Week 12

What a difference one week makes. Between week 11 and week 12 you have learned to suck just your thumb and not your whole hand, you have grown to be nearly 18 pounds, and you sleep through the night! Yay! For 6 nights straight you have slept eight hours, then you’ll sleep another couple hours after you eat something and you’ll have two good sized naps during the day. I find that I miss you sometimes because you’re sleeping so much!

Tonight you’ll officially hit the 3 month mark and I can’t tell you enough how much I love you and how much fun I’m having watching you grow and learn. At three months old I can already tell what a happy and curious little boy you are. People will comment on just how alert you are when we’re out and about. Your giant eyes just seem to be soaking up everything they see. I feel like I can actually watch your brain learning new things. You follow movement with your eyes and just recently started grabbing for things. The very best new development is your gargle voice. You’ll just talk and talk making funny sounds and then start to gargle. Then you’ll smile your fun crooked smile and it’s the best thing ever.

We’re busy getting ready for your 1st Christmas. We’re going to spend a couple nights at Disney World soon. You just saw your very first fireworks and I was afraid they’d scare you, but instead you stared at them and then flailed your arms and legs really big and smiled at the giant lights in the sky.

Motherhood has an interesting way of making you think about everything a little differently. I’ve felt much more forgiving and empathetic lately. I find myself saying about criminals on TV or people who are rude in line at the grocery store, “that guy has a mother, too” or “that girl once learned to suck her thumb, too”. For some reason, picturing someone as a baby with a mother of their own who once looked down at their child in amazement and adoration helps me be more understanding of people I might not have been otherwise. I saw the moment you first put just your thumb in your mouth and started to suck on it and thought how incredible and strange it is that we all develop the same skills around the same time. Around the world, babies around 3 months old are all figuring out how to hold their heads up, how to make their bodies laugh, how to suck their thumbs. If that’s true, in a weird way I find myself asking how can we not have peace in this world?