Life in the 'Ham: eleven weeks

Claire is 12 weeks old today!

As Claire starts a new month, I read the corresponding chapter in What To Expect: The First Year. This helps me to know what new skills to look for and to understand some of her new developments. I thought I would share with you all the chapter for the third month which she is nearing the end of.

What she should be able to (90% of babies accomplish this by month's end)

on stomach, lift head 45 degrees - Claire can do this very well and I think she lifts it even higher than this. I'm not sure how high 45 degrees is but Claire can pretty much lift her head all the way up.

What she will probably be able to (75% of babies accomplish this by month's end)

laugh out loud - Claire giggled for the first time Sunday morning. She's been making noises that sound like she might be trying to laugh for several weeks but we got a fantastic giggle out of her on Saturday when Tim was changing her clothes. We haven't been able to get her to do it since but I hope she'll start doing it more so we can capture it on video.
on stomach, lift head up 90 degrees - I would say she's doing this.
squeal in delight - Absolutely! She loves the ceiling fan!
bring both hands together - Yep!
smile spontaneously - She's been doing this since she started smiling.
follow an object held about 6 inches above her face and moved 180 degrees - This skill is hit or miss. She can do it but she has to be in the right frame of mind.

What she may possibly be able to do (50% of babies accomplish this by month's end)

hold head steady when upright - Yep!
on stomach, raise chest, supported by arms - When she wants to!
roll over (one way) - Since three weeks!
grasp a rattle held to backs or tips of fingers - She'll do this when we place it in her hand which is what I think they are talking about. In fact, I did this with her last week with a plastic rattle and she promptly hit herself in the head with it. I've got to get something softer!
pay attention to an object as small as a raisin - This one is hard to determine. I think she is doing this.

What she may even be able to do (25% of babies accomplish this by month's end)

bear some weight on legs when held upright - She's been doing this since she was three or four weeks old. She's got strong legs!
reach for an object - Not yet!
keep head level with body when pulled to sitting - Not quite. When she's sitting, she keeps her head steady but when I pull her up, her head still hangs back.
turn in the direction of a voice - Yep!
say "ah-goo" or similar vowel-consonant combination - Yep! She's been doing this for several weeks and she's getting louder. This one is so much fun!
razz (make a wet razzing sound) - Not yet!

As you can see, she is doing really well. She amazes Tim and me every day with what she can do. We love listening to her talk and watching her study her world. She loves to sit with her dad at the computer and listen to music. She loves it when he gives her a bath. She loves laying on the floor and staring at her ceiling fan. This week she discovered the silky side of the blanket she was laying on and kept putting it in her mouth. It was the funniest thing to watch. She started getting tired and she would make this yelling fussy noise and then she would turn to her side where the silky part was and rub it in her mouth and act all happy. She would roll to the other side and yell again. It was adorable! I now try to help her find that side of the blanket when I lay her on the floor because she loves rubbing it in her mouth. She enjoys talking with us. We try to imitate her sounds back to her and introduce new sounds to her. You can see her brain working when we do this and you can tell she's trying really hard to repeat back what noises we've made.

Here are some more pictures from this past week. I've already posted some in previous entries.