It's that time of year again - Jay's Grandmother's birthday weekend! We love this weekend because the entire "Waddell" family gets together to celebrate (well, almost everyone - those in school or overseas generally can't make the trip) and hang out at Doug & Cheryl's lake house. Last year, this event is where we broke the news of my pregnancy. This year, we had our adorable 6-month-old son to show off. And he was a hit! We have lots of photos to share, but most were not taken by me (for once I was too busy socializing to man my camera), so look for another blog update as soon as Jay gets his photos downloaded, and Beverly, Jill, and Cheryl get theirs uploaded to Snapfish. Here's a quick weekend review in photos to get you started...
As we were leaving daycare on Friday, James showed us a new trick. He can now sit up in his carseat. While adorable, this makes strapping him in when he doesn't want to be more difficult than before (after he learned to grab the straps and get his arms in the way).
He was curious to see which toys I stashed in the diaper bag for the long trip:
Everyone thought James' new habit of holding his hands together was super cute. They all said "it looks like he's praying"! He mostly does it while he's napping, but he does it when awake too.
At one of the rest stops, Jay let James test out the driver seat to stretch his legs and get a different view:
At one point, while I was reading a magazine, I turned the page and James started squealing and singing. When I looked at the page that was facing him, it was a close-up of a beautiful little girl. She came in handy on the return trip too... instantly cheering him up when he got a little fussy. I've been teasing him ever since that he's too young for a girlfriend. Besides, she's obviously a celebrity, and you know what their reputations are like...
We got there so late Friday night (well after midnight) that James didn't get to meet his GGmama until the next morning. Even after a mere 4 hours of sleep, he was in a great mood and very social. He loved his GGmama immediately:
GGmama got to ride with James on the way to the lake house. Before he fell asleep, he had a good time studying her glasses and telling her all about his car toys:
As soon as we arrived at the lake house, Wyatt asked if he could hold James. We got him all settled on the couch (he's a little too young still to be carrying a 17 lb baby around) and handed him over. James got really close to his face! I think both boys enjoyed checking each other out. Then Finn, who was the baby of the family for almost 3 years until James showed up (James is GGmama's 10th great-grandchild), was super sweet and came over to share his cookie:
Then Kate had her turn. They put the FL-GA rivalry aside and had a great photo shoot (don't worry, everyone else got much better pictures than I took):
We tried to get a good picture of James with his Grandma (who had to fight with the 28 other party attendees for James-time), but the love-bugs and gnats were annoying him, so this is the best we got:
Jean did get to feed him dinner though. It was his first taste of broccoli and he was far from impressed. Unlike the green beans, he made up his mind immediately that broccoli belongs in the yucky category. Oh well, we'll try again next month. Here he is with bite #2, telling his grandma "oh please, like you really think I'm going to open up again?"
And here he's saying "excuse me, but since I wasn't clear enough last time, now I'm just going to ignore you and your green-goopy spoon":
Jay has a few great shots of his "eeeeew" face. We'll get them up later...
At one of the rest stops, Jay let James test out the driver seat to stretch his legs and get a different view:At one point, while I was reading a magazine, I turned the page and James started squealing and singing. When I looked at the page that was facing him, it was a close-up of a beautiful little girl. She came in handy on the return trip too... instantly cheering him up when he got a little fussy. I've been teasing him ever since that he's too young for a girlfriend. Besides, she's obviously a celebrity, and you know what their reputations are like...
We got there so late Friday night (well after midnight) that James didn't get to meet his GGmama until the next morning. Even after a mere 4 hours of sleep, he was in a great mood and very social. He loved his GGmama immediately:GGmama got to ride with James on the way to the lake house. Before he fell asleep, he had a good time studying her glasses and telling her all about his car toys:As soon as we arrived at the lake house, Wyatt asked if he could hold James. We got him all settled on the couch (he's a little too young still to be carrying a 17 lb baby around) and handed him over. James got really close to his face! I think both boys enjoyed checking each other out. Then Finn, who was the baby of the family for almost 3 years until James showed up (James is GGmama's 10th great-grandchild), was super sweet and came over to share his cookie:Then Kate had her turn. They put the FL-GA rivalry aside and had a great photo shoot (don't worry, everyone else got much better pictures than I took):And here's the birthday girl!
We tried to get a good picture of James with his Grandma (who had to fight with the 28 other party attendees for James-time), but the love-bugs and gnats were annoying him, so this is the best we got:Jean did get to feed him dinner though. It was his first taste of broccoli and he was far from impressed. Unlike the green beans, he made up his mind immediately that broccoli belongs in the yucky category. Oh well, we'll try again next month. Here he is with bite #2, telling his grandma "oh please, like you really think I'm going to open up again?"And here he's saying "excuse me, but since I wasn't clear enough last time, now I'm just going to ignore you and your green-goopy spoon":Jay has a few great shots of his "eeeeew" face. We'll get them up later...Here is Heather stealing a little snuggle time and some smooches right before we had to leave (the day always goes by too fast):
Back at GG's house, we made sure she had some more face-time with the little man:
And he took us literally:
We all got a bit more sleep that night, but it still wasn't enough. Jay and James passed out for a nap shortly after breakfast on Sunday:
Uncle Gerald finally got his chance to hold James as we were packing the car:
And we grabbed a picture with Aunt Sara too:
Then it was another 9 long hours back to Mississippi. James slept for most of the trip, but still managed to sleep 10 hours straight through last night, so we must have really wore him out with the busy weekend! It was lots of fun and so good to see everyone. And we can't wait until Christmas, when EVERYONE will be there (that's another 6 family members, bringing the grand total to 34). Good. We'll need all the extra hands we can get once he starts crawling!
Thanks everyone - we had a blast!
And he took us literally:
We all got a bit more sleep that night, but it still wasn't enough. Jay and James passed out for a nap shortly after breakfast on Sunday:
Uncle Gerald finally got his chance to hold James as we were packing the car:
And we grabbed a picture with Aunt Sara too:
Then it was another 9 long hours back to Mississippi. James slept for most of the trip, but still managed to sleep 10 hours straight through last night, so we must have really wore him out with the busy weekend! It was lots of fun and so good to see everyone. And we can't wait until Christmas, when EVERYONE will be there (that's another 6 family members, bringing the grand total to 34). Good. We'll need all the extra hands we can get once he starts crawling!
Thanks everyone - we had a blast!
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