3 months old

Kaylee is 3 months old today. I have been a mother and Blake has been a father for 3 months now. and I'm sure that by the time I finish this post, Ethan will be 3 months too!

I know I never wrote 1 or 2 month milestone posts, but hey, some is better than none, right? And so, without further adieu...

• Sitting up: Both babies now enjoy the bumbo chair. Neither is near sitting up unassisted, but Kaylee used to reject the chair entirely and now she mostly likes it okay. Ethan is getting even more and more comfortable in it however, and will happily sit in it for longer periods (by which I mean maybe 10 mins max).
• Drooling: Kaylee's new thing. She likes blowing bubbles too. Apparently salivary glands develop / further develop around 3 months and when they stop drooling it means they've figured out how to swallow w/o a bottle or boob in their mouth and is one of the signs they may be ready to try other foods. (Michele told us this recently - who knew?)
• Talking: Both babies like to talk these days. At two months Ethan had just started cooing on the rare occasion, but we hadn't heard anything from Kaylee. Now they both coo, but they make different sounds and have different voices. Ethan started out with more coo-ish, vowel sounds, whereas Kaylee started making more short chitter-chatter sounds. now they both make both sounds. Ethan also yells occasionally, which is pretty funny.
• Interaction: Ethan seems more social and interactive, Kaylee is more ambivalent to what you might be doing, she just wants whatever she wants. Ethan's coos seem to say, I'll coo if you coo, and I'll smile if you coo at me or give me a bottle (even if I'm not hungry). Kaylee's coos are more like, hey look, I can make this sound. That's interesting, I think I'll try again. Ethan will look at your face, whereas Kaylee will look around. Kaylee has a silly thing where she is just constantly turning her head side-to-side, back and forth. Again, they both exhibit the same range of behaviors, they just differ in how often their coos seem to mean one thing versus another.
• Smiles: We get lots of smiles from both kiddos. Ethan started the occasional full-out smile around 2 months and Kaylee a week or two later, but now they're both good big-smilers (as opposed to a little grin). Ethan is unlikely to smile while flat on his back, so you're unlikely to see that smile in his month-photos though.
• Flexibility: Ethan bends at his waist and knees, Kaylee is more often rigid. They're both wiggly and bendy in their swings and bouncy chairs and on the floor, but if you try to put Ethan in the bumbo or sit him up somewhere he just slides right in or bends normally. Kaylee says, thank you, but I'd rather stand. And she does, she'll stand (supported of course) on the floor, on our tummies, where ever. If you try and get her to sit - good luck. Sometimes it works and if she sits she's happy sitting, but more often she just looks at you like, what are you doing and holds her body all straight so it's at 45 degrees from the floor.
• Sleep: They both slept a nice 6-7 hour stretch the other night. the bummer is that they go to bed around 5 or 6 now (silly daylight savings) so their long stretch of sleep doesn't often line up with when Blake and I want to be sleeping. 6-7 hours isn't typical, but one 4-5 hour stretch is.
• Neck muscles: Both kiddos can hold their necks up pretty well now, although Ethan's neck muscles seem stronger.
• Diapers: Both kiddos are wearing size 1 diapers these days. Ethan could possibly be promoted to size 2, but it doesn't seem necessary and it's very nice to have them in the same size for now.
• Clothes: Newborn clothes are long gone. Kaylee is wearing 0-3 months or 3 months, and Ethan fits in some 3 month clothes, but has outgrown others. Kaylee doesn't mind getting her outfit changed, but Ethan does not care for it at all. He doesn't like things being pulled over his head, and he doesn't like working his arms through long sleeves. This further contributes to him wearing larger sizes. There's no way he's going to have a long sleeved, non-snap up the front, size 3 month outfit. Ethan also does not like being hot. He's a bit picky in the clothing dept.
• Eyes: Ethan's eyes are definitely brown now. Kaylee's are... blue/green-ish - not sure if they're still changing.
• Weight: we weighed Kaylee earlier this week and she was 11 lbs. Haven't weighed Ethan recently, but I'd guess he's 13 or so lbs, definitely still noticeably bigger.
• Carseat inserts: we took Ethan's infant insert for his carseat out after we got home from the 2 month doc visit. We just removed kaylee's on Monday (they're supposed to be removed when the baby is 11 lbs)
• Farting: Kaylee is our champion farter. she also burps more than ethan (but ethan spits up more), but farting is really her area of expertise.
• Swings & bouncy chair: Ethan still loves to sleep or hang out in the bouncy chair or swing. He sleeps in one of the two at night and for naps. Pretty soon we're going to have to transition him back into a crib though, because he's almost getting too big. :( Kaylee starts out every night in her crib, but finishes the night and naps in the swing or bouncy chair.
• New discoveries: Kaylee has a game she plays with her feet while in the swing, which she thinks is pretty neat. She tells me that she wants to play by kicking her feet a lot really fast. Then I put my hand against her feet when she has her legs bent and ... whoosh! she pushes off of my hand and swings herself in the swing! oh what fun! Ethan's latest fun is sucking on his hands. It's pretty funny due to his lack of coordination. sometimes he gets the back of his hand in his mouth, other times he gets his fingers, but it's always at some weird angle, like he'll just get his ring finger in his mouth and his hand is pushing it out, but with his head he's trying to keep his finger in his mouth - sorta a dog chasing its tail look.

That's what they're up to at 3 months! That and being very cute of course. Here are a few pics from the last month.

smiles from Kaylee!

listening to the Spot halloween story

Ethan says, "Go Giants!"

This is the top rack of our dishwasher. Let's see, what do we have... in the upper left corner we have the small bottle pieces holder - it holds the innards to three bottles, then we have 3 glasses, one bowl, 16 bottles, 4 parts of my pump, and two parts of the blender. On the bottom rack is the main glass part of the blender and a plate or two. This is a typical dishwasher load for us now. a little ridiculous.

here we are visiting Emma! Emma is one week younger than Ethan.

"I love ewe!" says Kaylee

I like to kick off my socks.

A typical scene: Ethan says, "Hello Kaylee, I see you, would you like to interact with me?" Kaylee says, "No thanks, i'm quite interested in my own feet instead. And also my neck muscles aren't as good as yours, so I'll just sit here and look down."

You can't see it very well, but Ethan is wearing his cargos here. haha, just like Dad!

nom nom nom, I am eating my hand...

happpy three months!