Dear Mara,
Today you turned three months old. You’re so laid back that half the time we don’t even know you’re in the same room. I do, however, want to get this out of the way now — and there’s no real way to sugarcoat it — You suck at catching a football.
Lots of things have happened with you this month. One of the notable milestones is that your rolled over from your front to your back. I don’t think you did this on purpose though. As you’re learning to use and develop your muscles, you’ve learned to push your upper body up while you’re on your stomach. During one of these baby push-ups, one of your arms kind of gave way, you plummeted toward the floor and at angle that spun you to your back on your descent. I’m pretty sure you didn’t exactly do this on purpose because as your were rolling over your shoulder I heard you say, “dammit, why can’t I get this #&$@ing trick to land?!”
This month you also found your thumb. Your sister was also three months old when she found her two middle fingers on her left hand to suck on. You’ve found your right thumb to suck on. Don’t get too used to it though. Once you start losing your baby teeth, you’re going to have to stop sucking your thumb. And if you don’t learn how to catch a football, you might lose your baby teeth quicker than normal.
You’ve been losing some of your hair, but it looks like the recessive gene on chromosome 16 is going to stick. You are among the 2% of redheads. I think it, and all of you is absolutely adorable.
The highlight of this month is that you started to smile. There is absolutely nothing more beautiful in this world than a child’s smile, especially yours because it’s my child’s smile. It’s that fleeting moment of your smile that reminds me that life is a just a fleeting moment itself. It’s a simple reminder that things aren’t that bad and that life is good. It makes for that eternal moment where nothing else matters.
The highlight of my day is when I come to visit you while your mom is holding you, and I watch as a second passes and my face comes into focus. I can see your eyes light up and then the synapsis behind them connect as you realize, “Hey! I know this guy! He’s my daddy and he’s like, the totally most awesome guy ever!!” Then you beam that big, precious toothless baby grin. And that melts my heart.
Keep beaming, Junebug.
Love,
Daddy