3 Months Old

I missed doing a “two month” post for Walter since it happened right when we arrived in Berlin and it took a bit of time to get back to normal. So three months will have to cover everything!

My mum always says that God gives us the children he has designed exactly for us, and having Walter around I have to agree. He is such a perfect fit for our family, especially at this time in our lives. I couldn’t have predicted that we’d have such a brave, adventurous newborn but we do! Aside from when he’s uncomfortable he loves travel and seems to really enjoy going sightseeing. Apparently he’s a lot like David was, just content to look around and people-watch. People often come up to us and comment on how alert he is for a baby his age. Some people find it disconcerting, since Walter will just sit and fix them with one of his stares if he finds them interesting.

Note the penetrating gaze

He has learned to smile but he can be very particular about them. His biggest smiles tend to come when he is being changed or when he makes eye-contact with one of us, especially after an absence. When I’m out alone with him he tends to be rather serious, fixing me with a solemn gaze that suggests he’s not entirely sure I know what I’m doing. Lately he’s been waking up in a fairly content state, just noisy enough with his head-turning and snuffling to wake me, and when I peek over the side of the bed at him he’ll give me a big grin...and then commence crying for food. When he falls asleep in our arms the last thing to cross his face, before he completely surrenders to sleep, is a fleeting “contentment smile”. He’s now learning to laugh and it’s delightful. He mostly laughs when he’s dangled in the air or when I grab both of his arms and vibrate them, although we’ve discovered that he has ticklish feet. We can’t get him to laugh consistently at the same things, so it’s been hard to get on camera, but each day he’s laughing more and more. I’ve never known of a baby being so happy. Walter is usually just full of smiles and joy. 

He is usually happiest in the mornings. After he’s eaten & changed he likes to lie in bed between us and treat us to thirty minutes of his exercise routine—kicking his legs, thrashing his arms, and grunting. He makes little need for an alarm clock. Once he’s ensured that both David & I are wide awake he is ready for his mid-morning nap. I read somewhere that at three month’s they start to become a little more regular, and his current schedule is one that I can almost live with – he’s tending to take a nap at around 11am, wake up at around 1pm, and then go down again at 3pm... the only negative right now is that he keeps waking up at bizarre times in the night, when for most of October he would easily sleep for 11 or 12 hours at night. I am not sure if it is growth-spurt hunger OR if he’s just ready for more milk, so I’m back to playing around with how much he gets at his meals.

Getting ready for bed

He is slowly discovering the world of toys. “Wormy” the rattle is the only toy he really interacts with, and by interact I mean picks up and sucks on. Sometimes he’ll pick up his Sophie giraffe but I think he finds it a bit difficult to get his fingers around her. He’s not that interested in his stuffed animals yet, although apparently he was sucking on one of them the other day. Mostly he prefers to suck on his receiving blankets, Wormy, or his fist. 

Playing with Wormy

One of his favourite things to do is to watch “Adventure Time” with David – they’re short little cartoon shows and Walter really gets into them and can become quite animated whenever there’s action in the show. He doesn’t have a mobile (since he doesn’t have a crib here!) or any motion-video toys so I don’t mind him watching the short cartoons.

Hanging out with Daddy

He is a very strong little boy. He loves to stand up and can support his weight fairly well, usually only need to hold onto our fingers in order to stay upright. When he’s laying on his back he likes us to help pull him into a sitting position, and is then quite content to sit up although of course he still needs our support to help him. He hasn’t quite figured out crawling yet but it’s quite fun to watch him on the ground, since he moves his arms and legs but can’t figure out how to propel himself forward. I think that he’s almost figured out how to roll over as he’s almost flipped himself when he’s been on the ground. But he generally doesn’t like playing on his tummy so I don’t expect that he’ll be hitting those milestones particularly quickly. I try to build tummy-time into his routine but it usually ends with tears. 

He’s very talkative and loves to tell us stories, especially if we talk back to him in his own baby language. His favourite sounds are “o”, “hiiiii”, “ou”, & “huhn”. If we mimic him long enough he gets really excited and starts squealing. He enjoys listening to recordings of himself and can get quite animated in finally hearing someone who speaks the same language! Sometimes I think he tries to copy my singing, because he makes longer sounds, like sustained notes, when I’m singing to him. 

It’s been really interesting to watch his personality develop over the last three months. We are both so in love with our “happy chappy”!