happy 3 months, maddox!

Maddox turned 3 months old this past week. I'm posting a bunch of photos and videos of him, so you can see what he's up to.

These days he's

• starting to make cooing sounds
• finding his hands - especially to chew on
• outgrown his swaddle blanket
• kicking his legs a lot
• loving hanging out in the "barnyard" toy
• able to roll onto his side, though not get from tummy to back or back to tummy

Interestingly, I have no idea if he's ahead or behind the curve with these milestones. I haven't consulted the baby book regarding the subject of baby development. In fact, I can't even FIND the baby book. What can I say? Second child syndrome. I kind of like it this way though.

This past month saw Maddox fall into a better sleep routine. For a couple of weeks he reliably gave me a 3, 4 and/or 5 hour stretch each night. Then all hell broke loose. The past two weeks have frankly been a disaster. Arwen went on a 4-day business trip and I had the kids on my own. Which wasn't too bad. By the time he got home I was pretty pleased that I'd managed to get Roan to school on time, keep them fed and bathed, show up for work and keep the house tidy. It was a busy week and I was tired, but it felt good. Then he got home and promptly got sick. He was bedridden for 4 days with 103* fever. And Maddox stopped sleeping. And Roan had a friend stay the night who also is not a good sleeper. And work was going crazy with deadlines for me. Days and days went by and I only had sleep in 1-2 hour increments. My grip on sanity seemed to be slipping.

But then Arwen got better, Maddox did a little more sleeping, I finished up the stuff at work that was making me crazy, and life is good again.

Roan is doing great. She's reading up a storm. We have a parent/teacher conference next week, and again she got a glowing report. She is thriving at school, both academically and socially. It's great to see her in the photos her teacher takes, hard at work, surrounded by friends.

We are busy planning her birthday party. We're doing an indoor jumpy castle thing. She's pretty excited about it. We're having trouble figuring out what to get her for her birthday. She's obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake, so maybe one of those toys. She also is obsessed with her plastic dinosaur and insect toys. It cracks me up to see my self-proclaimed "princess," who refuses to wear anything but dresses, playing with her "baby" scorpion and tarantula. And her triceratop named "Cera" (pronounced Sarah).

That's the latest from us...Ciao!