"Finally, a tummytime that doesn't suck" and other musings.

We have hit the magical three month developmental milestone. The one where your smiling, charming amorphous blob suddenly has much better neck and head control and is suddenly getting much better at hand-eye coordination. S/he may even be beginning to roll over and give you hope that some day soon sitting up will be on the horizon. This is when it hits you- "OMG! the baby is growing up!!" (insert a fleeting moment of sadness).

For the record, Gillian is NOT rolling over or sitting up, but I'm sure the day is coming. For today, I am more than a little giddy to report that Gillian was on her stomach today for at least 5 minutes before fussing!!! Let me back up, and explain the significance of this to you. Child development experts, pediatricians, etc., etc., recommend something called "Tummytime"-very intuitively, time baby spends on her tummy. This, we are told, should be done often, and regardless if the baby screams bloody murder the entire time. It helps them strengthen and develop neck and head control, and is the cornerstone of crawling. I tried this the first time when Gillian was a few weeks past her due date. Since she spent the entire tummytime with her face smashed into the playmat screaming, I would say it was a bust. I even tried helping her by holding her head up a little, but to no avail. She hated it. I hated it. "Oh, why do they tell us not to let them sleep on their stomachs?" I opined. In the old days, tummytime didn't exist. It didn't need to. So, I would give it another try every now and then to see if she still hated it. She did. Till today. I put her on her stomach, she, in fine form, held her head high, even looked around. It was a whole new world! On her stomach!! It took several minutes for her neck to get tired and fussing to commence, but I was so proud...the stamina!..the endurance! Our girl is a rockstar!

Other Musings:

1) Ever since she learned how much fun it is to have hands, they have been very hot, very sticky (surely a side effect of sticking them in her mouth when there is milk residue in there-I hope), and full of gray lint. I'm not sure where the little globs of gray lint in between her fingers comes from. Or why it is always gray. Or where the dirt under her nails comes from. Or how a baby who never goes outside gets such dirty hands?

2) Since the beginning of February, she has been rubbing her eyes when she's tired. With the her rudimentary motor skills, initially this was a lot like a blindfolded drunk playing darts, but she is quite good at it these days. It's one of those things that looks so familiar and so human, and no one taught her to do it. Needless to say, a tiny baby rubbing her eyes, besides being a clear message of tiredness (we get very few clear messages early on, so this is so fantastic), is especially cute.

3) Hair. It seems to be coming in a little (the aforementioned bald spot is sporting stubble). It is light brown with little gold glints that shine through in the light. And we thought it was going to be white blond, like we both had. Weird.

4) A recessive chin. If you know Sean, you know he has a dimple in his chin that resembles a hole punch...or the indentation of a button on a cushion. He also has a small mole up and to the right of that. So does his sister, his father, his uncle, his aunt, his cousins, etc. We were sure she would follow suit. Instead of the "Colledge chin" she has her grandmother’s sweet little dimples on either side, just under the corners of her mouth. Refreshing.

It's almost March, which is closer to April than almost February. Soon-leaves and warmth and fresh air. A whole new world for The Bean.