12 weeks & 3 days

I missed posting exactly on Tobin's 12-week birthday, which was this past Thursday. Twelve weeks seems a significant milestone. Most working parents are ending their maternity/paternity leave at 12 weeks. Matt & I are so blessed to have more time than that. Matt returns to work next week & I start in a little over 3 weeks. We have had a wonderful summer, NC Bar Exam notwithstanding. The last few post-Bar weeks have been especially fun, since Tobin now has two parents who can give him undivided attention. He loves to interact by cooing, gurgling, and smiling, so it's been so fun.

At 12 weeks, he continues to be very verbal & even more engaged. We were shopping at Target the other day with Tobin strapped to Matt in the BabyBjorn & I looked back at them & Tobin was tracking me. I stepped closer & smiled & his face lit up, making me feel like the MOST important person in the world. I am super lucky to have two men in my life that make me feel so special on a daily basis.

Tobin has also discovered his hands & his tongue, which he tries to get together A LOT. He loves to blow spit bubbles & stick out his toungue & then try to eat his fist. It's beyond cute, even if his dad is a bit put off by the drool. (Kidding, he's not too put off but he does feel the need to wipe it away more than I do.)

Tummy time is still more of a chore than fun. We're supposed to let him play on his tummy to develop his neck & back muscles, since he sleeps on his back. Tobin doesn't much like being on his tummy. He grunts in protest & will often just lay his head down & frown, which of course we cannot tolerate so we turn him over rather quickly. But he has made some progress & can be "tricked" into holding his head up like a little turtle if one of us puts our hands under his chest & then slowly removes them. He doesn't seem to understand that his arms can help him prop his head & chest up. He almost always puts his arms to his side & THEN tries to lift his head, which is hard for most anyone to do. It's all terribly amusing.

People frequently ask me about his schedule. For the most part, I would say it is: wake at 7, eat about every 3 hours, go to bed at 7 with one or two night wakings. But then lately he seems to be changing that. For example, he's napped more than an hour & a half past his 10am feeding. And last night, he was happy & awake until about 8:30pm. He's seemed to want to stay up later the last few nights. This is after weeks of going to bed rather consistently between 6:30 & 7:30, which was really nice because Matt & I could have dinner after he went to sleep. But I'm content to let him tinker with his schedule. He's been so easy that I can't complain. And even though he wakes at night, he's very easy to get back to sleep & is often kind enough to let Mom & Dad sleep in sometimes. It will be interesting to see how his routine goes once we start working . . .

Speaking of Tobin, he is now waking from a gigantic nap (for him, more than 2 hours) & I am sure he is a hungry boy.