9.25.09 Weekend Activities

We had a busy week this week w/ a meeting for Mommy and Parent/Teacher Conferences, so I got behind on blogging.

The two pics below are from the weekend before when Katie and James hung out in their strollers together. Katie loves to teethe on her stroller but James isn't quite sure about it (the look of questioning from James cracks me up as he will gladly eat his toes or try to "kiss" our noses by putting them all the way in his mouth).

They obviously thought something was funny in Babyland :-D just not sure what was so hilarious.

Friday after school James and I braved an at-home art project. We decided to finally use the leftover modeling clay from Mother's Day and imprint James' 6-month foot and hand prints. The first shot is the 6-month prints and the bottom pic is from when he was 2-months old -- what a difference!

Saturday morning was pretty lazy -- I don't remember why James isn't dressed but I think this was the transition from PJs to clothes. Daddy was practicing taking some shots with his new camera -- he is getting some really good ones (it just takes a bit more work to get them uploaded, I'll get around to it some day when he shows me how to do it).

Um, why wouldn't I want to play in a desk drawer, Mommy?

We went to Lowe's to help Gma Chele get a new rug home on Saturday afternoon. James kept himself entertained with Mommy's sunglasses :-D What a goofball!

James' first bite of squash -- yummy! We tried the jar food first to make sure he didn't have a reaction to it then made him some homemade squash later this week (interesting but it worked out).

The car keys have become a favored toy to play with here lately. James really likes the noises that the main part makes -- beep beep, a car trying to start, a home alarm -- and the LED is fun too; however, his favorite part is teething on the keys! Thanks Jamie C.!

HOCKEY IS BACK IN SEASON!!! WOO HOO!!! I'm very excited about the Blackhawks being on TV again! They opened the season 10/2 in Helsinki, Finland with a loss in a shoot-out (although Yahoo! Sports had them winning already -- jerkolas) but came away w/ 3 points as they played awesome on Saturday and beat Florida. Kane, Sharp and Byflugien are starting strong, each "on pace to get 82 goals this season" (LOL) as they have all scored in both games so far :-) Thanks for the cool socks Gina G.!

Sunday = Football!!! We ventured over to Dom & Jen's house to watch the Bears game -- they pulled out a "W" by the hair of their chinny chin chins. Thanks for inviting us over and for all the yummy food! James and I were dressed and ready to support the Colts later for the Sunday Night game - they won.

And For My Next Trick...

Jim went to check on James to say goodbye before leaving for work this morning and this is how he found James in his crib :-D What a little stinker! I have labelled the picture to show you where I put him down to sleep last night and where he ended up...seriously, he moved himself 3/4 of a crib during the night -- definitely a first here -- I guess in honor of his 7 week birthday :) That or he was really hot because the fan is down in that corner and I had set it up to blow more into the middle of his room (vs behind his dresser) because it was fairly warm in his room yesterday (especially with the door closed)! We keep a fan going to keep the air circulating in his room, just one of the things research shows help reduce the occurrences of SIDS, along w/ having a mesh bumper up (which I'm glad we put up when he started rolling 3 weeks ago, because he would have woken up with some appendages hanging out of the crib this morning) instead of the quilted bumpers that come in the sets.

He had himself all tucked up in the corner with his feet up the slats of the crib...maybe it was all the pent up excitement from the Blackhawks beating the Calgary Flames in the 1st round of the hockey playoffs -- Go Hawks!

Here James is workin' a half smile (you know, for the ladies) while on the changing table. He is 7 weeks old today and the non-gas related smiles are becoming more common (not here, this one was definitely gas related as he was 'riding the bike' like a champ for me while getting it all out before I changed him)! Some other tricks: he is much better at making spit bubbles, he is hitting the chime on his activity mat on purpose to make it ring (it looks like he is doing the elementary backstroke when he gets going on there, maybe the next Michael Phelps minus the pot drama), he can still roll from his belly to his back (thus avoiding any tummy time exercise), his neck is getting stronger and much more of his movements are voluntary, and he can make some pretty good eye contact and will find me and get that "Hey, I know you" look in his eyes and he is getting to recognize Jim too!He doesn't even cry when Easton wants to share the pillow with him!!! What a good brother! (Right after this picture, James punched E in the face and E just looked at him like "Dude, what was that for, I'm being nice and giving you more than half!")

Week 5

Man o man, I've gotten a little behind on the blog this week -- had intentions of getting on here to post, but kept getting distracted! It's hard to post while holding a baby that will only nap when being held (thank goodness he is sleeping well at night or I think I'd be a mess) and there were things to do around the house while I was "wearing" James in the Moby wrap, so the blogging had to get bumped. The weather was great towards the end of the week, so we got to take a couple walks w/ Jim and Easton, which was awesome.
Well, we all know who runs this house -- so Easton wants to control the TV now that his position as ruler has been taken over by a baby :-)

James & Mommy -- sometimes you just gotta sing & dance to keep everyone happy

All 3 of my boys working on "tummy time" - I think Daddy has it down pat

Side note: I believe the Blackhawks squeezed a win out for Game 1 vs. the Calgary Flames this night -- 12 sec in to OT, Havlat scored the winning goal -- James & I had just settled in for his bedtime feeding and Jimmy was letting E out and had to come racing up the stairs to see what I was yelling about -- LET'S GO HAWKS!Looks like tummy time is over if James has anything to say about it -- Easton has his so over this baby crying face on

