First BBQ

Last Saturday we took James to his first bar-b-que at the Liszka's house. Here is a picture of some of the folks that attended: (L to R) friend of Lynn's, Lynn, John, Jim, Aaron, James Edward (hehe, he likes to think ours was named after him)!John used to "play afraid" of babies but he was all about holding James...then quickly gave him up saying he was "too heavy"...I think that's hilarious considering how peanut-sized James is at the 3-4th percentile and still under 9lbs! John better get used to it, his 5-year post-marriage w/o a baby grace period is quickly coming to an end!

James flirting with Julie

Julie's mom was knitting a hat for an infant and wanted us to check out the sizing...so I tried it on James as Dennis was giving him a bottle....our little prince :-D (Reminds me of the movie "Coming to America" with Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall for some reason).

James spent a majority of his first BBQ sleeping (with his arms up in the air) instead of playing with all the kids that were there. His friend Becca was there and they got to hang out together as they ate dinner at the same time. James also had his first diaper blow out -- of course, it was at someone else's house! I was prepared with numerous back-up outfits though for just an incident ;-)

Rock Star

The rest of the week since James' doctor appt has gone really fast (as it feels all weeks are flying by). We had him and Easton in the car together for the first time -- very interesting, but we know we'll be able to travel with them both now :-) Easton had to go get his yearly check-up and get his Bordatella (Kennel cough) vaccine and Rabies vaccine...both are necessary to go to Doggy Day Care and get kennelled when we go on vacation. He checked out well -- all "A"s and one "B+" on his puppy report card :-) so funny! We are going to try and take E to Doggy Day Care one or two days so he gets practice in that setting and can be kennelled w/ his cousins when we go on vacation in June w/ my family -- hopefully he passes! Jamie S. and Gma Chele visited on Thursday afternoon. Jamie joined James and I while we shopped for Jimmy's birthday -- James just slept away as Jamie pushed him in the cart (the cart motion rocked his car seat) -- it was nice to get out of the hizzouse! Today Laura S. came to visit for a little bit on her day off work -- too bad it was raining and we couldn't go outside.

This picture is a favorite of mine.

****ROCK STAR****

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly and in what funny positions babies can fall asleep -- looks like he got KO'ed here -- just a milk coma though :-)

James LOVES being on his changing table from his Pack'n Play -- he prefers kicking/punching/shaking on it over actually being in the play part -- he usually starts crying within 2 minutes of me taking him off of it. Here he was dancing to Pink's "So What -- I'm Still a Rock Star!" as she was singing with Ellen on her show :-) (I think he likes that song because I sang it A TON when I was pregnant). He also LOVES when the artists come and sing on the Today Show -- he kept turning his head to watch Jennifer Hudson this morning -- better join his en tourage now, hopefully there is some space for his parents! He was smiling lots today but I didn't have my camera at that time (of course)! He's getting much better at "responsive smiling," but it's usually in the morning after a good night's sleep! He's really good at mimicking me when I do a noise that ends w/ my tongue sticking out -- so cute!

James likes to check out his Daddy when he gets home from work -- he looks so small and like his Peanut-self when Jimmy is holding him

Easton cracks me up -- falls asleep anywhere and in any position -- just like James!

Two Month Dr. Visit

On the scales...

I took James for his 2 month doctor appointment today and it turns out that our Peanut is...just that, a little peanut! He was 21.5 inches long (that's 2.5 inches in 1.5 months, I'm impressed) and 8lb 13oz. So he's just a little guy and in the 3rd-4th percentile for both of those categories -- he started in the 5th percentile, so no big deal as he's just keeping with his growth curve. He's got a head full of brains though, with a circumference of 32.8cm (20th percentile). It's funny because I can recognize when his head is growing -- it gets bigger at the top and then the face matches it the next day or two. The doctor said he checked out well and all looks good! She thinks the fussiness at night could just be because he's hungry, so we are going to feed him more often towards the second half of the day when he starts to get tired (thus, a weaker suck action) and my milk supply slows down -- should keep him satisfied and help me produce a bit more for him too...can you hear him MOO-ing??? Our little trooper got one oral vaccine for rota virus (the nurse was impressed with how well he drank it all up) and 3 other vaccine shots (not as traumatic for him or me as I thought it would be) for 5 total immunizations started. I think it was a good idea for them to put more than one vaccine in a shot to stick people less...smart thinking doctor peoples!

