Our Little Monstah

"Sorry, Mom, I can't talk right now, I'm on a very important phone call"

James squirmed himself into Easton's cage to play -- I guess the animals on the onesie was a good choice for the day :)
What's up, Bug?!?

James checking out his 1st Birthday present from Mommy & Daddy -- a new convertible car seat! He's getting big and will need it soon (was 20lb even w/ all his clothes on at his 2/26 dr. appt).

Sporting his "Little Montstah" t-shirt that Aunt Sue & Uncle Mike sent from Boston -- such a fitting shirt, too :-)

Easton & James checking out what was happening in the kitchen

So this was attached to the gate we bought for the top of the stairs -- wonder how many inquiries the call
center got before they added this to the packaging?

Look at my big muscles -- I can dump all my blocks on top of me!

James with his new friend, Jeremiah -- he's the 3rd son of our friends, Mark & Tasha. They met when we went to the Liszka's 30th Birthday party.

John & Lynn Liszka blowing out the candles on their cake -- welcome to the new decade!

Happy Birthday to....

GREAT GRAMMY AND EASTON!!!! Both Great Grammy and Easton (neither of which will probably ever read this blog) have birthdays on Feb. 18th!
Other BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUTS: Feb. 20th to my cousins in Cleveland: Christopher and Stephanie :-) And Damian and Liszka, too! Lots of Birthdays on the 20th!

Easton enjoyed his 3rd Birthday lounging in the sun in the dining room -- our first sunny day in a long time was perfectly timed for him to sun bathe on James' sick day off of school. We are very happy he made it to 3 -- gave us a scare there a couple weeks ago!

Uh-Oh Sick-O

I went to pick James up from day care yesterday and noticed he was wheezing pretty badly when breathing. His teachers said he had been like that all day and gotten a bit worse as the day went on -- he sounded like I do when I have an asthma attack -- so I decided to give the dr. office a call and they saw him right away (luckily they have somewhat later hours)! His pulse oxygen level was at 93% (healthy is 98-100) and he was sounding like wheezing through the stethoscope -- so he got his first ever Nebulizer treatment (see pic below). It is a liquid version of Albuterol, which is used for asthma. The dr. said she thinks he just has a viral infection (so no meds will help take it away) but it could be baby asthma (which he may/may not grow out of) or allergies or just a cold. So we went to Walgreens to pick up his prescription -- we killed time waiting by going to the cards section and checking out Hoops and YoYo sound cards, he thought they were absolutely hilarious (the Easter one was awesome) -- and came home with the medicine for the Neb and an oral steroid to open up those airways. He gets a treatment every 4-6 hours unless sleeping comfortably, then we let him sleep and get well rested. The dr. said he shouldn't go to school on Thursday, so him and I stayed home and played and cleaned up the house and all his toys that he puts in his mouth all the time (well, I did most of the last stuff, he really wasn't much help with anything put playing). Above :: he snagged my phone and wanted to call DaDaDa...or one of his girlfriends, I'm not really sure
Below :: getting his second treatment of the day...Day 2 has gone much much MUCH better than the first day...he SCREAMED during the first treatments (which I guess is good because then they deeply inhale more of the medicine). Today I put him in his car seat to minimize him arching his back on me, thus eliminating one thing I had to control -- have to keep his hands in and off the tubing and his head looking forward to keep the mask on. We turned on a Baby Mozart video while doing the treatment and it worked like a charm -- the second round I was even able to hook it around his head and not hold on with such a death grip.

This little boy sure doesn't look sick!!!

We're gonna play it day by day with the Nebulizer treatments and he gets the oral steroid through Sunday. Let's hope for a healthy Bug soon -- poor kiddo has been sick since mid-October when we had "plague week at the Montalbano household" and we were all sick.

Climbing Stairs

James has been climbing the stairs since before Christmas and I finally got around to getting it on video. This clip doesn't do his speed justice as he was at the top already and was distracted by the camera -- Jim timed him and James can get all the way up in 20 seconds! I was reading somewhere that the average age for climbing stairs is 18 months...CHECK that off at 7.5 months! I'm guessing it's talking about standing and walking up them, but he's been doing that at daycare now for a couple of weeks -- the stairs there are a little more kid friendly w/ the height, but he'll stand and walk up the stairs on the climber. He also used the banister to help himself step up Jen & Dominic's stairs last weekend -- what a little stinker!

Weekend Pictures

Above :: James was not happy that I went outside to try and take his picture in the morning...he was being so cute playing on the door and watching Easton while basking in the warm sun, I had to try
Below :: Aunt Kristen came for a long President's Weekend visit -- it was great to see her and Callie and Dutch (Easton was so happy to see them after his 2 week hiatus from playing post-stomach surgery)

James climbed up into Jimmy's lap to watch some of the Olympics -- I think it was the intense Snowboarding Cross

I love James' hair! It has curled up so nicely and it's super cute -- I think it drives Daddy crazy though. I just can't get myself to get it cut it yet -- I think I'm gonna go with Sheryl's approach and wait until someone (not family) asks me if I have a boy or girl (she just cut Ollie's hair and he's 5 months older than JamesE) -- unless it just gets out of control, of course.

Yes, Walking BEFORE Teeth

James has been working on his walking skillzzz while holding on to furniture (he's gotten extremely quick) and would walk 2-3 steps when we stood him in the middle of the room but yesterday he decided to get really brave. For his school report on Monday 2.15.2010 they wrote "James took a few steps without holding on to any furniture." He then got home and unexpectedly showed us his stuff -- he was holding on to his pack 'n play and then walked straight over to me by the couch -- it took him about 40 steps to cover the 7 feet but he stayed up the whole time with a huge smile on his face as he took his baby toddle steps :-D Both Jim and I got to see it -- IT WAS FANTASTIC! We are both so proud of him! We just kept watching him, amazed and then wondered "why aren't we getting this on video?" so we got it on tape before he stopped for the night! Tuesday 2.16.2010 Ms. E came back from her day off and wrote "James did a lot of walking today. He walked from his crib to the science shelf (about 7 feet again)" -- she was very proud of him, too (and just as caught off guard as us that he just busted out the walk).

Random back track to what James did at school last week:

Monday 2.09.2010 :: "James had a busy day. He was playing with all the baby dolls and on the wavy mat a lot today."

Tuesday 2.10.2010 :: James made a game out of crawling across the room to his friend's crib, trying to play with him, and then his teacher would move James away so he didn't wake his friends up -- she'd turn around and James would use his super speed demon crawl to go try to wake his friend up again -- all with a smile on his face -- what a stinker!

Thursday 2.11.2010 :: Ms. D came to see James today -- he crawled over to her and then psyched her out by turning his back to her instead of hugging her like usual. Then when she shook/pointed her finger at him and said "James, are you being a stinker?" he pointed and shook his finger back at her with a big smile on his face :-) HA, sooo funny -- the teachers said they all about lost it laughing so hard at our little goof ball.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

James will also randomly do "Touchdown!" or "How big's James?!?" He just started it one day, he must have picked it up at school because we haven't really been pushing it too much. He put his hands up for "Touchdown Colts" and put them back down for "Touchdown Bears" (thatta boy)!

Funny Noises

James likes to stick his tongue out and make this silly noise. You can find him doing it randomly throughout the day :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

I put James in his "I heart The Ladies" shirt in honor of Valentine's Day weekend and asked his teachers to try and get some pictures of James with his teachers and friends.
Above :: Ms. D and Ms. C (they call him "their boyfriend"), Ms. E (his main teacher) and his friend, M. -- they tried for a pic w/ him and all the girls in his classroom but they kept scattering once they put everyone together -- and then by the time I got there at the end of the day, he had spit up and had a wardrobe change
Below :: playing with his friend, B. B gives me the BEST smiles when I come in the room and say Hi to him...he's so cuddly! He is about 2 months younger then James, but a solid 6lbs more -- it's awesome.
I was sitting on the floor trying to put James' socks on to go home (he takes them off at school, too, to carry around with him) and all of his friends came to visit. B has just started to pull himself up and was all cuddly and M was trying to get us all to laugh with her dancing. The day before, M kept spinning herself around and around in circles and then would fall over because she was so dizzy -- Ms. E and I were laughing so hard, it was hilarious! M is sooo smart, she's just over a year but has so many words and says "Hi, James" when he comes in to class.

James went over to the bookshelf to play with E (she has the prettiest blue eyes) and I just missed catching them holding (more like touching) hands...I guess they like company while teething on the toys :-)

James' friend, P, really likes to go play with James' car seat while I get his things ready to go home. She was playing there and James crawled over and was pulling down on his bib...she walked over (she just started walking recently) behind him and un-did the Velcro for him so he could take it off -- what a good buddy! It was one of the cutest things I've seen in a long time and made my heart happy that they are such good friends!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S 2010, Love Bug!!!

James vs. Teddy 11.0

Yes, James, that is Teddy's nose :-)

James had a great Month 10! He had a lot of fun playing with his friends at school, went to Indianapolis for a weekend, watched the Colts play in the Super Bowl (he was very sad they lost), went to Indy to see GG & Pops and go to the Indy Christmas party. He can walk 5-6 feet by himself (when he wants to, he much prefers his speed demon crawling techniques), enjoys pointing his finger at people (very E.T.ish), is very good at making all sorts of new noises w/ his mouth/tongue manipulation (his newest: sticking his tongue out and moving it from side-to-side while making noise), has gotten much better at drinking from a sippy cup (although he still only drinks a little bit) and can walk up the stairs on his feet on the climber at day care (he can get all the way up our stairs at home in about 1:30 but has to use his knees to push up, stand, push up). He weighs just over 19lbs now (at least according to the puppy scale we used to weigh him at the emergency vet when Easton had his surgery). He loves to take his socks off (usually the right one) and carry it around like a security blanket -- he cruises along the furniture, carrying the sock and shaking it like crazy. He has started to make it extremely difficult to change his diaper as he tries to roll over and crawl off the changer (thus, I try to give him a bottle to drink as we go through the process). He has gotten really good at going down for a nap and to bed (usually) for me -- we've got the process down pat and are pretty successful most nights. He is still dancing every time he hears music and now claps along with the music too (also another tactic used to get a diaper changed while keeping him from flipping over). He loves to open and close doors and pull his toys and books out of his toy chest. He has become a lot more gentle while playing with Easton (although just last night he was trying to poke his eyes). He has added "ta" to his sounds but dropped the "Hi Mom" and everything is "da da da" (or some variation, there is a difference of his sounds when he is talking about Jim versus talking about Easton). He's grown and learned so much this month, we can't wait to see what he comes up with this last month of his first year! Can't imagine life without him anymore, he's one pretty awesome kiddo if we must say so ourselves! :-)

'Cause Baby I'm a Thug

He thought this was the funniest thing...only after I put up my hood with him though :-)

Week of 2.1.2010

Monday 2.1.2010 :: "James enjoyed the company of his peers today as they explored the climber and refined their going-up-the-stairs skills. He also manipulated "Math Counting" books."

Tuesday 2.2.2010 :: Happy Ground hog's Day (he didn't see his shadow, 6 more weeks of winter, surprise, surprise)! "James had fun around the climber, he practiced coming down the stairs using his large motor skills." Can you tell he really likes the climber? He often climbs up the stairs and stands on the loft area, talking to anyone who will listen and trying to shake it or teeth on the railings :-)

Wednesday 2.3.2010 :: "James has been a very busy person. He moves around the room quickly exploring everything in sight. James also climbs up the steps to the loft area where he stands and makes lots of noise. When he is done, he goes down the steps carefully on his belly face down :-)" He also actually tried some table food at school today (he usually just tosses it on the floor) -- pears, Spanish rice, taco meat, cheese and tortillas at lunch time and tried some pretzel bread (he has never liked it) at snack time.Thursday :: James did not take his morning nap at school (he's been refusing it a lot lately -- he just wants to play play play). Needless to say, he was extremely tired! Fell asleep sitting up in his high chair. I gave him some Puffs while I washed up his dishes and turned around to see him snoozing :-)
Jim held him for a bit and then we put him on the ground to sit and try to wake him up since it was close to bed time -- he just rolled over and fell back asleep on the family room floor -- poor guy, but Easton enjoyed the company :-)
Friday 2.5.2010 :: No teacher notes but James was so tired that he refused lunch but perked back up at snack time when they celebrated one of his friend's birthdays! They brought Puffs for everyone to share (totally gonna steal that idea) and they wore party hats as they sang Happy Birthday to her (she's the one in the picture of James and her looking out the classroom window into the pod a few posts ago).

Above :: James' new favorite instrument to play is the washing machine. He likes to come "help" me do the laundry by playing me some music on his bass drum :-) He just loves music -- anything he can do to make a beat -- he figured out his friend Katie's xylophone on the first try, likes to use blocks to make noise, loved the wooden spoon and pot to bang together...research shows it helps with brain development, so PLAY ON, little man!

Below :: Jim caught a picture of James trying to play with Easton (who wasn't really interested in playing)

Playing with blocks for the first time at home. We took James to his friend, Mason's, 2nd Birthday party and Mason's Lego's were in the living room. We ended up making most of the figures and James just smacked them together, but we decided it was time to bust his out of the toy chest :-)

A video of James using the garbage can as a walker -- he just wants to go fast and is smart enough to know he is much more sturdy while holding on to something :-) We have to keep a close eye on him though because he knows how to open the can to get to the garbage..yuck! He also loves the "try to get into the cabinets" game...he's obsessed with opening and closing the doors and trying to get the pots/pans/lids out. We finally broke down and bought some of the locks because the game was getting pretty old and telling him the cabinet was "all done" wasn't really working effectively anymore :-)

SUPER BOWL 44 WEEKEND :: LET'S GO COLTS!!!

Easton vs Speaker Wire

We woke up Sunday morning in Indy to Easton throwing up. I thought he was just hungry, so I gave him a small portion of food. It lasted him about 2 hours and then he was getting sick every 20 minutes or so and couldn't keep anything down in his belly -- gentle rice or water. Poor puppy was feeling awful so Jim and Pops took him to the emergency vet -- x-rays showed that Easton still had some of the speaker wire in his belly from a couple of weeks prior (we thought he had thrown it all up or maybe lost it out the other end since he hadn't been sick). So the vet gave Easton a shot for the nausea and vomiting and we hurriedly packed and drove straight to the ER vet up near our house. They did emergency surgery and went into his stomach to remove the mass -- it was being suctioned in to a part of his belly where he couldn't throw it up or poop it out. He did really well and they had him out of surgery around 7pm. They called the next day and said he was doing fantastic and we should come get him that night. We were very excited to see our puppy but I think it would have been best for him to stay one more night there -- he just moaned/whined/cried all night and didn't even want to lie down. Tuesday, Jim took Easton back to the vet so they could check the incision and Easton came home with a supplemental pain pill (helped a ton and he slept much better) and an antibiotic (didn't think there was an infection but wanted to be sure). Easton is recovering slowly (he had massive stomach surgery) but is by far better than the beginning of the week. He is actually wagging his tail and barking and lying down with ease again.
Above :: James found that he can use the garbage can as a walker on the hardwood
Below :: our puppy patient made it through the emergency surgery (there was about a 3-4 inch long and 1-inch wide/round piece of speaker wire in there)...he has to wear the cone until he gets his stitches out in 10-12 days from surgery (one week from posting-date).

Christmas in Indy

We met up with Uncle Dominic and Aunt Jen at Chevy's for dinner on Friday night -- James sat in a high chair for the first time! He was a little small for it, so we had to keep a close eye on him, but he did great! Wiped it down and gave him some toys and a sippy and he was set!
Saturday morning we drove down to Indy for the Christmas celebration with my friends from undergrad. James got some QT with GG, Pops and even saw Aunt Kiki for about 20 minutes :-) His favorite part I think though was having access to all of Charlie's doggie toys -- a doggie bone works for teething in a pinch :-) Ewww (don't worry, I was going to take the pic before the bone made it to the mouth, so it was only in there for about 3 seconds -- but how stinkin' happy does he look!?!).

If there are no doggie bones around, a beer bottle will work for teething :-)

All the kiddos -- lots of girls! Sadie, Kennedy, Avery & Elle, Taylor, Grace, James and Austin. I hope we can get this same picture again in a few years to compare as they all grow up!

