May Medley Part One: Clara is 3 months old!

( . . . or was three weeks ago! All of these pictures are from around that time. The first few are of a walk we took together on a beautiful sunny evening on May 8.)

Nap Time

Mama Time

Daddy Time

God has blessed us with a beautiful May. With absolutely gorgeous, warm, sunny days full of good times and memories, it seems almost incomprehensible that the summer has only just begun. With all that happened this month, moving in, Mother's Day, and travels, I did not get to post as I intended to, so I have to play catch up. I do have so much to share about our little girl, though, and how much she is changing and growing. I will do my best to stay more on top of her milestones documenting and sharing them here over the summer. But for now, I will do a three part recap of this special month to share with you all.

* * *

Clara's three month milestone came and went without much fanfare. We snapped a picture or two, and I gazed proudly at my growing girl. However, for Clara some vital mechanism seemed to snap into place at 3 months, and she began interacting with us at a whole new level. She seemed to move from the passive infant to the interactive baby. It was really remarkable.

Here are just a few things we noticed:

* She began reaching out to grab things, then pulling them toward and into her mouth.

* She will focus on the colorful pictures of a book page for several seconds. It's fun to read them too her now.

* She reacts more and more to me singing to her. No longer does she just stop fussing; now she will grin at me too.

*She gets excited when she realizes that Mama's getting ready to nurse her.

* She latches herself on without a whole lot of help. When I gently de-latch her when she seems done eating, she will re-latch if she wants to keep sucking. This can get kind of funny.

* She can't help but smile big at other people's smiles. Smiling is a whole body business for her. From her head to her toes, she engages all her muscles in it: curling her toes, tensing her arms, kicking her legs, and arching her body.

*I was cleaning her neck the other day when she began to laugh, not just giggle the way she often does, but laugh from deep inside. I guess I was tickling her! Too darling!

* She is very close to rolling over. But even though she doesn't flop from back to tummy, she can wiggle her way quite a distance to get to us.

* She seems to sense our moods. The other day, she wasn't settling down on my chest to sleep as I hoped and kept bobbing. It was cute, and I started laughing. She picked her head up, looked at me, and laughed with me. I melted!

It's so amazing how God made babies so quick to learn and so relational (girls especially). I just pray all the time that God will give us wisdom to teach her what is right--starting now!