Shulamith, Mathew, Swen, and Kennedy: Smiles!

Last time we went took Swen to the doctor, she said that he should be starting to smile. I got a little nervous because he hadn't smiled too much yet. I am the biggest worrier there is, so I got all scared something was wrong. I think Swen knew I was scared because, seriously, the next day he started smiling all the time. Now he's at the age where every time I look at him, he gets a huge smile on his face! He actually smiles for most anyone, which is so fun. I try to capture pictures of it every time. So here they all are!

He looks totally bald in most of these, but he really isn't. It is more of a receding hairline with a cute little mullet of thick dark hair in the back. He is also starting to get the bald ring around his head from lying down and moving his head around. It took him a while because he never wanted to be put down. He also never slept more than 2 hours in a row by himself at night. However, this is all changing! He now loves to lie on his back and kick and punch like crazy. He just smiles and giggles while he kicks away. I got really into watching MMA fighting while I was pregnant, so maybe he wants to be a fighter. I hope not because I would be worrying about him all the time. Here is a little video of him kicking and punching.

In addition to playing and kicking by himself, he is sleeping great! Matt and I let Swen determine his schedule. We don't put him down to bed or to nap at certain times, or make him eat at certain intervals. We just go with whatever he is telling us. If he's hungry, I feed him, and sometimes it is every hour, and sometimes he will go 3 hours. If he's tired, we rock him to sleep and hold him so he will will stay asleep as long as he wants. Now, at 3 months, he has mostly set up his own little schedule. He takes two big naps, one in the morning, and one in the early evening. He then goes to bed around 10 p.m. and sleeps until about 3:30 a.m.! Yes, that is five in a half hours, in case you are counting like I do. He then sleeps until about 7 a.m. and is up for the day. Of course this is only the usual. He still has bad nights and bad days sometimes. Monday, for example, was NOT a good day. He woke up at 7 a.m. and could not fall asleep again until 10:45 p.m. It was awful, and nothing Matt or I did helped. It was a full day of him crying and being passed back and forth between the two of us. I kept thinking that he would be an only child forever because I didn't want another baby ever again. Usually, I am already talking about what all the next babies are going to be like and how excited I am to have more. I know we need to wait a little while, but it is just so fun, and I want lots and lots more babies (sorry Matt)!

Swen is also developing some of our traits. For example, he gets really grumpy when he wakes up. He cries and stretches and cries for a little bit before getting happy. This is just like Matt. When Matt and I first got married I always thought he was mad at me in the morning. He would wake up and not talk to me at all; it wouldn't just be for a little while, but for like an hour! Then, of course, I didn't help because I would keep trying to talk to him, and then I'd get super short answers. I would then yell, "Why are you so mad at me?" He would respond, "I'm not mad; I just woke up. But I'm going to get mad if you keep asking if I'm mad." Ha ha! I quickly learned to stop talking to him in the morning after he has just woken up.

Swen also gets really grumpy really fast when he is hungry or tired. He will just start screaming and eating his hand when he wants to eat. That is an easy problem to fix because I just feed him whenever he wants. When he's tired, it can be a little harder. He fights sleep, and nothing will help him until he finally crashes. This is just like me! I don't even see the hungry grumps coming on until it is too late. All of a sudden I will be really mean and grouchy. Then I eat and I'm all better. I'm even more grouchy when I'm tired! When I used to teach, I would come home to Matt holding a Diet Coke and a blanket forcing me to lie down and watch TV until I fell asleep. In his own best interest, he would wait to talk to me until after I woke up from my nap.

Something Matt and I both have in common is our stubbornness. I don't think babies can be stubborn at three months old, but hopefully he doesn't follow in our footsteps. It is super annoying. We are the kind of people that if you tell us to do something, we will for sure do the opposite. One time I told Matt that to make Swen happy, Matt should stand up and walk around with him. He now refuses to stand up and walk with Swen if I'm around. I've caught him doing in when I'm in another room, though. Matt once told me that when Swen is fussy, going outside calms him down. Matt's right, but because he told me to do it, I don't when he's around. Poor baby Swen and his stubborn parents. Good thing we have lots of good qualities for Swen to inherit in order to outweigh the others. The other trait you may have noticed in the pictures is his rapid weight gain. I am hoping this isn't coming from either of us. :) He is getting HUGE! I absolutely love it. He is the roundest, fattest "little" baby ever. He just gets rounder and rounder every day. His stomach looks like a tire around his waist, and he has rolls on his arms and legs. People that don't see him every day are amazed by how big he is every time they see him. He is also rockin' the biggest double chin. When he was born, he had skin under his chin just hanging there waiting to bulk up, and it sure did! Look how cute he is.