WALK IN THE PARK

We made a decision last weekend. We've been here 3 years and it's time to accept that Vicksburg is what it is, and we better just get used to it and appreciate the assets it does have. One of those assets being the military park. We took James for a nice long walk on Sunday, then let him spend some time roaming. First he climbed/crawled uphill (a relatively steep hill at that):Then he stopped to smell the flowers (however tiny):He also ate some leaves, tried to eat a rock, and played in the dirt. It was a good time. And we loved just being outside with him and watching him explore. And the exercise was good too. So, we decided then and there that we would start walking in the park a few times a week. Today was our first after-work adventure, and it went great. We worked the earlier shift so we could get full advantage of our limited after work sunlight hour, picked James up from daycare, and headed straight over. Unfortunately, James was asleep when we picked him up, stayed asleep in the car, and didn't wake up until sometime around the completion of mile one:When he woke up he was pleasantly surprised to be outside in his stroller. He watched the clouds (gorgeous sunset today, by the way), told us about his day (at least, that's what we like to think he was saying), and learned about sweet gum balls (WAY more fun to hold than dried-up leaves). We did the 2.5 mile loop and still made it home in plenty of time for dinner. We now plan to walk 2 days a week after work, and 1 day on the weekend. We're blogging about it in the hopes that it will help us be accountable for our decision. So, if you see us next week, ask us "How are your walks going?"

It was a REALLY nice day today. Light cloud cover, high of 77, and a slight breeze. Perfect day for James to finally get out of the house without a jacket. AND wear short sleeves! Here he is in his Monterey Bay Aquarium t-shirt this morning:

It says "Peek a Boo... I Sea You!"

And check out those eyes... I swear they are so different, day to day...

CRADLE FOR CORA

Upon learning that I was carrying a baby girl in my belly, I called my Dad and asked him whether he would be willing to build her a doll cradle like the one he made for me when I was little. And he did even better than agreeing to do so - he produced my old cradle, which he had safely stored in his garage all these years:

It's in wonderful condition and I am so excited to share this toy with my daughter! I can recall YEARS of playing with it as a child. It housed my baby dolls, my stuffed animals, and even my cat now and then. We might enlist Jean to create a new mattress/pillow, but other than that, it is ready to bring years of joy to little miss Cora! Thanks Dad!

In other Cora news, I had my 24-week appointment this morning. Baby girl was a mover, but the doc eventually managed to clock her at 158bpm, good and strong. It made me laugh that she made a note in her files of "very active baby" - so true! In fact, I think Cora's even more active than James was in utero. She kicks a lot, as did he, but she definitely flips around more. There was no ultrasound to check the placenta (and none scheduled for next time either), but I'm not worried. Jay has been able to feel her kicks since I hit 21-weeks (the exact same time he started feeling James kick), so things must be going well. I checked out OK too. My blood pressure was perfect for once - perhaps getting up early to grab the first appointment of the day is worth it for more than just the quick in-and-out time (only half an hour)! My next appointment is in 4 weeks, and it'll be a doozy: the 1-hour gestational diabetes test, more bloodwork, AND a Rhogam shot. FUN stuff...

And just for Cora, here is the updated belly photo (it's been a BIG 5 weeks, eh?):

Gotta love growth spurts... and birthday cupcakes...

YES, WE'LL BE DOING IT AGAIN

We recently had someone ask us whether we planned to cloth diaper Cora and we wanted to let everyone know now, the answer is YES! We love cloth diapering James and we'll certainly be carrying on the practice at home with his baby sister. Sure, we'll need to purchase more of our favorite Bum Genius Organic One-Size All-In-Ones in order to keep up with TWO babies in diapers, but that's OK. They come in pink (called Blossom and Zinnia):

For daycare, we'll continue using the gDiapers (the cloth-disposable hybrid). Of course, we'll have to order some size smalls for Cora, since we didn't move James into them until he was over 5-months-old and could already fit into the size mediums. No big deal, those come in pink as well. And for that first month, we'll be trying out the gDiaper's tiny gPants, designed specifically for newborns:So the other answer is NO, we do not want anyone to buy us any kind of regular disposable diaper this time around, no matter how much we appreciated it last time (we didn't have to buy a single diaper for James until he was nearly 6-months-old, and that was a HUGE bonus for us) - between his stash of diapers and his exclusive diet of mommy's milk, the boy didn't cost us a penny for his first 6 months!

However, if you feel inclined to contribute to diapers in the expanding Lindsay household, you now know what we want...

