BIRTHDAY REVISITED

Now that his Grandma and GGmama are here, James got to celebrate his birthday AGAIN, lucky kid!

He got a cool fridge magnet set that teaches the sounds of letters and plays the alphabet song:

Some new books and clothes:

A neat snack container and some new snacks:

And his very first potty:

And no, we will not be potty training James anytime soon. I had just read that it's a good idea to have a potty around and let him get used to it's presence, well before we even START showing him what it's for or how to use it. Honestly, he can't even walk yet (though he did let go of me and stand on his own for about 5 seconds this afternoon, then dance around while barely holding onto me), so of course we're not potty training. Between his separation anxiety and insatiable curiosity these days, he does spend a lot of time following Jay and I into the bathroom though, and we figure if we're not going to have any privacy anymore, we might as well explain to him what we're doing. So he is getting a LITTLE training, I suppose. Today, he just thought it was fun to take the center portion of the potty out and use it as a bucket to store his toys in...

AIN'T NO FOOLIN'...

...James is happy to have his Grandmama and GGmama here to visit:

JAMES CAN CLIMB

Nope, the boy can't walk yet, but he can sure climb. Tonight we let him climb the stairs (supervised and spotted for safety) for the third time:

Don't mind his heavy breathing, he'd been chasing Jay and I around the house for 30 minutes after dinner, expending as much energy as possible before bed... His energy AND ours!

RANDOM ACTS OF CUTENESS

Zerberts and then some...

We haven't yet managed video of James giving us zerberts, so this one with the couch will have to do. And though he's been doing the other thing for weeks now, it wasn't until we picked him up from daycare on Friday that we learned who he got it from - his best buddy Gabriel. When we got there to pick him up that afternoon the two of them were sitting on the floor facing eachother and looking quite pleased with themselves, putting on a show. Of course, we DID teach him the concept originally. And we DO still do that to him any time he's crying for absolutely no reason, just to distract him.

Kids are sure adorable:

GETTING DUE RECOGNITION

James has been progressing with another milestone over the past few weeks, and there's no doubting now that he knows the names of his toys. Some of them, anyway. We started out by placing 2 of his favorite push-and-go toys in front of him and asking him to "show us the alligator" (as opposed to the caterpillar). That worked a few times. Then we decided to increase our "labeling" efforts and started repeating ourselves over and over and over. We label EVERYTHING now. And it's working. Now I can ask James to "go get your xylophone" and he will. If I say "play Mommy some music", he does. He can successfully point to the monkey on his crawl-to-cruise jungle, roll a ball to us when asked, and "go get Daddy" (James LOVES to chase his Daddy, in addition to the cats these days).

And speaking of pointing, James has been pointing at EVERYTHING since last weekend (you likely saw the photo of him pointing up at the ceiling in the BEFORE AND AFTER post). As of Friday, he's added a "question" to his pointing... he'll point at an object and say "eh?", and wait for us to name it. Fun stuff.

Yesterday James received a surprise gift in the mail from his Uncle Davey and Auntie T'in. It's called "Scout" and it's a stuffed puppy that you personalize wtih your child's favorite foods and colors and music, etc. James was impressed even before we got him out of the box. Not to mention when we hooked him up to the computer and his little dog tag started lighting up - James was beside himself and couldn't wait to get his hands on him! Here he is pointing at Scout once we set him down in front of him:

Getting a good hold on his ears:

And smiling at his new friend, who, among other things, says "I love you James":

Of course, to us it sounds more like a question... "I love you, James?" Too cute though. Thanks guys, it was awfully nice of you to send James a present on his COUSIN'S 1st Birthday! Happy Birthday Eli, we love you and miss you and hope you had a great party today!!

P.S. Don't mind the excessive drool on James' pajamas today. Poor kid is still teething hard, and we've been wiping slobber and boogers off him all day. And there's only so much you can do...