(Focus 1: thumb; Focus 2: swirl at front of head) James started w/ the whole back of his hand in his mouth and moved to just his thumb while hanging out with Jim...I had to get a picture first bc it was so cute, then we removed the thumb (from the mouth, not totally removed, geez) in hopes that he won't become a thumber sucker bc it is soooo much easier to take away a binkie than it is to take away a thumb ;-) Gotta think long term sometimes people

This week James has become a much bigger fan of his bouncy chair -- I actually got to prepare and eat (whoa) lunch in all one swoop one day bc he was so content in it enjoying the vibrations and looking at the toys swinging along with him. He has actually hit the snail a few times too -- not sure if it's on purpose, but he always seems to be intrigued with the results :-D

...and we're out for the count
On Friday, Jamie S. came out to visit us for the day -- it was a great visit and we hope she wants to hang with us again soon when she has work off!!! ; Look! The sun was out and I got to open up some windows on the sunroom during the afternoon -- EXCELLENT!

Friday also brought a Cubbies win over the St. Louis Cardinals -- had to get some video of James and I singing for the victory! I'm hoping to sing it many more times this summer and maybe it will be his first song that he sings when he gets to talkin' -- GO CUBS GO!

Saturday was pretty low-key, just ran some errands then watched baseball. We needed salad-goods for "Girls Afternoon Out" so we had to get out of the house. Sunday the girls (Amanda, Jamie C., Lauren, Lynn and Tasha came over to meet James. We had a salad fiesta with all sorts of yumminess. Tasha brought her youngest son, Jacob, so James officially had his first playdate. He just slept and ate and Jake got more play time out of Easton (which, thankfully, Jake survived with no major injuries). Thanks for a great afternoon ladies! Also, the Cubs won again on an Aramis Ramirez walk-off homer in free baseball (extra innings) to take the series 2 games to 1 over St. Louis (Sunday's game was rained out) and the Cleveland Indians ROCKED the Yankees in their opening series in their new multi-million $$ stadium -- 22 to 4! Go Tribe! They scored 14 runs in the 2nd inning alone -- that record should stand for awhile! And more sports notes (can you tell I love my sports? I think Physical Education was a good choice)...the Hawks took a 2-0 lead over the Flames on Saturday -- very promising (and lots of singing w/ the Chelsea Digger song when the Hawks score -- dat datta dat datta dat datta da-da-da-da-dat [also from the Amstel Light commercial to go along w/ Go Cubs Go])!

Lauren C. and James during her visit last week -- she liked him so much, she had to come back for more! I think it's the swirl...that swirl will get all the ladies ;-)

First Week All Alone

As I'm typing this blog, it's snowing outside. That's right, I typed SNOWING! Did Mother Nature not get the memo that it's April? She can be so downright moody sometimes I tell ya! I'm so over it and am contemplating trying to talk my family into moving someplace with a more stable climate -- San Diego anyone?
James and I were on our own this week (above is a pic Gma Chele took of us - very good one of James, me, not so much)...scary to start but we made it! The mornings are always interesting because I have to time out feeding him with a shower as he naps and then we have to go downstairs for the day. I'm still limited on the amount of trips I can make up/down the stairs, so we must plan ahead (which isn't always my strong point)! Needless to say, there were definitely a few days where I didn't get to eat lunch until almost 3pm -- someone feels the need to be held constantly and I can barely get anything accomplished (i.e. making lunch) before he starts to cry again (it makes for a bit of a long day). I did get something to help though :) I had ordered a Moby wrap from Target last week -- you essentially "wear" the baby -- and was set on having to wait until late April to get it because it was on back-order and a 2-6 week delivery...however, the UPS man was our prince in brown shorts and delivered it on Thursday! Woo Hoo! Once I figured out how to get it on properly (it's prolly 10 ft long all stretched out) and get James in it safely it was game on. Only problem is he falls asleep in it (good) but has super radar as soon as I try to lie him down in his pack n play for some shut eye myself (bad, Mommy needs naps too).
Wed. night we took James out of the house somewhere other than a dr. appt. - very exciting! He joined us at St. Matthew's as we had to attend a mtg. to be able to get him baptized (which we wanted to do before U. Larry gets deployed). Visitors this week included Gma Chele, Aunt Jen K. and her momma & grandma - it was a busy Thursday! Then on Friday we took James to see Jen's new house and watched some Blackhawks hockey (they cliched a playoff spot - stellar) with her and U. Dominic.

James has been very fussy this weekend & I feel like I'm always feeding him & that my body can't keep up (I know it will though)... hopefully it's just a growth spurt and not the start of colic (keep your fingers crossed for us). I'm excited to introduce my love of baseball to James this week as the season officially opens Monday! Let's get a Cubs-Indians World Series for him
now :-) GG is coming again this week for a few days over her spring break -- can't wait to see her!!!

Blackhawks vs Sabres

John got us some WICKED SWEET seats for the Chicago Blackhawks vs Buffalo Sabres hockey game on Jan. 14th. We were in the 11th row, one section over from the Hawks goal, so we got a great view of everything! And I didn't have to worry about Peanut taking over as "puck attractor" because we were behind the nets :-) They won 4-1 with some great kills on the power plays (seriously, Eager spent at least 10 minutes in the box, I think he has some anger management issues that he needs to resolve).

Peanut was excited for his first NHL game (even if he couldn't see the action). He was especially active when Toews scored his goal -- he was doing triple flips in there, I swear! Below is a picture of my 2 favorite Hawks -- Toews (#19) and goalie "Silent K," as I've nicknamed Khabibulin.