Baby's First Christmas!

We had a busy day today, and James started the day very crabby, but ended in perfection!  Santa is ready to get the show on the road!  Sean and I are currently enjoying a bit of peace and quiet, watching A Christmas Story, and putting together a little Radio Flyer cart that was handed down from my friend and master's advisor, Betsy's twins.  They sure did enjoy it, and Betsy thought James would too.  She gives great hand-me-downs!  I just looked over at Sean and it occured to me that he is putting together his first Christmas present.  Fun!

We had a great Christmas dinner tonight at home with just the three of us.  I made a whole chicken, roasted, pilaf, and peas.  It was about all that Sean could take, since he is still getting over a terrible flu that he came down with on Sunday.  Hopefully he will be feeling better tomorrow!  James dined this evening on pumpkin, tofu, and avocado.  I gave him a rice cake later when we were eating to give him something to do.  He loves the rice cakes!  I gave him one yesterday for the first time, and he was totally into it.  He enjoyed having something that big to hold onto and just chew.  I think he liked the power of being able to feed himself something so large. 

He really has a more varied diet these days, bus still loves his nursing time (happy mom!).  He gets so excited at nursing time, and has been doing so well with it this past week.  I really love it. Especially when he takes his little hand and "cruises" with it.  Sometimes he will rub my face, hold on to my nose, stick his fingers in my mouth, or just rub my chin.  I love it!  Almost always he is kicking his legs, and when he when he is really happy, I don't know how he even stays on, because he starts almost jumping!  So cute!  

Well, we can't wait for tomorrow!  More of an update later!

Saturday, December 20

I can't believe I let it go so long without an update!!  Things in the O'Callaghan household sure have been busy lately.  There is no shortage of new things going on here these days.  Starting with how  quickly James gets around now.  Phew!  He is into everything!  We knew it was coming, but were really not fully prepared to lose our sweet little baby to this free-wheeling little boy!  Ces't le vie!  We're getting used to the new drill, and really enjoying this new phase.  He is such a little delight.  I can't believe how often Sean and I look at him and smile with pride.   

Tonight, Sean reported that James crawled up to a sleeping Tioga and licked him.  Yes, that's right, the baby licked the dog.  Apparently, James thought it was hilarious, but Tioga just thought it was strange and got up and walked away. James continues to find the dogs to be a continuous source of wonder and amusement. Thank god!!!  

We recently made a trip to California, for James fifth plane trip.  He is quite the little traveler. He is really great to travel with.  He just has a great time playing on the plane and I love the opportunity to hold him in my arms for the extended period of time.  At the end of the first flight though, he was a little wired, and was actually hanging from the seat in front of us on his own.  Seriously, hanging with his hands, and fully suspended kicking his legs.  He just sort of reached out and grabbed on.  At one point I let go of him, just to see what kind of grip he actually had, and let me tell you, he stayed there.  Baby pull-ups.  Who would have known.  He also discovered the little knob for the tray table, which kept him quite occupied throughout the flights.  

Sean keeps saying that I left with one baby and came back with another one!  James sure did master a few skills in the four days we were gone.  He really mastered pulling up to standing, cruising, and a few new expressive habits (a little loud yelp when excited or happy).  Along with this, he now refuses to go to bed at night.  All he wants to do is stand up in his crib and "party" when it comes time to go to bed.  As soon as you put him down, he rolls over, crawls to the edge of his crib, stands up and starts jumping up and down and having a grand old time.  We then open the door to put him back down, and he turns his head to you with a giant grin on his face, and starts giggling.  It is really hard to keep a straight face.  But we have to be firm here (yeah, right).  We tell him "no", put him back down, and start over.  I think part of it is that we have been pretty off of the schedule and rather sleep deprived since our trip.  We had a busy week since our return, and are just now getting back on track.  Actually, it was much easier to get him down tonight, and we actually made the 7:00 bed time.  I must say though, he is still a good little sleeper and is a champ at sleeping through the night.  

James is eating all sorts of new things now.  He east most fruits and veggies, tofu, and yesterday we started yogurt!  He is a great eater, and opens his mouth wide and gets so excited to eat and moves all over the place in his little seat.  He is into feeding himself tofu and avocado.  James is still nursing and it was a little challenging last week, but is once again going swimmingly.  I attribute the little trouble last week with a tremendous growth spurt.  He is really getting to be so big!