BABY'S GOT A NEW PAIR OF SHOES

They're new, and they're even a size larger! James' toes were FINALLY starting to creep towards the ends of his size 3 shoes, so we ordered him some new shoes for summer, with plenty of room to grow (there is a HUGE difference between size 3 and size 4):

These cool sandals are Umi's, a brand I bought once before from Babysteals.com (if you haven't checked them out, I highly recommend them - one item per day, anywhere from 40-70% off). The blue/gray shoes that I got CHEAP from Babysteals are also size 4's, so we knew they'd "fit" (as opposed to the other sandals I had previously purchased in size 4 from a different brand, which might fit James when he's actually 4...). We love the Umi's because they're soft-soled, yet have grippers to help early walkers from slipping and falling, and they're super easy for us to get off-and-on. Not to mention these sandals fully protect his toes, which is good since he's still crawling. Two thumbs up!

P.S. Although James has moved up a shoe size, he's mostly still wearing his size 12-month clothes. Some of the pants are starting to get too short, but the 18-month pants are ridiculously long on him... I guess we'll resort to tight-rolls soon (just kidding)! He can wear the 18-month shirts and onesies though, they just hang loose... So for those of you who bought James size 18-month clothes for his birthday, don't worry, you'll start seeing pictures of him in those soon!

BEFORE AND AFTER

That's right folks, James is feeling a lot better today. How do I know? Well, for starters, his appetite is back. Whereas yesterday I had to plead, trick, and coerce James into eating half of the two meals I bothered to attempt to feed him, today he couldn't get enough. Since he did so well at breakfast and lunch, I decided to make him a fun dinner, including some of his favorite finger foods (cheese, bananas, grapes, and crackers), and give him his first real opportunity to feed himself with a spoon (refried beans): Sure, we've let him HELP us feed him with a spoon before (his hand under ours). And we've let him play with his spoons on multiple occasions (without anything he could scoop up and toss about the kitchen). But we've never just given him free-reign to do as he pleased with actual food that fits into the utensil. At first he just went for the cheese and grapes, but as he watched us eat our soup with our spoons, he started to imitate us. We're not sure exactly how MUCH of the beans made it into his belly, but he sure made a valiant effort:
And yes, he ate all that fruit, even though it was covered in beans. Gross.

The other reason I know he's feeling better is that yesterday he took 4 naps totaling 5 hours of sleep. Today he took 2 "naps" totaling 50 minutes of sleep. It's been a busy day around here...

He's still a bit fussy and extra clingy (I swear I must have gotten 5 dozen hugs today, not that I'm complaining - I love my little snuggler!), but who can blame him? At least one of the molars pushed through last night (we know because the pre-eruption cyst was completely gone this morning), so hopefully the rest will follow suit soon - his gums sure look sore...

Just for fun, I let James have some "air time" this afternoon after his shower (steaming out the boogies). Since we no longer trust James to be completely nude during these episodes (for reasons I will not be recording for posterity), I bought him his first pair of underwear. DINOSAUR underwear! How cool is he?And how gorgeous is that face?He was loving the shadows the blinds were making this afternoon, and he was having fun chasing his own shadow around too. That is, until he ventured out of the sun spots... then he was confused about where his shadow went. He kept pushing up on his hands and knees and looking back between his legs as if his shadow would be there hiding from him:

Silly baby. I hate to go back to work tomorrow and miss all this fun, but staying up until midnight to finish the hours that I didn't get in during the day is not so much fun... I do appreciate being able to work from home now and then though - it's always wonderful to get "extra" time with James. Love you buddy, and so glad you're feeling better!

IF IT'S NOT ONE THING, IT'S FOUR...

Long story, quick version. Well, my version of "quick".

