A Letter To My Son {Month 3}

Little Lamb,

As I sit and watch you sleeping so peacefully in your swing I can't help but think about how drastically our lives have changed in the last three months. There are the obvious things - I didn't used to have such dark circles under my eyes and I wore clothes other than sweats, bathed regularly and even put on make up! Crazy, I know. But other things are changing - your little feet didn't hang over the edge of that swing just a few days ago... and it makes Momma so happy and breaks her heart all at the same time.

Sweet son of mine, you are teaching your daddy and me new things every day. We have always been absolutely crazy about each other, but you have introduced us to new depths of love. We have quickly realized that we both have the occasional bout of selfishness, but you require that we be selfless. We have learned lots of new things about ourselves in the past few months, some good others not so good. Regardless, we know that, even now, you are watching. You are learning how mommies and daddies behave, work together, solve problems, love... and because we know you are watching we try and try and try to do everything better than we did before you came along. We work hard to love each other better. We put effort into always having good attitudes. We do our very best to take on the world as a team and we pray daily that God takes from your little memory the times when we screw it up, lose our patience or act a little ugly. Thank you sweet boy for making us want to be better.

This month has been packed full of developments - rolling over, riding in the shopping cart like a big kid, really sleeping in your crib and, of course, your personality continues to blossom! I know these things are supposed to happen, and yet my heart feels the joy and excitement of a new trick while still being hit with a twinge of sadness that you learned it so quickly. Every milestone is very bittersweet. The rolling over thing showed up very randomly - I had sat you on the activity mat in the kitchen so I could get some things put away and I watched as you lifted your little legs up as high as they would reach and then swung them to the side, trying to build up momentum! It was quite amusing, I must admit. Then suddenly, you made it! And once you did the first roll, there was no stopping you! Your arm seemed to get in the way a bit and you didn't figure out how to pull it through until the next day, but you got it and now are a rolling over pro! At least half way... The funny part is, you get to your belly and then cry because you're mad that you are stuck there! I'm sure you'll figure out the belly to back soon as you are as strong as a little ox and are quite capable of doing whatever you want. And riding in the cart - that cracked Mommy up. I sat you in the little seat and you could just see it in your eyes that you were very proud of yourself. You looked around the entire time, smiled at all the shoppers that couldn't help but stare at such a cute little boy and then just when you were feeling like a big boy you would kick your feet or lean just enough to lose your balance, fall over to the side and just hang by the seat belt until I set you back up. Ha! The sleeping in your crib thing comes and goes - the inconsistency is totally my fault, not yours - sometimes mommy is just too tired to even think about walking all the way across the house to get you and other times, Daddy and I just want to cuddle you and we can't stand the thought that soon you'll want your crib over one of our chests so we squeeze you extra tight and refuse to put you down. You honestly do better in your crib and after a night or two of you kicking me all. night. long. I give in and you go back to sleeping by yourself for a week or so. Mommy is trying to be tough and let you grow up, but it's hard!

We love you so very much! We love getting to watch as you rapidly grow from baby to boy and the part we most adore is having a front row seat as your personality becomes more and more apparent every day. You are still a serious baby, but you smile so easily! Your MamaShawna/Gabby/Whatever says you are serious because you are a genius child and you make your serious face because you don't understand why we are all talking baby talk when you clearly understand our adult conversations... I don't know that that is true, but we are going with it. You do make a very adorable face when you see something for the first time or hear a new sound - you'll look at it, make little wrinkles between your eyebrows (kind of like a squint) and then slightly raise one eyebrow as if you aren't real sure about whatever it is and you are trying to figure it out. It's stinking cute. You have become quite the smiler - you smile nonstop!! Everything we do is apparently very funny - no laughing yet, just pure smiling! If someone talks to you - whether it's your daddy or a complete stranger - you will smile and flirt and start chattering away. You've mastered the little motorboat sound when you blow out with your lips closed. I recently started telling you "no" when you put your fingers in your mouth (you so want to suck your thumb and we are trying hard to prevent it!!) and you will just look at me and basically stick your tongue out and then smile so big as you move those hands right back to your mouth... Trouble!!

