Colton is 3 months old today, weighing 13 lbs. 14 oz! Someone slow down the clock, please. It’s also my 31st birthday, yay! Age is just a number – I still feel like I’m 20 ;).

This photo captures much of my days that are spent playing, laughing, and babbling with this sweet boy resting snuggly on my legs. One day he’ll be too big to sit with me like this, but ’til then, it’s a date every day!

The last 2 weeks have been somewhat of a transformation. It’s the first time I’ve felt like I have a good handle on the baby; that I know him well now. It took 3 months but I understand most of his cries and needs and can respond confidently and appropriately. The result is that crying is rare these days; as soon as the whimpers and whines begin, we already know how to respond. I’m enjoying him even more.

He has officially stopped cluster feeding, which he did for many weeks, wanting to nurse every 1-1.5 hours. Most days I didn’t mind it but some days I felt like my breasts were going to fall off. I thought it would never end but of course it did! He is also an extremely efficient feeder now. When he’s seriously nursing (vs nursing to sleep), he’s on and off within 10 minutes. LOVE IT! I thought the 45- to 90-minute feeds would never end either but of course they did, too!

At night he is starting to consistently sleep 3-5 hour stretches – movin’ on up in the world here! When he sleeps longer than 3.5 hours, I find myself waking up to my internal clock a bit dazed, confused, and even worried: “What happened?” :P It’s something to get used to!

His naps are like clockwork: 3x a day ranging from 1-2.5 hours each. I have a little secret: I let him nap on his tummy. I realize it’s not recommended for safe sleep in Canada but both my hubby and I were raised sleeping on our tummies (not just for naps but at night, too) and as long as I am always watching the babe, I feel 100% comfortable with it! I’ve found that he loves being on his tummy; he doesn’t startle easily and sleeps beautifully, so I treat him to tummy naps during the day. :) By the way, the kid sleeps through noise like it’s going out of style; he’s out like a light even with a vacuum turned on right next to him. Plain awesome.

We are leaving for Hawaii on Sunday morning at 6AM. It’s our first trip together as a family and I am both nervous and excited at the same time. My biggest fear is the 10-hour flight, which is quite long for an infant, so I am crossing my fingers that we get through it without any major trouble! Lately he’s been explosive pooping up his back getting everything everywhere on himself and his clothes. Not a fun scenario on a plane, lol. But I am excited because we are going at a time when we feel we have a good handle on him. He has become a truly good, easy, and somewhat predictable baby at this point, so he is right where he should be for taking his first trip :).

We’ve solidified a loose bed time routine over the past 2 weeks and it’s been working nicely. We’ve reduced the time it takes to put him to bed from 2 hours to 1.5 hours :P. It’s unfortunate though that all of this progress will be tossed in Hawaii with the 6-hour time difference! I’m hoping it’s not too big of a challenge to re-establish the routine when we return.

And while we’re in Hawaii, there will be a bathroom renovation taking place in our home :P. How’s that for multitasking! It’s one of the last renovations we are taking on and one that I am quite excited about for 2 reasons: 1) It is for Colton, especially as he grows up and starts to bathe in a real tub and 2) I’m going to go ahead and say that after renovating pretty much our entire house inside and out, we are experienced renovators now and know how to manage these projects effectively without tears and all sorts of drama. Yup, many of our earlier renovation projects brought me to tears, mostly because of nightmare contractors. No more of those! I’ve been dying to design and decorate a bathroom so I can’t wait to share pictures :).

Last but not least, a new print below! Spotted this teeny tiny home standing in solitude among Utah’s great big rocks. I thought it looked beautiful.

That’ll be all for now! Life is sweeter than it’s ever been and I give thanks to my God for all that he has given us.