Three months old

Check out my little man, propped up on the couch like a big boy. How on earth is he three months old already?

Jack never had big cheeks like this, so you know I'm eating them all day long. Love them!

He's definitely bigger than Jack, and some of his 3-6 month clothes even fit snugly right now.

He just likes to smile. Smiling's his favorite.

Aside from his recent sleep issues, which I'm pretty sure are from teething, he is just the happiest, giggliest baby I have ever seen. It's amazing how quickly a baby becomes such an integral part of your life, and I almost can't remember what it was like without him.

Jack had an awful stomach bug yesterday, that must have been a 24-hour thing because aside from waking up screaming and crying at 4 a.m. today (yes, that's right, FOUR! I think he had a bad dream or something) he's been okay so far today. We drove to the local airport yesterday to see some planes and helicopters, but otherwise, stayed inside and drank lots of fluids. Which is a shame, because it was beautiful outside.

Thursday was even nicer, though - cooler with less humidity - and we did spend some time outside then. I just can't resist taking a million pictures of Jack when I'm outside with him. If he could just run around and give the outside a great big hug, I think he would. He's that enthusiastic about everything when he's out there. Every flower is like the first flower he's ever seen. Every slide down the sliding board is the best one. Every raspberry eaten off the bush is the most delicious thing he's ever put in his mouth.

I love it.

I wish I could be a little more like that.

He's absolutely smitten with bubbles. While they're in the bottle. Then once I take the wand out and start blowing them, he couldn't care less. I end up feeling like a moron because I'm sitting out there blowing bubbles for myself, working hard to blow softly and steadily enough make them really big, imagining he might be excited to see such an amazingly huge bubble and say, "Wow, Mama! Big bubble!" Maybe someday I'll be rewarded for my efforts with something other than lightheadedness and lips that are slightly tingly from hyperventilation.

This shot of him blowing the bubbles himself, though? A treasure, since it rarely happens.

He loves to be in charge of his own deck destiny. Whether he's up on the deck or down in the grass, he'll decide. Which usually makes me nervous because the steps on the deck are so god-awful steep, but there are only four of them, so it wouldn't be a terrible fall if it happened. But it hasn't yet. He'll spend a good portion of our time outside just going up and down them, so he's had a lot of practice. And more than a few splinters. But he doesn't seem to notice, and how else is he going to feel the grass between his toes if I don't let him go barefoot? (Sure, I'm too lazy to keep putting on and taking off the shoes, but this is how I justify it - the whole toes-in-the-grass thing. Don't I sound like a perfectly crunchy mommy?) And they're not big splinters after all.

Strike a pose, Jack.

And now, he's off in search of flowers for Mama. We have this one little patch of clovers in the back yard, and he's always bringing me flowers from it. It just makes me melt.

I love how excited he gets when he finds them. "OH! Flow!" he yells, as if they're not in the same place every single time. (That "flow" rhymes with "cow." He likes to say just the first syllable of words, though he's getting better at adding more syllables lately.)

And then he comes running back to me, holding a clover, arm extended the entire time. It's just the sweetest thing, and one of the many little rituals we have together.

I have to agree with his Aunt Devon, who told me just the other day, "He's just the coolest little person."