3 Months!

Lola is 3 months old today! 

Its hard to believe that she's gone from this:

to this:

Well, actually more like this (as the above picture was taken just after she turned 2 months, below closer to 3 months):

This month has been by far the best month. Lola is getting so much more aware of the world around her and interacting with it more and more. Its incredible to watch and be a part of. Her smiles are so connected now. She'll look right at you, babble a bit, and then smile huge smiles, sometimes even with a little shriek or coo too. 

She'll also now smile and babble to toys. Yes! She's become interested in toys! Our friend Arie sent Lola a set of material Lamaze blocks awhile back and nowadays Lola cannot get enough of them. Which brings me to the next great thing that has happened this month: Lola can now amuse herself. Its amazing. If she's in a good mood (usually the period right after eating), she can be left on her own with her blocks for probably a good 20 minutes before she protests. And when I check on her during that time, my God the smiles she gives! I can't tell you how great it feels to be doing something productive with BOTH my hands while hearing happy baby noises coming from the play pen. Best sounds ever.

My favourite time with Lola lately has been the mornings. After her feeding we hang out and talk to each other (incoherently of course) and then I leave Lola with some toys while I make breakfast and let out Charlie and then we watch Kelly and Michael together and chat some more until Lola starts getting fussy and I know its time to walk her around a little bit so she can fall asleep for her morning nap. Our mornings have gone from a confusing, hectic, sleepy time to a lazy, enjoyable, sweet couple of hours :)

Lola is also developing so much every day. I swear she gets bigger by the hour! Besides her social skills expanding, theres also a million new things that she starts doing every day. Her cheeks are red and shes a drool machine - just a couple of the signs that she is teething. And she is starting to grasp and use her hands in increasingly more sophisticated ways. It is SO exciting to watch all of this happen. And I get beyond proud of her every time I notice something new that she's able to do. 

Also, Lola is continuing to sleep well at night, despite her doctor's statement of "that won't last." She goes through periods where its a battle to get her down and we wonder if it was always this way or if it will ever change and then suddenly she'll go back to easily falling asleep as soon as its time to. We've been changing her sleep routine to suit her changing needs and that has helped so hopefully if we continue to follow her lead, we'll be okay. She's also starting to want to go to bed earlier in the evening. For the past few nights I've been baby free before 9pm! One night even as early as 8:30! Its amazing how much I can accomplish when she's asleep that early. 

There's a million more things that I could say about this month, its been so enjoyable, but I better get moving as the monkey is going to wake up any minute now and besides her to contend with today, we have 16 members of our family coming over for Christmas Eve dinner tonight!!

Merry Christmas!!!