Three months old

Over the weekend, something happened. Nathaniel is different.

I'm not sure what it was, exactly, but last week he had no interest in toys, and this week, he does. Now he will grab at them, and explore them, and try to play with them. I guess I'll have to put a toy in my diaper bag for him to mess with when we're out and about. It's weird to see that change in him. Weird in a good way, of course. But still strange.

He's been cooing more and more, and very conversationally. We talk back and forth for probably half an hour at a time or so, and usually 3-5 times a day. It's a lot. Even when you consider that he is gestationally three and a half months old, instead of just three, I guess typically babies don't start babbling until they're more like 4 months old. He's actually been vocalizing since he was three days old, and he's usually done it at least a few times a day since then, but now he's really getting good at it.

He makes "oh" sounds and a lot of schwas, which I decided is probably because of his tongue muscle that needs to get stronger. As far as consonants go, he makes "g" (and has since he was 3 days old), and occasionally a "buh" or a "muh" sound. He's figuring out his bilabials! What a good boy. One of these times I need to pull out my Flip and record him talking. It's pretty cute.

He smiles a lot. He really like the Renaissance Festival on Saturday; people were playing him private concerts, and bowing to him and pledging allegiance, and cooing at him and so forth. He just thought it was awesome. He was a very smiley boy (except when we were watching the Danger Committee. I don't know why he hated that so much--he couldn't even see them!).

At the RennFest, he was also exposed to a lot of loud noise, in the form of screaming and clapping and cheering. He didn't love it, but he was calm through it. I held a hand over his ear and smiled at him while everyone was so loud, and he was fine. Confused looking, but fine.

Also, I weighed him recently, and he is now up to 13.5 lbs (clothed). I'm pretty sure he's over 25 inches long now, too. Carrying him without a sling is getting pretty difficult for me (although when he's in the sling, it's fine).

He still sleeps pretty well. He knows that darkness and the bed = time to sleep. Usually he gets up when we get up, around 7-8 am, and then he'll go back to sleep around 9:30-10. He takes another nap from 1 until 2:30, and then stays awake for the rest of the evening, more or less, until bedtime.

My baby is three months old on Thursday!