James was diagnosed with a mild case of thrush back on March 5th at his 12-month well baby exam, if you recall. After 12 days, it hadn't gone away. We noticed that he had bad breath (which he never does), checked his mouth, and discovered that the thrush had actually spread. Called the doc and got a new Rx. A few days later (Saturday), we noticed the bad breath was worse, but the thrush was better. Hmmm. That night (after the parade) he started coughing a bit (a mild cough, so we thought "cold"). He'd already had a runny nose for a couple days (and we'd already thought "cold" or "teething"). And there's nothing you can do for a cold. Not really. The only things that seemed "off" were that he had gotten a report of "whiney" at daycare on Friday (and he NEVER gets anything but a "happy" mark), hadn't been eating as much since Thursday (but we thought, it's just that he's 1-year-old and is asserting his opinions more and being picky), and was quite fussy on Sunday (though he was perfectly happy all day Saturday). Never had a fever. When we woke him up this morning, his cough was worse (reminding us a bit of the "croupy cough" he had back when he got croup in December). We decided to pull out the flashlight and get a good look into his mouth, whether he liked it or not (he didn't, obviously). What we found scared us - a dark purple spot on his upper gums. We worried that he had perhaps bitten into something he shouldn't have and cut himself, with an infection being the cause of his bad breath. So we called the doc and brought him in. And we learned a few things:

1. James is getting all FOUR molars at once, hence his fussiness. His gums are beyond swollen, and that dark purple spot is actually a "pre-eruption cyst" that is not at all uncommon. That upper right molar will likely be the first to push through. And all we can do is give him Tylenol and/or Motrin to help with the pain. No wonder he's been waking at night lately (though not consistently).

2. You can't always trust the pharmacy. The first Rx we had for James' thrush was suppose to be a 4 times/day med, yet they had instructed us to give it only once/day. No wonder his thrush worsened and spread. And no wonder the 2nd Rx (the stronger Rx for thrush that IS meant to be given only once/day) worked so fast!

3. We are getting pretty good at diagnosing croup. We caught it very early this time (hence the lack of fever, which we will hopefully be able to maintain so James can go back to daycare tomorrow). It's just settling in, it's what is causing the nose drainage (along with the teething, of course), and we're going to knock it out fast with the antibiotic shot he received this morning and Amoxicillin.

4. We have impeccable timing in this house - Jay is T-minus 5 days from his GRE and we'll likely have a rough week of sleep as these molars make their way to the surface...

But what can you do? Be vigilant, trust your instincts (if you think your kid is off his game, there's probably a reason, or four), and just let the baby sleep it off as much as possible. Little man is enjoying some snuggle time with his Daddy right now, in fact, his 4th nap of the day:

A NEW UNDERSTANDING

For the past few months, ever since James learned to crawl, we have been slowly trying to teach him how to get down off our bed safely. He's so fast now that we're worried we won't be able to catch him to make sure he doesn't launch himself headfirst into the ground, so we've stepped up our efforts over the last couple of weeks. We decided to let him crawl to the edge, then tell him to stop and turn around, and then guide him down. For the first time yesterday he showed us that not only does he understand what we're asking him to do, he understands how to do it, and he will listen to us and actually do it. Success! We nearly cried realizing that this is just the first of many useful things we'll be able to teach him (OK, I did cry, a little). Getting him to imitate our actions (like waving, clapping, and giving-five, all of which he can do when he WANTS to) is fun, but this is by far more satisfying:

Not to mention, it's awfully cute to watch him pause at the end of the bed and slowly tap a leg forward over the edge like he's testing the water before he trusts himself to swing around and slide down. Hooray for James, and hooray for safety!

IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN

That was the theme for this year's St. Patrick's Day Parade in Jackson, MS. Although we've lived here just over 3 years now (a record in itself, as we had been used to moving every 2-2.5 years since we moved out of our parents' homes before college), this is the first time we were able to attend. All other years I was TDY (that's acronym-speak for being on a work trip) or home with a brand-new baby! The parade was not exactly what we expected. It started off with a giant Kermit the Frog balloon and a few marching bands, then quickly turned into a Mardi Gras-style parade complete with scantily clad women, bead tossing, and more...

We started off the parade with a bottle, since James had slept through his noon feeding on the drive to the parade:

But he quickly enjoyed some sun in Sandy's arms:

For a while, James had more beads than his Daddy, but he decided to trade them out for snacks:

The after party crawfish boil was held at the Welty Commons. Here is James showing us where Eudora's nose is:

It was a really fun day for us, made all the better because James was so well behaved. Thanks buddy, we sure appreciate it!