Today Sean and I went Christmans shopping as parents for the first time today.  I was so excited.  I haven't been this excted for christmas in years!  I know that James is only eight months old, but it is our first Christmas as parents!!!  We just got him a few small things, and don't ever plan to make Christmas a big deal in terms of gifts, but I am excited to show James pictures of his first presants from Santa.  I am even tolerating Christmas music, which generally drives me crazy.  I even found myself humming today, and selecting the Holiday Traditions station on the XM channel on the TV (thanks mom and Gary) this morning.  I don't know what has come over me.  Must be this whole parenthood thing.  Who knew it would make me go "soft".  Good grief, Charlie Brown.

Well, it is getting late, so I'm off to bed!

 

Crawling!!!

Well, James has crawled a few times to date, but nothing like today!  Today is the day that James officially is crawling.  He is all over the place on his little knees.  He woke up this morning and decided that today was the day and first thing crawled six feet across the living room floor.  He crawled at daycare and tonight when we got home.  Sean and I are so excited.  We also know that life that we know it now know it is over.  What an exciting day!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving!  It is a beautiful day in Bozeman, Montana!  The sun is shining, it is cold, and Sean is out Elk hunting.  I am in domestic bliss in the kitchen listening to the Greatful Dead, and James playing in his crib, when he is supposed to be taking a nap...The sounds that are coming from the monitor are cracking me up.  I am waiting for Alice's Restaurant to come on the radio at 10:00 (it has to be listened too on the radio).

We are going to Bill and Maggie's for dinner at 3:00.  It will be a great gathering with Wyn and Brian and Addie (James' best friend, he's already going for older women) and Wyn's friends Nadim and Heidi, and Greg and Lindsay and Sawyer.  It will be great.

Sean and I had our second date last night since James was born.  "Uncle" Bill insisted on watching James last night while we went to this great Spanish Tapas restaurant in town.  We had a great meal (bacon wrapped dates!) and a nice time just enjoying each others company.

James has added nananana to his repertoire of vocabulary.  What a ham!  He figured out how to open the TV cabinet and doors yesterday, so now comes the fun time of really childproofing the house and locking stuff up.  He sat in front of the cabinet yesterday just opening it and closing it, then looking over at me as if to say, "hey, check me out!  I am really good at this!" He has also gotten really good at pulling himself up onto things.  He loves to sit up on his knees while holding onto something and shake himself while yelling "ahhahhahhahhahh".  Hilarious.

He now sleeps curled up in a little ball with his knees tucked under himself and snuggled up with his monkey.  He is consistent in his sleep patterns to the point that I am consistent in them!  He goes to bed usually by 6:45 (we just can't keep him up any later!) and wakes up for his nighttime nurse and 4:15.  I think a nine and a half hour stretch is pretty good!  Then he usually goes back to sleep for about two to three more hours.  

I think that his favorite time of the day though is bath time.  He can be on the verge of a total meltdown, then hear the tub water filling up and immediately become blissfully happy!  I always take a bath with him, and he love it.  We "swim" in the tub, he loves to blow bubbles in the water, splash with his hands, kick the water ferociously with his feet/legs, and play with his bath toys, especially this little plastic bath time book that Grammy got him.  It is just the best.  We sure do have a great time during bath time.  Come to think of it, it may be my favorite time of the day too...

He is really into books right now.  He just loves to turn the page.  You can tell him "turn page" and he turns it and then totally cracks up.  Does he understand that he is obeying a command?  Can he really understand turn page?  Seems too, and then is really proud of himself.  I take little board books with us everywhere and he just sits there for long periods of time and turns the page.  He does this with the books at school too.  

Well, I could go on and on, but I'll save some for another post.  Love to you all!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 23

Just want to make a quick post that today, James handed me something for the first time.  He had a teething ring in his hand, and when I came and sat down next to him, he held it out for me to take.  When I took it, he smiled and laughed.  It was great...We passed it back and forth this way several times.  

good day...

James Loves Bodie!

James loves his Dog, Bodie!

