Past the 3 month milestone

Welp, Esther is 3 months old now (14 weeks tomorrow). Time has been flying by lately, and she has been growing like a weed.
Esther has learned 2 new tricks in the past couple of days, right about at 3 months.
Her first trick is that she reaches out and grabs her "bug on board" that is attached to her bouncy seat. She typically only reaches and grabs with her left hand, but she is starting to use her right hand just a little bit. Maybe she'll be a lefty? She will extend her arm straight out, and then slowly pull it back toward her face and up to her mouth or to her left eye. Her poor little eye takes a beating sometimes. She also likes to suck on her hand, which really calms her down sometimes. She can get pretty noisy when she's eating her hand though...making contented little sounds.
Esther's second trick is doing sit-ups in her bouncy seat. She will raise her head up and then lean forward, crunching her upper body like she's doing a sit-up. She makes funny grunting noises when she does this too. Molly and I had to start strapping her in to her bouncy seat because she is getting a lot stronger and more wiggly now. Molly has counted Esther doing about 15 sit-ups at one time! She is a strong little girl.
Daddy has baby-sat Esther a couple of evenings now for 3-4 hours at a time, and Josh and Carolyn have also baby-sat Esther once. Esther does great for Daddy, and just needs her bottle when it's time to eat. She is a good, happy little baby. She has only had a couple times lately where she wouldn't go to sleep at night. She gave Mom a hard time one day last week, not going down for a nap, but her usual day involves several naps. Today Esther was rudely awakened by the new neighbors drilling and hammering something into the wall of their bedroom next to Esther's room. Hopefully that will only last for one afternoon...
Esther had a good Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Mathews house. She got to see nearly everybody. Esther wasn't sure what to think about the NCAA Basketball Tournament. She enjoyed watching on Dad's lap on Friday night, but when Craig, Tot and John (Craig's friend) came over to watch Butler play on Friday afternoon, Esther got scared when everyone cheered a couple times. She stuck out her bottom lip and looked really sad, and then let out a big wail. Daddy eventually calmed her down though...poor little girl.
Esther is growing every day! Daddy thinks that every day when he comes home and sees Esther that she looks a little bit older. Her face seems to mature on at least a weekly basis, and she is getting longer.
Esther and Mommy and Daddy can't wait for it to warm up outside!! It is officially Spring now, but it sure doesn't feel like it (in the 40's, low 50's with rain / snow). Mommy is anxious to take Esther out to work in the garden with her. Mommy plans to take Esther to the zoo to see the butterflies soon!

11 weeks old!

I haven't posted in a long time...
Esther had a busy and eventful weekend last weekend. On Saturday we traveled up North to Hammond, Indiana, to celebrate Molly's Grandma Van Gorp's 85th birthday. The drive is about 3 hours each way. Esther did great in the car. She got hungry and Mom fed her once each way, at the Wolcott / Chalmers rest stop, which is probably about the halfway point. We decided to change Esther's diaper on a bench in the middle of the rest stop, for lack of a better place to change her, but Esther didn't mind. :-p We had fun at the birthday party - sloppy joe's and banana or chocolate cake to eat. Grandma had lots of relatives and church friends there to help her celebrate. Afterwards we stayed and talked for awhile with family, and then went to Grandma's house nearby. Esther was pretty sleepy during the party, but let a few people hold her. Then she was kind of cranky at Grandma's house, because she was getting hungry again. We ate with Kristin, Ed, Mallory and Leah at Cracker Barrel before heading home. Andy kept Esther entertained most of the time during dinner, since she was wide awake and slightly cranky. Then Kristin took a turn. The ride home was fairly uneventful, but we didn't get back until like 11:30. Esther slept good Saturday night!
On Sunday we had AWESOME weather. This winter seems to be dragging on and on and on, but Sunday was a gorgeous day. The temperature was up somewhere in the mid-60's! Mom and Dad went out in the back yard to work in the garden, while Esther napped in a little screened-in baby tent that Mom bought at Once Upon a Child. Esther slept really hard in the little tent for probably around 2 hours! She slept right through Max attacking the tent, planes buzzing overhead, and a strong wind at times. Mom is looking forward to using the tent again in Spring when she gets outside to garden some more. Only 15 days until Spring!! (as I'm writing it is 28 degrees outside with some snow and ice leftover from yesterday. yuck)
Esther is 11 weeks old now and is making sounds every day. She has a sound she makes when she gets excited that is like sucking in air really fast. She has a couple more "full night's of sleep" under her belt now, and has somewhat more of a routine. Mornings are still her happy time, and she still really likes the bouncy seat that she got from Target. Esther needs to be able to see peoples' faces. She doesn't like it when people leave her field of vision - she will turn her head to try to follow them, and if they don't come back she might start crying. She can stand up really well with some support - Dad likes to make her pick up one leg, and then she will bend her knee and kind of take a supported step. Mom tries to make sure that Esther still gets plenty of tummy time! She can halfway roll over, but no real attempts to roll over or crawl just yet.