JAMES' FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY

Today we celebrated James' 1st Birthday one more time, with a real party! Decorating was fun, and James thought the balloons were cool (as long as they were nowhere near his face):

Jay was SUPERDAD yet again today, finishing all the cleaning while I baked. Then he ran out and filled all the balloons, and picked up the pizza. We went with a baby dinosaur theme, and the orange and blue accents were intentional (Go Gators)! I think the finished product looked pretty good:

The lunch spread included cupcakes and cake (a giant cupcake), chips and veggies with dip (with dinosaur food, of course... the broccoli), "1" cookies, and "dinosaur eggs" (Easter candy):

Pizza makes a boy thirsty (and yes, he still drinks like this all the time):

Getting ready to pick his whole cupcake up and take a bite (just like last time):

Plenty messy by the end though... He ate all the cake, but left most of the frosting behind (on his shirt):

Everyone knows I LOVE cupcakes, and this is certainly the largest cupcake I've ever seen:

Here is James opening some of his gifts (following an outfit change, and a good face and hand scrubbing):He received some great books, a wooden xylophone (which he knew how to use immediately, thanks to some practice with Azure's), a set of 100 wooden blocks (and yes, I teased Al and Christina that I'd be thinking of them every night as I pick up those 100 blocks from around the house...), and some cute summer clothes (the "I love Mom" shirt being my favorite):

We didn't think to grab a photo before Jason and Amy and Azure left, but here are all the Dads and their boys: Stirlin and Coltin, Jay and James, Al and Will, and Ned and David. We ALMOST had them in birth order, but Will and David would have had to switch places):

Right after the Daddy Photo Shoot, as we were saying goodbye to everyone, James passed out on my shoulder. PERFECT timing! The 3 of us high-tailed it up to bed for a family snooze. Our son is so adorable:
There are 3 things I'd like you to take note of in the following photo (taken towards the end of James' 3 hour nap - we TOTALLY exhausted this boy today!)...

1. The boy is SMILING in his sleep (must have been dreaming about cupcakes, eh?)

2. He has his legs in a weird position (they were crossed through most of his nap)
3. His hair is crazy, as usual (Ned actually called it a "rooster" hairdo, which is quite fitting)

When we woke up, we realized that we had failed to wear the birthday hats during the party. Of course, we had to remedy that with a family photo:

It was a great day and we thank everyone who was able to attend, either physically or in spirit. Important times like these are extremely hard to be away from family, and having our friends help us celebrate this big milestone really made the day special. Thank you so much! We also really appreciate all the gifts and well wishes on James' behalf (not just today, but over the past week as well), and we are especially grateful to those of you who took the time to send James a letter for his treasure chest!

Of course, we must thank our birthday boy, who was a great sport today, sleeping until 7am, "helping" us finish the party preparations, and staying happy throughout his party even though he didn't get so much as a catnap this morning. You're a superstar little man!

So thanks again to all, and just one more time, all together now: "Happy Birthday James Henry!"

"ONE" WELL BABY

James had his 12-month well-baby exam this morning.

He finished out his first year right around average:

Weight = 21 lbs 10 oz

Length = 30.25 in

Head Circumference = 47 cm

That's a gain of 13.6 lbs and 9.5 in! Such a big boy now:

We're still going to call him our little munchkin though... and don't mind his crazy left baby footprint - they couldn't get him to hold still (imagine that)!

In other appointment news, he passed all his milestone tests (saying 3 or more words, pulling up, and cruising - he doesn't HAVE to walk until 15-months, but we'll see, we doubt it will be much longer before he does), cried about his shots for the first time (maybe Mommy holding him didn't help... I know I always get more emotional around my mom) - of which he received only 2 (we're still splitting them up, so he'll get the rest at his 15-month and 18-month well-baby exams), had his finger pricked for another anemia test (results forthcoming, but he passed at 6-months, so we're not worried) which REALLY made him mad this time (not the finger prick itself - that he basically ignored - it was the fact that the phlebotomist wouldn't give him back his hand that made him so angry, and sad, even though it wasn't his thumb-sucking hand she stole), was diagnosed with a very mild case of thrush (it just showed up this morning, and is due to the antibiotics he was on through early last week for that ear infection - luckily, I'm not likely to get it, since this morning was our first non-nursing morning, meaning that James is basically weaned, though we'll see how the weekend goes), was told that his eczema would be an intermittent thing for a while (and to just treat with hydrocortisone as needed), and cried about both the nurse AND his pediatrician examining him (apparently the stranger-anxiety phase lasts up until 15-months for most kids, and he was NOT happy that Mommy and Daddy kept putting him down on that exam table)! Or the scale:

Crying or not, he still got a great report and the doc was quite pleased with him and the cheeser grin he was willing to give her as long as we were holding him. She said "Wow, big smiles. I can count those teeth from here!" She also said he has a mouthful of teeth for his age... Makes me wonder what our nephew's pediatrician will tell HIM (he has 11 right now, including 2 molars, with 2 more molars on the way and less than a month to go until his 1st birthday)! Luckily, we got in and out of the pediatrician's office in less than an hour and a half this time. That's so acceptable that we made sure to book his next well-baby exam for first thing on a Friday!

