3 months!

Today marks Ethan's 3 month birthday!  It's funny- sometimes it feels like we just had him and I can't believe he's already been 3 months, but other times it feels like we've always had the little guy; we are constantly saying we can't really remember life without him now that he's here (despite the fact that we spent the first 4 years of our marriage just the two of us).  Here are some fun 3 month facts about our sweet man:

-He is a BIG fan of his hands- they are his favorite toy!  He's constantly chewing on them, or attempting to stick his entire fist (sometimes both!) into his mouth.  Let me tell you, it's quite entertaining to watch!  ( ...no?  Just me??) The downside is that this gnawing produces a lot of drool.  And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT!  Homeboy lives in a bib these days.  I am fearful that these are signs of teething...something that causes me a lot of worry as a nursing mother.  Pray for me! ;-)

-He can roll over!  Not all the way, but from his stomach onto his back.  Tummy time has become a thing of the past now that he's discovered he can flip himself over.  This is how a typical morning goes: I put Ethan on his blanket stomach down.  Walk into the kitchen to get myself a cup of coffee.  Walk back out to living room to find E laughing at the ceiling fan.  Flip him back over.  Let the dog out.  Walk back over to find E on his back again.  Flip him back over...and repeat...over and over and over again.  He gets SO mad when we can't immediately roll over.  Once he learns a new skill, he works it hard!

 -He is a chatterbox.  I guess I should say he is still a chatterbox, as this isn't really a new development...he's been "talking" for at least a month now, and he still "talks" all day long.  This is one of my favorite things about him.  It's like he's a little adult.  He just stares at you, keeping eye contact the whole time, and just coos his head off.  It's so funny- he makes little facial expressions the whole time- I just know that he thinks he's having a very interesting conversation.  This can be especially distracting at church.  If he is awake, he is making noise, even if it means shouting or cracking up unexpectedly during the sermon.  This month, though, he's added a new element to his repertoire: when one of us reads to him, he coos and grunts the whole time, like he's reading along with us.  It is quite funny!  And it's not just us- he kept the childcare staff at the YMCA entertained last week- they pulled a book out of his diaper bag to read to him, and he "read" with them too.  They thought it was hysterical!  As an English teacher, this early interest in books delights me! :-)

-He laughs.  LOUDLY.  In fact, his laughs are more like shouts.  It's the best sound in the world!  (One of these shout-laughs is in the clip below).  I can get a laugh out of him, but he thinks Clay is hilarious!  He is getting more and more expressive by the day, and is still such a happy boy.  He is constantly smiling and is a ton of fun!

-He blows raspberries.  This is another big-time spit producer (and another reason he lives in a bib), but he has so much fun blowing spit bubbles and making the razz noise, it's hard to care.

 

- He is strong!  He has been blowing through the physical milestones since he was born.  I am not exaggerating when I say that he has been able to hold his head up since he was born- he has never had the wobbly newborn head.  I will never forget holding him in the middle of the night our first night in the hospital, when he reared back off my chest and looked me in the eyes for a good half a minute!  He was sitting up in his Bumbo at one month, and has been able to bear weight on his legs while standing since he was two months old.  Now he likes  to "walk" along (while we hold onto his hands).  This is cool, except for now he thinks he should constantly be upright! (the same once he learns a new skill it's all he wants to do thing I mentioned earlier)  The kids DOES NOT want to bend his legs..ever.  Now that he has had a taste of standing up, it's pretty much all he's interested in.  This makes feeding him a struggle- he's constantly wriggling- and burping him a near impossibility; I have to bend his legs for him and  make him sit just to burp him!  And rocking him?  He'll have none of it!  But he's happy as a clam if you'll let him stand up on your lap.  He just looks around with the sweetest expression;  he lifts his eyebrows (which makes him look exactly like Clay, down to the forehead wrinkles!) and has this little smile like, "Hey, look at all the cool stuff I can see!"   He really is Clay's mini-me.  I passed on blue eyes, and it looks like red hair...everything else is his daddy's!  Clay and I both think he is going to walk early.

-He's a big boy!  I can't believe how much he's grown- he already looks like a little man to me, and the difference between how he looks now and pictures of when he was first born is unreal!  I don't know how much he weighs for sure, since there isn't a doctor's appointment this month and we don't have a scale (I need to get one!), but he was 13 1/2 lbs at 2 months- the 90th% for weight and the 80th% for height.  Even though Clay isn't super tall, he's a big guy (especially his broad shoulders), and both he and I have huge dads that are well over 6 feet tall, so I'm thinking Ethan's gonna be a big guy.  Clay and I predict that he's destined to be a linebacker, with his size and strength! :-)

 

-He's a good sleeper.  He doesn't sleep in a swaddle anymore, and is only getting up once in the middle of the night (around 3 or 4 am).  He is going down for the night earlier too, and has even slept all the way through the night a few times.  I'm hoping he'll be a through-the-night sleeper by 4 months!  I can dream, can't I?

A few of his favorite things these days:
- He loves to be sung to, especially "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," and "You are my Sunshine."  He likes "Patty Cake" and "This Little Piggy" too (every time I do "This Little Piggy" with him, I think of the GEICO commercial).
- He loves being read to- his favorite books are the classic Goodnight Moon (thanks, Aunt Cait!), two Little Golden Books: The Fire Engine Book and There's a Monster at the End of this Book (my favorite from when I was a little girl!), and these fantastic interactive pull-out type books by Reader's Digest that I got at a school book fair when I was pregnant with him:  Farm!, Ocean!, and Zoo!.  He also really likes a book that a librarian we attend church with gave him recently: Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales.  I had never seen this book before, but it has HUGE illustrations- I think that's why E likes it so much! (*I included links in case any mommies or mommies-to-be want to get them for their own little ones!)
-He LOVES bath time- it's one of his very favorite things.  He kicks and splashes and makes the funniest faces the whole time.  He doesn't even mind if water runs over his face (don't worry- he aren't mean parents- we discovered this accidentally, while rinsing out his shampoo).  Clay sprays him with the nozzle after he's been washed, and that's probably Ethan's favorite part- we call it his jacoozi time. :-)
-He's not really into toys on his own yet, but he likes this musical Baby Einstein turtle we use to play with him, and he likes to look at himself in mirrors.  He is starting to notice and smile at his rattle blanket toy, and has a good grip, so I'm guessing he'll start playing with blankets, rattles, links, etc. soon.  

I know this is an exhaustive list, but what can I say?  I'm a first-time mom, and I think everything about Ethan is fascinating!  Everything is going by so quickly, and I want to remember it all!!  We just love this little guy to pieces- I can't wait to see what month 4 unfolds!