His second month was all about communication. He went from occasionally cooing and smiling to very deliberately catching someone's eye (especially mine) and grinning all over his face and cooing at them in an attempt to start a "conversation." And he does love an audience. A couple of weeks ago I had taken him out of our small group at church because he was fussing, and I was holding him in the lobby when one of the other groups got out. Four or five ladies converged on us to make much of him, and pretty soon he was wreathed in smiles and cooing back at them. I'm sure his grandparents will be pleased to know that I checked the baby books and he is a precocious cooer! He is already producing sounds that 90% of babies his age haven't mastered yet. However, lest I get big-headed, most babies are laughing by three months, and Joel didn't laugh for the first time until two days ago. The cardboard sign Esther had laid on his tummy ("To Mommy Frum Esther") fell into his mouth and apparently he found that funny? Meanwhile, Tim's and my attempts to tickle him under his chin or blow raspberries on his tummy are met with blank stares. I guess we're just not as entertaining as his sister!
During Joel's second month, he also confirmed his suspicions that people pay attention when he cries and try to fix whatever is wrong. So now whenever he is wet, or hungry, or tired, or just wants to be picked up...we get to hear alllll about it! Although he can't figure out why I don't rescue him from his car seat. He will stare me in the eye while wailing, as if to say, "It's your job to fix this! How come you aren't getting the message that I need OUT?!?" Interestingly, his cries became less specific during his second month. When he was a newborn we could always tell when he was hungry. First he would bob his head against the chest of whoever was holding him (earning him the nickname "red-headed woodpecker" from Tim), or turn his head and mouth their arm. Then if he progressed to crying, it would be a soft "eh-eh-eh" cry, progressing to a louder "unh-unh" cry and only then to a flat-out wail. But now when he is hungry he just fusses or cries and sometimes it takes some trial and error to realize that he wants to be fed.
We went through a period in his second month where he was really fussy almost every late afternoon and evening. While waiting for his two-month doctor appointment, Esther and I made up the following song (to the tune of "Starship" by Nicki Minaj which, no, I don't encourage my children to listen to): "Babies were made to cry, they fuss and fuss and you don't know why. Check their diaper to see if it's dry, but don't stick a diaper pin in their thigh." It wasn't colic, because we could usually calm him down with a change of scenery or endless carrying. And I didn't think he had any dire health problems, since he was always happy in the mornings. But it was rather worrisome, not to mention a nuisance. Finally, we figured out the cause: he wasn't getting enough sleep! I had always thought that little babies automatically fell asleep when they were tired. Well, not this one! He has always been a good sleeper at night (usually), but he can't seem to stay asleep during the day unless someone is holding him or lying down next to him. So I started making it a priority to get him to stay asleep for naps, and since then we have had a much happier baby.
If Joel's second month was about communication, his third month was about expanding horizons. He learned how to get his fingers in his mouth on purpose, and started interacting with toys. He spent even more time than before people-watching, and we noticed that he seemed to be able to see people and objects from farther away. He will now make eye contact and smile at me from four or five feet away, and one day when my family were visiting recently he was tracking my brother (who was wearing a brightly colored shirt) walk across the yard from at least thirty feet away. With all these new things to learn and do, maybe it's not too surprising that he's not a fan of sleep!
And speaking of sleep, I had better start my own sleep for the night so I can be ready for my first wake-up call from a hungry baby. Hopefully as life starts to feel a little more sane I'll be able to write an update on Daniel and Esther too. They aren't changing quite as fast as their little brother, but they still have interesting things going on in their lives. 'Til then...
