3 months old

Well here we are at 3 months! You are officially an "infant" now - no
longer a "newborn"! I loved my sweet little newborn but I am loving the little
interactive baby you are becoming just as much!

I was feeling like you didn't change much from your 2 month self, but just in the last week you have acquired so many new skills! I could take 100 pictures of you a day and it wouldn't be enough to truly capture your little personality. Some things about you at 3 months:

• 
  
  You finally have uncurled those tight little fists for good. You now regularly grasp things, and don't have nearly as much dirt collect in your palms :) You like to hold onto whatever small things you can get your tiny fingers around, especially mommy's hair and a fun little ball Grandma got you.


• 
  
  I think we can officially say you can hold your head up now. You've been able to for some time, but it's now pretty steady and you can also turn your head while holding it up.


• 
  
  You are getting some control over your hands. You can now shakily reach up to push your binky back in your mouth when it slips (sometimes) and you like to hold onto your bottle, although you don't have the strength to hold it up when it's full. You can feed yourself little bits when it's half full and you're laying on your back. Speaking of bottles, you demand at least 4oz of milk now, sometimes more!


• 
  
  You have major lungpower! It seems like you've discovered that you can control the noise you make. You have just started shrieking and squawking loudly as you explore this new talent.


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  You have so much hair now, although I'm sure in another month you'll have even more. Right now it's at a length where it sticks straight up. It's very cute. It looks dark up close but in the light it looks almost golden.


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  You are just starting to explore the world with your mouth. When you get ahold of something you often will bring it straight toward your mouth and stick out your tongue to feel it.


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  You do this thing sometimes where it looks like you're wringing your hands. I call it your "nervous" look.


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  You feel like you need to be sitting up all the time. You don't like being inclined in your bouncer or on pillows anymore. I've started propping you up in the middle of the couch where the back cushions meet and provide a little dip, and you love that.


• 
  
  You rarely sleep more than half an hour during the day. You wake up at 30 minutes on the dot, most of the time. Little weird, actually. So you take like 4-5 half hour naps a day. Which means mommy doesn't get anything done. :) We're working on that.




• 
  
  We bought you an activity mat that you love. It has a kickplate made of piano keys to put your active little legs to work and toys that hang overhead. You work so hard to reach your hand up and touch the toys. You take it so seriously.

Just Because I Love You. . .

Yesterday I sat in the rocking chair and just held you for an hour as you slept. I couldn't take my eyes off of you. I was remembering the day I found out you were coming to our family. I can't believe that the little bean in my tummy has grown into what you are! It just seems crazy! I am so in love with you. I miss you so much whenever I'm away from you, no matter how much of a pill you are being that day. :) I love that you know who your mommy is and show me the sweetest affection in return.

Last night I gave your daddy a big hug and said, "Thank you for giving me that baby. He means everything to me." to which daddy responded, "Thank YOU for giving me that baby. He makes me laugh, and he smells good." I just laughed and said "sometimes." What a silly daddy.

I'm a big boy, mom!

Child.

Let's talk.

This:

. . .is not acceptable.

I don't care how big of a boy you think you are, or how interesting your socks are, or how uncomfortable the chair behind your back is. You are simply too young to be trying to sit up all by yourself. I don't know why you've been so determined these last few days to try to prove me wrong. I keep trying to tell you - you are just a little baby! Enjoy being able to just lounge around and be carried everywhere with people responding to your every whim!

You are trying SO HARD to get out of that 10th percentile and catch up to your normal size peers. You were steadily drinking 3oz of milk by a month old, and by 2 months old steadily drinking 4oz! You were already very alert and chatty by a month old, and once you started smiling around 6 weeks you have just been putting on a show for everyone! At 10 weeks you were already taking only 3 naps a day (4 if I'm really lucky), and there have been a couple days where you have insisted on only taking 2.

Stop trying to grow so fast! This is insanity!

Playdates

Dear Bennett,

You are a lucky little boy! You have already had several playdates. My, how social you are at such a young age :)

This is Jaxon. He was born 4 weeks after you but thanks to your itty bitty size isn't that much smaller. Your first playdate was Sept 13 when you were 8 and 4 weeks old, respectively. We didn't do much. We went to Ross and Burlington so your mommies could buy you some clothes. You were out like a light most of the time.

