Dear Joshua...

You turned three months old yesterday! I cannot believe that you are this old already. I remember when my friend Angela told me that life with a baby will be a lot easier when you turn three months old--I remember thinking that three months was a very long time to wait. I think three months actually ended up going by very quickly now that I look back on it. You were not a difficult newborn at all, but you're definitely letting me get a lot more sleep now than you did before. You only get up to eat once during the night now and get about ten hours of sleep. Thank you for that! I'm so proud of you.

I cannot believe all the things you are doing now. You are smiling like crazy, lifting your legs up so high (I'm waiting for you to start grabbing your own feet soon), you're starting to swing your legs and arms over like you want to roll over, you're blowing TONS of bubbles and love to eat your hands. Mommy thinks your hands must taste like chocolate by the way you gnaw on them so much. :) You are doing such a great job playing by yourself too. You love playing with your little froggy stuffed animal, and you really enjoy your play gym too. Lately you also seem to be pretty proud of yourself when we prop you up in a chair or on the couch. You look like such a little man and you smile so big. We've also noticed that you are not enjoying car rides like you used to lately. You tend to cry when you're in the car right now. I'm hoping you'll start liking car rides again soon. You know what else? You've started grabbing your toys now! You're reaching for them and you're no longer missing them....you're grabbing them in your hands and starting to play a little more. It's so fun watching you learn new things. I am glad that you're only reaching for your toys though, and not the yucky ones that Sadie brings you from her collection. I'm sure she means well, but they're full of doggy slobber. I'd prefer if you didn't play with those as long as you're shoving your hands in our mouth all day long, ok?

This month we've started a bedtime routine with you. We give you a bath every night and read "Goodnight Moon," which is one of mommy's favorite children's books. I have to say, you absolutely LOVE bath time. You lie in your bath hammock with your legs hanging in the water, and you love having water poured over you. I think you might be a swimmer when you grow up. Will you be the next Michael Phelps? We'll have to see. I'm thinking about doing baby swimming lessons with you once you turn six months old. We'll see how you feel about that.

This month I also left you and daddy at home while I went to the grocery store. It was hard to leave you, but you seemed to have so much fun with daddy. I think you're going to love hanging out with Daddy when you get bigger. He has so much he wants to teach you. :) You've been sneaky with Daddy too--you like to smile at him when he's not looking, and when he does look at you, you get a very straight face very quickly. You don't know this, but Daddy looks at you out of the corner of his eyes just so he can see your smiles. I think Daddy is pretty sneaky too. :)

Joshua, we cannot imagine life without you. It has been a wonderful three months with you in our family. Daddy and I have learned a lot about ourselves and the things we can do with God's help. We love being your Mommy and Daddy and we feel so blessed that God is letting us be the ones to take care of you. We love you so much. We're looking forward to seeing what you learn this next month and celebrating your first Thanksgiving with you. (Last Thanksgiving I figured out that you were on your way and nobody else knew yet....it was our little secret and it was pretty fun to tell Daddy later!) We're so glad you're here!

Love, Mommy