3 months

Our little Wonder Baby was 3 months old on May 2nd! Some descriptions of her third month:

• Smiling a lot
• Loving her mommy
• Tolerating her daddy better and better each day (won't be long before she adores him)
• Sleeping through the night
• Splashing in the bathtub like there is no tomorrow
• She no longer bathes with a towel folded underneath her since she kicks so much that it ends up at the opposite end of the tub from her
• Lots and lots and lots and lots....and lots of talking and cooing.  She does this hilarious thing where she'll sneeze a few times, and just when you think another sneeze is coming she lets out a loud, and forced sounding, girly sigh.  
• She is in size 3 diapers.

California, Baby!

We survived our trip to California! Baby was a champ in the airport and on the plane (but for a bit of fussing in our terminal), and as much as I would like to take credit for that, the truth is that she's just cool like that.

Special thanks go to:

Jodi, the world's best flight attendant, for making our first flight with baby a raging success. If you must know, she did the following:

• Oogled over how cute Emma is, in a not creepy way
• Made sure that nobody sat on our row so that we could have those three seats to ourselves
• Gave us a "My First Flight" certificate for Emma's baby book that included the flight and the attendants' and the captain's names. 
• Stopped by every once in a while to hold the Emma or just make her smile
• Helped me feel confident that the flight would be a good experience just by being there, being awesome, and treating us like champs

Emma, for being so lazy and awesome at being good ...and for not needing a diaper change during any leg of flight

My "girls", for being accessible at all times for my greedy little eater

Darren, for being THE BEST daddy/husband a woman could ask for on the plane.  He handled everything and made sure that my only responsibility in the airport/plane was our baby

Dad, for driving us to the airport at that terribly early hour

Jaymie, for getting us from the airport in Oakland and chauffeuring us all over the place for the first day...and for taking us to the airport on our last day

Edward, for getting us from the airport in Houston when we returned home

Air travel is not my favorite (especially with a baby!), but it gets the job done way faster than the car, so it is still my preferred.

We took lots of pictures on our phones during the trip, most of which have made it to FB if you care to see them.  This one is probably my favorite though, because she was so into watching out the window on the train, and you can see that in her expression.  She really looks like she's taking it all in! Such a cutie.

Silly snapshots in her blessing dress!

Things that should never be said...

Scene: Golden Corral.  Darren, David and I are watching Nicolas, who is holding Emma, interact with our waitress, who is enchanted  with the little one.

Waitress: "Ohhh my goodnessth, she is stho cute! Can I just take her home with me?!"

Nicolas: "I think she might be thinking, "I don't know, can you lactate?".

....I'm not even sure what happened next.

I spent the next 60 seconds waiting for the waitress to walk away from our table. I needed to make fun of Nicolas.

And the waitress had already heard too much.

Staying home

Some days I almost miss going to work.

Almost.

However, I have found that taking care of Wonder Baby, despite the long hours and annoyingly cluttered living spaces, is ten million times more rewarding.

Things

Things I've learned about myself since I became a mom:

• My capacity to adapt is remarkably better than I had ever assumed
• I can sleep in weird positions
• I can hold a baby in my sleep
• Modesty isn't quite the foe it was before.  I'm still careful, but accidental flashings while nursing cause only the slightest embarrassment, if any. It's weird. 
• I have instincts, and they tend to be correct
• My instincts misrepresent themselves sometimes and get me in trouble. Hooligans.

Things that will never be the same ever again since I became a mom:

• My body.  It does weird things now that I can't even go into detail about because it would be unlady-like
• My ability to be spontaneous (not like I was all that spontaneous before, but, you know, now I can't)
• Riding fair/amusement park rides. I rode the biggest and scariest looking ride at the fair a couple weeks ago, and beside all of my excitement was the anxiety of "I'm a mom now! If something goes terribly wrong that little girl I see in the distance being held by a man she doesn't know (Darren's coworker) will not have her parents anymore!". 
• The way I see other moms, specifically the ones who make it look easy.  As Gloria Pritchett says, "I want to be the "How Does She Do It?" mom.  That is my aspiration, but for now, I'm the "I Can't Tell, Is She Doing It?" mom. 
• The way I see other kids (excluding my nephews and nieces).  I one-up them all in my head with comparisons to Emma. She's totally cooler.

Things I always said I would never do when I became a mom, but I do anyway:

• Wipe crusty boogers with my bare fingers (I still refuse to ever intentionally wipe snot with my bare fingers)
• Use those nasty baby changing stations they have in stores.....yelgch. And yes, "yelgch" is spelled the way it sounds.
• Use too many wipes during diaper changes.
• Judge another mom out loud (I caught myself off guard with this one last week, but Darren was doing it too, so it's okay.  Her kid was standing up in the seat part of the shopping cart, and the mom wasn't telling her to sit.  I said, very snobbily as we walked past (too far away for her to hear, thank goodness!), "Oh my goodness, that lady is just begging for her kid to fall out. What kind of mom does that?".  Darren replied, "If you ever let our kids do that I will call CPS on you".  We are judgy snob parents. Dang it!)

Things that scare me since I became a mom, but that I will have to deal with sooner or later:

• Overnight stays anywhere except my own home
• Drives that lasts longer than an hour (this and the previous bullet will both be happening in about 2 weeks)
• Having more children
• Facing trials and sicknesses of my kids
• Doing something horribly wrong and messing them up for life (unrealistic, I know, but still a fear)

Things I've learned to hate since I became a mom:

• The "How Does She Do It?" moms.
• The entire section about things I said I would never do, but I do them anyway.
• Feeling like I'm being judged every single second I am outside of my apartment
• Taking her to the pediatrician (oh my goodness, talk about feeling patronized about my ability to care for the thing....I know they don't do it on purpose, but I can't help but feel like everything I do is being called into question)
• My baby getting shots
• Random people kissing my baby (if you are questioning whether or not you apply, the answer is I don't know.  I have to see you kiss her and then wait for the possible irritation to rise up...it's unpredictable. If you aren't related, it's better that you just play it safe and don't...I'm weird about mouths)
• The constant worry at the back of my mind about her health, safety, and general existence. 

Things I've learned to love since I became a mom:

• Bath time
• Early morning snuggles
• Nasty baby breath
• Her pulling on my hair (that's a sometimes love) (I feel like it helps her feel secure, so I'm usually happy for her when she holds onto it for dear life because I want her to feel secure....or something)
• Being her favorite person (for now...my reign of glory will end when she figures out that Daddy is way more fun than I am)
• The way her limbs flail when she is startled
• Her pout
• Feeling "motherly"
• Sensing what she needs and getting it right (I'm hoping you moms know what I mean...I feel like a rock star when I'm right!)
• Watching her sleep. Like a stalker. 
• Seeing her with my mom.

Car for sale!

If you guys could help spread the word, we would REALLY appreciate it!

My first car. Sniff sniff.

We are selling her as is for $6,500, or best offer.  There are about 116,500 miles.

Holla back!