3 month Baby Stats...

At 3 months Brantley:

~ loves cooing, chit-chatting, and making sounds to us.
~ smiles and giggles at everyone.
~ has found his hands & sucks on them all the time.
~ has found it is fun to stick both his fists in his mouth at once.
~ has found his voice and now cries to hear himself...the same with coughing.
~ loves the puppies; especially Lucky.
~ has learned to pet and pull on Lucky and even snuggles with him in the evening.
~ drools a lot and seems to have a spot where a tooth is developing.
~ weighs a little over 11 lbs; making himself fall into the 25 percentile for weight.

*Clothing*

He recently transitioned himself into clothing size 0-3 months, but still wears newborn sized pants. As for diapers, the cloth AIO's are still quite baggy on him and he wears size 1-2 diapers in Huggies.

*Meal Time*

Since my milk never really came in, we quickly transitioned to formula with breastmilk mixed in when he was first born. He now pretty much gets bottles with straight formula. We use Breastflow bottles and Similac Sensitive for Spit-up, but mix in breastmilk occasionally. We have been using rice cereal in the night bottle and next week we will introduce the cereal more along with the first foods (sweet potato, squash, and carrots).

*Temperment*

He is a very well-behaved baby and a cuddler. He loves to be held but is perfectly content hanging out in his Bumbo or Boppy. He makes the rotation between his Bouncer, his Bumbo, the Boppy propped up on the couch or bed and his swing throughout the day while I do things around the house.

*Play Time*

Brantley loves playtime. He rolls from back to side but has not figured out how to roll completely over just yet. He loves being on his tummy. He will raise his head up and push himself up on his arms and now has learned to pull his knees under him and tries to push himself on his knees. He also has mastered the scooting technique.

*Sleepy Time*

He sleeps through the night from 10:30pm-7am, but has been pretty much sleeping through the night since the 4th week. He will not sleep on his back anymore and insists he be placed on his belly or else he fusses and cries until he is moved. His new trick is to scoot around the crib. We place him in one place and when we check on him again he has turned himself around.

*Picture Time*

Christmas Card....Choices, Choices, Choices...

This year, I am finding it difficult to choose a Christmas card. I always choose to use Shutterfly since they make the cutest designs and they are prompt at sending them to us, and they make the whole card process so easy for busy people like Husby and I. For B's birth announcement, we used this . To match B’s birth announcements, we got this Thank You note since I like to handwrite my thank yous.

The first Christmas after Husby & I got married, we used Shutterfly photobooks to make gifts for our Moms to remember the wedding and have a memory to cherish. They both definitely enjoyed the books and this year, my Mom even used Shutterfly to make us a photobook to remember the Baby Shower. I must say, Shutterfly is very computer friendly and customer savy since my mom is not the greatest with manipulating photos for last minute gift ideas.

For Christmas last year we went with these two cards:

This year I am in love with so many of their designs and I am finding it difficult to decide. This is my Top 3 picks:

Shutterfly has definitely outdone themselves once again. I am leaning towards the first card design. I love the classic feel and the slight religious undertone since Christ is the reason for the season. If I go with the first one, I think I need to use a B&W photo to make it feel nostalgic. We are hoping to go do pictures sometime this weekend, so I have time to get them delivered before we leave for vacation. Also, it will give me something to do in the truck while we are driving for the holidays. Since B will be just over a year next Christmas, I think for next year’s Christmas gift, we may use Shutterfly to do photo calendars for the holidays and use B as our model.

Shutterfly is offering bloggers 50 free photo cards for previewing their 2010 Christmas card collection, just for mentioning Shutterfly in one of their posts. Check it out here.

Happy Holidays all!

Where are you Christmas?

Although, we have many reasons to celebrate and be in the Christmas spirit, Husby and I are just not in the mood. This has been a wonderful year for us with the blessing of our son, but we have also had a lot of sad/difficult moments as well. I think the recent is also a combination of daily life stress, holiday stress of traveling with B and all the craziness we will be experiencing while on vacation (when we were sortof looking forward to a low-key, quiet family Christmas with our parents). I think we will need a vacation to recover from our "vacation". Since we are leaving before Christmas and not returning to our house until after New Year's, we have decided to not decorate this year. I am really sad, as Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and without the decorations, it just does not feel like Christmas. My birthday is next week and I am honestly feeling like it is just another day (I always heard after 25 birthdays are just birthdays, but I guess I never believed it). I am looking forward to spending time with my boys and it being a quiet evening, nothing dramatic...don't even need a gift, but if a gift is given please let it be something like a charm necklace representing B (like his birthstone or something along those lines).

