3 Months

In two days Isolde will be three months! Time really flies! She's at such a fun age now - wish I could stop time for a while! Though people say each age has its enchantment so I'm sure we have loads of more fun ahead of us!

Isolde is now almost 58 cm tall, slighly below in the chart, and weighs 5,630 (last weigh-ins 4,920 and 5,220), which is right on her development curve. Today she had her first vaccination shot. She cried a little bit but soon forgot the pain when she saw the toy the nurse dangled in front of her. A few hours have passed now but I haven't noticed any crankiness or fever yet, we'll see how the evening goes.

What does she do then? What's she like?

* Sometimes when I'm trying to put her to sleep by singing to her, she laughs at me and tries to talk to me. The other day when I tried to hush her she found this very amusing.

* She really likes her baby gym - big change now compared to the first six weeks of her life. Same thing with the bouncy chair. She seems to understand that we're there even though we're not holding her or she can't see us (or maybe she's just too young to care, as long as she's happy and content). She can sit in the bouncy chair or play in her baby gym for quite some time now while I'm doing other stuff. Now at 12 weeks she can amuse herself for 15-30 minutes compared to 5 minutes at 6-8 weeks. I really like this new situation as it means she can sit in the bouncer in the bathroom while I shower and wash my hair.

* She likes the mobile over her changing table. We had a little stuffed tiger there before, a present from Elvina, but poor Tiger was forgotten when we hung up the mobile. But the socket for the washing machine is even more popular - see below!

* She's a happy, easy-going girl who "talks" and laughs a lot. Now it's an every day thing of course but I remember in the beginning that it was just so cute to look at her little mouth making shapes and noises. She has started making happy cries when she gets excited, especially when she wakes up in the morning (usually in a very happy mood unless she's super hungry).

* When I feed her she sometimes forgets to eat and instead wants to smile and talk. She takes a "sip" once in a while in between chit chatting. She's also a little teaser, whether consciously or not, but on the changing table she will smile, look away and then look at me again and smile more. Sometimes when she's on my lap but I'm surfing on the computer or reading a magazine she will try to get my attention by babbling and then when I look at her she gets excited.

* The bottle is still not popular, nor is the dummy. She sucks on her hands and fingers a lot but has only "succeeded" sucking her thumb three or four times. Peter sucked his index finger so maybe that's what she will go for eventually.

* She likes her cot and often lies there exploring the little flowers in the fabric. She's perhaps a future textile designer, as she seems to like touching our clothes and other fabric. Other professions that she's considering is electrician (or electro engineer as her father) and art dealer, since she's very interested in sockets and the TV antenna outlet as well as two paintings, the one in our kitchen and the one over our sofa (but this probably just reflects where we spend most of our time :)

* Once when she was only six weeks old she managed to turn around from tummy to back but hasn't done it again so it was probably just a fluke. She's trying hard but not succeeding. Lately she's started turning from her back to her side but not all the way around yet. She has started sleeping more on her side too.

* You can tell she really trusts us now. When we bathe her or give her saline nasal drops (her nose is often blocked after long sleeps) she maintains eye contact. If we look calm and happy, she's happy.

* We, or at least I (as I'm with her almost all the time), recognise and correctly interpret most of her behaviour and signs now even though there are new things every day too.

* She has begun to discover her hands but they are still more things to suck on than objects to explore. She's gripping things but not comfortably or that consciously yet. In the last month she has started rubbing her eyes or touching her ears when she's tired. It's interesting how all children do this it seems.