Today the little peanut princess is 3 months old, and YAY! Finally fitting into size 0-3 months clothes. Topping the scales this week at 8 lbs, she is often mistaken for a brand newbie. Which is interesting because to me, she’s looking quite big these days. Okay, maybe not big, but bigger?
I noted briefly that I had a hard time writing her 2 month updates, which lead to no update for month 2. Honestly, when she was about 8 weeks old, none of us were having any fun. Not even the love of a good glass of wine did any good at that point. The thing is, it wasn’t really Zoë – it was everything. It was a small infant that refused to gain weight even though she also refused to let my boob leave her mouth, it was an excited for Christmas 3 ½ year old with too much energy, the stress of the holidays, and a sleep deprived, hormonal mom that could not figure out how to get anything done. It was a poisonous concoction. 
Thankfully, this month the fog has lifted. Dr. Harvey Karp calls the first 3 months of a baby’s life the “4th trimester”. 3 months that the baby should technically still be inside it’s mom, but do to the size of the human brain and the size of a females vagina and her sanity, there is no way the budding human can possibly still be inside. You often hear mom’s joking about how they would have another baby, if they could give it to someone else for the first 3 months, and then get it back. It’s because babies need those first 12 weeks to get used to life and the world that they’ve been thrown into. I also think that those first 3 months are nature’s way of protecting the world from over population. 
While at the time of my c/s the thought of getting my tubes tied made me want to cry, I’m now cursing myself for not getting “fixed” while my Doc was in there. The nice thing being that is BEHIND us now, and I can say that I’m already forgetting what those weeks felt like, and seeing Zoë smile her funny crooked little smile, or hearing her giggle at Jason or Lucas just melts my heart. A huge cliché, but of course it is all worth it.
Let me just tell you though, this chick has personality. For only being 13 weeks old, she KNOWS what she wants and gets pretty frustrated when we can’t figure out what that is exactly when she wants it. I have flashes of this 16-year old having a meltdown when I tell her no, she has to be home by 11 when she balls up her tiny fits, scrunches her face up and shrieks bloody murder. I can’t even put into words the sound of this cry, but I will say that it’s one that lets everyone within a 5 mile radius know that ZOË IS NOT HAPPY.
This cry is usually brought on by apparently the worst thing in the world that anyone can do – putting her down. “HOW DARE YOU?!” I swear her little cry yells when I try to put her in the bouncy chair or swing or on the floor for a moment to, idontknow, PEE?
Luckily she loves being the sling, so I’m often seen unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry with my baby “Joey” peeking out from the sling. This let me tell you, is apparently quite the sight to see. When I leave the house with her tucked in her little sling pocket, I get people stopping me every 4ft to comment, coo or ask how old she is.
In college, my girlfriend coined the phrase “weak jaw” – the face you make when you see something like a baby panda or furry puppy, something that is literally too cute for words so instead of actually saying something, one’s jaw just goes weak and falls open while you admit some high frequency sound that makes dog bark in the distance. Apparently the sight of little Z in the sling could be the pictorial definition of the phrase, since in the past couple weeks I’ve seen the fillings in so many people’s mouths as they come at me, all weak jawed and squeally.
But Princess Z loves it. She needs to be part of the action. During dinner she needs to be on my lap, facing out, being part of the conversation. If we all leave the room and she’s still sitting there, she will squawk her disapproval. I mean, who were we to even PUT HER DOWN in the first place. I was telling this to my friend Shelagh the other day, wondering aloud about Zoë’s personality traits, when Shelagh laughed and pointed out “She’s SO a little Beth!”
Oh, heehee..
