3 months, or 1/4 of a year

A bit of reflection on a full season of Jolyon is warranted!

There's a big franchise of baby-care strategies called "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and we really do think we have one. Jolyon is an incredibly easy-going, happy baby, of the sort that I didn't actually think existed in real life outside of baby product commercials. We only have one series of unhappy crying photos because he just doesn't do it very often (and yes, we haven't posted them yet, or any other photos from the last few weeks, because our desktop computer is not booting up and is currently at the shop). But, back to Jolyon - we can count major meltdowns on one hand, really, and minor crankiness is transitory and easily passes. He smiles all the time, at everyone and everything and it's the most adorable thing ever. His periods of unhappiness appear to have been timed in the past week to coincide with faculty meetings, possibly because it is enforced holding-on-lap time after a long nap in the carseat and subsequent eating. But even when he's unhappy and fussing, he still smiles while he's doing it. Crazy!

He continues to enjoy kicking every bit as much as he has been for... well, as long as he's had control over his legs, which has been a while. Right now he's hanging out on the rug in front of a crackling fire with me, and kicking and punctuating his kicks with arm jabs. (We're trying to use up our java logs before we move. Our new place has a chimney but the woodstove was removed and capped off, and it'll be a while before we get a new one installed.) And, although he really enjoys having his own space for the four-limb-thrashing action, he really enjoys our company in doing so, and is really a very interested, interactive baby. This extends especially to vocalization attempts from new kinds of shrieks and chortles added to the more standard cooing.

Other favorite activities include grabbing blankets and burp cloths and pulling then up by his face, and chewing his hand through the fabric. We're reluctant to leave him alone with blankets for suffocation reasons, but that's definitely his favorite toy right now.

I am given to understand by the marketing campaigns for many zip-up or button-front outfits that many babies very strongly object to having their enormous floppy heads shoved through the neck of shirts, but Jolyon thinks it's hilarious, because again, it's a chance to have fabric squashed against his face. He's started making delighted anticipatory noises when I am getting him dressed, as though he's thinking something along the lines of "oooh, ooh, I know, my head gets shoved through the onesie now, yay!" I'm actually still ludicrously bad at dressing a newborn because I've never had to get good at doing it swiftly, because Jolyon totally loves it when I take a while and he gets to have his head stuck in the shirt for a while. Once the shirt is over his neck, the sleeves are also extra hilarious because again, the hands are encased in fabric as they journey through the sleeve, and he delights in finding his fist and mouthing it through the fabric. Even getting undressed has stopped being such a big fuss and is now just accompanied by unfettered kicking action.

The other development is that Jolyon has become a fountain of drool. Especially since he's decided that lying is only for flat surfaces, and we've been holding him sitting in our laps or propped over one shoulder with a view of the room, or over one arm in the superman pose. In addition to providing a nice view of the surroundings for our son, they also are conducive to gravity-assisted drool dispersal. He's still not very prone to spitting up, but man, can he do straight-up spitting like a champion. We've started actually using the bibs we got.

He's going through the first growth spurt we've noticed right now which basically means that when Stephanie is home, he is eating constantly. When he's home with me, he's been managing upwards of 5 ounces at a time, but still continues his usual nap-eat-happytime-crankytime-return to nap cycles. Hungry baby, indeed! This appears to be going entirely towards gains in height and energy expenditure in kicking, since he's still a long, skinny baby. The combination of the two means that he's actually fitting into clothing pretty much as expected, because the extra width goes towards creating more slack in height. He's still in one brand of newborn onesies (Carter), and otherwise, are starting to think that the 0-3 month sleepers might be starting to get a bit short, especially in the torso and arms. He does seem to have gotten my long torso as well as height. :)

His interest in dangly toys is still somewhat limited, but he's become more purposeful with the rattle if we press it into his hand. He's only started to make vague efforts at grabbing at things other than blankets - right now, he seems far more entertained by himself and by us (and Priscilla, who is now less massive than Jolyon, although it doesn't look like it because she's an enormous poof of black fur).

Speaking of blankets, he's getting stronger and now regularly busts out of all swaddles except for the Miracle Blanket. Swaddling continues to be the best way to calm him down when he's overstimulated and getting fussy, so we're continuing to do it. Once his arms are immobilized, he's actually quite good at putting himself to sleep.

He is capable of rolling over when he's on an incline and positioned in such a way that facilitates his rolling -- which is really just basic physics and gravity at work, and so completely does not count as a developmental milestone, but is good fun for all of us.

I don't believe in classifying babies as "good" because really, what, do you think some babies emerge from the womb "evil", but the label gets attached a lot by other people, and I can't exactly disagree. Jolyon is such a constant delight that it totally far exceeded my expectations. He's definitely a very easy, cheerful baby who continues to oscillate between very active, alert awake periods and incredibly zonked out sleeping, with smooth transitions.

It's been a super fun three months of time mostly off with Jolyon, and we've made the transition to being my back at work this week fairly gracefully. I really can't imagine life without Jolyon, nor a baby that is as deserving of the nickname "Jolly", and I am so excited to see what the next three months bring.

PS - also, his nose has stopped being straight and started having a tiny bend in it! Yay, grownup nose!