Oh yeah, and the best part of the visit other then James getting a clean bill of health...if the revised feeding schedule seems to work on the fussiness --- I can begin to slowly phase dairy back into my diet! WOO HOO -- I hope it works!

Two Months Old - Mother's Day

James has been going to town on his hand/forearm any time he gets the chance for about the past week -- it's always wet and slimy but it's so funny because he's SO LOUD and sloppy -- he's not at all interested in the binkie unless he's trying to calm down for bed (and that's less than 5 minutes of sucking there).
I couldn't think of a better way to spend my first Mother's Day then with three of my favorite guys -- Jimmy, James and Easton made me some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (yum, the only way to eat pancakes), did some yard work, helped me clean up the house and made us (Michele and John too) some uber yummy dinner! It was a great day and James turned 2 months old! He was much happier Sunday than Saturday (Sat. he pretty much fussed from 9am to at least 5pm, it was brutal).

James is catching up to his bear!

As I was going through our "photo shoot" of pictures, it totally looked like James was playing the air guitar :-D Here is one where he really looks like he's jammin' it out.
Jim helped James with his first "official" art project while I was in the shower Saturday :-) Such a cool Mother's Day present -- he used Crayola Air-Dry Clay to transfer the hand/foot prints of James -- I think I'm going to paint it when it's dry so you can see the prints better. James' left hand is still in the clutch reflex, so I guess it was pretty difficult to get it imprinted and his right foot is missing a big toe, but he really does have one :-) I also got a very nice charm bracelet that James can add to every year -- I can switch out one of the plain links for one with a charm whenever necessary...the charms are a heart w/ a key, the letter "D," a teddy bear w/ a blue belly and a teacher's apple -- Thanks for thinking of me, I love you guys!

James riding bareback on Easton

First Play Date

Yesterday James was invited over to Becca's house for his first official play date! Becca is our friends Steven and Colleen's second daughter. She is 2 days younger than James and we're excited to watch them grow up together -- how fun to have a friend to grow up with!

James spent his whole visit sleeping and Becca took her share of naps too -- may be the last time there is this much peace when we get together with the youngins ;-)

No, Mommy, my middle name is Edward, not Trouble :-)

Trying to model my funny noise that I'm making at him -- he can get the ending where the tongue sticks out, but he's still processing the rest of the action

Eight Weeks Old

James is 8 weeks old today :-) Here are some favorite pictures of mine from this week and a slide show at the end of the post with all of the pictures from this week. Not much going on today...he's napped quite a bit on me (right now in his Pack 'n Play so I can actually type quickly) -- probably bc he was up until after 1am last night! I think it was bc his feeding schedule had gotten messed up - we tried tricking him into thinking it was bed time after his 10pm feeding...didn't work for Mr. Smarty Pants and he needed one more feeding before sleeping. Then at 1:30am, Easton hacked up dinner -- needless to say, that was awesome after being asleep for maybe 5 minutes (I thought it was the baby making noises still).

Here is James after a good night's sleep and with a full belly after breakfast -- such a great smile! It was more of a "laughing" smile as he was being very noisy "talking" and "dancing" for me in his bouncy seat (another morning with a shower, hopefully this thing keeps working for us)!

Here is another picture from the bouncy -- he's showing one of his best "dance" moves -- watch out ladies on the dance floor! It reminds me of the characters from a roller coaster ride at Kings Island.
Here's our lil' bear in his "bath bag" -- it was a gift from a co-worker (thanks Katie) and he loved it! Much less "I'm cold" crying after we took it off him than with the hooded towels.

James during some happy time today

A slide show of James' eighth week -- more smiles, spit bubbles, "talking" and "dancing" :-)

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