Tuesday, November 18

Another beautiful day in Bozeman, Montana!  We had a high today of 72 degrees! In the seven years that we have lived here (can you believe it has been that long?), we have never had a fall as warm as this.  It is truly strange.  I feel like we should be skiing by now! I guess I should be careful what I wish for though, since a change in the weather is coming around on Thursday...

Phew!  I am having a hard time these days keeping up with all of the new things that James is doing!  He is now sitting up on his own.  I noticed this on Sunday morning, and Sean saw it a couple of days before.  But now it is pretty common! He just kind of rolls up there to sitting. And speaking of rolling, this kid can get anywhere in a hurry by rolling around!  It is crazy to see him streaking across the living room in  full "roll"...

Today at school, he would not let his teachers feed him his baba.  He had to do it himself. When they noticed he ws trying to do it on his own, they let him have at it, and he drank up the whole bottle with minimum help.   I think we have an independent little thing on our hands!  I knew he was getting close to this, since we "practice" this after dinner, and he loves it.  I let him play with the baba as long as he is interested.

Overall, he has been cracking us up lately with all of his funny little quirks.  He does this gasping/laughing/ha thing when he is really proud of himself that is a total riot.  I'll have to post a video of it, because it is too much.  He is constantly moving his arms and legs.  We call it is "flapping".   I swear he is going to take off.  He would probably make some serious headway if he was swimming.  Perhaps we have the next Michael Phelps on our hands... He is also quite the talker!  He still loves talking about bob and boooo and baba and ba, but now his favorite word is....dada, dadee, and da.  He also says mama, but only when he is frustrated.  Today on the way home from school, it was dada this and daddy that.  This is what he says when he is happiest.  It is great. 

On that note as well, he sure loves his dad.  Yesterday, Sean was holding James, but needed hand him over to me for a second to do something.  The second he was in my arms, he started to cry, and immediately stopped when Sean took him back.  It was the first real time that I have noticed such a strong reaction to his preference for one of us other the other, in a time when he wasn't hungry (in which the obvious preference would be for my boobs, not necessarily me).  It was really cool.  Especially because it was for Sean.  

Feeding is going well.  We finally found a fruit that James likes - peaches!  He actually opened his mouth and said 'yummm' (he really says yum?!- totally strange)  He also really enjoys peas, which is no surprise, since he is a veggie boy.  Next up is avocado.  I am sure that he is going to love it!

Saturday, Again...

Well, as I projected when we woke up this morning, today was the day...James officially crawled today!  He took a few short little knee forward crawls a few separate times.  It was so exciting!  I clapped and praised him like crazy, and he seemed to just love that!  What a great day.

I also noticed him doing another new thing today; he will take an item in his hands and turn it over and over and over.  Cute and he remains very focused while doing it. 

He is feeling much better today, and we had a great day playing...

Saturday, November 15

I am watching James right now move all over the living room.  This kid sure knows how to get around!  He is soo close to crawling.  Currently though he just rolls around all over the place.  He also is in the process of mastering pulling himself up to standing.  The other day at "school", i watched him reach up and grab onto the handle of this little push cart they have, and pull himself up to standing, then walk away with the cart.  I could not believe my eyes. 

He is smiling at me from across the room, from behind a pacifier that he keeps pulling out of his mouth and putting back in. Really cute.

He has had a rough week though, with the continuation of the ear infection, new tooth, and another on the way, eye infection, and constipation. 

He finally enjoyed eating pears this morning!  We had apples and pears this morning, and have also moved on to carrots in the evening.  He sure does love his veggies!  What a good little boy. 

Overall, we could not be more pleased at what a great little guy we have.

Monday, November 10

We had quite a day today... yesterday too!  On Saturday, James got his second tooth!   All day, he seemed relieved, and was pleseant and happy and all smiles.  Then Sunday hit...he was not our happy little camper.  He would just look over at us and burst into tears and wail.   He has been very clingly, holding on tight, and only wanting to be in our arms.  Usually, he fights to get out of our arms, but for the past two days, he has been fighting to get into our arms!  He is unusually snuggly, which I am pretty ok with!  Today he was super sleepy and not very happy when awake. He was asleep more than he was awake today.  Poor little guy.  We are keeping  a close eye on him to see if this is the ear or the teeth.  Hopefully it is just the teeth.