This picture (above) was taken the next time when we went to the mall for your 2 month pictures. You were exhausted after posing for that camera but we did manage to get a couple good shots!

Yesterday's playdate. We took you boys to Pumpkinland! You were mostly good but kind of cranky whenever I tried to pose you for pictures. And really, who could blame you? Those pumpkins look mighty uncomfortable. . .

As you can see, Jaxon is in general a bit of a sleepyhead. We haven't managed to get a picture of him awake yet. Either that or you are just awake and alert more often than most babies your age, which is what a lot of people tell me. Sometimes I wish you were a bit more of a sleepyhead yourself because you really fight taking naps during the day! But you do let me sleep at night so I guess I can't complain.

Anyway, I am looking forward to our future regularly scheduled playdates with Jaxon and his mommy! (Because mommies need playdates too, Bennett.)

Bennett pouting

2 months old

You are 2 months old today! How is this possible! Time is going much too fast so we are just trying to enjoy every moment with you. You are truly our pride and joy and we love you so much.

Some things about you at 2 months:

• You are one happy little guy! After your naps you are just all smiles and coos. You are starting to smile at people other than mommy and daddy. We even got you to show off your sweet little grins while video-chatting with Nana and Aunty Amanda yesterday.



• You've started to do this little pouty-lip. It's so utterly pathetic that everyone snaps to attention and works hard to make you smile again.



• Your hair is starting to grow back. . .and fast! You started losing your hair around 2-3 weeks, and then after being bald for a while I noticed the tiniest bit of invisible peach fuzz a couple weeks ago. Now your hair is definitely noticeable, about half a centimeter long and light brown.



• Your eyelashes are getting sooo long. Very dark and curly.



• We officially packed up all the <7lb clothes last week. And you must have hit a crazy growth spurt because I can tell the newborn size stuff doesn't have much longer either! The other day I put you in the outfit I had planned to bring you home from the hospital in (0-3 month size) and it wanted to fit. . .it really did. . .but I did still have to roll the sleeves up.



• You will happily drink 4oz of milk if we let you, although you're satisfied after 3.



• You like to slurp on your fists.



• Speaking of - your tight little fists are finally starting to open up a little. Up until now I've had to pry them open once a day to scrape the dirt out of them.



• You are still such a good little sleeper, most of the time. For the last couple weeks you will go to sleep around 9 and will usually sleep until about 2 before you wake up to eat again! Now I just need to learn to sleep that whole time too, I can't imagine the thought of getting 5 hours of sleep!
  
  

2 month doctor visit

Zonked out with Daddy after vaccines

Dear Bennett,

Today was your 2 month doctor visit. You know what that means. . .vaccines! At the last minute Daddy chickened out so I had to sit by you during the vaccines. The first one went fine - it was an oral medicine and the nurse said that hopefully you were hungry and would eat it. I told her that shouldn't be a problem. :) Sure enough, you gobbled it up. The shots didn't go nearly as well. The nurse was good and gave you the 3 shots very quickly, but it was so sad to watch your happy face turn to confusion and then you started bawling. It made me want to cry too! We were prepared though - we had brought a bottle of milk so as soon as they put the bandaids on I gave you to daddy and he gave you the bottle. For a second you looked like you couldn't decide if you wanted to keep crying or drink your bottle, but then you quieted right down to take your milk. . .although you made sure to have a very grumpy face the whole time so that we knew you were still upset with us!

Other than that, your visit went very well. You were in a pretty good mood for the doctor. He said you have a nice round head. We were worried we'd have to clip your tongue at this visit (last visit the doctor was worried you were a little tongue-tied) but it was looking much more normal so we didn't have to. Also the doctor prescribed some medicine for your reflux so hopefully you won't be so uncomfortable after meals anymore. The doctor said a couple times that in the next couple months things would get much better so not to sell you on ebay yet. We really didn't know what he meant because you are such a good baby! We have never had a reason to wish you would hurry up and get a little older - we are having so much fun with you just the way you are!

2 month stats:

Weight: 10 lbs (when full of milk and full diaper)

Height: 21 inches

10th percentile for size - you're still just tiny!