NOT-SO-TWIN COUSINS

For all the similarities James and Eli had at birth, and all the exclamations from family at how alike they look in photos, we were surprised to learn just how different these cousins are. While they're still comparable in size, that is about where the similarities end... Their bodies just feel different in your arms. Eli has a strong spine and better head control (even though he is nearly 4 weeks younger than James). James is very bendy and has really strong legs. James is much more vocal (and we're not just talking about the babbling - if James wants something, he's not afraid to use his voice and let you know ALL about it), whereas Eli can get his way simply by smacking his lips and saying "ah-goo". James can smile so sweetly that he melts your heart. Eli can stare right into your soul and steal your heart (I had been hearing about this phenomenom from the time he came home from the hospital, but always thought Dave was exagerating - he wasn't - the first time I really got some face-time with Eli, the little sweetie had me in tears). Eli poops at least twice a day, whereas we're lucky if James goes twice a week. Eli talks the entire time he's eating, whereas James will often drift off to sleep or forget that he's suppose to be eating because he's found something interesting to look at. James is a Pisces and Eli is an Aries, but they seem to have their roles reversed for the moment... Eli is much more laid-back and easy-going, whereas James tends to be a bit bossy (his Daddy often calls him a dictator). But one thing about these cousins is the same. There is one thing we can all agree on. These boys are the spitting-images of their Daddies, and they really are the cutest babies ever (good thing Taryn and I married handsome guys)! I've been telling my friends that Eli is the cutest baby west of the Mississippi, and that James is obviously the cutest baby to the east. That seems fair, right?

So, enough with the comparisons and on with the photos. There are many. To be honest, I took probably 150 pictures of these boys over the 3 days they were together, so this is really just a small sampling of the best shots. I bet you can easily pick out who is who in each shot, so I'm not even going to tell you.

Here are James and Eli the first time we laid them on the floor together, to get a good look at their similarities/differences, and for them to get a good look at each other:

Here they are with their Daddies, for look-alike comparisons:

Watch the fist Eli!

Here they are being rocked in their Great Grandma and Grambot's arms:

Dave and Taryn are awesome parents. They make a really great team, and I was impressed with my brother in his new role as Daddy (it suits him really well). Here are the boys with Dave and Taryn:

And here they are with me and Jay. This photo was taken after Eli had me in tears:

Here are Taryn and I with the boys. We're both really enjoying being proud mommies and loving aunties, in case you can't tell from the photo.And here are the new little families posing for a group photo:

Here are the cousins in their matching outfits, courtesy of their Grambot. Don't worry, we made her promise that this is a one-time deal. We think it was smart to let her get it out of her system now, before the boys are old enough to fight back! Eli's outfit is size 0-3 and James' is size 3-6 (his torso is too long for 0-3 clothes already). They're both looking pretty pleased with themselves in these photos, don't you think?

Then James got a little wild and stuck his finger in Eli's eye:

So Eli retaliated by pushing him out of the way. And James looks sorry, doesn't he?

They even look different upside down:

Then, of course, we had to get a photo of the boys in their matching outfits with their Grambot, since it was all her idea. Could she possibly have a bigger smile on her face while trying to balance her 2 bundles of joy? We doubt it.

Here are Eli and James with their Grandpa (don't mind James, he was complaining about having to take that 150th photo). And doesn't Eli look a little smug? Everyone kept telling him what a good boy he was being (and he was, and always is, so he deserved the compliments):

And finally, here they are sleeping at the end of a very busy day:

We had a great time in California, meeting our sweet nephew and showing off our son. Thanks to everyone who was able to come by and share in our joy. We hope to see you all again, as well as everyone we missed this time around, next time we're out west. Until then, take care and don't forget to keep an eye on the LINDSAY BLOG for updates and photos as we move forward on this journey called parenthood. And for anyone who wants to see even MORE photos of the cousins together, just hop over to the Bacon's Blog and read their post Hello Cousin James.

