Three Months And All Is Well.

I could stare at him like this all morning.  So could Ivan, Sr., which makes it tough for him to get out the door to work.  Luckily, my work IS the little prince.  I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that we planned for and were able to have me stay home with him, particularly in light of his checkered medical history to date.

It occurs to me that I spend so much time documenting said medical history that I don't get to write much about the normal baby stuff.  Let's see...

He has discovered his hands and opposable thumb.  This is good, because he can now grab everything (okay, sometimes this is good) with an adult grip... and bad, because his favorite use of his thumb is as a binky replacement.  However, anything that can go in his mouth will, like... the blanky:

the fist:

the towel:

this too:

and you can tell he's seriously plotting how to eat this:

He does not babble yet, but he does talk to his toys:

especially if there's a chance they'll talk back:

He also yells at me with really awesome subvocalization when I don't get him out of his crib fast enough.  It sounds much like a Siamese talking; all, "mwow wom ma maow!"  I will confess I've delayed the rescue just to hear him talk.

He doesn't roll over, but he does scoot, turning himself 90 degrees to get to a toy or a dog's tail unwisely left in reach.  He has good neck and upper arm strength and stands very nicely.  This has allowed me to purchase a babysitter!

No, not Kate... she's free. 

No, not the dog.  The exersaucer!

He's still too little for the jumparoo that Cousin Bruce and Nancy sent, so I got a stopgap... and he loves it:

And it has a lion puppet that is the coolest thing since sliced bread:

The piano toy has three modes - animal sounds, music, and the names of the colors of the keys (red, yellow, and green) in English, Spanish, and French.  A multilingual baby.  He loves, loves, loves it.  It has three height adjustments, so my fervent hope is that we will get much use of it before it's time to move to the jumparoo (which I can't WAIT to see him enjoy).

So big sisters are still cooler than the exersaucer:

And Daddy is still his favorite chew toy:

And I still get lots of these:

And Savannah has all the best pictures of her and the little prince, so I'll have to grab some from her later.  For now, I will leave you with a serious bit of advice:

Food and toys may come and go, but you can chew on fingers forever.