One Month Old

Somehow James is one month old today. This was the hardest month of his mommy and daddy's lives, but also the most amazing! Welcoming our little boy into the world, then figuring out how to live with him in our world (which is 100% all about him!) has been an experience like no other. Our conversations went from starting like this, "So I was reading the New York Times this morning...." to this "SH** KYLE! SH** SH**! He pooped all over me!" (No need to judge the language- someone told me I can keep up the sailor speak until he starts learning to talk) Yes, I've been pooped on a lot lately which has led me to the conclusion that all diapers are not created equal. We've tried lots of different disposable diapers as little dude is too small for his reusable ones right now.

I've also decided that one of the most environmentally unfriendly things anyone can ever do is have a child. We have never had more trash in our lives! Nor have we ever done so much laundry, eaten so many processed foods, or dare I admit, gone to Wal*Mart so often. We rarely use our reusable bags these days as we need the plastic ones for his diapers! Hopefully as the little guy gets bigger, we'll be able to green up our act once more.

going in to check on his brother

The dogs are back in town! After a four week get-away in St. Louis courtesy of the new grandparents, Buster and Sissy arrived back in Columbia. I was worried about how the dogs would react to the babe. Initially, all of my fears were realized- Buster couldn't stop jumping at the baby. He wanted to know all of the little guy's smells. Sissy, the little doll, barked whenever James made a noise. Not a sweet "yip," but full out stranger-alert-attack-mode barking and growling. Naturally, I thought 'are we going to be able to keep these dogs?' but they have proven themselves to be quite trustworthy these past two days. Sissy has taken an indifferent attitude towards the baby. She doesn't really go near him. Buster, however, has taken a liking to his little brother. Whenever I go into James' room, Buster follows. If it's time for a diaper change, Buster sniffs James' feet and gets multiple reminders of "no" when he tries to go for the hands or face. The cutest thing Buster has been doing is going and standing by the door when James cries. It's as if he's waiting to tell me, "Our baby needs something." While the pups have gone two days without eating a diaper or licking the baby all over, I still keep the nursery door shut when James is sleeping in his crib. I can only imagine the lengths to which Buster would go to get into the crib and curl up next to his brother!

Jim. Jimmy. Jamsie. Jamie. Jimbo. With a name like James, people often ask what we are going to call him. I've tried calling him Jamie and Jamesie, but neither felt right. Even hearing other people call him nicknames feels strange. So for now, we're calling him James. Although, I often refer to him as Little Kyle, my giant peach, or occasionally when he has only one eye open, pirate or Mad Eye (ala Harry Potter). I like to work in a Harry Potter reference at least once a day. Kyle loves this. : )

James has been exclusively nursing which means I haven't been away from the little guy for more than 3 hours at a time for the past month! It's good that we're weaning off being around each other since for the previous 9 months, we'd been together 24/7! This week we are going to start giving James a bottle once a day. Next week we'll try for a bottle twice a day, and the week after I (*tears*) go back to work, so he'll have 3 bottles during the day.

Over the past few weeks, James has started staring at contrasting colors.  His favorite things to stare at are the picture frames in our living room.  He's mesmerized by them!  He's also been smiling at us every now and then.  We're mesmerized by that! James has also gotten more head control recently.  He does a good job holding it up while being burped and during tummy time.  Other than that we're working  to get him to imitate faces and track objects with his eyes.  Oh yeah, Kyle received his birthday present early. We've rocked out to Mary Had A Little Lamb, Old MacDonald, Jesus Loves Me, and so many more!  Let me know if you ever want to come over for a sing-along! ; )

We've had a busy month!  You can see photo's from each week by clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner of the page. We're not sure how long we'll keep updating the photo site, but for now, it's full of cute pics!