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...