church. Walking fast! Hurry up!" Well, on that long walk through the parking lot to the building, Jane ran out of things to narrate about, not not out of words. She she said "Jane is talking. Jane is talking. Jane is talking. Jane is talking. Jane is talking. Jane is talking."