Quarter of a year

Yesterday Em turned 3 months old! She celebrated with a 3-hour morning nap. She did a little tummy time. She's getting better and better each day! Then she played in her Bumbo. She's enjoying it much more than the first time. She took another nap, followed by a nice long stroll to the nearby grocery store where I hoped I didn't look like I was shoplifting as I put my few groceries into the basket underneath my stroller. Couldn't handle pushing the stroller while carrying a grocery basket, nor did I want to cover Em in lettuce, Lean Cuisines and milk. We played some more until Brent came home. Then we did our quick 3-month photo shoot. After a nice warm bath, which she loves, it was off to bed. This has been an interesting month. Just when I complained to Jenn that Em must have colic as she just seemed so freakin' cranky so much of the time, she turned on the charm in a way she hasn't before. Her personality is shining through even more and it's so fun to watch. We went to the baby shower for my friend, Liz, on Sunday, where Em met some friends of mine for the first time. They commented on what a great, laid-back baby she is. I had to resist the urge to tell them that it's a recent phenomenon and that they should have seen her freak out at the last Monday Mommy Movie, where I saw most but not all of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because I was dealing with The Curious Fussiness of Em Dash. (I think she was just going through her 3-month growth spurt.) In the last month, Em has discovered her hands. She hasn't quite found her thumb yet, and while Brent and I don't want her to necessarily be a thumb-sucker, it's taken all our restraint not to help her find it. However, she seems to enjoy devouring her teeny tiny fist. It's amazing to watch her focus on something, like the toys dangling from her play mat, and realize that, Hey, I can take these new things I found, called "hands," and use them to touch my toys! She's tentative about it, but in time she'll gain the confidence to reach for them with no trepidation. Heck, she already does that with Mommy's hair. She's also babbling more and more. Yesterday while I was on the phone with my mom, Em was in the background, cooing away. I thought my mom's heart was going to explode. "OH MY GOD! I can hear her! She's sooooo cute! I can't believe it!" I can hardly believe it myself. There are moments where I try to imagine what she's going to be like 3 months, 3 years or 3 decades from now, and other times I wish life had a TiVo so I could pause and rewind time with our sweet girl. "If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much." - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis