Every day, something new

I didn't know you could have an in-depth conversation with a three and a half month old baby. Admittedly it's a touch one sided, but there you go.
Me - "How's my cute little bubba today?"
Him - "Goo!"
Me - "How sweet!"
Him - "Urgle."
Me - "Really?"
Him - "Ump, ghur... oooh."
Me - "How fascinating!"
And so it goes on. He's getting the idea of making noises and every day he seems to master a new one, definitely getting more and more chatty.
Yesterday we were having our regular "tummy time", as we are supposed to. Apparently the whole "back to sleep" campaign has had a few unintended consequences, namely a rise in flat head syndrome and babies crawling later. Babies spend almost all their time on their backs now and some end up developing flat spots on the backs of their heads or worse, a misshapen skull. Now, health professionals are recommending supervised periods in the prone position, or tummy time as the rest of us prefer to call it.
He hated it to start with. If I laid him flat on his front, he just used to scream. I use a little kidney shaped pillow that came with his play mat for the purpose and he hated that too, but less so. Tummy time, until yesterday, mostly consisted of me struggling to get him on the pillow in the right position so it was supporting his chest and him winging and wiggling away to make it extra hard for me. He'd try for a little while, end up cuddling the pillow in a very uncomfortable looking pose and dribbling all over the play mat.
Yesterday, it happened. He lifted up his head! Not just a little, but the whole way so that he was actually looking up! It lasted for several minutes and was accompanied by a lot of foot waving and hand flapping. After a while, he decided that when it came to it, he'd still rather flop forwards and drool, but a milestone had been reached. Today, the experience was repeated and for a longer spell.
He's also started to enjoy being bounced on the knee. His neck is a lot stronger, which means I can support him by having my hands under his arm pits rather than behind, which makes it a lot easier. I jiggle him on my knee and his mouth opens wide into a huge smile!
All this has been happening in the last week. He's moved up into size three nappies and it's as if he's decided that it's the catalyst to grow up a little!