Daph Stats: Month 3

My Darling Daphne,

How is it possible that you are three months old already? I can hardly believe it!  These pictures don't do justice to how much you have grown in just one month.  Your legs are starting to chunk out and you have the most kissable fat cheeks!  At your 2 month appointment you were just under 11 pounds and I bet you are close to 12 pounds now.  That's my healthy girl.

Not only have you been growing in the physical realm, but also intellectually and emotionally as well.  I can honestly detect changes in you from one day to the next.  At your 2 month appointment, the doctor asked how often you were cooing.  I replied that you were making grunting noises, but nothing else yet and she assured me within the next few weeks you would become more vocal.  Sure enough, within two days you were suddenly having conversations with me, making darling babbling sounds at me from the changing table.  

You have been smiling more and more all month and now I can get you to grin with just a few high pitched swooping words.  I love when I hear you making little peeps from your crib after a nap as if to say, "Hey Mom, I'm in here and I'm awake!"  As soon as you see my face over the crib you start grinning and it melts my heart every time.  On Tuesday, August 23, you laughed for the first time on purpose!  It takes quite a bit of coaxing, but every once in a while you will give us a darling gasp of breath and a sort of "huh" noise that is definitely a laugh.

Auntie Catherine let us borrow this cool bouncer chair with jungle animals a couple of weeks ago.  The first few times I put you in it, you just stared and stared at the animals with these wide eyes.  Within a few days you were tentatively reaching out to them and now you love to whack them with your hand to make them rock back and forth.

 

You now successfully hold a rattle from Auntie Amy and tug on the soft tag blanket from Auntie Cassie.  You haven't quite figured out how to control your hands yet and the rattle finds your head a couple of times before I have to get you something softer to hold onto.

 

I love seeing you discover your hands.  It's like a light bulb suddenly clicked and you just realized that these flailing appendages belong to you and you can make them grasp things.  Like my chin for example - your new favorite thing to grab when I am carrying you around.  

In the past month you began sucking on your thumb and making this gigantic slurping noise.  You often gum my shoulder and get slobber all over me.  It's pretty cute and I don't mind letting you sooth yourself that way.  For the most part, you are a very happy child, but you are getting more assertive (aka: loud) about any discomforts you feel.  Your tear ducts are working and you now know how to pull out the water works when you're being a Drama Mama.  Even if I know you're completely fine and just want my undivided attention, it still breaks my heart to see that bottom lip start to quiver and the tears well up.  Thankfully that is a rare occassion.

 

You love to play with Daddy when he gets home.  Whether that be singing the "Hop Hop" song he wrote for you or balancing on his hand, it's clear you two are always going to have great fun together.  True to the Adams family tradition, you have developed a few new nicknames from Daddy, my favorite of which evolved like so: Daph - Daffodil - Daffodilly - Dill - Big Dill.  Often your Papa now teases you when you cry and says, "What's the big deal, Big Dill?"  Or he tells you that you are pretty much a "Big Dill."  It makes me laugh.  We often talk about how beautiful you are and I remind Daddy that you will also be kind, smart, compassionate, talented, spiritual, etc - not just a looker! :)

Little Princess, you bring me so much happiness.  I have been very touched to see how attuned you are to the emotions of those around you.  When I am sad, you are sad.  When I am excited, you coo and grin.  You are a little social thing already and when there are people around you often refuse to go down for a nap, not wanting to miss a thing.  I hope you can feel how you have completely altered our lives for the better already.  We adore you Daffodil.  Grow on little one.

Love you forever and always,

Your Mama