Moving On

Our little man is rapidly outgrowing the shortened baby stage he was in. He seriously thinks he's three years old, instead of three months old. I'm just going to list a few things he has done in the interest of time:

• He has started teething which equals drooling and everything-going-in-the-mouth. His shirts are always wet and his little hands are always cold and red from being in his mouth.
• He reaches for e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. now. If it crosses his peripheral, it's not safe. Fortunately his arms aren't that long, so even if our reaction time isn't that great, we're still generally safe.
• Included in that reaching for everything, he has started to reach for anyone who holds out their arms to take him. He'll go to certain people more readily than others, but he will still hold out his hands to pretty much everyone.
• He likes to watch TV. It'll hold his interest for a good twenty minutes. His grammy got him a set of Baby Einstein DVDs for Christmas, so I will be popping those in our new DVD player in the near future.
• He's now in 6-9 month clothing. My goal (today) is to change over his closet since he got so many pieces of clothing for Christmas.
• He is napping SO much better now. He'll take a short morning nap, a long afternoon nap, and a few short naps before going to bed.
• He is talking, talking, talking now. He has to make eye contact before he starts his conversations, though. Once he sees that you're interested, he'll belt out a series of vowels sounds in different pitches so earnestly that I almost feel bad that I don't know what he's saying because he seems really intentional in his word choice.
• I think he's been doing this for a while now, but he seems to recognize the people he sees almost daily and is more comfortable around them. Ryan was saying on Christmas day, when our parents' house was abuzz with activity (mostly centering around Micah), Micah was overwhelmed with the amount of people hovering around him, so Ry took him from whoever was holding him and he calmed down immediately. It didn't surprise me since Uncle Ryan and Auntie Yana make it a point to see him almost daily!
• Oh, and we've started to put him in the nursery at church now. The first few times fell within a feeding period, so I'd only manage to stay through half the service, but the last few times he's been there the entire time by himself. I always expect to hear him crying, but only once did that happen (service went long and into his feeding time). When he was in the nursery this past Sunday morning, he was asleep in the swing when I came down to get him. I didn't pick him up right away, so in the meantime I played with another one of the babies. I guess Micah had woken up, so the nursery worker picked him up and was playing with him on her lap and they were in this position when I turned around to see how he was doing. Well he was smiling and playing with her until he saw me and his face broke into his poochy-lip pose, like oh-my-goodness-where-have-you-been-I've-been-miserable, Mom...it starts so early!
• He's also developing a sense of humor. He has always laughed and smiled when stimulated, but now if I make a noise or a movement he finds funny, he'll belly laugh. I love the sound of his little laugh and how his entire face lights up in a big gummy smile.

That pretty much sums up Micah's three-month update. I've also started him on cereal twice a day and he has rolled over from his belly to back a number of time. I went to get him from his nap at my parents' house the other day and was totally shocked to find him on his back and his arm hanging out of the side of the crib (they don't have a crib bumper, yet). I thought I had a few more months before I had to worry about him rolling over, but he had yet another surprise in store for us!

I will have to get our Christmas post up next. I can't believe how busy we've been, I've never been this busy in my entire life! I always wonder what I did when I was working outside the home, how I got everything done. I love it, though, life is good!