3 Months

Happy three month birthday, Evelyn!

Suddenly, you are no longer an infant. You're a real baby who can sit up with a little help and support your own head, play with toys, and happily exist on your own for as much as 15 minutes at a time. Thanks, by the way, for working so hard on your neck strength. Our lives are way easier now that we can just sling you over a shoulder or toss you in your front pack without having to worry about your bobble head. Also on the making-our-lives-easier list: you hardly even cry anymore! Yesterday, at Baby Boot Camp you were happy the whole time, including the car ride. What? A dinner out the same night without one wail. Whaat? Is this a pattern? Are we ready to emerge into the wide world without fear of meltdowns? Just kidding, there will always be meltdowns, but seriously baby, you're spoiling us.

You're also enormous. Do you have the same trainer as A-Rod? Somebody must be slipping you something, because you had outgrown one of your 3-6 month sleepers BEFORE you turned three months old. This is not cool, daughter of mine. As much as I love shopping for clothes for you, I'm thinking we'll just cut holes in pillowcases for you, because it just doesn't make fiscal sense to buy you new outfits every 6 hours. Besides, you're so cute, you can totally rock a pillowcase. Hey, we'll even spring for some patterned ones! THAT'S how much we love you, kiddo.

You've already given us the best Christmas gift we could ever ask for; your sweet self. Add to that your sleeping through the night, the coos and gurgles, and your gummy little smile, and there's really nothing else we could ask for.

Love,
your Ma and Pa

On our way to Jazz Hands!

Our clever little monkey has figured out that the little appendages at the ends of her arms (not that she really knows she has arms yet...) are hers, and that they can be bent to her will. Mostly, this involves stuffing her hands into her mouth, sometimes two at a time, but she has also been figuring out the whole cause and effect thing. For example, when she gets a fistful of Mommy’s hair first thing in the morning and pulls, this ensures that Mommy is fully awake and ready to cater to her whims. Mommy’s hair is going to be in a ponytail for the next six years.

Okay, so the hair grabbing is (I think) an accident, but during tonight’s bath, she was studying the faucet and then grabbed it and kept her hand there. It’s probably an involuntary baby thing, but she also brings anything and everything that’s near her hands into her mouth.


Here's a little video of her using her hands to startle herself by moving her toy into her face. It also serves to show just how easily impressed I am by our kiddo. Hey, it's my prerogative as her Mom to be absurdly proud of normal baby progress, alright? And that's what I do all day long, in case you were wondering: entertain the baby and narrate her existence to her in a goofy voice. It makes me really glad I went ahead and did the double major with Econ and International Studies in college.

Thanksgiving

This year, I have more to be thankful for than seems fair. Every morning I have to pinch myself, because how can this really be my life? I have the most beautiful and perfectly healthy baby that's ever existed, and the greatest husband in history. This is a man who comes home from work to take care of the baby and get her to bed (it's not as easy as it sounds, believe me), and shoos me out the door so that I can go play ultimate. He also rubs my shoulders and plays along when I blame the dog for certain odors.

And, um, I'm also thankful for the fact that I'm so punctual. I can still do a Thanksgiving post! It's just the first week of December. When I finally get around to posting Ev's cutie-pie Halloween outfit, then you can make fun of me for being late.

(This is about the only face that I can catch her making in photos because she's fascinated by the camera and stares at it intensely for as long as it's in her sight line. I've also failed to catch her "talking" because of the same deal; she'll be cooing and squeaking and gurgling up a storm, but the second she sees the camera, it's silent concentration. I'm not giving up, though.)