Happy 3 Months, Ira B!

Three Month Stats:
Height: I would *guess* 25 inches, but baby measuring is not my strong suit, and the three month milestone doesn't come with a pediatrician visit, where those highly trained professionals do the baby measuring!
Weight: By my best estimates, you weigh about 14.5 pounds (according to our bathroom scales)
Clothing Size: I really wish the baby clothes industry could work on standardizing clothes sizes!  I can shoehorn you into 6 month pajamas, but you really need 9 months.  Most of your clothes are 6 months, some 9 months.  You even wear 12 months in regular Gerber onesies!  0-3 months is totally out of the question in anything.

Three Month Milestones, Highlights, and General Happenings:

Around the beginning of May, you found your hands!  You're not so good at just sticking the thumb in there, but you're pretty darn good at sticking the whole fist in there and gnawing on it.

You still love to smile at Nana and stick your tongue out at her.  I'm afraid this is how you think we greet people.  You'll probably still be doing it when I take you to kindergarten and I'll probably have to tell your teacher it's a cultural and/or religious practice.

Speaking of discovering hands, I think we can mark down May 12 as the day you figured out you can do something with your hands besides put them in your mouth.  You were reaching out for the monkey Mimi bought you from the hospital gift shop when you were born.  You love soft things and now you also rub the minky part of your blanket and have to have something soft on your head (like your blanket) to fall asleep.  

This month, you have become the iPad master.  I have the Fisher Price Giggle Gang app and you work on that iPad like you're punching a time clock.  When you hit the screen, these little giggle monsters appear and music plays.  You can't get enough!  You also like to watch the Fisher Price black and white cartoon animals on the iPad.

We've been taking stroller walks with you sitting up more and you love looking around and surveying the neighborhood.  

We went on your first beach trip on May 15.  We went to Nana and Pa-Pa's beach condo, and we did a little poolside chillin'.  The pool was FREEZING, or otherwise I would have had you in there the whole time.  We took a little dip with you in the water wrap, which you didn't mind, but I was personally freezing my tail off, so that was short lived.  You spent most of the pool time asleep in your sun tent, hanging out in your pirate pants.  

Mimi got you Sophie the Giraffe while we were at the beach...and y'all, let me be the first tell you that I did NOT understand why in the heck anybody would buy a $25 squeaky toy giraffe.  I mean, you can buy similar dog toys at Wal-Mart for $2.  (Speaking of which, Peggy keeps trying to get Sophie into her clutches because it's her mission in life to shut up anything that makes that squeaking noise).  Ira LOVES Sophie though!  Something about wrapping those big paws around Sophie's neck and gnawing on her head is just immensely satisfying.

We went on your first boat ride the day before your three month birthday!  (This wasn't what you wore on the boat, I'm not such a terrible parent that I had my baby on a boat sans life jacket.)  You loved it - you slept for awhile due to the hypnotizing boat noises and rocking, but when you woke up you were looking all around and enjoying yourself.  

Oh, and you're really good at standing up like you are in this picture!  Really, you're happiest when one of us is standing you up and you can support your weight on your own.  You just do the Elvis hip gyrations though because you can't balance yourself yet.

We still have days where you get up every three or four hours at night.  Those nights, you usually don't go to bed til midnight either.  But other nights?  You go to sleep at 9 or 10 and I don't hear anything else out of you until I basically wake you up myself at 6 or 6:30.  Those nights are pretty amazing.  You still sleep in your Rock 'n' Play, mainly because it's just so easy to cart it around, put you to sleep in the living room if we're still up, etc.  You still stick right with us when you sleep - I don't think you're big enough to sleep all by your lonesome in your crib yet.  Maybe when you're 6.

You're not asking me to nurse fifty eleven times a day anymore - you usually have 5 or 6 more consolidated meals during the day now, which is nice.  Sometimes that's still my go-to if you're upset though, because it means we can just hang out for 5 minutes and you'll be happy again - I don't have to really troubleshoot the problem.  

The only real problem that we have is your poor sensitive tummy.  I have cut dairy in hopes that you'll start doing better, because right now we are having highly abnormal poops and lots of tummy pain.  I screw up and eat it without meaning to and then we pay for it for days and I feel like a dog (like yesterday, after I had wings that I know probably had butter involved, and that I spilled ranch dressing on).  I hope and pray that you're going to grow out of this.  I mean, obviously Mama misses cheese and ice cream, but more importantly, I don't want you to be Captain Food Allergy forever.  Nobody likes that kid.  They say babies usually do grow out of it by 6 months...here's hoping!

Your favorite things are STILL baths:

You still like the Moby, the k'tan, the ring sling, and now the mei tai.  I still wear you a lot, though you're less likely to just go to sleep in the carrier if we're out as of the last two weeks or so.  If we're out eating, you're not likely to even tolerate facing me in the carrier because you need to be nosy and see everybody and everything, so you sit on one of our laps while we eat.  You love watching people eat and you're fascinated by watching us put food in our moths.

We still love those little sweet cheeks to the moon and back!  Love you, sweet buddy...happy 3 months!