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!