TRAVELIN' MAN

James went on his first plane ride over Memorial Day weekend, all the way to California to meet the rest of his west coast family and friends, and to celebrate his Uncle Jamie's graduation from SFSU! He braved 2 stops, a plane change, and the possibility of other travelers having swine flu (don't worry, we kept him pretty much attached to us throughout the travels and didn't let any strangers kiss him). Not to mention MANY long car rides during the trip. Our little travelin' man did great! He slept through almost every take-off and landing, as well as through most of the flights. When he was awake, he was happy and curious (when he wasn't nursing). He especially liked the little reading lights above the seats, and he even seemed to do some people watching. Here is the little guy sleeping during his first take-off, after nursing on the runway: And here he is awake in LA, waiting to get back in the air. We weren't able to get James a Southwest souvenier, since they were all for kiddos 3+ years old, so this is his souvenier photo, with a Southwest Jet in the background:

Here he is kicking around the airport in Houston, waiting for our connection on the return flight. And no, we never changed him out of his pajamas (we started our travels at 3am that morning):

Finally, here's our happy traveler checking out the view (well, maybe not) from 30,000 feet on our final leg back to the Deep South:

Poor kid was just exhausted by the time we got home! But he was still happy, he didn't get sick, and his tired parents were super excited that all went so well. Hopefully James will always enjoy traveling as much as we do!

DATE NIGHT

Margie treated Jay and I to our first "date night" since James was born last night. It took us almost 11 weeks to feel ready to leave him for an evening, but we finally did it, and we really enjoyed it! We were only out for about 3 hours, but by the end of dinner we were actually pretty anxious to get home to our son. When we got there, he didn't seem to be missing us at all though. In fact, he was having a great time playing and "talking" with his Grand Aunt Margie. Oh well. He's used to us being at work for 4-hour stretches, so we didn't take offense. Anyway, here are Jay and I dressed up for an evening on the town (we even managed to try a "new" restaurant, Monsour's at the Biscuit Company, where the food was great and the view was of the Yazoo River):

We also got a great photo of Margie and James together yesterday:

And here are Margie, James, and I at the airport this morning (don't mind James' furrowed brow, he's been busy concentrating on things more and more lately). It was rough saying goodbye - we are so blessed to have had Margie's help and company all week, and we're all really going to miss her. Christmas with family seems so far away...

TUMMY TO BACK!

Hooray! James rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time tonight!! We don't have any video, or even any photos, because it was a bit unexpected. He's been showing potential for about a week, but as much as Jay and I have tried to encourage him and show him how to do it, he's just gotten mad and yelled at us. Silly boy. Then, this evening as we were "Skyping" with my mom, he succeeded! James was showing off for his Grambot, holding his head high and doing his "seal pose" (where he lifts his head and chest and legs high, while holding his arms straight back like he's flying), when suddenly he just rolled. Jay, Margie, mom and I all squealed with delight! Now that our boy is mobile (sort of), I went straight upstairs and removed the bumper from his crib. Luckily, for posterity, I had remembered to take a photo of James sleeping in the crib with the bumper on the other day:

After the rolling, and all the talking he did with Grambot (he's becoming more "vocal" by the day), James was tired. So I propped him in his Boppy and let him take a little catnap:

And one final photo to end tonight's blog post, from last night while I was exercising. I guess just watching me on the elliptical wore Jay out. Not James though. Anyway, the real reason I'm posting this picture is James' pinkies. He has this habit of always holding his pinkies out (you know, like the "highfalutin" type) that we find highly amusing:

ISN'T IT GRAND?

James' GRAND Aunt Margie is here for a week of baby duty! She's here to meet her grand-nephew and take care of him during the day while Jay and I are at work, relieving Jean for trip home to check on her house and take care of some business. We picked Margie up from the airport Thursday evening, welcoming her with the much-remembered Mississippi heat and humidity (she had visited us once before back in early June of 2007, when conditions were even worse than they are now). Westerner's tend to have a low tolerance for our southern weather...

We headed straight for pizza, since it was time for James' 6pm feeding and we didn't want to make him wait the hour drive home from Jackson. It was our first public breastfeeding experience and it went really well. We got a corner booth at Mellow Mushroom and put the Peanut Shell nursing cover to good use. James and I had practiced with the cover the night before, with little success, because he was far too interested in the black-and-white pattern of the fabric to pay attention to his meal... Luckily, that wasn't a problem the second time around. He chowed down for his usual 10 minutes, then I passed him straight over to his Aunt. Here they are posing for their first photo, a pair of March 3rd babies, born 50 years apart:

After a little while, James got tired of being held (he has to have his "alone" time, just like we all do), so we laid him out on the table on his blanket, and he was satisfied to look around the restaurant, kick his legs and pump his arms:

James stayed on the table until halfway through the meal. When he got fussy at 7:15pm Jean and I knew he was ready for his evening catnap, so I scooped him up, held him on his side, and gave him his paci. He was out in about 2 minutes, and stayed asleep until we left the restaurant at 8pm. Then he slept all the way home (of course, since car rides are even more sleep-inducing for him than milk). Miraculously, even with the extra 2 hours of sleep that evening, the little man still kept to his night-time routine of 9pm bottle, 9:30pm bath, and 10:30pm-ish bedtime, only waking us once at 4am to nurse (we've had this once-per-night feeding thing going for over a week now, but we've been hesitant to blog about it, for fear of jinxing it).

