Klessmas Time: 15 Weeks of Our Little Behr

Life with our little Behr only gets better. He wakes up each morning more fun and sweeter every day. (Note: that's every morning when he wakes up. When he wakes up at nap time it's rough. He's very like his mama. ;-)) At three months he's so much more interactive and are so much more in love with him. The most recent highlights are...

The Swings. Behr had his first adventure on the swings with Aunt Titi and Little A a few weeks ago on one of these unseasonably warm March days we've had this month. Audrey kept telling us she was going to take Behr to the swings but any other time he's gone he's stayed in the stroller. I guess this time he and Audrey convinced Aunt Titi he was big enough to try it out too. ;-) Word is he loved it even if he wasn't totally sure about it and sat and stared and kicked his little feet.

The Outdoors. The obvious advantage of this gorgeous weather has been lots of time outside for all of us. Behr seems to love going for walks or sitting out on the deck with me or Dre. He fights hard to stay awake on walks so he can lick the wind and squeal at the tree branches. Love this little dude. He's even helping his dada to 'love the outdoors.' ;-)

Gravelly Point. For Dada's birthday we had our first family picnic at Gravelly Point and introduced Behr to Dre's favorite hobby of airplane watching. He wasn't too into it and definitely found it a little overwhelming and scary but tried his best to be brave for Dada's sake. ;-) I know we'll be back for many more picnics and family times in the days to come. Behr also went to his first museum the Monday before when we spent the day with our friends Andrew & Cassie at the Udvar Hazy Air & Space Museum. He was a perfect baby that day away from home from 10:45-7pm and only fussed when he was hungry. Some days we're just spoiled.

Moves. Well this picture doesn't really capture it unless you were sitting at the angle I was when I took it but little man is starting to figure out controlling his movements. Some mornings when I got to get him up after crib time I find him moved 90-degrees or more from how I left him. He wiggles his little legs and pushes his little belly all over the place. He likes to wiggle his hips out of his bouncy seat if left not strapped in. I let him test out his jumperoo the other afternoon and he was pretty sure he was the man making himself bounce and sway in the doorway in it. (Until he got hiccups and scared himself silly.) He also gets pretty impressed with himself when he can manage to grab hold of the spoon or plate or whatever is on the table in front of him when he's sitting on someone's lap. It's so neat to watch him already start to grow up into a little boy in these ways. It's just amazing to watch someone learn like this.

More Books. Behr is still sweetly captivated by reading picture books together. His favorites are Frank Asch books (below) which I'm guessing is because they're big illustrations with lots of contrast on a page. He'll often kick and squeal as they're being read to him. He loves pretty much anything with good pictures so Dada's had fun introducing him to books like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie too. Reading a book or two together every day is one of my favorite things about having this little boy.

Teething. Behr is looking to be a child prodigy. I mean we're his parents so clearly we're biased but most evenings he can be found looking like this...

or this...

Poor little dude is teething "early" at 3 1/2 months. He just wants to be special I guess. (3 months is the early side of average I suppose and his daddy set him up for it by getting his first tooth at 5 months.) His mean ol' teeths make him rather miserable in the evenings. Some nights it just means he wants to gnaw and gnaw and gnaw and release buckets of drool. Other nights he's rather inconsolable without a little Tylenol and extra snuggles to numb the pain. It's so very sad to not be able to help him much or explain to him why he hurts but we know he'll survive it and that we all had to go through it and none of us remember the apparent agony we went through having our teeth first push through our gums. He's got the white spots, the epic drool, the need to gnaw, and all the other "signs" of teething. I'm just hoping, for his sake, that whatever tooth or teeth need to push through get through soon so he can have a break from his evenings of misery.

Pooh Bear & Snuggles. The other side of his super sad teething phase is a snuggly little guy. About a month ago he started being attached to his Pooh Bear and soft blankets. When he's sleepy--or needs the reminder that he's sleepy and it's nap time--a little snuggle with Pooh or a blanket has him drifting right off. The other morning he put himself down for a nap by reaching over and stealing my blanket and rubbing his face into it and clutching it with his fists. It's just about my favorite thing ever to witness--and definitely a life saver on his fussy days to have him learning to self-soothe.