Three months. 12 weeks. 90 days. Where did it go? In a practical sense, how was Thanksgiving three months ago? How was Christmas two months ago? It seems like only yesterday. The time is going too quickly with this little one.
Salem is a smiley three-month-old. As much as we can remember, she’s even smilier (is that a word?) than Tyler was. Like many babies, mid-morning is a peaceful time for her, so I snapped her basket photos before church today. She was incredibly cooperative, and even Tyler wanted in on the action.
“Hoccer, Mommy!”
“Salem need hoccer!”Nana, she looks like you. You can’t deny it.
Just so you can get a full appreciation for her outfit.“Mommy! Me too!”
And in a wave of three-month-old maturity, Salem can suddenly keep a pacifier in her mouth. Hurray! Tyler never took one, so we have about 42 brand-new pacifiers that now might actually get used.
Thank you to Aunt Laura for the adorable owl hat and thank you to Laura Smith of RubyRedHandmade for the headband!
It’s official. Our kids look alike. When Salem was fresh and red and wrinkled, it was hard to tell. But now….
And there’s so many more. We knew in the womb the baby looked just like Tyler. One ultrasound photo in particular gave us the chills.
Ultrasound photos are always kind of creepy (don’t worry, I’ll spare you the 4D freakiness) but when this smashed face appeared we both couldn’t believe how much the baby looked like Tyler (big lips from Grandpa and big nostrils from Daddy).
We keep wondering…will her eyes stay blue (like Tyler’s were) or change to gray-green? Will her hair grow in blond? So far, she eats and sleeps just like him (lots of snacking and catnaps) and is long and skinny like he was. It will be fun to find out, but I don’t want to rush it!
Last summer I was daydreaming about what we should do for the new baby’s nursery. We had done the nursery for Tyler in gender-neutral green, gray, and yellow, and I still loved the way it looked (and functioned). Light-bulb moment! Keep the nursery the same! Tyler’s getting a big boy room!
I didn’t have a theme in mind for his new room, only that Eric and I really wanted it to be a playroom for him as well as his bedroom. Our house is small and we want as few toys in the living room as possible. Four months before the baby was due, Tyler turned two and we had no idea if he would still be in a crib when the baby arrived. Two months before d-day, we realized Tyler would probably sleep in a crib until he was six if we let him. He, to this day, has NEVER tried to escape. I don’t think the thought has ever occurred to him. So, I scored an IKEA crib for $15 and a mattress for $10 for Tyler’s new room. Eventually we’ll take the side off of it but hopefully he sleeps in it as long as he fits in it, because a crib takes up way less space than a bed in his playroom/bedroom.
I found an adorable alligator duvet on PBK.com that I scooped up on clearance. But that’s all I had to go on. My parents came out in October to “do the room” so Eric and I had to make some choices. We He painted the room gray and installed crown moulding with my dad. (Lowe’s makes a nifty kind with corner pieces that the boards pop into so you don’t have to miter, FYI!) We still needed curtains and while trolling PBK.com again I saw that the toddler duvet I had purchased was on super-duper-extra clearance ($9.99!) so I bought two more and my mom transformed them into curtains. We Eric built an IKEA dresser and BHG cube shelves from Walmart, and painted an old bookshelf white. Eric chose the softest, most comfortable rug from Home Depot. I organized the toys and created art for the walls. We absolutely LOVE how the room turned out!
We literally provided him with steps out by putting the cube shelf next to the crib. Still has never tried it.Eric installed curtain tiebacks to let the light in, but when we close the curtains at night those toddler duvets really block the light!I framed some images from his favorite books.A gallery wall of family photos is over the bookshelf, and an art cart is next to the reading chair (from our living room set but it doesn’t fit in the living room!)Eric also made the pallet shelf above the dresser we are currently using to display books.
I knew if we had a girl I would add a touch of girliness to the nursery, so I painted Salem’s letters pink and found a cute pink sheet at Target. Other than that, the room is pretty much the same, and we still love it.
Which kind of baby will we have? Boy or girl?Girl!We love you SO much, Salem.Our sweet pink burrito.
This kid never stops amazing us. He is kind, gentle, friendly, animated, silly, and loving. He chats with us about his friends at school (still don’t know if the kid is named Wylie or Riley), his baby “shishter Shalem”, and Jesus. He wants to watch “Gwinch” and build Thomas tracks and read Llama Llama. He remains obsessed with baseball.
And yet, he still really doesn’t want to pose for the gosh dang camera. Tyler, pull it together for Mommy, will you please? Here are a few shots of Tyler “in” the basket at age 2 1/2 as well as a look back at some other memorable basket photos.
Tears.He said he would sit in the duck bathtub, but not the basket.My favorite toddler.One foot in the basket because I let him hold the candy jar.Age 2, tears.18 months, tears. Is there a theme here?My harmonica-playing toddler.12 months (apparently the end of the Era of Happy Basket Photos)I couldn’t resist.
Salem will be eleven weeks old on Friday, and I’m headed back to work on Wednesday. I’m so, so glad I was able to spend more time with her–I went back when Tyler was only seven weeks old.
I knew maternity leave would feel like a blur with the holidays and visits from family and friends, but WOW, did it go by quickly. I had been worried about being cooped up in the house with a newborn because I had loved being able to walk and walk and walk with Tyler in the stroller in August and September (the best month of the year in Colorado!) Although we had some incredibly nice days, there were many wintry days this January. (I don’t remember December. Between Christmas and all of Salem’s crying, I just don’t remember much about December.)
The first couple of cold, windy days in January I started to go crazy with Salem stuck at home. She cried a lot for awhile there, and daytime TV is terrible. But after a sunny patch and after Salem got just a bit older, I began to look forward to the next blustery day. I loved spending time with this baby girl, just holding her and looking at her and really, really wondering who she would look like as she grows up.
All of a sudden she was smiling. And cooing. And grabbing at her toys on the playmat. She didn’t need to be bounced for hours anymore. She could sit in the Bumbo and watch her brother run and play. What happened to my wrinkly, fragile newborn? The one who wanted to eat every twenty minutes? The one who fit into newborn clothes until she was nine weeks old?
She went to daycare today for the first time, for practice. She did great. My strong, sweet little champ who took a bottle when she was four days old and will let anyone feed it to her. She even came home in the same outfit I sent her in. Tidy, like her brother.
I keep telling myself I’m going back midweek for a reason–a short week, followed by two more short weeks (President’s Day). Then it’s March, and Spring Break will be here before we know it. I wish I had more time at home but summer is just around the corner (which is basically the whole point of being a teacher.) We will settle into a new routine tomorrow, a new, temporary way of life. Wrangling two kids is already significantly less challenging than it was a month ago.
Salem is a peach. We love her so, so much. Here is a look back, in lots of photos (and a few videos), at her first eleven weeks of life. I hardly recognize this little peanut…
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