Margie brought James some new books and a silly new toy, which James loves. It's actually the first toy he's really responded too. It makes him smile like crazy, and we can't blame him - the thing is hilarious! A goofy little puppy that has a silly laugh, pants like a dog, and says things like "Uh-oh" and "Wee"! The best part is that it goes off every time you so much as bump it, and sometimes even when you don't (maybe it's possessed?) Here is a photo of James enjoying his new toy:

In addition to the restaurant tabletop, James has had one other interesting resting place this week - the laundry basket! The washer beeped while I was walking around with James and the clothes needed to be moved over to the dryer. Rather than taking James into the living room to be laid down while I completed the task, I simply placed him in the laundry basket on top of the dryer, which happened to have the recently washed and dried blanket that Margie made him all folded and inviting:

And one more adorable blog-able thing... As I was cleaning up my pumping supplies and getting James' bath ready last night, I started hearing this cute little sighing coming from the living room. I listened for a while, then realized that James and Margie were having a "conversation". James had fallen asleep after his bottle and was snuggled in Margie's arms. She was making cute little sighing noises at him, and he started answering her with his own contented little sighs (without waking up). I couldn't resist getting some video, so here it is for your viewing pleasure:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Happy Mother's Day to me!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies and mommy-to-be's I know (you know who you are)! Love you!!

POSER

Jay took some really amazing portraits of James last night. Granted, he had an unbelievably handsome subject who behaved wonderfully, but still, the man has talent!

Jay titled this photo "I'm so cute I pinch my own cheeks":

We think James liked the attention (his mommy, daddy, and grandma were all standing around him making goofy faces and silly noises, trying to get him to look at the camera instead of the ceiling fan). We're planning to take these photos monthly to document James' growth and changing features, as well as for one of those 12-month keepsake frames.

When we tried the tummy pose, James surprised us by showing off his growing neck strength. This drew lots of "whoo-hoo's" and "good job's" from his adoring crowd. He always holds his head high when he's on our chests or shoulders, but rarely this high when he's on his tummy. We're so proud!

And I can't leave you without a close-up. I think Jay caught the sparkle in James' eyes here:

THE POOPSMITH

It's been 8 days since James' last BM and the pediatrician said that we had to give him prune juice and suppositories. Poor kid. Here he is thinking, "This ain't milk Daddy":
Then laughing about the fact that it took us 45 minutes to get the 1 oz mixture of juice and water into his gut:

And then he pooped. And it was good. And he avoided the suppository.

2 MONTHS TODAY

We weighed and measured James today, on his 2-month birthday! According to our scale (which is very accurate, as verified by our estimate prior to his last weigh-in at the doctor's office) and measuring tape, James is now 12 lbs 3 oz and 23 inches long, with a head circumference of 15.5 inches. He seems to have slowed from the nearly 2 oz per day weight gain of the past month and a half to a 1 oz per day weight gain, which is the average for breastfed babies. The boy is above and beyond the 11 lb weight limit for the newborn insert of his carseat, so we removed that before his outings this weekend (to the Carter's outlet, church, and the grocery store). Here he is looking oh-so-big (and unsure of his new ride) in his less-padded carseat: As a "big boy" James is learning new things, like putting himself to sleep. Here he is passed out after play time yesterday (he even did this for the first time at bedtime in his crib last night, without a pacifier!):

He is also becoming a much bigger fan of his pacifiers (he has no particular favorite, thank goodness), and of non-nutritive sucking in general. Here he is with a tasty hunk of baby fat:

And here is the resulting hickey (after a mere 30 seconds) that had us running for a pacifier! Here's the damage later that day, as we took him for a naked stroll around the house:So, what do you do to celebrate your 2-month birthday? Well, James went for a swim. In the big tub. With his Daddy. And just how adorable are these photos?