November 8, 2008

November 6

Well, today James came down with his first ear infection, and is taking it like a trooper.  He didn't even cry or make a peep when the doctor put the ear looker-inner in his ear to check it out. Such  good little boy.  I noticed today that he was a little fussy and not himself when I went to school to feed him at lunchtime.  Then I noticed that his ear was all crusty on the outside and he had a giant glob of earwax in his eat that was not there this morning.  When I picked him up later to take him to his doctors appointment, the gals said that after his afternoon nap, he just laid down on the little mat under the mirror that they have there and stared off into space for a half hour.  Totally not James.  He never sits still for that long, and is never quiet for that long.  The doctor checked him out and reported a small infection, and said that is was most likely viral, and didn't recommend antibiotics.  Phew!  He said it should pass in a few days on it's own.  I like this guy!

So, life moves on in our home.  I have been sick for the past few days, and Scout is having foot "issues".  We have affectionately begun calling her hop-a-long for her limp.  Poor little girl.  

We started Acorn squash last night and he LOVES it!  He gobbled it up and kept opening his mouth for more.  I get it now; He's a vegetable guy!  

I must make a note about how chipper and happy James always is.  I have no idea how Sean and I got so lucky.  He really is all smiles, and babbles, and movement.  His little legs never stop moving, and talking.  He recently added "dada" and "dad" to his repertoire.  We are truly blessed in every sense of the word.  Neither Sean or I can believe how much we love this little ham.  I can't wait to see what he will do tomorrow...

Wednesday, November 5

Well, I am home sick this morning, so I thought I would catch up on the blog.  Daylight savings time has been messing with our schedule a little bit, but I think that in the next two days, we will have it down.  Sunday night, James went to bed at 5:00!  We just could not keep him up any longer!  We has been starting to sleep on his tummy more and more, which is fine, except that when he wakes up, he totally freakes out and forgets how to roll back over!  It is actually pretty funny, in a way.

On the solid food front, we tried pears on saturday, which did not go well.  He hated them; they even made him gag at one point!  So, we decided to move on to bananas, which I thought was a bit of a risk, since Sean is allergic to them.   The first try went ok; he was not really into new flavors. But as each day goes on, he likes them better and better.  I think that tomorrow we are going to go for butternut squash, then apples, then peas.  Then, perhas we can try the pears again.  Right now, he gets yams and rice cereal for dinner, and bananas and a little cereal for breakfast.  It will be great when we can mix it up a little bit.  Question for anyone: Do you think you can interchange butternut and acorn squash, or should they be treated as two different veggies?  I ask because I have one of each that I am planning to make for dinner this week, and would love to just add some fresh squash to his dinner?  Also, the poop has now started to change- Boo!

The teeth continue to come, although no more hve popped through, and we are just moving all over the place.  James too an interest in the past couple of days to giving kisses.  He keeps leaning into my face  with his mouth.  He does this five or six times and then giggles.  I am totally LOVING it.    He is also reaching up for us when he wants us, and just holds on tight and clings to me when I hold him.  When I dropped him off at school yesterday, he did the same thing to his "teacher", Dawn.  I love it!  He just love the ladies that take care of him there, and is always happy when I visit at lunchtime.  Phew!  I could naot be more pleased.  

Halloween!

November 1

Halloween!  My favorite holiday!  I have been excited for this day for years!  We dressed James up as a little chicken, and I must say, the cutest chicken ever.  Wow!  We had a great time yesterday visiting Dad at work, and going to Mom's work too, in our little costume.  Sean and I even dressed up too and took him trick or treating at Bill and Maggie's house, and Becky and Trevor's house, and his daycare teacher's house Callie.  What a sport he was!  Smiling at everyone. He did get a little hot in the costume though.  It would have been perfect if we had a normal Halloween, meaning that it was in the 10 degree range.  But, we had the great fortune of having fantastic weather.  It was 75 degrees yesterday!  Unheard of!  

Sean just left to take Bodie pheasant hunting, thank god!  The dog needs some serious bird-time, as he has been a little out of control lately.  Poor thing.  James and I are planning a day of cleaning, and grocery shopping.  Fun... But maybe we will go for a little hike later with Scout and Tioga.  They would appreciate that.  Now James is trying to nap, which means playing in his crib with his toys and talking to himself.  I expect slumber to come any second...

