Quarter-birthday

That's right: AJ is exactly three months old today.  She can still wear 3mo size clothing if it doesn't have legs (see her Old Navy Aquarius onesie below), but she's also wearing a lot of 6mo size stuff now.  She grabs stuff and she is VERY vocal.

Look, Daddy shaved.

She got tired of wiggling around trying to get closer to Dee Dee the Dragon, so she just grabbed the quilt and yanked.  Crude but effective... she's obviously a genius.

She had a big day today!  The tummy time pictured above followed an outing to Daddy's work, which was very exciting; she got to ride facing out in the front carrier for the very first time, and there was a lot of cool stuff to look at:

 

The passage from Andromeda Building to Heaven Building.

The photo of the Andromeda Galaxy in the tunnel.  We should totally get a framed print of this.

Auntie Hannie, AJ, and me in Heaven Building.  I only wish I knew what AJ was staring at with such determination.

The Mothers' Room in Heaven Building--definitely the coolest one we saw today.

More gripping!

As you can see, AJ is gripping things pretty well now.  She grabs fabric pretty frequently (often my clothes when she's nursing, or her blanket in the stroller).  Here she's holding onto a burp cloth.  When we gave her one of the toys that attaches to her motion gym last night, she had some fun lifting it up and down.  Well, she lifted it up and down.  And she didn't hate it.  That's pretty good, right?

AJ & Auntie Hannie

AJ's still working on smiling for the camera.

I feel like their hair is almost exactly the same color in this shot, which is cool.  And they kind of coordinate stripes!

Achievement unlocked: Tummy-to-back roll!

This afternoon we were having some tummy time in the motion gym, when quite unexpectedly, AJ rolled over--fortunately, I happened to be snapping pictures at the time:


Her usual determined face.
Pushing up.
At this point, I was already impressed because it was the furthest she'd ever leaned to the side from her tummy.
And suddenly she was on her back!
Pretty self-satisfied.
I know that they almost always roll from tummy-to-back first, but I honestly wasn't expecting her to do this any time soon, because she hadn't ever looked like she was even close to it before.  She's definitely rolled onto her side from her back, and I was sort of expecting her to go back-to-front first.  But apparently not.

For those of you keeping score, she rolled from her tummy onto her back at 12 weeks and 2 days of age.

Sadly, there is no video of the actual achievement, but if you want to see her being pretty cute and tilting a bit and grabbing the motion gym mat (and hear me talking like an idiot again), then this video is for you:

 

Now with gripping action!

Fun times playing in the motion gym with Mommy, Daddy (who has now announced a preference for the title "Da-doo"), and Aguirre:

I think I understand now why my mother humorously claimed that my first words were "Aguirre, wrath of God."  A lot of that baby babble definitely contains the syllabic building blocks for "Aguirre."

Not so much rolling today, but she did a lot of gripping, including actually grabbing Marina the Mermaid and waving her around. She is a super strong baby:

 
Here she grips my finger and sort of cradles Marina against her side.
Talking to Aguirre.

As you can see, she's wearing a black onesie that says "Benevolent Dictator" across the chest, along with a pair of rainbow-striped thigh-high socks.  Both items came from Zulily.

Fashion Friday: Week 12

Me: These cargo pants will go nicely with that onesie. ...They will! Don't make that face! 

Don: Oh, no, they'll go great... just, WHY DOES SHE HAVE CARGO PANTS? WHAT DOES SHE NEED WITH POCKETS?

Me: Are you serious? THEY'RE ADORABLE.


 I took like ten photos while he was holding her up.  This was the only time she looked anywhere near the camera.
 Partially strapped in for a walk.
 Despite the look on her face, he's actually giving it back.
Bundled up for her walk.  This is a great blanket for tucking her in, because it's big enough that you can really pin her arms down.


Cargo pants & onesie by Old Navy
Socks handmade by Gail
Hat handmade by Auntie Hannie
Blanket from Peggy

Dance, puppet, dance!

So for some reason the sound on this is REALLY faint, but if you turn it all the way up you can hear Don singing "YMCA," or at least, as much of "YMCA" as he actually knows. We should really just figure out how to edit in the professional track.

A baby and her hats

My sister Hannah made AJ a set of Days of the Week hats, in rainbow order--so even though you can't really make out the little "T" on the pom in the photo below, you can tell this is the Thursday hat since it's green. (Sunday is white; they all have pink trim.) Right now, they fit AJ pretty much perfectly, which is fortuitous since it's nice enough to go out on lots of walks but still often pretty chilly. Don and I both enjoy locating the correct Day of the Week hat for every occasion, because we are nerds.



I also found yesterday that the little pink hat my mother made for her, to match my hair, is no longer comically large on her:





We have a couple of handmade hats that are still too big (actually, the boobie beanie that my friend Jacquelyn made will probably fit her now--I should check), but soon we'll be more into sun hat territory anyway. Gramma B. sent a couple last week, so we're ready.

Family resemblance

People keep saying that AJ looks like her daddy, and I believe them, but mainly because so many of them are saying it. I just don't see a lot of resemblance between babies and adults. But I was editing some photos in Picasa this evening and Don pointed out a baby photo of him that I scanned in awhile back, and sure enough, there is a clear resemblance:




Daddy as a baby



AJ earlier today

I feel like their faces/heads are different shapes, although I'm not sure how old Don was when that photo was taken, which could make a big difference. [ETA: Gramma B. says he was about six months in that photo, so her head may come to more closely approximate his; who knows?] Their hair seems to be almost exactly the same color, though, and they have very similar smiles--except that it doesn't look like AJ got the dimples.

