Marissa

Like the rest of my posts, this one is a few weeks overdue. I was going to post a "three month" post, but never did. She'll be four months in a week so I think I'll skip it and just post a few pictures from the past month of her. Not nearly enough pictures...dang it! The days I remember, I take a million, but I definitely don't get the camera out as often as I should. Oh well. That's what happens with child number three apparently...especially when you are in YW and trying to home school. Just not enough hours in the day!

I don't have new stats for her except to say I'm sure she's still right up there at the top of the weight and height scale. She is tall, strong, sturdy and an adorably chubby little bubby. :) She is mellow and tolerant...until she's not. Then she can scream with the best of them! It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. Did I eat something that bothered her? Does she have a stomach ache. Can I really NEVER drink a Diet Coke? She can't possibly need to eat again, right? Why is this child screaming? Marcos was convinced it was him. She would scream when I'd leave for YW and I'd get an urgent call, "I need your help, Maria!" Well, as soon as we discovered she just can't tolerate being overly tired, life has made sense again. It's very strange. Neither of the boys were that way. She'll fuss if she's hungry, but you can stretch her meals out an extra hour if you absolutely have to as long as you have a binkie. My boys can hold her and love her way too much and she doesn't flinch. But if you get her past her bedtime, her little body can't handle it and she just screams. And for now she still likes to be swaddled and likes her pink soothie binkie to go to sleep. She lights up when I enter a room, which warms this tender mother heart of mine and smiles at anything. She has such an easy smile, but gets so excited and shy that she turns to the side a bit when she is in a full grin. She rolled over early...from her tummy to her back, but doesn't do it often. That may have something to do with the fact that I don't put her on her tummy enough. :/ She giggles, but not because she thinks things are funny yet. It stems from the fact that she is quite possibly the most ticklish little thing I have ever seen. She fights the laugh though and tries to hold her breath and hope it will go away. Pretty amusing to watch. When she had a bit of a bellyache one night, I was gently rubbing her tummy in a circular motion and discovered just how ticklish she can be. She would squirm from one side to the other trying to escape the "tickle torture." I absolutely LOVE her fat rolls! There are three or four on her thighs alone. And those chubby cheeks are completely irresistible. I just want to nibble them! She has her daddy's eyes, although the jury is still out on the color. And she has those expressive eyebrows of his. You know, the kind that seem to have an extra muscle there raising them at such random moments, but making her face come to life. She sleeps 7-9 hours at night, but has started slipping into a habit of waking up more often. I'm usually so tired I don't notice what time it is and just grab her to feed her. Then I realize she didn't really need to eat. So we will be working on that bad habit now so we don't have a big problem on our hands soon. Several ladies in the ward have started calling her the community baby. Kind of endearing. Pretty much some lady in the ward is always holding her. I send her to Relief Society during Young Women's because she tends to be a distraction to the girls who all want to hold her and coo at her instead of listening to the lesson. The Relief Society ladies have started fighting over her, knowing there is a baby to hold for an entire hour. So she's the community baby and Marcos and I both love it. It takes a village, right? She will always be "Baby Echo" to the Young Women who were at Echo Lake for girls' camp this year. They started referring to my big belly as "Baby Echo," joking that she was going to be born at camp.

Wow, that was long! And yet only a tiny portion of what I could say about this precious little daughter of mine. Things I'm sure I'll be glad are recorded some day I suppose. Here are the pictures for the majority of you who I'm sure skip all my lengthy boring posts and glance at the pictures of the cute kiddos. :)

Three months old

Someone gave me this onesie for Marissa. Not something I would have bought, but it does make me smile. :)

Happy little bubbers!

That shy face she gets when she smiles and starts to look away always makes her look like she's winking. ;)

I was changing Marissa into her Halloween costume and she spit up a little bit. I didn't have a burp cloth so I just used her onesie, which was already unsnapped since I was in the process of changing her outfit. She giggled and giggled. I guess a shirt in your mouth is kind of funny. :) Anyway, I had Marcos grab the camera and managed to film her giggle for a minute. She laughed so hard it gave her the hiccups. I sure love this happy little baby!