April 28

Broken leg or not, today was Eli's 3-month birthday so I had to take some pictures of him. I started early, right after Chris' mom took Daisy to preschool, in case things didn't go well. 

It was good that I started early, because a certain little "helper" of mine tried to help by putting her hand in every single frame. It was frustrating and cute at the same time.

Eventually, I managed to find a time when Lily was too distracted to bother us.

Hey there, handsome! This is his trademark half smile, which I kind of love.

At three months old, Eli:

weighs between 10.5 and 11 pounds

laughs, coos, and gurgles

wiggles and kicks, but doesn't roll

still has gray eyes, but they're slowly turning brown

has lost his thick newborn hair and his real hair is coming in

doesn't hit many of the three-month milestones

is still sleepier than most three-month-olds

nurses through the night, but has mastered sidelying nursing so I'm getting plenty of sleep

doesn't really have a regular nap schedule, except that he usually naps when the girls nap in the afternoon

is happiest when he's wrapped or being worn

The kids haven't really come up with any nicknames for Eli yet. the closest thing he has to a nickname is the way Lily says his name right now: Ee-yah. Chris and I always laugh when she says it, because it makes us think of the rapper Nelly, who sang, "Eya, eya, oh oh..."

Eli is still doing the gushing torrents of spit up on me at least once a day. I'm hopeful that his tummy just gets overfull with milk because I produce so much, and that he'll outgrow it soon. Otherwise, he's a pretty happy baby. He will nap on his own about 50% of the time, and at bedtime I can get him to sleep on his own maybe 10% of the time. The rest of the time, he sleeps in my arms or while Chris wears him in the stretchy wrap.

Eli has been a challenging baby so far, but he has also been such a blessing to our family. We are all totally in love with him, and I am definitely enjoying watching as his personality develops.

I finished our photo shoot and began folding some laundry, when Eli started fussing. Since no photo shoot is complete without a picture of a crying baby, I snapped this: 

I was nearly done folding laundry, though, so I let him fuss for a few more minutes so that I could finish folding.

A minute and a half later, Eli looked like this: 

Sound asleep. Love it.

He slept like that for a good 45 minutes, which was a total victory for me.

Later, Lily and I played on the front porch while we waited for Caleb to get home. She has discovered fluffy dandelions, and she wandered off to pick one for me. I snapped a few pictures, which I think are pretty magical.

Yes, we have a lot of dandelions. No, I don't really care. (Well, actually, I do care, but I'm not willing to put chemicals on my grass to kill the dandelions. My children play barefoot in the lawn, so we're chem-free. Dandelions are the unfortunate consequence.)

Love this girl!