10 Little Monkeys

Now that James is smiling all the time, Kyle and I are better able to get an idea of his likes and dislikes.  Some of his dislikes include: being left alone awake in his crib at night, Bon Jovi, tummy time, being wet, having his arms swaddled, surprises, and being tired.  His likes are plentiful: eating, bouncing, white noise, kicking, sleeping, looking at dogs, riding in the Bjorn, bath time, faces, and the 10 Little Monkeys.

I discovered 10 Little Monkeys over break one day when Kyle was at work.  James was on our bed, resting against a pillow when I decided to sing to him.  During the " ____ little monkeys jumpin on the bed" part, I bounced the bed a little.

 Then when it came to "bumped his head," I put my hands around his face.

 Let me tell you- it's smile city.  His eyes light up, and he squeals with delight.  This makes 10 little monkeys my new favorite thing too!  I'd post a video of it, but then you'd hear me singing.

Here's some randomness: we think James will be right handed.  He is already so dominant with his right hand.  It's the hand he uses to hit dangly do-dads on his play gym.  It's also the one he brings to his face when he wants to suck on his fist.  Is it too early to call?  Maybe?  With about 90% of the population being right-handed, we at least have a good chance of being correct with our guess!

First Day at Daycare

The day has arrived.  I knew it would.  There was no avoiding it:  today James had his first full day at daycare.  A popular question people asked over break was, "What are you doing with James while you're at work?"  Some asked if I would be a stay-at-home mom, which was totally laughable since I would actually be a stay-at-box-under-the-bridge mom if I wasn't working.  Rather than move under a bridge or into a boxcar, we're taking him to a retired couple that live less than ten minutes from our house.  They watch babies until they are 2 years old, then they are 'aged-out' to daycare.  Including James, this couple will be watching four babies.  This couple was highly recommended by one of my coworkers who sent her son to them a few years ago.  They have said they'll treat James like he's one of their own grand kids and after seeing how much his grandparents love him, I feel good about him being with his babysitters.

He had a half-day yesterday.  Kyle dropped him off in the morning (I'm obviously not ready for that trauma), and I picked him up around noon.  We left him with a 4 oz. bottle, plenty of diapers, two changes of clothes,  wipes, and his pack'n'play.  You may notice one important item missing: the pacifier.  Oops!  The sitters kindly requested we bring one for him today.  They also were a little worried about the amount of milk we brought, remarking, "I was afraid I'd have to feed him a french fry if you didn't get here."  Double oops!  We're total rookies at this parenting thing; I'm thankful his babysitters know what they're doing!

Today we were able to make up for our mistakes- bringing a paci, bottles, and frozen milk.  Even though I knew he was in good hands, I couldn't help but miss him all day.  Hopefully this gets better! 

How could I not miss this face?

Another big change recently was beginning cloth diapering.  You may have noticed James is laying on fluff in the two month picture.  This big boy has used them for 4 days now and so far I love them.  They are adorable and produce so much less waste!  My eco-conscience is slowly returning, one cloth diapering at a time.  As an added bonus, his 'too big' pants are now 'just right' with all the added diaper bulk! 

He sure is growing up fast; we'll be taking him to college before we know it! : )

Baby's First Christmas

Some people are really on the ball about things and actually send out Christmas cards.  We are not those people.  However, if we were those people, we would have a tie for the picture on the card.

James was busy Christmas Eve through the day after Christmas.  He undoubtedly had the most fun Christmas morning, when these pictures were taken.  He loved meeting all of his great aunts and uncles, second cousins, second cousins once removed, and our friends.  He was especially excited to meet Lucy, who we've told him all about. It was incredible to see the difference between a two month old and a nine month old!  They have one thing in common though: they are both adorable!  We were  so happy to share James with everyone over the holidays and hope to keep in touch throughout the year!

I've got to say, James made quite the haul this Christmas.  Most of his swag came from his grandparents which is good since Santa only brought him books!  We've already put some of James' loot to use.  Here he is enjoying a walk at the park in his Bjorn.  

Why did we wait so long to get one of these?

He's also had a blast reading all of his new books! Auntie Caitlin gave him a book called A Sick Day for Amos McGee.   It's adorable.  James' BFF Evangeline gave him Little Polar Bear.  Thankfully it's fiction; we're not ready for the story of the present day polar bear. Santa brought him my old favorite- Go Dog, Go! which is not as amazing as I remember it.  My favorite page was where the dogs party it up in the tree.  Now, it's not as cool.  How aging 20 years changes one's perspective!

Well, we hope you had a Merry Christmas and are ready for the new year!  Here's to 2012 being full of teeth, talking, and walking!  

2 Months

 

Wow, the difference between one month and two months is huge!  James has been through so much during his second month.  He met all of his great grandparents over Thanksgiving.  We couldn't get James to contain his excitement.

 His first snowfall on December 6.  Again, his enthusiasm was hard to contain, perhaps he knew the snow would melt in just a few hours.

His first bottle, which was important since his mommy went back to work.  Mommy being gone all day wasn't too big of a deal since he got to stay home with Grandma and Grandpa B for five days and McGrandma and McGrandpa for  another five days.  He undoubtedly loved the attention and enjoyed all the extra company by practicing his new favorite skill: smiling.  He gave his first real smile while he was being fed on the morning I went back to work.  It was just what I needed to get through the day!

 On the evening of the 21st, he had his two month appointment.  Little man weighed in at 10lbs. 7 oz.- that's a 4 pound increase from his birth weight!  His weight is in the 25 percentile while his head size is in the 45 percentile.  So if you think his head looks proportionally larger than his body, you are correct.  : )  The appointment ended with (cue the scary music) SHOTS.  He got three shots.  He only cried for about 30 seconds immediately after the shots, but later that night was crying inconsolably because his legs hurt.  We eventually got him fed and put to sleep.  Although the night was rough, he ended up being fine the next day.

All in all- he's growing and having fun!  He loves to kick at his play gym, listen to books, and watch the dogs.  Kyle and I are loving every minute with this little guy!

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!