Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Ada is three months old!

Ada is three months old today! While it seems like we’ve had her around forever, I can also remember holding her in my arms for the first time like it happened this morning. Ada had a very busy month, with lots of visitors and trips to new places. (By the way, can I just say that I love that she was born on the first of the month. It’s so easy to keep track of everything that way.)

Really, it was July when Luke’s womenfolk visited, but we’ll count it anyway. At the end of July, Luke’s mom, Elaine, sister-in-law, Heather, and two nieces, Haley and Hartley (15 yrs and 18 mo), flew out from the Midwest to meet Miss Ada. We sure enjoyed seeing everybody and I know they enjoyed spending time with the latest addition to the Lackrone clan.

On Saturday we loaded up both cars and drove to Annapolis for the afternoon. It was hot, but with we caught a break with the breeze from the water. It also helped that, just as everybody was reaching their low point, we found a shoe store where many of us made a purchase! On Sunday Heather and I knew that the babies probably didn’t need another day out and about. We stayed home and went for a nice walk at the park while Luke took his mom and niece to Georgetown, where they ate cupcakes and shopped for accessories at Urban Outfitters. I believe they also did some walking through DC, but I’m pretty sure the cupcakes were the highlight of the trip ;)

P1000209
P1000263
P1000271

A few days after the ladies left, Luke’s brother, Matt, was in Baltimore for a convention. He came over for dinner one night and got to hang out with a fussy Ada for a little while before I had to cart her off to bed.

Img_0307

After Luke’s family left, we settled down for a few quiet weeks. One Friday we drove to a winery in Virginia to live out my dream of a wine and cheese picnic using a TravelZoo deal Luke had purchased months earlier. Ada did not enjoy sitting in traffic on the 495, but neither did we! She was very good at the winery, but I think she got a little sad that we didn’t let her share our glass of wine with her.

P1000296
P1000305
P1000307

Just when we thought we were done with visitors for a little while, my mom called up and asked if she could come out for another visit before going back to work (she teaches middle school- I know, she’s crazy). So we spent a few delightful days with my mom last week. One morning she and I went to Ft. McHenry and Ada got her National Parks Kids passport! My mom has visited DC and seen all the sights, but she had never made it out to the fort. She really enjoyed ticking one more sight off the list and picking up some educational materials before returning to school.

Img_0353

On Saturday, after my mom left, Luke, Ada, and I drove to Frederick for the day. We love to walk up and down the main street, stopping for a pint at the local brewery, seeing what’s new at the battery-free toy store, and grabbing some ice cream or chocolate somewhere along the way.

Developmentally, Ada has changed a lot this month. At her 2-month appointment, she weighed 10 lbs, .5 oz and was 21.25 inches long. I think this put her in the 25th percentile for weight and something similar for length. So she’s not a big girl, and she’ll probably never become the cute, rolly polly Michelin man kind of kid, but she is filling out. Her legs no longer look hollow, so that’s good :)

In the last two weeks, Ada has learned to grasp small objects. This has opened up a whole new world of independent play on her activity mat, which in turn has enabled me to get in a 50-minute workout every morning! If I position Ada at the right angle, she can kick the support bars on the mat and rattle all of the toys herself. Between that and grabbing the rings hanging off of a few of the animals, she is having a blast every morning! She is still working on a two-handed grasp and gets somewhat frustrated at times as she tries to figure out how she can hold on to objects that aren’t narrow enough to hold in one hand. Over the last week she has become very interested in her Sophie, the giraffe. She enjoys holding on to it while we walk around the house and sucking on Sophie’s face. We’re quite proud of her newfound independence.

Ada has also learned a game this month! She isn’t really keen on tummy time, so I was searching for other ways to help her work on developing head control. She has pretty good control already, but the parenting experts make me feel guilty if I’m not doing tummy time with her. I learned that helping a baby do sit-ups is a great way to let them practice head control. Ada loves it! If she’s laying down, I’ll have her grab my thumbs, and then I’ll grasp her forearms and gently pull her up. Now, whenever she is holding Luke’s or my hand, she starts crunching to try and sit up. She also discovered her feet this week and spends much of her waking time in the carseat crunching forward to watch them.

Ada also seems to love music. I discovered one day in July that she loves to hear me sing “Let It Snow.” For some reason, this has a calming effect on her. She also seems to like show tunes, as I learned one day when I was singing a song from Avenue Q. If you’ve ever seen Avenue Q, you’ll know that I’ll have to stop singing those songs once she can understand language- or perhaps I’ll just clean them up for her.

It’s been really fun to watch Ada learn new things and become more aware of the world around her lately. There are a few things we feel are on the horizon for her. She doesn’t get peek-a-boo yet, but we try every couple of days just to make sure. She has been learning so many new things, but she hasn’t realized that she’s supposed to be proud of herself. We’re encouraging her with lots of positive chatter and clapping every time she accomplishes a new or challenging task.

Luke thinks I’m crazy, but I’m preparing for a somewhat early teether. Ada drools a lot, gnaws on Sophie’s face whenever she has the chance, and has started gnawing on my fingers, rather than sucking on them, when she can get them in her mouth. I think we’ll be buying her a freezable teething ring this week just to be prepared.

Ada has also developed some really great sleeping habits!! We worked really hard to establish a bedtime routine from the start, and it’s paying off. Around 7:45 every night, Ada informs us that she is tired, and would like to be put in bed. A process that used to take more than an hour has been cut down to 20-30 minutes lately. So even though we still start bedtime between 7:45-8:00 every night, she’s in bed by 8:15, rather than 9:15. She wakes up once or twice a night, eats, gets changed, and falls back to sleep quickly. These days my sleep deprivation comes from my own inability to fall asleep quickly!

Our first 6-7 weeks of parenthood were challenging, like they are for everyone. But Luke and I feel like we’ve really hit a stride. We realize that any of this can change as Ada enters the next phase of development, so we’re taking nothing for granted. For now, though, we’re just enjoying our easy baby!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking an interest in our baby! We are so far away from our families that it’s important that we try to keep people up to date on what’s going on with our precious Miss Ada.

I'll leave you with a few more highlights from this month. Let the cuteness-fest begin!

Img_0316
Img_0306
Img_0328
Img_0372
Img_0382
Img_0332
Img_0394
Img_0366
Img_0397