BATH BUBBLE SMILE

OK, there aren't really any bubbles. We don't use that much soap. James got to take 2 baths on his birthday, since we wanted to keep his normal bedtime routine in check. Besides, he really loves his baths. Here's one of the big goofy grins he was flashing Jay and I while we were playing with his tongue (hey, he kept sticking it out at us) - he thought it was hilarious:

WORK AND PREPARATIONS...

Today completes my first full week back at work, and so far everything is going well. This is in part due to the fact that Jean is here to care for James (I would feel much different if we had needed to start daycare and resume work at the same time) and in part because I eased back into things last week when I worked a quick 2 hours on Thursday as a trial run, then half a day on Friday. I used the weekend to think of ways to make things even easier this week (we decided to start working toward an actual feeding schedule, rather than just feeding on demand, for example - and forget what the pediatrician said... we're going back to 3-hour feedings during the day because it seemed that James had been making up for a "missed feeding" at 3:30am for the 3 nights after the appointment). I did another half day on Monday, then resumed my full-time status on Tuesday. And boy is it ever full-time! I always knew I would (and wanted to) be a working mom, I just didn't realize how much work it would be (full-time at the office during the day and full-time at home at night makes for one tired mommy!) We're making it work though, and I'm feeling good about it. But now it's Friday again, so it's time to celebrate the start of another weekend together. Here's my little sweetie getting his dinner and staring me right in the eyes - gotta love the nursing bonding time (pardon the close-up, but I had to crop the actual "dinner" out of the photo!): Jay's mom calls James' nursing feeds his "Happy Meals". Isn't that cute? Then, here's the silly boy drinking his bedtime bottle with his pants on his head (courtesy of his daddy, of course): And here he is with the crazy eyes that he always gives his daddy after his bath while getting towel-dried (cracks us up every time):Finally, in considering my preparations for returning to work, I'd also been thinking about how my pregnancy prepared me for being a new mom. Here's what I've come up with:

1. Those frequent trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night due to the pressure of the baby on your bladder train you for frequent trips to the baby's room in the middle of the night for feedings, diaper changes, soothing, etc. And also for frequent trips to the bathroom as you loose all those extra pregnancy fluids...

2. That decreased appetitite during the last month of your pregnancy because there was no room left for your stomach due to the baby hogging all the space in your belly trains you for the first couple of weeks at home when you have no time to eat because the baby seems to need you every time a fork gets near your mouth. Not that you have an appetite anyway. Well, not for anything other than baby!

3. The inability to reach your toes due to your huge belly and thus the lack of a home pedicure during the last 2-3 months of your pregnancy trains you to let those little luxeries go. Who has time for pretty toes when the baby needs you? And who cares that you haven't showered or changed your PJ's in two days? Or who really notices that baby drool all down your cleavage?

4. The endless fun questions (example: Are you having a boy or girl?), annoying questions (example: How far along are you? Oh. Really? - Implying that your belly size is somehow inappropriate for your gestation), and ridiculous questions (example: Are you going to keep the placenta? - Um, no) from strangers during your pregnancy prepare you for the endless fun questions (example: How much does he weigh?) , annoying questions (example: Is he sleeping through the night yet? - No, of course not, he's 4 weeks old and eats every 2-3 hours!), and ridiculous questions (example: Is it a boy or girl? - Asked of a baby dressed all in blue) from strangers about your newborn.

5. The extremely crazy dreams that you have during pregnancy (such as the one where the baby pushed his little hands out through my belly, or the one where I was taking him out of my belly now and then to check on him, then putting him back in to cook a little longer) get you ready for the scary waking moments that you have once the baby is born (such as the constant fear that you've fallen asleep with the baby in bed and squished him, when he's really sleeping in his basinet, or the even more constant fear that he's stopped breathing, just because he happens to be sleeping quietly for once).

