The Ripke's: Tummy time, thumb sucking, and 3 months...OH MY!

Well it's definitely been awhile since I have blogged. I have thought about what I would type/catch up on, but have been so very busy and haven't had a single minute to even get on the computer! I know, I know--no excuses. It's been a balancing act since being back to work. I still haven't gotten it all figured out yet, but its coming together. Probably about the time I do get it together, it will be Summer break (which is fine by me!). I have been soaking up EVERY.FREE.MOMENT with my Liza bug. From the moment we get home, we have Mommy-Liza bonding time as we anxiously wait for Daddy to come through the door. On many of those days, we spend time on our tummy's :) Liza is getting so strong and is tolerating tummy time more and more each day. She is now looking up and watching everything going on around her. It's AMAZING! A few weeks ago, while Nonni was up to visit, Liza decided to roll from her tummy to her back two times in a row. When Nonni told me this I could hardly believe it! I had to see it with my own eyes. I put her on her blanket and sure enough she rolled over two more times for Mommy! I was so excited for Mike to see! Needless to say, we haven't seen it since :( but we know its going to happen more frequently soon enough.

Hi pretty girl!

How am I doing Daddy?

Enough pictures Mommy!!!

On a different note, Eliza has also decided that she is going to take up the hobby of thumb sucking! We have tried and tried to stop this habit from occurring, but our little girl is persistent (and maybe slightly stubborn like Mommy). Mike told me he used to suck his thumb so I quickly decided that he had inadvertently taught our daughter this not-so-cool habit. Well, after talking with my Mom (she decided to check out my baby book to see what I was doing around this age) we found out that I actually sucked my thumb at this very age too. UGH! I'm hoping its short-lived like it was for me, but we will have to wait and see. It is super cute to watch her search for her thumb and suck on it, but then its not so cute when I wake up to her almost sucking her thumb off her hand in the morning! Oh baby girl!

And finally, our baby girl is THREE MONTHS OLD! Where does time go? These past three months have been incredible! Eliza is just the light of our lives and I continually thank the Lord above for blessing us with her. She is such a happy baby and many times throughout the day you will find her laughing or giggling at you. It's just awesome. I wake up in the morning with such love as I watch her sleep and I am overjoyed when each morning I get the chance to tell her "good morning" and see her smile back at me. She is starting to have longer stretches of being awake versus sleeping. She is so very observant. She loves "standing" and will take some swings with her hands at the mobile. She thoroughly enjoys being on the changing table and will kick her legs like crazy! She's a great little eater and will sleep a good stretch at night. We just love her so much and can hardly remember life before she arrived!

WE love you Eliza Marie! Happy three month birthday baby girl!