Precious boy, you are making our lives much more wonderful every single day. We are so very thankful God chose us to be your Mommy and Daddy. We love you more than you could ever imagine.

All my love,
Mommy

Three Month Milestones:

Eye Color - Finally starting to look a little more brown, with the occasional hint of green! Zoe was playing with you recently and asked if your eyes were brown, green or gray... Good question Zoe, good question...

Weight - (Going to get weighed next time we visit Daddy at work)

Height - (Going to get measured while we are visiting too!) Nobody ever guesses younger than six months, ever.... and then they are just shocked when I say "He just turned three months!"

Clothing - You are sporting the 3-6 month clothes nonstop now. The jeans are a little big around the waist, but we've started wearing them anyway before they get too short! I will look at something in your closet and think there is no way it'll fit you yet and then it does... Ouch. You've also moved into the size one shoes - Momma loves putting you in tiny version of big people shoes. You are currently rocking the cutest little brown Polo boots everrrrr. 

Nicknames - Still getting Little Prince quite a bit. Sweet little Evie pronounced your name as Coop-ah and we thought that was super cute until she got really excited and called you Coopy and oh. my. goodness. I LOVED Coopy!! Daddy and I call you "Bubba" a lot too.

Sleep - This month has been a hot mess as far as sleep. Last month we put you on the schedule and then this month I chunked it... and then brought it back! We decided to just do the parts of the schedule that we wanted to do and skip the rest. So, we don't obey the bath time immediately before bed rule (never did), we also laugh at the thought of putting you down at 7pm, but we try to stick to the day time part... as long as its convenient. Ha! With the exception of about five hellacious days, you are sleeping much better - only waking up once or twice a night. We've also started letting you nap on your belly and you sleep so much better - I have to go wake you up! Overall I think you just take after your mommy and prefer to just stay awake. Lucky for you, I hated napping as a kid and insisted on staying up to watch Cheers with Pops every night so I'm somewhat understanding when you just keep on keepin' on despite the fact that your bedtime comes and goes without you even giving so much as a yawn.

Hair - Your hair continues to fill in nicely, however we've had to start rotating you a bit so you don't get a bald spot. It's not from being laid down too much (because that definitely isn't happening), but from laying your head on our shoulder while you sleep! Mommy and Daddy had to switch shoulders!

You still LOVE your hands. Thankfully the stinking out your tongue has slowed down a bit, but instead you put your hands in your mouth non-stop. Whomp whomp. You suck on your pointer finger and knuckle until they are beat red and just recently you've started finding that thumb... nooooooo! We sing "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" and you think it's so fun, but the entire time while I'm making your hands do the motions you are chasing them with your mouth - especially on "out came the sun," that part gets you every time!

You are reaching out and beginning to grab things - Mommy's hair and necklace primarily. (I fear my monogram necklace is in serious peril.) You are finally taking interest in your toys because you can hold them. Your favorites are the puppy that hangs on your carseat and the Lamaze animals Stretch the Giraffe and Mortimer the Moose. 

We love Baby Yoga! You love to look at the other babies and you must think the exercises are very fun because you smile non-stop!

You are definitely going to be a talker. You just go to town telling us stuff. You talked to Pop on the couch one night for so long, you had us all rolling. You just looked at him and went on and on and on and on... You also continue to sigh very loudly before sneezing which crack us up!

You are still a wonderful cuddler! YAY! You like to snuggle up on either one of us and it makes our day! 

You are such a good baby - we really lucked out! (You must have got it from your daddy because by all accounts Momma was a bit of a hand full as a small child... Oops) While you have shown that you have a definite streak of stubborn, 99% of the time you are one happy camper! You aren't afraid to be held by new people and it makes my heart happy when we go home for a football game or church and everyone just passes you around and you are completely fine with it! We couldn't be more proud of our sweet boy!