Zuzu at 3 months

is sprawled across my stomach sleeping hard. babygirl has not let me put her down for a nap since daddy left for work at 2:30. typically i'd work a little harder to get her to go down in her crib for a nap, but since we've had such a hectic week, i figure she must need the extra cuddle time.

so, three month old zuzu is just as much a doll as ever. she's a flirt! all during our travels (except towards the tail-end--unfortunately her aunt heather only got to see her at her most tired and fussy!) she smiles and coos and hams it up with whoever looks her way. what a charmer, i love it.

she's mastered grabbing hold of stuff. she can hold a rattle for a little bit (until she loses interest) but mostly likes to grab at burp clothes, blankies, headbands. she can barely wear headbands because she immediately grabs them and pulls them over her eyes or in her mouth.

and, already, nearly everything goes in her mouth! whenever we give her our finger to hold she immediately tries to put it in her mouth, ha! and her licking problem still prevails--watch out if your bare arm is within licking distance when you hold her.

her neck control is really good; i think she's probably ready for her bumbo seat, but i'm going to hold off another week or two, just to make sure (i don't want her to strain a muscle). i'm excited  for her to be able to hold her head up on her own enough to sit in it though--she loves it when we hold her up like that, i think she likes to be part of things.

we're still cloth diapering. i'm thinking of maybe switching to disposables for overnight, since the cloth diapers sometimes leak when she sleeps 8 or 9 hours, and i don't want to wake her up to change her in the night, you know. using them during the day still works great though. and i've yet had to buy diapers, even once, thanks to some generous friends and churchmembers.

the past few weeks she's really gotten good at self-soothing. saying adios to the pacy and loving her thumb (now that she can suck on just her thumb, not her entire hand). this has really helped her daytime naps; she can go down for a nap now without having to be wrestled to sleep (seriously, kicking and squirming and fighting it as much as possible! silly girl!). we'll put her in her crib when she's fussing and let her fuss for a few minutes til she drifts off (only for fussy complainy crying not serious crying; you'd have to hear the two to know the difference, but there is Definitely a huge difference!)

her night time sleeping has been as good as it always was--thankfully the traveling didn't throw her off once we got her home. it changed a little though--instead of going down around seven or eight and waking up at four a.m., she goes down around ten or eleven and wakes up around eight or nine a.m. i prefer this schedule anyway, it feels like more sleep!

she's started doing these leg/body slams in her crib sometimes; we first noticed them when we were on vacation, she was in her crib and we heard Whomp, Whomp, Whomp--she was lifting her legs straight up then slamming them down on the crib! it was supercute.

another new thing we noticed on vacation--the first time that i ever saw her get genuinely scared! i sneezed and it must've startled her but she just burst out crying so so loud! and this week we found out that she's also scared of packing tape (the noise it makes when taping up a box). poor little dear! she screams so loud and i pick her up to cuddle her and comfort her and she has these shuddery little sobs, they are the epitome of sadness.

well, thats it for zuzu updates, not much else new that i can think of. her ninna, papi and uncle blake are coming in town tomorrow for christmas celebrations. my decorating has been dismal--a single ornament hanging from our ceiling fan pull. i guess that is almost worse than not decorating at all. luckily little zu won't remember things this year, and next year i will go all out, promise!