Our Christmas wishlists are all centered on home improvements and B. I asked for some more Mommy books to read, some toys and books for me to read to B, and professional photos of B. I think Husby has only requested more tools and gift cards to HD and Lowe's for the home projects.

However, I love all the Christmas specially-themed treats. If you know me, you know I cannot pass up Chick-fil-A's Chcolate Peppermint Milkshake. Well today, I saw this...


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Peppermint Patty Frappe Recipe from Southern Living

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Yield: Makes 3 cups

Ingredients

• 2  cups  vanilla ice cream
• 1  cup  milk
• 9  miniature or 3 (1.4-oz.) chocolate-covered peppermint patties, chopped

Preparation

Process ice cream, milk, and chopped peppermint patties in a blender until smooth.
Grown-up Frappés: Decrease milk to 2/3 cup. Add 1/3 cup crème de cacao.

and to go with the Frappe...

Milk Chocolate-Peppermint Bark again from Southern Living

Total: 6 hours, 25 minutes
Yield: Makes 2 3/4 lb.

Ingredients

• 1  teaspoon  butter
• 3  (11.5-oz.) packages milk chocolate morsels
• 12  cream-and-mint-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, broken into pieces
• 1  cup  small pretzel sticks
• 1 1/4  cups  coarsely chopped soft peppermint candies, divided

Preparation

Line 1 (15- x 10-inch) jelly-roll pan with parchment paper; grease with butter. Microwave milk chocolate morsels in a large bowl at HIGH 1 to 2 minutes or until melted and smooth, stirring at 45-second intervals. Gently stir in cookie pieces, pretzel sticks, and 3/4 cup coarsely chopped candies. Spread in prepared pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup coarsely chopped candies. Let stand until firm (about 6 hours). Break or cut into pieces. Store in a cool place up to 3 days.


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I think I need to go get some ingredients and make these to get us in the holiday spirit.

Brantley's Developments (2 months)

At Brantley's 2 month check-up appointment on 11/29, he weighed 11lbs and measured 23 inches. He is beginning to catch up in terms of his growth and finally reached the 25th percentile. He has been able to hold his head up on his own for a bit now (as evident in the photos) and loves sitting upright or supported in his Bumbo chair. He is extremely alert now; tracking our movements and voices as we talk to him while working on stuff around the house.

 The Bumbo chair was a great investment for us, since Brantley fits in it well and loves to sit in there and look around at his surroundings. His recent new favorite thing to do is to stand by having someone hold him up and he stretches his legs out and tries to make steps or shuffles in a direction.

 His hair has finally started to grow in. It is looking like a reddish-blonde color, so time will tell what color he ends up having. Everyone says he looks just like mem

 Last night, Brantley decided it was time to show another new trick. Lately, he has been moving himself in his crib throughout the night. He refuses to sleep on his back, so we have been giving in lately and letting him lie on his stomach since he lays with his head to the side always. Last night, I laid him on his belly in his bed and he promptly readjusted himself. He quickly pulled his elbow in underneath his body and pushed himself up on them. He then proceeded to look at the mobile in front of him on the crib as it played music and the light flickered with the projections on the ceiling. He stayed propped up like this, with his head held up for about 10-15 minutes and seemed to be enjoying the view. He was starting to pull his legs in under his body to prop himself on his knees, but then he grew tired (I guess) and laid back down in his crib.

Dad has also started teaching him tricks, or should I say, bad habits. This is of B sticking his tongue out. He is quite smart and mimics Husby at first, but after doing it with him a few times, he will stick his tongue out on his own accord. Typically, he sticks his tongue out whenever Husby turns his head/focus away from him. It is quite cute...but I hope he does not think this is acceptable (especially when we start solids in a few more weeks).

Great-grandparents (Husby's grandparents) are visiting for the holidays and enjoying their visit with B. Here B is showing Grandma how he likes to be held up so he can practice standing.

All in all, B is doing great. He is still having some issues with pooping, but we are hoping to get that worked out soon enough. We should be really starting solids in the next few weeks. First up is rice cereal, followed by carrots, sweet potatoes and squash (in somewhat of that order). I will have to get photos of this mess, er experiment of foods, as I am sure it will be photo-worthy.