Dear Josephine #4

Dear Josephine,

Today you turned 12 weeks old. This means you are technically no longer a newborn and you are now an infant. While we are excited that you are growing and that you are healthy, we get sad thinking about how quickly it’s going by. All your old clothes do not fit you any more, and sometimes we see you in the bathtub and look at photos of you in the same exact place just a handful of weeks ago and we can’t believe how small you once were. It’s a hard thing to describe, being excited to watch you grow up and develop more of a personality every day while simultaneously wishing you would be this way forever.

You’ve started smiling a lot more. The first time you smiled at me, I started crying. Over the last few weeks, I’d smile or make funny faces at you and like clockwork, you will smile or even laugh back at me. I think this is my favorite thing about you recently, and I love that we are starting to play a lot together. You are starting to make more sounds and you track things with your eyes now. You’ve started to notice our dog, Jack, and our cat, Zoe, when they are walking besides you as you do your playtime. You also really enjoy watching and listening to Snoop Dogg’s “Doggyland” and all the songs get stuck in me and your mom’s head, so we often sing them to you, or various remixes I come up with since I like singing you my own custom lyrics.

We found out that you have a milk protein allergy. This is why you were really fussy for a little while. What it means is that your mom cannot have dairy products any more while she is breastfeeding you. She already has a very restrictive diet and her own allergies to deal with, so this has been pretty hard for her. I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad; actually, it’s to make sure you know how much she loves you. We could have switched you over to formula but she preferred to make that sacrifice for you because it would be better for you.

Last weekend, we took you on your first long walk. We walked along the Charles River for three or four miles along both the Cambridge Side and the Boston side. Along the way, we bumped into several people that we knew and they all thought that you were really cute. You had a good time although you slept for most of it. You like when the stroller is moving and you made sure we knew that whenever we stopped to talk to someone. 

Every few weeks or so, me and your mom have managed to go out for a date night and we have had a babysitter come for you, usually your Aunt Mary. Whenever we leave, we miss you and we talk about how much we miss you. Don’t worry, we still manage to enjoy ourselves, I just thought you should know.

Your favorite part of the day is still bathtime. Even in times where you get very fussy at night, taking a bath always calms you down, and now more than ever you seem to really enjoy splashing and kicking your feet around. 

It’s amazing how every single day you seem to develop more and more of a personality. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next month brings.

Love,

Dad