3 MONTHS

Our baby is 3 months old today! It's amazing how fast time flies, and it's amazing how my love for her keeps growing. Every night when I lay her down, I think to myself that I couldn't possibly love her any more. And then I wake up the next morning to her grinning at me from ear to ear, and I do.

Remember when she was brand new and I feared her unhappiness? Thank goodness for the facial expressions she is able to make now! Every time she smiles at me I breathe a mental sigh of relief. I can't wait to hear her laugh for the first time. She's so close. A couple times she's given me a really soft, short giggle, (like "Ah hah") but that's it. One of my new favorite things is how often and how loud she coos. Last night while I was changing her diaper (which, by the way, she usually hates) and right about to give her a bath (which she also still hates) she was cooing the cutest, happiest coos and grinning at me like I was the coolest person in the world. Needless to say, she went to bed "dirty". :)


I love when she smiles at me so big that her binky falls out of mouth. And even though it's really sad, her pouty face is just about the cutest thing you'll ever see. If she keeps it up for the next 18 years, we're in serious trouble.

                               This picture shows her starting to pout, but definitely not all the way

Yesterday Kyle was holding her and pulled one of his "Oops did I accidentally scare you?" tricks by waiting around the corner when I came out of the room. I jumped and let out a weird shriek which scared the living day lights out of poor Bentlee. She jumped a mile, never cried, but gave me her sad little pouty lips for the longest time. Nice one daddy!


When she's super tired, her latest thing is to bury her head as far into your elbow pit as she can. It's adorable, but you have to check every couple minutes that she can breath. On the rare occasion that she's super fussy and nothing else is working, all I have to do is help her get into that position and she's asleep within seconds.

When I got Bentlee's play mat out a few weeks ago she wasn't too interested. She would look at us instead, completely oblivious to the toys hanging above her. She has started noticing the toys this week though, and she sometimes stares at her reflection in the little mirror. I am already realizing how lucky we are to live in a time with so many toys. Babies survived back in the day without bouncy seats and swings, so clearly they aren't a necessity. But I sure appreciate them, especially when I'm doing lashes. If Bentlee gets bored in her swing, I just move her to her bouncy or play mat. If I'm feeling especially neglectful, I will run next door and grab my 11 year old neighbor Maddie. She loves Bentlee and the feeling is mutual. Bentlee will even cry sometimes when she sets her down, which I think makes Maddie feel pretty good.

She LOVES her dad. As I knew she would. Remember how Jillian would often be consoled by only Kyle? We are already reliving that. As I knew we would. He has a certain way he holds her that is her favorite, with her back against his chest facing out. He also happens to have a really bad case of tendonitis in his left arm that isn't getting better. Any guesses why?

I could go on and on about what a happy baby she is, but I've also still been worried that she's teething already. Aside from the obvious sign (drool, drool, and more drool) she still seems a little more sleepy and fussy than she used to be. Last night at Stacy's baby shower Ashlee was sitting next to me and caught a glimpse of Bentlee's gums and confirmed my fear. Teeth. They haven't cut through but there are two little white spots under her gums. I noticed them a few weeks ago but the people I pointed them out to didn't know if that's what they were so I tried to forget about it. But Ashlee's reaction went something like this,       "(Gasp) Those are teeth. Kristen. Those are teeth!" She said Ezra's looked exactly the same when he got his. And Nixon is Bentlee's age so she understands how early it is and was able to freak out with me a lttle last night. I seriously wanted to cry. My baby is too young for teeth! I don't want her to hurt, and, well...I don't want to hurt either if ya know what I mean...


Today I decided to film her waking up so I could capure how happy she is in the mornings. At 10:30 she was STILL sleeping so I turned on the light and and started talking to her (I'm sure I'll be just as nice when she's 16). Excuse my annoying voice.