October 29

Today we began a new chapter of eating...real food... We began the investigation of fruits and vegetabels this evening with the introduction of, of course, yams!  I could not shovel them into his little mouth fast enough!  I think this could go well...

On another note, teething is going, well...going.  James has four teeth coming in.  His bottom left tooth is already popped through and coming up more every day.  The tooth next to it to the left is also about to break the surface, probably next.  There are large bumps under the bottom right and it's next door neighbor as well.  So basically, we have four teeth coming in at once.  He is handling it like a trooper, but his patience is pretty tested lately, and his fuse is noteably shorter. 

The nursing strike continues to an extent, but it also extends to the bottle, so I am reassured that it isn't the end of breastfeeding (phew!).  He seems to be ok with a sippy attachment to his baba that is made of soft rubber that he can chew on.  Although, he hasn't quite figured out how to swallow all of the milk that comes out when he sucks on it.  Pretty funny to see actually. This could explain the shoveling in of rice cereal and yams this evening.  

Sean is home from his Elk hunting adventure with Kelsey, which actually ended up being a deer hunting adventure, but I will let him share his thoughts on this on his own.  It is nice to all be together again...

October 27

Teething:

Teething has taken over our little guy's life again.  Today was a little rough on James.  He is back to drooling, and is chewing on everything in sight.  But in typical James fashion, he was trying to be his usual happy self.  One second he would be giggling, and the next crying.  We went back and forth like this all day.  He had several huge meltdowns, and several long naps, and finally went bed after a quiet bath and a nursing strike.  Both very unusual for James. He is just uncomfortable.  He keeps looking up at me with this sad face that I find totally irresistible.  I just want to hold him close and squeeze him tight and make it all better!  Especially when he has one of his little crocodile tears rolling down his sweet little cheek.

Teething is hard on me in several ways.  Firstly, my heart goes out for him; I just hate to see him going through this, and I want to make him all better.  Secondly, this whole nursing thing is getting to me on a physical level.  I really worry when he pushes me away, screaming, that he is done with me and nursing!  Needless to say, I really dislike the prospect that my "master plan" of nursing for a year or more will be foiled by teething, or worse yet, that he doesn't need me anymore! Boo!  This must be one of the great dilemas of parenting.  Bummer.

Hopefully, tommorow will be a better day.  Tuesday is a "school" day, so hopefully he will be in a better place.

On a more positive note, crawling is just seconds away...stay tuned..

Saturday, October 25

Today Sean left for a four-day elk hunting trip to the Little Belt Mountains with Kelsey.  They shoud have a great time in the woods.  

Before he left, James had his first brush with Bodie's paw to the face.  Poor little guy, his first real owie!  He didn't like it.  

He is doing great otherwise!  Yesterday he was in great form (as usual) and was cracking me up!  I took a video of him trying to crawl.  His first tooth (bottom left) came through on Tuesday, and is causing him a bit of grief.  We have been giving him lot's of extra snuggle time.   Sleeping has been going great!  He sleeps from about 6:45 to 7:15 until between 4 and 6.  Great little sleeper! We are so lucky!  

It is completely amazing what a distinct personality he has.  I am in awe daily.  James is a very busly little boy; always moving around, grabbing at anything in sight, kicking his legs, trying to crawl, rolling around, flirting with every woman in sight, smiling up a storm, giggling, and sitting up and playing with his toys.  But then, there are moments when he is completely calm and observant, content to just hang out.  Usually it depends on the time of day.  I think that we are starting to really figure him out.  Of course, that will change tomorrow... All I know, is that we are SO lucky that he is such an easygoing little guy.

We are in week two of, what I like to call, the "great rice cereal experiment".  We have been giving him his "dinner" in the eveing when we get home from work.  It is going pretty well, I must say.  Most nights, he gobbles it up and looks at me for more!  But then, there are other nights, when he just could care less, which would be tonight.  Not a big eater today.  He really varies from day to day, which is not really great for the old breastmilk supply.   He continues to be a "snacker".  Which is translating to "back to the herbs" for mommy!  

Greetings!

I thought this could be a neat way for us to share the haps with us and Baby James Cooper!  We have so many great videos, and photos, it is hard to keep up.  Everyday is something new.  I hope you enjoy!