We are headed to the beach this weekend with Nana and Auntie Laura.  I can't wait to put my toes in the sand!  This is the first time Ed & TJ have been to the beach all summer so I am excited for them to get down there too!  We plan to kayak, ride bikes, swim, fish & of course get some sun.  Well at least I am going to get some sun, not sure that Ed wants any... :-D

So our little guy has discovered his thumb!  Or should I say thumbs!  He has decided during the past few days that he often prefers his thumbs to his pacifier.  Ed and I were both thumb suckers, me well in to elementary school (4th grade, I think...YIKES!)  I can't decide if it bothers me or not but the recent medical literature I've read on the web discusses whether or not thumb sucking is such a bad thing before age 2 (some even said age 4).  One thing that has been nice is that when he is in his crib going to sleep, if his paci falls out he can now soothe himself by putting his thumb in his mouth instead of crying until I come give him his paci back. (Is it bad that this kind of excites me?)

I have had a few rattles in his car seat for awhile now but he has shown no interest in them.  Since the second I first held him, he's had no problem gripping my fingers and he now grips them to pull himself to a sitting and standing position.  SO, I have been trying to wrap his little fingers around the rattles but he quickly lets them go.  Today I added a rattle that hangs from the handle of his carseat and this is what I saw....

As of today, Chris is 14 weeks old and weighs 13lbs and is 23.5 inches long.  He is in the 50th percentile for both height and weight.

So I previously mentioned that my 3 month old loves cartoons.  His favorite one appears to be Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  The images are so crisp and clear and always full of bright colors.  With our digital cable we have Disney OnDemand so I can turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at any time.  Chris already recognizes Mickey's voice and he gets so excited when the opening song comes on.  This has made me really excited to take him to Disney one day.  I loved Mickey Mouse and I am so excited to share the joys of Mickey & Disney with him...

Anyone that knows my husband really well knows that he thoroughly loves sititng at the computer and reading all of the Carolina message boards about the most recent happenings with the football & basketball teams.  It now looks like we already have another obsessed fan in the house!  It's a good thing I am a sports loving mom...

Congratulations to our good friends Daniel & Rebecca Smith on the arrival of their son Chase Jaden Smith.  He was born on Friday, July 23rd and weighed 8lbs, 8oz.  Chase's older brother, Austin, is TJ's best friend and now Chris' best friend has finally arrived.  (Daniel & Ed planned Chris & Chase at our wedding apparantly!)  We went to meet Chase on Saturday. 

I just have to tell you quickly about a real "I'm his mommy" experience last night.  Just about every day this week Ed & I have worked out at the Y since Chris is now old enough to go to  Child Watch (he had to be 12 weeks).  So we drop him off and they watch him while we work out and then we pick him back up when we are done.  When we dropped him off on Monday it was only for about 30 minutes an as soon as Ed and I got in to the fitness center I asked him if I was weird for feeling weird about leaving him in the Child Watch with people I didn't know.  In my heart I knew he was going to be just fine but it was the first time he had been out of my sight, except for one 2 hour trip to the movies when my mom watched him.  But she's my mom so that's different.  So anyway, every time we've taken him this week, prior to yesterday, he's pretty much been asleep when I go in to get him.  Yesterday however, he was wide awake and one of the childcare people was holding him.  She put him in his carseat and brought him over to me and I was talking to her and when I finally looked down at him, he was smiling sooo big at me as though he had missed me so much.  It was the first time I realized that he actually recognized my face as his mommy and not just by my touch or smell.  Truly amazing! 

Chris is 3 months old today!  ALREADY!!  I can't believe it.  I can't imagine my life without him and I can't remember the life I had before.  He is truly amazing!  Here is an update of what he has accomplished so far:

PERSONALITY: He loves to smile!  My favorite part of the day is when he first wakes up in the morning.  As you can see from the previous post, as soon as his eyes focus and he sees me, he smiles like he is so happy to see me!  It melts my heart!  He LOVES to smile at his daddy too.  Ed can make him smile almost anytime he wants to.  He is starting to make sounds that are more than just general cooing noises.  We say "Hey" to him all the time and I swear it's going to be his first word because he tries to mimic us back quite often.  He laughs sometimes too.  It tends to sound like a cough but he smiles while he does it so we know he's laughing.

SLEEPING: Sleeping habits keep getting better and better.  He is sleeping a total of about 12 hours now with one feeding during that time.  Usually he falls asleep hard at about 10pm, depending on what we have going on that night, and he sleeps until about 5am.  I feed him at 5am and then he sleeps until about 9:30am.  He is sleeping in his crib and I am sleeping in the bed!

EATING: Chris is still nursing and it's going very well!  I love the bond that it has created between us.  He eats roughly every 4 hours throughout the day.  Dr. Davis told us that we can begin to introduce him to foods other than breastmilk at 4 months and we can put cereal in his milk so hopefully at this time he will have a nice full belly to keep him sleeping through the night!

*One other note: he loves to watch cartoons!  The bright colors flashing on the tv really attract him.  I know this may not be the best thing that he already loves tv at 3 months, but it's so funny to watch him.  I put him in the middle of the bed while I am getting dressed and turn him sideways so he can see the tv.  I have caught him snoozing several times after watching cartoons for a while.

Mom and I took him to have 3 month portraits done.  Here are a few shots..

What I wake up to... I love being a mommy!!

I cannot even count the number of friends that have had or are having babies this year!  Colton was born to Amanda and Kevin on July 2nd.  We took a trip to Hillsborough yesterday to meet him.  Chris is only 10 weeks older than him and I cannot believe that he was that small at one time, not to mention just a few weeks ago.  AND he was even smaller than Colton because Colton weighed 8lbs 11oz at birth, Chris was only 7lbs 1oz...

Chris has taken a liking to the water!  We take him swimming every week and he loves it!  TJ has all of a sudden decided that he loves to swim too and is no longer scared of the water!  They will both take swim lessons this fall when Chris turns 6 months.