Today, Aurelia is three months old. When people told me that time would fly, I didn't know how true that would be. I have been following the advice of those people who told me to enjoy every moment... She won't be little forever, and this knowledge is clear when I think about how soon we are coming up on Aurelia's first Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas--all in the next two months.
Some things to mention about Aurelia's first three months of life:
Stats as of September 7th, her eight-week check up, Aurelia is average for weight and head-size, but in the 97th percentile for length. Yes, we are hopeful she will like to play basketball or reach for things on the high shelf. Of course, five weeks have passed since then, and she has already changed so much.
Her first smile (the one we are sure was "social" and not gas) was on August 15th. Her whole face split in half in response to some question. To date, smiling at her, asking her questions in a happy voice, swinging in someone's arms and mommy & daddy in the morning make Aurelia smile. Her first laugh (the moment she made a squealing noise that made us ask each other "did she just laugh?!") was on August 27th. We are more certain about her laughter now--she laughs at her mobiles, stuffed animal kisses, my face and when she is babbling with daddy about her day.
She is a much bigger fan of bath time now than when she was a newborn. Now the challenge is how much she dislikes being taken out of the bath.
Aurelia spent her first weekend on the boat with Grandma Patty and Grandpa Ken on September 10th. The boat remained tied to the dock, and I tried not to freak out that there were no infant-sized life jackets.
On September 14th, Aurelia and I left on a three-week trip back east to visit my family. The other passengers all fell in love with her too; pretty good for a nine-week-old. We stayed with my mom, and Aurelia had the opportunity to meet several of her great aunts and uncles as well as her great grandparents.
While we were there we had Aurelia's first professional portraits taken. She wasn't very cooperative for this, but we were able to get a few good shots. This one shows the sort of mood she was in while still being a cute picture.
As per the upcoming season of autumn, we took Aurelia to her first pumpkin patch. While there, we exposed her to several wonderful things including, but not limited to, a tractor-driven hayride, a pile of cold pumpkins (which she did not enjoy), sitting on an uninterested sheep and being licked by a calf. We are going to go to another pumpkin patch with Daddy now that we are home. Hopefully she enjoys the experience as much as the former.
The whole time I was planning this trip, all I could think about was taking my baby to the beach. Growing up in New Jersey, going "down the shore" was something I looked forward to almost every weekend of every summer. We spent the day as a family at Island Beach State Park, followed by nights of pizza and arcades in Seaside Heights. With our dad, my sister, Jennie and I spent weekends hunting for garage-sale finds on Long Beach Island. I want to be able to share memories like these with Aurelia someday, but living so far away, that is a difficult dream to make come true. However, I can tell her that she has been there. She won't understand why it was important for me to take her there, but I did it anyway. She slept through most of it and hated when Grandpa dipped her feet in the ocean, but it was perfect. The sun, the sand, the waves, the birds... It reminded me of my childhood and brought to the front everything I want to do with her... every tradition I want to create my own little family. (Unfortunately, my dad has the pictures...)
Now we have been home for about a week, and our schedules are back to normal-- back to normal at least until I head back to work and mess it all up again.
Goals for the next month(ish) include:
1. Getting Aurelia to sleep in her own bed/playpen for more than an hour at a time
2. Landing a great job that gives me flexibility, understanding, and a little extra cash for Aurelia's first Christmas presents
Thanks for checking in on us! We will have more soon--things are pretty crazy around here!
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