Speaking of hair, people kept commenting on AJ's hair being red when they saw photos, and it definitely looks red in photos, but we didn't think it was ACTUALLY red at all--except that now that we can go outside more, I think it does have pretty strong reddish highlights in natural light. Which is actually similar to my natural color.

I also think AJ got my eyelashes:




I mean, I know I'm her mother, but those ARE exceptionally beautiful baby eyelashes, right?

How much do I love baby dresses?

A LOT.











This outfit is a 3-6 month size (11 weeks today!), but the tag said that meant 12-17 pounds (why can't more baby clothes put poundage on the label?), and AJ is probably about 12 pounds now. Anyway, the dress and bloomers both seem to fit fine. Who knew seersucker was such a popular fabric for babies? I think she has at least three little dress/bloomer sets made out of it.

The strongest baby in the world.

When placed on her back in the motion gym, AJ now quickly rolls onto her side and slowly inches around the mat:



On her tummy, she's holding her head up for longer periods of time:



She's no longer content, usually, to be over a shoulder if she's awake and alert; she likes to sit on our laps and look out. As daddy discovered today, she really likes to do assisted super baby poses:



She's already wearing some 6-month size stuff. (We need to resize all her Fuzzibunz this weekend to accommodate her growing legs, so she's been wearing a lot of disposable diapers this week.) The black onesie here was a gift from her Auntie Niz (whom I really think she resembles in that last photo, at least in her smirk); the legend says "Because I'm awesome." The heart-covered sleeper came from my advisor.

Achievement unlocked: side roll

AJ has been tipping back and forth when placed on her tummy for awhile now, but very suddenly (it seems) she is rolling onto her side from her back. She can't do a full roll-over onto her tummy, but all our baby books indicate that we should stop swaddling her for sleep at this point since it won't be long before she can and swaddling actually increases SIDS risk if they get onto their stomachs (and it does seem like swaddling is starting to piss her off more than anything, plus she yanks her arms out every single night now). Changing her diapers today has been a special challenge, now that she can attempt to roll away from me while I'm fastening them...

I just happened to be taking some iPhone video today while she was playing in the motion gym and got some footage of the side roll. I will also include a less impressive video of her on her tummy solely so that y'all can hear me talk in a semi-normal voice for once. I am starting to believe there really is some kind of biological imperative to talk like an idiot to babies.






The onesie came from a giant pile of dinosaur baby clothes in various sizes that my mom gave us at our Missouri baby shower. It's nice to know we'll always have at least a couple of dino pieces that currently fit her.

Music Monday: Rainbow Connection

While my go-to lullaby remains a folk ballad about sororicide, daddy's signature number is "The Rainbow Connection," which he usually does in a full-on Kermit the Frog voice the first time through (he gives up on that for subsequent performances, because apparently it's hard).

Happy Easter!

I have always been in Easter for the stuffed animals and dying eggs--it should come as no surprise that I love to dye things. As a child I was also definitely into the Easter dresses, and now I get to have them again by proxy:

Sorry about the radio silence.

AJ had her 2-month appointment on Monday, which included her first round of vaccinations, and was super tired/cranky for a few days afterward (and ran a mildly alarming fever all day Tuesday, although it was really only alarming because I am a spaz; our doctor* warned us that many babies do run a fever after immunizations).  So there weren't really any cute pictures to share.

I should note, however, that she is doing an excellent job with the growing.  Her 2-month stats:

Weight: 11 lb, 3 oz

Height: 23"

Head circumference: 15.16"

I mainly pay attention to the WHO growth charts rather than the CDC ones, because AJ is exclusively breastfed, so the WHO growth charts provide a better comparison.  (The nutritional content of breast milk is pretty steady regardless of maternal nutrition, although dehydration reduces supply.)  According to the WHO charts, AJ's percentiles are:

Weight: 42nd %

Height: 68th %

Head Cir.: 53rd %

This is the first time we've had a head circumference measurement.   At birth she was in the 55th percentile for weight, which dropped into the high 30s for the first couple of weeks.  Her weight percentile is now holding steady from when she was a month old (she didn't actually have an appointment, but I did, so I got them to weigh her)--like, exactly; at 9lb, 4oz, she was in the 42nd percentile at one month.

Her height has increased dramatically, though.  At birth she was 18.5" long, which put in her in the 12th percentile, so it seems like a pretty big jump.  Of course, a pre-med friend tells me that she's heard infant height is a poor predictor for adult height, which makes sense to me; I was the tallest kid in my class up through the 4th grade and now look at me.  Students would do double-takes when they spotted me outside of class, wearing flats (my current batch of students has been aware that I was short from the beginning, since when they first met me I was 38 weeks pregnant and not exactly sporting any cute heels).

Most of her 0-3 month clothes now fit perfectly--the 6-month stuff is still too big, but I'm guessing she'll need mostly 6/9-month sizes for the summer.

Here she is a couple of days ago getting ready to go for a walk in her stroller, wearing a Carter's footed sleeper (size 3mo) from my old friend Marcus & his wife, a hat that her Auntie Hannie made (it's the Thursday hat from a complete days of the week set), and a fleece blanket from her Great Aunt Karin:



---
*Yes, "our doctor"; he is AJ's pediatrician as well as my GP.  He is the only doctor in the world whom I currently trust.