Today is Owen's 3-month birthday :). He has gotten so much bigger and changed so much even since last month. I couldn't pick just one, so here are 3 versions of our monthly picture:
I feel like we are finally falling into a really good routine that is working for us during the day. Owen's nap times are becoming much more predictable, and he is officially napping in his crib instead of the swing or bassinet. Once he starts rubbing his eyes, I can just rock him a little to get him drowsy and set him in his crib awake to put himself to sleep. As far as nighttime goes, it's still rough waters a bit. He was doing great for a couple weeks sleeping 5-7 hour stretches initially and then waking every 2-3 hours the rest of the night. The last few nights he has been waking up every 2-3 hours throughout the entire night. He doesn't like to fall straight to sleep right after eating, and he usually cries 2-3 times each time I try to put him down at night until he'll finally falls asleep. Two nights ago was one of the most challenging nights I've had since he was born, and I only got 3 hours of sleep. I felt like I had been hit in the face repeatedly the next day while still trying to have a normal day. There are definitely benefits with your first child where you can nap with them all day after a bad night that don't exist when you have two.
Overall, Owen is a super happy baby and doesn't really cry that much throughout the day. There are just lots and lots of smiles.
The past few days he has loved using his tongue. He's always sticking it out and licking everything. Today I was carrying him over my shoulder and he licked my cheek.
Owen is an extremely oral baby, which is new to me since Jack never put anything in his mouth. Even while teething Jack wouldn't put teething toys into his mouth. Owen always has his fingers, fist, burp cloths, Sophie the Giraffe, etc. in his mouth. Owen also discovered his feet about a week ago, and he loves to watch them. I'm just waiting for him to start sticking those in his mouth too. Here he is on my mom's lap while she was out for a visit last week. He was playing with his moose toy, holding onto a burp cloth, and clutching my mom's arm with his feet:
Owen is also very grabby. He grabs the rings on his play mat and pulls them towards him. He is also a crazy hair puller. I have lost several chunks of hair in his clutches.
As far as other milestones, on January 31st Owen laughed for the first time, and it is so cute! If you act like you're nibbling on his neck or chest he laughs. My mom was watching Jack and Owen while Jonathan and I went out last week, and Jack was acting like a horse and getting on his hind legs to neigh. My mom said Owen was laughing at Jack, and Owen laughing made Jack laugh. I was sad to miss this cute moment.
Owen also rolled from belly to back while on his play mat on February 16th and from back to belly today, February 20th, while laying in his crib in our room while I got ready. I have thought that his sleep might be getting interrupted by him practicing rolling since I always see is feet/legs sticking straight up in the air while he cries, and this new ability to roll makes me think I was right in my guess. I'm hoping he masters rolling fully soon so he can stop practicing so much in his sleep and waking himself up.
As for what Jack has been up to, he has been OBSESSED with letters recently. Everywhere we go he is identifying letters and reading them to us. We'll be driving and I'll hear, "Y-A-W-E-N-O" in the back seat while he reads the One Way signs. At Golden Spoon the other night he spelled out 'Golden Yogurt' reading the sign Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt sign on the wall. He asks us to "play letters" with him where we stand on his letter rug in the play area and he identifies letters. If you ask him his favorite letter, 9 times out of 10 he says "W." Sometimes it's the letter "P." Last week my mom and I were at Ikea, and Jack said, "That cool!" while running over to this:
My mom got him a Melissa & Doug letter puzzle that he likes to play with. Under each letter puzzle piece is an animal or object that starts with that letter. He can do the entire puzzle over and over again. Besides the 26 tiny pieces that end up on the floor, it's a great activity :).
Jack has also really been into his Mega blocks recently. You can put him in a room with his blocks and have him play independently for quite a while. Here he is hard at work:
One thing I've wanted to do with Jack now that he follows directions pretty well is to let him use the little cart at Trader Joe's. I'm always afraid to do it, though, because if he takes off with it I don't want to have to run after him leaving Owen in the big cart alone. While my mom was in town, I finally got to let him do it while my mom followed him.
His attention span lasted about 10 minutes with it before he started to get unruly, but it was fun to give him the chance to do it.
It's almost shocking to me how verbal Jack has become so quickly. Right before he turned two I was writing down a list of all of his words just to make sure he was saying the average number he should be at his age. Now a mere three months later he's speaking in short sentences. Kids are really amazing...little sponges!
We are continually fostering brotherly love and bonding. Sometimes when Owen cries Jack will say, "It ok Owen." Jack likes having Owen as an audience, so as Owen gets more interactive I'm sure they will have a lot of fun together. Owen loves watching his older brother, and gets a huge smile on his face and yells out in excitement when Jack gets close to him.
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