Master Bath Remodel

One of our big house-projects this year is the master bathroom. My wonderful mother gave up pretty much ALL of her spring break to help us get it together -- she's fantastic! It took us 2.5 DAYS to scrape all the wallpaper off -- I swear, I think they used super glue in some spots, it took forever! The toilet/shower area and the sink area all bare naked

James even got in on "helpin' hammerin" the wallpaper, as he called it :-)

He was SOOOO thrilled to help Daddy "make noise" and drill the towel bar anchors in to the wall

The (almost) finished projects! Just a couple of things left to hang and some plumbing to make sure is secure and non-leaking -- but we can put the first part of the check in the "done" box!

MAJOR catch up - Month 22

CRAZY BATH TIME HAIR

Family Picture

James will sometimes eat dinner only if he has these glasses on
James in his cute sweater

James' eye up close when Daddy was playing with his camera

Uncle John and James

Climbing on Daddy

LOVING his new Elmo blanket -- I've had this material for at least 5 years and GG put the border on it for me :-)

Messy eater

Conductor wearing a fireman hat

James and Ms. C at one of the after-school programs his school had -- James loved dancing like the big kids to the funny songs

Running/Galloping down the hall at school

Wearing Mommy's shoes is always fun

James is still small -- literally can curl up and fit into a bag :-)

First Haircut

Wowzers, I have LOTS of blogging to catch up on...it's going to take me awhile, so patience, young one. GG came for a visit as our Spring Breaks overlapped. We were very busy bees as we (she) touched up our downstairs bathroom to finish up the remodel (pics soon), cut out the shapes for Cassie & Brian's wedding favors and printed up all the invitations and response cards and directions for the wedding (took the better part of 2 days, I don't remember it taking Jim and I that long)! We kept JamesE home with us the morning she was planning on leaving (we wished she had stayed another day to play with him, it was fun having her) for his very first haircut!!! I finally gave in because his bangs were all up in his eyes and a trim was much needed -- the curls still haven't been touched in back though -- they're awesome (and drive Jimmy crazy, haha)!
Above :: the first cut
Below :: the whole process was made a bit more bearable with a binkie and a Baby Mozart DVD on for him to be distracted

His cowlick and the fact that she was cutting his hair from behind made it hard to get them even, but they've grown in nicely :-)

Finishing up his Nebulizer treatment later that night and waiting for his bath as he boogie-d down to Baby Mozart (that DVD mesmerizes him, it's crazy)

Why Teeth Are Bad...

...they result in bloody lips :-( Saturday we kept debating and changing our minds all day as to if James' 2nd tooth had broken through the gums (like I said before, he sticks his tongue out as soon as you try to look) or not. Well, the question was answered when he was waddling towards the front door to walk Laura S. and her friend out to their car and he tumbled and barely hit his mouth on the kitchen chair...and it exploded in blood on the side where the top tooth in question is located! I was lucky that Laura was there to help me hold an ice cube on his fat lip, but our question was definitely answered -- TOOTH #2 officially popped through on Saturday -- that means 2 teeth in 4 days! It was his top left tooth to go with his bottom right that was already there. We can also mark down his first (of many I'm sure) bloody/fat lips. You can tell in the picture he looks pretty torn up about it -- haha -- he's been a good teether so far, I hope it continues as we're thinking tooth #3 is getting ready to make an appearance itself. He got an AM bath because he soaked through his diaper (so frustrating as he's not even in the weight range for the size 4's but we have to put him in them for night and he's leaking out of those, but the new "dry max" seem to be doing the trick) and loved his mohawk -- I keep promising Jim I'll cut James' hair after I get his 1-year pictures (we'll see though, it will be easy to trim up the bangs, no biggie, it will be tough to get rid of those uber-cute curls in the back).

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 :-)"

After Thanksgiving Weekend

Post-Thanksgiving found us relaxing. There was lots of football and hockey to watch! James has a new found hobby -- tantalizing Easton at every chance. He bee-lined over to Easton at mach-10 crawling speed to pull up and pet the puppy.

They played nicely. I'm glad we played with Easton's ears and his paws so much when he was a puppy because now he doesn't really care if they get touched.
James has a lot more hair these days, which makes bath time that much more fun for crazy hair do's! We still have him in his infant tub because he's not the best sitter just yet and he goes nuts in there -- kick, kick, KICK -- there's barely any water left in there when he's done playing around :-)

James is obsessed with people's faces -- mostly their noses, but he also insists on trying to put his hands in every one's mouths (gross considering his hands have usually just been in his own goober mouth). We try to make the "HONK" noise whenever he grabs our noses -- probably a bit too encouraging to keep him doing that to everyone, but it's so funny.Naked baby (he had just blown out a diaper - his 3rd of the day - and it was too close to bed time to run that risk again) showing us how he waves "HI" back at you...a new trick that he started on Saturday.

