3 months and milestones

WARNING: this ended up being long. feel free to skip all the words and just look at the pictures. that's what i would do.

Soooo... update on the babe! At her 2month appointment homegirl had only gained 5oz in 2 weeks, so we were supposed to come in for a weight check one week later. Well we got that girl on a super strict eating schedule and we even waking her up at night and when we went in a week later, she had gained 11oz (from 9lbs 1oz to 9lbs 12oz) !! that's right. 11oz in 7 days. amazing.  So he scheduled one more weight check for her at 3 months (they don't usually have a 3 month check up).  She hadn't gained at quite that rate this time (less than a pound in 3 weeks... she's10lbs 8oz) so the dr. suggested starting her on rice cereal. It would add a few calories to her diet AND he said that solids would help control some of her reflux. And boy has it!  She hardly spits up at all anymore. Well, I mean, she definitely does still spit up, but compared to how much she was before, it is way way better.

She is growing up so fast and learning new things every day it seems, which is really fun.  She is able to entertain herself for a little while on her play mat. She is starting to try try try so hard to bring her paci to her mouth by herself (oh my goodness my world will change when she is able to do that) and she is grabbing anything that will fit in the palm of her tiny little hand (which is mostly just my hair... ouch).  We've started letting her cry for a little bit if she wakes up so that she learns to soothe herself... it has saved us hundreds of trips upstairs to put her pacifier back in, and she often falls back asleep within 5 min (right now we're not letting her go longer than 20 min.)

Here are a few milestones:

First time in the baby bath without the sling. She LOVES the bath. It doesn't matter how fussy she is or how hard she's been crying... put her in the bath and you are guaranteed to get a smile. (it was hard to get a picture that's not blurry b/c she was kicking and splashing so much. too cute.)

First time flipping from stomach to back (earlier this week).  I don't think she did it on purpose, but she has done it once or twice more since then.  It happens when she's laying on her stomach and crying (i.e. trying to find her dropped pacifier that she can't put back in her mouth by herself) and she starts crying and kicking and then... FLIP. I'm sure she was just as surprised by it as we were.

First time eating rice cereal. This stuff is so so messy. I find crusty spots all over her face (forehead, behind her ears, etc.) for hours after she eats. I can never seem to get it all off.  Also, she hates it. Not sure if it's b/c she just doesn't know how to swallow it yet, or if it really doesn't taste good to her or she's just not used to it yet or what. Right now the only way we can get her to eat it is to put a spoonful in while she's crying and then shove her paci in so she starts sucking and swallows it. ha. any suggestions are welcome.

 AND.... just today after we got home from church and I was changing her diaper she LAUGHED for the first time!! An adorable little squeaky laugh. I was the only one in the room and i called Jason up and we just stood over her for like 5 minutes trying to get her to do it again. She finally did it for Jason and we L.O.V.E.D. it and it made us laugh hysterically. I hope she does it more and more. I can't wait til she has a full-on belly laugh.

Okay, there you have it. Congratulations if you finally made it to the end of this post. Jason will NOT be proud of me (he is a huge advocate of more pictures, fewer words on blogs... oh well). But it's been a while and I didn't want to leave anything out!