3 Months

Dear Kellen,

Yesterday was your 3 month birthday.

You have become an interesting little baby with a huge personality all your own.  Every day we learn a little more about you, about what you like and dislike. Here's a summary:

Likes:

• Being naked. Oh man, do you love being naked. You kick and squirm and smile, and I swear you would live in an all naked world if we let you. Oh lord. Please don't grow up to be a nudist. 
• Your giraffe book. It has bright colors and fun pictures, and words like "knobbly" to describe the giraffe. It also has a page that states "If I were a giraffe, my neck would be so long I could reach the moon!" which is obviously wrong and stupid and so I don't read that page to you. But you don't know or care, because you're a baby.
• Your fists. They are a source of comfort to you and you try to fit them into your mouth whole on a daily basis. This never works, but you sure seem to enjoy the challenge.
• Your grandparents. Each has a different way of interacting with you. They all love you so much it's palpable, and you have a special set of smiles reserved for each of them.
• The kitchen fan. I have actually been meaning to take a video of you and your love for the kitchen fan. If you are fussing, all we have to do is walk you to the kitchen, turn on the stove fan and you immediately quiet down. Such a fun and helpful party trick!

Your comforting fists

Dislikes:

• Farting. To me this is not intuitive, because you also hate having gas, but so often when you fart you also cry. Which is adorable, of course.
• Getting dressed. When we pull those onesies over your head you cry and whine and just HATE IT. See "Being naked" above.
• Being put in your carseat. Why oh WHY do you hate being put in your carseat?! Once you're in it and we've taken you outside, you stop screaming and actually seem to enjoy watching the world go by. But the minute you realize you're being set inside the BUCKET OF HELL, you lose it.
• Lukewarm formula. The temperature of your formula didn't used to matter to you, but all of a sudden you have become very particular about how warm it is when it enters your mouth and will twist away from the bottle if it isn't juuuuust riiiight. I guess I can't blame you.

On my part, I am finding that there are so many things about you that amaze me and knock me off my feet. 

• The way you smile at me when I come to get you from your crib after a long nights sleep (normally your dad gets you in the morning, but some days when he leaves really early, I get to creep in and find you looking around your room quietly. Once you notice me, you smile as if to say "Hey, it's you! I know you! How nice that you're here!"). 
• How cute you are in the dresses we put you in to sleep. I think they're technically called layettes, but c'mon. Layette is a fancy word for nightgown, which is a fancy word for dress. You sleep in a dress, and I can't wait to tell all your middle school friends about it.
• Speaking of smiles, I love how there are times when you smile so big that you can't contain it, and end up wriggling with the pure pleasure of it all. It's as if you can't open your mouth wide enough to express how happy you are. 
• When you nurse, you close your eyes halfway, stick your elbow up in the air and wiggle your fingers slowly. Oh my son, this is a special sight that can only be truly appreciated from my viewpoint looking down at you, and I feel so privileged to be able to see you this way every day.

Just last week you learned how to roll over from your stomach to your back. For your entire life you hated tummy time, just hated it, and would kick and scream and cry whenever we set you on your belly with mere minutes of relief from this crying. Then one day, you propped yourself up on your elbows, looked around and PLOP! Over you went. One day you will crawl, and then walk, and then run and drive and date and move out and ohmygod. But I have been working very hard to remind myself to enjoy you as you are now, my sweet little bundle of a baby boy. Because while we will have decades with you as a man, years with you as a teenager and little boy, we really only have months with you as a baby. Your 3 months here with us so far have been an incredible journey, and we've only just begun.

I love you so much Kelly-Belly.

Love,

Mama

Forget "Feeling Good" - We Feel FABULOUS

Remember how I posted a while ago that Kellen had slept for 8 hours in a row one night? Well, I think what happened is that Kellen saw that post. I imagine him reading through it and saying, with a mischievous little grin and a raise of his fist, "Oh yeah? Challenge ACCEPTED."

Because  for the last three nights he has slept from - are you ready for it? - 9pm to 7:30am. STRAIGHT. One night was impressive, two nights was awesome, and three nights is downright awe-inspiring. I don't think I'll ever catch up on the lack of sleep from the last 6 months (that's right, I said 6 months. But Kellen is only three months old you say? To that I reply by reminding you that for the three months before K was born I was giant and had to pee every 10 minutes. So not much sleep happened then either). I tell you what though, this is a great step in the right direction.

Now I just have to remind myself that this is not a permanent situation. Because if I start thinking that I will be getting 8 hours of sleep every night from here on out, I know that I will be severely disappointed and grumpy the next time he wakes up at 3am.

Life has been exciting for Kellen recently. He went with us to our first frisbee game of the season, and even though I don't think he enjoyed being bare-ass in the cold while we changed his diapers, he did seem to like watching all the action. We'll teach him to throw once he is big enough. Our friend Eric has informed us that a baby's first frisbee toss comes around 10 months, so we eagerly await this huge milestone.

K with Matt and Eric - HFDP! 

His first trip to the pool happened this week! Kellen and I joined three other moms and their adorable babies at the Mountlake Terrace pool, which is super warm and has lots of fun geysers and fountains. The four of us met in our childbirth class when we were all still pregnant and have amazingly kept in touch. We get together ever couple of weeks, but I think that swimming may have to be a new weekly date! Kellen did alright in the water. He floated on his back pretty well, although every time I laid him back he would float with his eyes squeezed shut and his fist in his mouth (you're right, it was adorable!).  He got cold pretty quick though, his skinny chicken legs don't provide much warmth. But look how cute he is in his little swim diaper!

So cute! But can we talk for a minute about how HUGE his head is?!

 We've had a great time taking Kellen almost everywhere with us. Last weekend we spent time at Pike Place Market, walking around and enjoying the sunny day. Matt and I were even able to do some wine tasting while Kellen slept on Matt's chest before we joined friends Leah and Will at their house for dinner.

On a downtown adventure. This is the beginning of a giant yawn that later led to his first night of amazing sleep.

Out for a sunny walk. Please ignore the awful bangs. 

Overall January is shaping up to be a great month. Keep your eyes peeled for my monthly letter to Kellen, as well as the January video. We hope you are all staying warm!

Feeling Good

Kellen slept almost 8 hours in a row last night. Eight. Hours. In a row. EIGHT. So I am feeling pretty awesome right now, and judging on the fact that I was met with smiles when I went to get him from his crib, I would say Kellen is too. EIGHT.

We had an awesome December with our little one. He thoroughly enjoyed all of the Christmas lights and would calm at the sight of our tree. He was the hit of the party at every Christmas celebration we attended, hamming it up and smiling for the whole family. We've come to learn he's a really pleasant baby who rarely fusses without a reason. And good LORD is he cute! See below for proof.

Frowny Face

Delicious fist

I really hate the idea of New Year's resolutions, but I do know that this year I want to work on making a fun and interesting record of Kellen's first year. You saw my first attempts in November, and below you will find another one of December.  I had to break it into two parts because apparently the one video was too much for Blogger to handle. Maybe it's a sign from the universe that I spent too much time recording my son in December? Well, you can take your judgement and shove it universe. I won't be stopped. 

I'm pretty happy with how this video turned out. The software I'm using doesn't allow me to view my projects in their entirety until I finish it and export it (stupid), so I couldn't see how it all fit together with the music. I think it's pretty ok though, even if some of the editing is choppy. 

Grandma Lois and the littlest reindeer

I need to give a quick shout out to Grandma Lois. She comes twice a week to watch Kellen for a few hours while I go run errands, sleep, exercise or do other things that help me keep my sanity. Oddly enough, she isn't in the video for some reason. Probably because I usually go pass out as soon as she gets to our house and so never catch her in action. In any case she deserves a huge Thank You for this weekly help.

Part 1

Part 2

One last thought: Getting back into shape and returning to some form of my pre-baby body has really been occupying my time lately. Today, as I was showering off after swimming some laps, two older women came in, one using a walker. As they discussed who would use the sit-down shower first it came out that even though she could walk unassisted, the one without a walker also had to sit down or else she was afraid she would fall over. Walker lady said "Really?! I thought you were perfect!". Non-walker lady responded "I used to be!" and they both had a good chuckle. This not only made me smile, but got me thinking. Baby weight be damned, I am hugely thankful that I am as healthy as I am, and that I am still young. Because the days of chuckling naked in the shower, boobs to my knees and hands on the railing will be here sooner than I expect, I'm sure. And damnit, I've earned this post-baby body. I worked hard for it.