Closing in on the end of the first quarter

My babies are 12 weeks old now. I can't believe a quarter of their first year is already gone. Holy cow. Everyone said the time would fly by and it certainly has. They are starting to look like little people now and not just babies.

They "talk" all the time and can change the tone of their voices (and shrieks! OMG), they can hold things in their hands intentionally, they can follow you in and out of a room with their eyes and will turn toward your voice if you talk to them. They can recognize faces and sounds. Both babies have the best toothless grins. Nothing in the world is cuter. And Ryan just started laughing this week. He laughs at the weirdest things though, I can't find something that will cause the laughter just yet. Reese is not far behind him with laughing. Her latest thing is shrieking like she's in pain (literally, like the kid is on fire) and then when you look at her she flashes the biggest gummy smile ever. It's like her way of saying, "Hey you! Big person! Look over here." Too funny.

Both babies are consistently sleeping through the night now. They started going longer stretches around 8 weeks, slept 8+ hours by 10 weeks and now sleeping 8-10 hours is completely the norm. Our bedtime "routine" consists of carrying them upstairs, turning on their space heater and their ocean waves CD, putting them in their cribs and walking away. Really it's that easy. We are blessed.

Ryan has learned how to suck his thumb, and it's quite possibly the cutest thing I have ever seen. Reese is really mastering the use of her hands and arms and can manipulate her paci back into her mouth on her own if it falls out at the right angle. It's amazing to watch her move it to get it back toward her face. I just can't believe how intuitive she is, when did she learn to do that? Amazing.

They are interacting with toys, and starting to notice one another. I can't wait until they really see one another and start to play together. When I put them together now Ryan just beams. He loves his sister so much already. He'll grab at her arm or hands and just smile smile smile. The cool thing is if Reese is crying and I lay her right next to Ryan, she settles in and calms down 99% of the time.

Swings are really popular in our house right now, as are mid-afternoon walks. They love bathtime and splashing and kicking their legs in the water. Ryan has gotten even more cuddly (if that was possible) and Reese is becoming even more independent, only coming to Joe or I when she really needs to be comforted. Otherwise, she'd rather be sitting up in her swing just chilling. 

Three months is so much fun, and I love that we sit in the living room at night as a family and each of us has a baby to hold. How did we get so lucky?