CELEBRATING "ONE" BIG MILESTONE

Although James will have a birthday party this weekend, we couldn't let the actual day pass without the Happy Birthday song (again, and again, since he likes it so much), some presents, and his first taste of cake. CHOCOLATE cake. I made red velvet cupcakes (minus the "red") using the best recipe I've tasted to date. I think James especially enjoyed the extra chocolate inside (the mini morsels), and I don't think he minded this dress-rehearsal for his party. We never expected him to just pick up the whole cupcake and take bites out of it, but that was his method of choice (at least in the beginning):

DONE with being in his Bumbo chair (which we haven't used in months), and trying to share his cupcake with Jude (sitting just off-camera, stage right):

Chocolate makes a boy thirsty (and happy). And on a sugar high:

We Skyped with James' Grambot & Grandpa (and would have had his Grandma on speaker-phone had she not been so sick) so they could join in the Happy Birthday song and witness the festivities. We took video for posterity (and for James' Grandma to watch later), but don't worry, we'll spare you our poor voices and just post a few more photos of James opening his presents: Kissing the Dr. Seuss whale Robyn & Stephen gave him: Playing with the tractor his Grambot & Grandpa gave him (don't mind the chocolate everywhere... at least we kept it confined to the blanket):
And here are a couple photos from this morning, of James on the new Radio Flyer Rock & Bounce Pony we got him. He learned how to rock and bounce pretty quickly:

So, now it's official. James turned 1-year-old this evening at 5:29pm.

What a difference a year makes (3/3/09 on the left and 3/3/10 on the right):

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

This is James' reaction to being woken by his parents singing "Happy Birthday To You" this morning:

"ONE" AMAZING YEAR

It's amazing to think that we once counted James' birthdays in weeks. Then it was months. And from here on out we'll be celebrating the years... Today James turned one-year-old. That's 12 whole months. A whopping 52 weeks. And our little man sure has changed over the past year...

How do we love thee? Let us count the ways...

We fell in love with your tiny hands, your hairy ears, your crooked toe, and your sweet little lips the moment we laid our eyes on you:

We fell in love with your smile just before your one month birthday, and you have blessed us with your happiness every day since (even through teething and your few sicknesses):

We fell in love with your michevious looks by the time you turned 2-months-old, and you started giving us reasons to smile until our cheeks hurt and laugh until our bellies ached:

We fell in love with your adorable laugh at the 3 month mark, when you surprised us by going from "crowing" to "giggling" overnight:

We fell in love with your voice around 4 months, when you proved to be more of a babbler than we ever anticipated (even with your Mommy's history) and even a singer:

We fell in love with your persistence by the time you were 5-months-old, showing us that you weren't going to stop trying to crawl or speak words, no matter how hard it was or how frustrated you got when you couldn't yet do it:

We fell in love with your loyalty at 6 months, when you began to show such an obvious preference for us above all others:

We fell in love with your flexibility around 7 months, when we learned that you are a crowd-pleaser and an excellent traveler:

We fell in love with your ability to imitate us at 8 months, which is something we have continued to find highly entertaining:

We fell in love with your appetite during your 9th month, when you showed us that you were willing to try anything, and liked almost everything we fed you, making every meal with you a pleasure:

We fell in love with your sense of humor by 10 months, when you started to do things because you knew you'd get a reaction from us (whether positive OR negative):

We fell in love with your independence at 11-months-old, when you proved that you are already learning to do so many things on your own (but we also love that you'll still reach or call out for help when you need it):

And today, on your 12 month birthday, we have fallen in love with you all over again. You are our greatest blessing and the biggest joy in our lives. We love your ability to brighten our day with your smile, a laugh, and some snuggles:

This year has gone by so fast. Too fast. It's sort of bittersweet to watch our little baby boy become a toddler... We're so proud of you James, and we will always treasure the many memories of this first year! We swear it seems like just yesterday that we welcomed you into our world:

Happy 1st Birthday James! Mommy and Daddy love you!

WHAT IS A TODDLER?

I have been pondering this question lately, after being asked by a friend. In researching (AKA internet-sleuthing) ahead of James' 12-month well-baby exam scheduled for this Friday, I came across the sister website to the one I used more than any other in the past 6 months of James' life: wholesomebabyfood.com. Some of you may have noticed the link over on the right-hand side of our blog listed under "Favorite Links". Well, now there is also a link to wholesomeTODDLERfood.com over there. Feel free to visit and learn a few things. I know I did.

So, to answer the question, from their homepage:

What is a Toddler?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a Toddler as:

One who toddles, especially a young child learning to walk.

A size of clothing for children between the ages of about one and three years.

We like to define a Toddler as:

A child who is between the age of 12 months and 48 months old (1 year and 4 years old)

One who loves to eat a food one day and then dislikes that very same food the next day

One who requires a lot of clean laundry, tidying-up after, and lots of attention, and constant amusement and stimulation

One who is methodical and focused in his or her attempts at launching a spoonful of mashed potatoes as easily as a robotic arm assembles a car!

One who's innocence and wonder inspires us to do better

One who possesses an abundance of love to share

One who is unconditional in the giving, and delightful in the receiving of that love, along with showering hugs, kisses and smiles to those around him or her; a true joy and a true blessing to treasure

Yup, I like their definition of a Toddler. And I realize that without a doubt, when James turns 12-months-old at 5:29 PM tomorrow, he will most definitely be a Toddler.

TOOTIE-BOOTIE

Sorry baby, but we couldn't resist...

It's been quite the noisy year around our house:

(We hope James is able to forgive us for this when he's older)