12 Weeks- Aiden found his fingers!

I can't believe that Aiden is already 12 weeks old. Vic and Aiden sent me flowers to commemorate the occasion; don't I have a wonderful husband! I definitely love having beautiful, fresh flowers to look at every day!

It's amazing what a week will do. Here are some recent pictures of my little bug.

Aiden is getting stronger and stronger during tummy time! He can now prop himself up for at least a couple of minutes at a time and turn his head side to side to follow his toys.

Haha! I love my little chubby monkey.

This is how I am greeted every morning. How can you not love that face!!

Aiden on his changing table before a diaper change. I am still trying to figure out what in the world is so funny! =)

A couple of weeks ago, Aiden met Uncle Mark and Aunt Josefina's son, Logan. Cousin Logan was so sweet and gentle with "Baby Aiden", as he calls him. =) I see lots of playdates in our future!

Since I'll be going back to work in a couple of weeks, Vic and I decided that it was time to make the move into his crib. Vic's mom will be watching Aiden on Mondays and we figured it would be so much easier for her to get him up in the morning if he was sleeping in his room. Aiden was a champ with the transition. Me? Not so much. I must have gotten up at least a dozen times to check on him.. as if he would roll out or something. One thing that does baffle me is how Aiden manages (while tightly swaddled) to shift himself from a horizontal position in the crib to a vertical one. I'll have to sit and watch one night. I think Aiden is enjoying his new bed, he's all smiles every morning when I come in to get him up.

We're still sticking strong to our 3 hour daytime routine. The "Baby Whisperer" recommends switching to a 4 hour routine when the baby turns 4 months. We'll try that in a few weeks. Aiden still consistently eats about 4 ounces/feed; to me it seems like he should be eating more now. But he's gaining weight and is happy as a clam, so I guess 4 is enough for now. Our nighttime routine hasn't changed. Aiden still gets up at midnight and 4am for a feed, not sleeping through the night yet. I tried to increase the volume of his daytime feeds to see if it would make him last longer through the night, but to no avail, 4 ounces and he is full. The nighttime feeds don't bother me much anymore, I'm so used to it I'm not sure what I would do with longer than a 2 hour stretches of sleep at night.

Aiden is becoming quite the talker, much like his Mommy! He's now able to make sounds that incorporate vowels like "ahh" and "baa", as well as the usual "coos". He and I make sure to have lots of daily conversation and storytime to increase his vocabulary. =) So far, I'm finding that he likes to hear me read Peter Pan. Hopefully he'll grow up to have a great imagination like the characters in that story!

Something new that recently developed, Aiden discovered he has fingers!! Now they are constantly in his mouth. He's not a big pacifier fan, unless he's going down for a nap or bedtime, so fingers it is!

It's amazing how big he is now. He's not an infant anymore! In a way I'm sad that he's growing so fast, I'm trying really hard to cherish every second. I absolutely love being home with him every day to see him smile, hear him talk, cuddle with him and help him grow and develop. It's going to be really difficult for me to leave him when I go back to work. But I know that he'll be in excellent hands, Grandma on Mondays and Daddy on Wednesdays, so how can I complain.

We're planning on visiting my parent's house in Florida for a weekend in May. It will be the first time we've gone there since my mom passed away, so it should be an interesting trip. I'm definitely nervous about flying with a baby, so any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated!!

More to come! Until then, fingers rule! =)