Arvesito turns 3 months old

Another blue-eyed baby

Peekaboo!

Newborn babies are so cute and cuddly and for the most part very easy to take care of since they spend most of their day asleep. For some of us however the little awake time they have can be a challenge; the lack of sleep, difficulty adjusting to a new routine, the little interaction or reward we get from being with baby (let's be honest, they are lumps!), and with Arvesito we had a lot of screaming making us wonder what we're doing wrong.

Beautiful quilt by Grandma Stolpe, aunt Cynthia and aunt Lucy

We have now survived the first three months and what a difference that has made. Arvesito is a completely different little boy, in a good way! The screaming fits are very rare and mostly happen when he gets too hot in the car. He is a very happy and smiley boy and we love spending time with him.

Favorite things:
-Watching and interacting with big sister. The fondness goes both ways, Emily adores her baby brother and whenever he's awake she constantly asks to hold him, gives him lots of kisses and squeezes.
- Eating. Not sure if you've noticed from the pictures but this boy is big. He has rolls on his thighs, the double chin, the lizard belly that stretches to both sides, and man boobs! He loves to eat and has no patience for anything when it is time. He can go from happy to FEED ME NOW cries in seconds. Once he starts crying then he's too upset to eat which tends to get ugly.
- Mami. Finally my turn, this little boy looks like is going to be a momma's boy and I love it!

Milestones
- Strong enough to sit on the Bumbo
- Smiles and laughs
- Rasberries
- Pulling up head and chest
- Starting to grasp for things

Arvesito is so much fun and we love him the most. Although I am lacking a lot of sleep lately I wouldn't change it for the world.

More Butterflies

Mom and Katie are in town this week and we are taking advantage of their being here and going out to revisit some of the old-stand-by places here in Penang.  Yesterday we went back to the Penang Butterfly farm and had a really great time.

Emily showed us how to catch butterflies while Arvescito showed us his newest trick of palm eating and spent the morning without crying once!   It's really a feat.

As the day passed on, Emily became quite adept at catching butterflies, and we were all impressed by how gentle she was with them.  She would catch them and open their wings . . . and just when you would think she was going to rip the poor creature apart . . .

she would wind up and throw them up into the air over her head.  We would all breathe a sigh of relief that she spared another butterfly.

She was even able to catch two at a time a few times.  As you can see here, Grandma and Aunt Katie were quite impressed.

Emily also taught aunt Katie how to hold giant Malaysian Millipedes . . . even though I know they don't bite they still freak me out.  Anything with more than 4 legs should be left alone in my book, so I bravely let Emily first . . .

Emboldened by seeing her two year-old niece survive, Katie bravely put one on her palm and let all 1000+ legs crawl around on her.  Gross!