12 Weeks Old

Wow!  12 weeks already!  You seemed to hit another growth spurt while Grandpa Mike and Grandma Norma were here and we've had to retire all your 3 month clothes.  As I'm pulling out the 6 month clothes I'm already finding that some of those won't fit for long!

You love to have our attention whenever you can get it.  Your favorite is when you have both Daddy and me at the same time.  What could be better than that?

You have started to like sitting up (with our assistance) more and more.  But with that said, you've also become more open to laying on the floor on a blanket, too.

You have a way of holding your arms very straight, pointed downward away from your body.  Sometimes you even do it while napping in your bouncey seat and it kind of cracks us up.  This would be a low V in cheerleader talk.

You spend a lot of time contemplating your fist.  Especially when you are laying on your back, you hold your arm up in the air and stare at your fist.  You usually then put it in your mouth at some point.  It's like you are rediscovering your own hand over and over again.

In addition to your baby talk, you've also started squealing with delight from time to time, which is quite fun.  Sometimes you also squeal in displeasure, that's not as fun.

You have started shedding some of your hair.  This is very common in infants, and no reason for concern.  The problem is I keep finding your tiny hairs in your hands, on your face, on blankets and clothes and I don't want them getting in your mouth, so I feel like I'm on constant watch for stray hairs.  So far you haven't lost enough that anyone would notice, and I am hopeful that that remains the case at least until next week when we have your 3 month pictures taken, though you'll be beautiful no matter what.

You were a little on the grumpy side for the past week and I never really figured out the reason.  You just couldn't seem to stay happy.  It's not that you always wanted to be held or always wanted this or that, you just seemed to get bored and impatient more quickly than normal.  Some days I would ask you when you were going to return my happy baby.  I don't want to speak to soon, but the past couple of days have me suspecting that my Kinley is back (or almost back) and that makes me very happy.

On 3 separate occasions you have slept through the night.  This is huge!  I don't expect we will completely eliminate that lingering nighttime feeding just yet, but this is at least a good indication that we are on that track.  Of course the first time that you skipped that feeding, I ultimately woke up in a frenzy and sneaked into your room to make sure you were still breathing.  The next two times were a little less panicky, but I still crept in to check on you nonetheless.

Finally, this week we started meeting other moms and babies.  On Wednesday we went to our first mom's group outing.  I have been thinking that I would like to meet some other moms in the area and hopefully build a few lasting friendships that will be good for both you and me.  I found a group online that meets informally for various activities and joined them for their Wednesday Picnic in the Park.  There were 3 other moms and babies there and it was just what I needed.  You slept through the whole thing, but maybe next time you will decide to wake up and check out the other babies.

Then on Thursday our neighbor stopped by while his friend was visiting so that we could meet her and her little boy, Kelly.  You and Kelly were very interested in one another and we are going to plan a play date soon!