James showing that he's smarter than the average bear...sneaking through the exersaucer to get out of the family room to go play with the ceramic turtle (maybe turtles are his favorite, just like Mommy).Lil' peanut bear

Standing up to look outside in the sun room -- was very interesting I guess as he stood there for a few minutes.

Music Man

James Top Songs at 7 weeks

The following songs have all shown amazing results as far as calming down a crying James -- usually it's me singing/humming (very badly at that) into his ear w/ some walking or bouncing involved, but they work. Some other moms have joined in the experiment and found that the country music definitely speaks to the little ones -- that, or we have a lot of country bumpkins on our hands!!!

4. "Halo" -- Beyonce; thatta boy, gotta get a little R&B groove in there ;-) and I figured I heard "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" enough during my pregnancy to make Beyonce a fav of his -- one question: is every video of hers from this CD going to have her wearing a leotard? hmm, we'll have to wait and see I guess! This song reminds me of the SNL skit w/ Justin Timberlake in which they do a parody of the song (is parody the right word there?)...hilarious! It makes me miss work a little bit to hear Single Ladies as we would dance to it and have the girls show us their moves before they left the locker room on their way to class -- gotta keep it livened up! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! Even Al Roker (go to the 7:30 mark of the clip) from The Today Show knows the dance -- he busted it out today when he filled in for Kathie Lee on the 4th hour of the show w/ Hoda (love both Hoda and Al)! ***see below for more about stories I've seen on The Today Show recently which have sparked my fancy***

3. Classical Mix CD -- it's a success if he's calmed down by "Ava Maria", which is track five :-) I truly believe it works because I played the CD and had the headphones tucked under my seat belt towards my belly as I drove to/from work while I was pregnant (35 miles = lots of time for music)

2. "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" - Kenny Chesney -- a new addition that I randomly tried because he started screaming when Jamie Fox was singing "Blame" on American Idol and I remembered that he would always kick me in utero when I put country music on -- I guess he really was dancing :=)

1. "Chelsea Dagger" -- The Fratelli's; the steadfast go-to since he's been born! I am really sad for hockey season to end as this is the song they play when the Blackhawks score a goal -- but it is also the music for an Amstel Light commercial (the one w/ the guy hanging from the light post doing soccer tricks - so cool), so we will most likely still hear "his" song after they hopefully win the Stanley Cup :-)

***there was a story that ran today regarding organ donations -- as you may/may not know, my father is here and will be able to go swimming with his grandson (one of his dreams he couldn't reach if he were on dialysis) because of the amazing gift of a kidney from a living donor, one of our neighbors from when we lived in Michigan...he'll be 6 years post-transplant in June (his life expectancy actually increased when he reached 5 years, COOL)! -- anyway...they featured a program, http://www.matchingdonors.com/ in which living donors are matched with people who need an organ transplant and have been unable to find another means of donation... I find it very heart-warming that people are willing to do this and hope the story will encourage more people to sign up as donors through their state.

Story #2 related back to babies is the Tummy Tub -- bath buckets that have been used in Europe for awhile and mimic the womb and can help babies learn to stand earlier (water buoyancy helps)! I'm quite happy with our tub (and Jim gives them anyway) but I thought this was innovative, especially with a small bathroom :-)

Gma Chele caught this smile on camera Saturday -- he was happy after a long, car-ride induced nap :-D

"Real" Bath Time

Fully healed umbilical cord = fully submerged bath time! I freaked out when I went to get James ready for a bath last week and found his cord had fallen off - I screamed and ran to the other couch and made Jim go get it and throw it away like it was a spider or something (which is funny for two reasons: 1) Jim sometimes makes me squish the Charlotte's in our house when they're too big and 2) all pregnancy Jim was the squeamish one about the cord and I was all "ah, it's nothing" and when the thing fell off, the roles totally flipped). I'm pretty sure this picture is well-edited for public viewing and we kept his goodies hidden (which has already been a discussion him and I have had numerous times). You can't tell from this snapshot, but James actually really liked getting a bath in his tub! Our kitchen sink is a pain in the booty to give one in (I would love to remodel if someone else wants to pay for it) but it seemed to work out OK and served its purpose. Daddy gave the bath, Mommy was the photographer that stayed far away ;-) I hope him liking the bath translates to him liking the pool when he gets older!

Bath Time!!!

GG helped us give James a bath tonight. I had attempted one last week, but needed some reassurance that I was getting him clean (not that he's running around playing in the mud or anything yet, but still). Here's the "before" picture -- notice someone lost his umbilical cord! The dr. had said it would probably fall off in the next week or so -- it was about 6 hours later! I totally freaked when I opened up his onesie and it was missing and Jimmy (who was previously grossed out by the thing) had to find it and throw it away -- kind of like w/ a spider being found. The belly button isn't completely healed yet though, so we will continue to sponge bath for a bit to help avoid infection, etc.

James actually didn't mind the bath too much -- only cried a bit towards the end when he was probably getting a bit chilly.