James and Austin had to stick together with all those crazy girls around!

HI AUNT KASEY!!! Thanks for keeping me happy at the end of the night while I waited for Mommy and Daddy to gather everything up!

GG was tickling James

Pops was crawling around playing with James -- those old bones had some trouble getting up after, but he loved every minute of it!

Homemade Baby Food Recipes

I went to a baby food cooking class with my neighbor a few weeks ago at Whole Foods and am just now getting around to posting the recipes -- I figure some people who read this may have young kiddos now or will eventually, so I hope this gives you something else to put in the rotation! I made the Mama Grain Baby Food for James minus the quinoa (keen-wa) as he doesn't care for its texture and I don't need him gagging himself and throwing it up all over the place -- still yummy and gets him some protein!
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HAPPYBABY’S Mama Grain Baby Food
Ready at about 8 months; makes 48, 1oz. servings
1 ½ c. organic black beans (if canned, rinse salt off first; if dry, soak overnight and then cook until tender)
4-5 organic bananas, coarsely chopped and steamed (use ½” water to boil-steam) = 3 c. banana, reserve liquid to use later
½ c. cooked quinoa (keen-wa) (bring 1c. water to boil; add ½c. uncooked quinoa, bring back to boil, cover and simmer over low heat about 10 min or until quinoa completely absorbs water; remove from heat, fluff and let stand until cooled; has a white ring around it when ready and will be very tender; makes 1 ½c. cooked quinoa)

1. Put all ingredients in blender w/ reserve liquid (add one ingredient at a time to avoid backup). Finished product should be slightly chunky.
2. Place food in ice cube tray that have cover (or Saran wrap tightly). Freeze. Good for 3-4 months. I use individual plastic baby food containers that I've washed from the store after use.

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HAPPYBABY’S Great Greens Baby Meal
Ready at about 5-6 months
1c. steamed organic spinach (about 1 bag fresh)
½c. ripe organic mango (1 med sized)
½c. ripe organic pears (about 2 pears)
1. Peel, slice and steam mangoes and pears until soft and juicy (about 5 min; steam longer if need more sweetness)
2. Wash spinach thoroughly and place wet spinach in large pot. Steam until wilted and bright green (over cooking causes spinach to turn brown).
3. Add all ingredients to blender with any remaining water from steaming and blend to smooth puree.
4. Immediately freeze into ice cube tray with lid (or Saran wrap tightly). When frozen, pop into Ziploc bag and label.

Week of 1.25.10

Story of my working-momma life: always behind on things such as dishes and blogging :-) The week of 1.25.2010 had James taking 8 steps all by himself! He's getting pretty steady on his feet but much prefers his crazy fast speedster crawling mode of transportation over trying to walk. He is pretty sturdy though playing with toys with both hands off the furniture -- good balance = good hitter, right :-) He can stand for +30 seconds at a time before falling on his padded toosh. Also, a new trick: standing up and walking up the stairs on the climber at school...very impressive, little man!
Above: look closely just above his left eye and you can notice the end of his first shiner
Below: sharing the pillow with Daddy as it got close to bed time

Above: how James enjoys reading...with the book on top of his head! Such a goof ball, but at least he's finally getting more interested in books

Below: James' hair is getting long! Daddy can get some sweet mohawks during bath time :-) I love it and want it to keep growing because I know it will curl up (he has some pretty good ones when he's all sweaty or right after the bath but they go away when his hair dries) but Jimmy is itchin' to cut it. James still has some bald spots up front, so I think he needs to keep the hair long to cover them up :-)

Tuesday 1.26.2010 :: "James visited Toddlers today with (his teacher and some friends) -- he had a fun time playing with his old friends." He is still just trying the solid foods but went to town on the mashed potatoes today! He still refuses the pretzel bread but enjoyed animal crackers and goldfish for the first time this week.

Wednesday 1.27.2010 :: "James has been very active crawling super fast from here to there. He participated in a buggy walk with the other Infant room from 1:45 to 2:25pm. James also has been playing peek-a-boo with the sheer curtain at the cozy corner. He really likes when one of his friends does it. He laughs every time she hides and then appears :-)"