A CONVERSATION WITH JAMES

OUR SUNDAY BEST

Since James is almost 8 weeks old, we figured he was ready to make his first appearance at church today. Here he is all dressed up for the occassion (top collar button open, just like his daddy):And here's one of all 4 of us on our way out the door (it's a beautiful day here):James was awake all morning while we were getting ready, then fell asleep in the car on the way to church. He was asleep as we entered the santuary and while we waited the 5 minutes for service to start. Then, as soon as we started the opening prayers, the little guy woke up and we wondered how he would react... turns out the boy loves church! I kinda thought he would, since he was always very active in utero while we were at church, especially during the sermons. He was wide awake and happy throughout the entire service AND the members meeting afterwards (that's close to an hour and a half!) Maybe it helped that there are FOUR ceiling fans in our santuary?! Or maybe it was the stained glass windows? Regardless, he was all smiles and serious studying of his new surroundings during the first half of the service. During the second half we gave him a pacifier to help keep him quiet because he had decided it was a good time to start "talking" to the ceiling fans. He's too funny. The little sweetie didn't fall back asleep until we were singing the final hymn of the day, Amazing Grace. We had a great time showing him off - everyone praised us for having such an adorable, well behaved baby. Hopefully he'll do as well for us next week... Here is Team Lindsay after the service out in front of our church:

And here I am with my Sweet Baby James, still soundly sleeping in the bright sun:

By the time we got home the boy was wide awake again and ready for lunch. Then he was happy all over again. Here he is sharing some secret joke with his grandma (sans shorts):

Last night we broke out the measuring tape because Jean and I felt that the nurse who measured James on Wednesday did it wrong. Yeah, we know we're not experts on measuring babies, but she didn't even pull his leg straight! So we did. And we got a measurement of 22.5 inches - that's 3/4 of an inch longer than the nurse got - so that's what we're going with for James' baby book. Maybe we'll even measure him again at the real 2-month mark on May 3rd, just for fun. Here he is "playing" with one of his rattles last night after we measured him (he's naked because it was right before bath time): Hope everyone has a great week - it's back to work for me... I'll keep you updated with how that goes!

SMILE FOR MOMMY

We just love having a happy baby, and James' smiles are contagious. If you need to smile today, just watch James do it and we're sure you'll follow suit:

TOUGH GUY

James had his 2-month well baby visit today (at 7 weeks and 1 day old). He showed up at the doctor's office looking mighty adorable in his big boy coveralls:That only lasted about 20 minutes in the waiting room though... It had been right at 48 hours since his last bowel movement (the first time he has skipped a day, let alone two), and when it came, it came with a vengeance! Jean and I saw him get red in the face and strain and grunt, and I knew I'd need to change his diaper for a reason other than just the weigh-in! Unfortunately, we couldn't wait to do it in the exam room because the poor kid literally exploded. Literally. I looked down and all of a sudden there was poop bubbling out of his left shorts leg! And he was justifiably mad about it. I rushed him into the bathroom, but the damage was done. Damage to those cute coveralls, damage to the carseat, and damage all over his leg and foot. So gross! Oh well, I'm sure that's not the last time we'll have such an incident... Luckily, as soon as I got the diaper and dirty clothes off, he calmed down and was a happy little angel for the rest of the appointment. In fact, he was an awesome child (hee hee)! Here he is waiting patiently for the doctor after his weigh-in:

James Henry weighed a whopping 11 lbs 9 oz today - that's a gain of 1 lb 13 oz in just 19 days! Our sweet baby has also gained one inch in length (bringing him up to 21.75 inches) and his head circumference has increased by 3.5 cm (bringing him up to 38 cm). Needless to say, the kid is thriving. In fact, the doctor said "you must have rich milk" and let me know that we no longer need to feed James 8-12 times/day. So, we no longer have to wake him at the 3 hour mark for daytime feedings, and we can let him sleep through the night (ha ha). We're going to start offering 5 oz bottles on a regular basis (he gets them 3 times/day now - the morning and afternoon feedings that I'll be missing while I'm at work starting next week, and the bedtime bottle that his daddy gives him). Then came the shots, and we learned what a tough guy James really is. He received 4 vaccinations today (one was an oral vaccination, not a shot) and he took them like a champ! Maybe the daily Mylicon doses helped prepare him, but he downed the oral medication without thinking twice. He didn't even flinch at the first shot. The second shot simply illicited a cranky face. The third (which the nurse warned us would burn a bit) made him cry, but I scooped him up and gave him the vanilla paci and he was calm within a minute. What a tough guy! Here he is at home sporting his not-so-kid-friendly bandaids (we were hoping for Elmo or something, not grown-up bandages) and his noticeably thicker frame (check out those legs and belly, and that double chin!):

Even though he was relaxed and happy, Jude still thought he needed a kiss:

Next appointment is in 2 months. In the meantime we'll just have to weigh him at home when we get curious (I tested it out last night... weighing myself alone first, then holding him, and we had guessed 11.6 lbs, so that's pretty close).