A DOSE OF LAUGHTER

There is nobody in this world that can make James laugh like his Daddy can:

His giggle is contagious... Happy Friday!

BREAKING RECORDS

I had pre-scheduled that above video to post this morning as a fun blog update for a Friday. However, I feel the need to record for posterity that James broke a record last night. He was wide-awake for 3 hours straight, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. He never even did that as a newborn. Mouton started it by making noise in the hallway, waking James. Then he just wouldn't go back to sleep. He wasn't fussy or sick, wasn't even really all that talkative, but he didn't want to be rocked and refused to close his eyes or lay back down in his own bed. We tried everything (short of turning on the lights and letting him play, which we refuse to do because we fear potentially starting a bad habit). Eventually we just gave up and let him fidget in bed with us (pulling on our shirts, poking our noses, and every once in a while letting out an "uh-oh"). And just as the alarm was about to go off at 6:00 AM, the little stinker fell asleep. Figures. But you know what, as tired and off-kilter as we are this morning, we could care less. It's not his fault he couldn't sleep. Maybe his little mind was just going and growing. Who knows what he might surprise us with this weekend! Besides, Jay let me break the rules and he made me some delicious Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee when we got to work to help me keep my eyes open. Cora is loving it! Ah, Fridays...

And since we can't have a post without a picture, here is one of James from our walk in the park yesterday. It was gorgeous and sunny, hence the hat and glasses:

HAPPY ST PATTY'S DAY!

UPGRADED

Since the day we brought him home from the hospital, James has loved to swing:

While he still fits in his swing (the weight limit is 25 lbs, so he's got about 3 lbs to go), we don't really use it anymore. Mostly because it runs on batteries and we haven't charged them in a LONG time. Also because we generally used the swing to get James to nap when he was younger (when nothing else worked), and over the past few months, we've preferred to just nap WITH him to get him to nap (when nothing else works). Just before his birthday though, as I was cleaning up the guest room to prepare for visitors, James was assisting (of course). That was fine at first, until he went after the telescope... So I placed him in the swing, hoping he wouldn't fuss about it, in order to get the bed made. By the time I was done, he was asleep. And he stayed that way for over an hour. Here he is after his nap, totally content:

For his birthday, we got him a new swing. Upgraded for toddlers. And outdoor use. The combination of a beautiful day and an extra hour of sunlight after work due to the end of Daylight Savings Time allowed Jay to put it up this afternoon. James was immediately impressed, but definitely preferred when we pushed him from the front where he could keep his eyes on us:

And this swing doesn't run on batteries... it's Mommy & Daddy-powered. At least until the grandparents come for a visit!

WEANING AND WORDS

That's right folks, James has been officially weaned for a whole week now. In fact, his last nursing session was actually the morning after his birthday. I almost hate to admit it, but the kid hasn't looked back. I, on the other hand, am still sad it's over. I really miss it. Especially the morning sessions. It was just such a sweet and relaxing way to start my day...

To fill that void, we've started spending a little extra time in the mornings, even the weekdays when we can, enjoying "family time" (snuggling in bed and chatting/playing/reading/teaching). This works well because James is always at his most talkative in the mornings. And it's often when he's at his silliest. We're teaching him things like body parts (i.e. belly button, nose, ear), and he's starting to point them out (and he still tries to say belly button, but it still sounds more like "bel buh"). He learned a few other words this week too. He's now using "uh-oh" throughout much of the day, and mostly at appropriate times. He says uh-oh if he drops something, when he gets in trouble, and even when one of the cats gets in trouble (now THAT is hilarious). Sometimes he says "oops" too, but we're not sure where he got that, since we never say it. Maybe daycare. And just once this weekend, while backing out from under his exersaucer, he bumped his head and said "ouch" (which sounded like "ow"). Not sure if he knew what he was saying, but I'm inclined to think so. I always say ouch when he does things that could hurt himself, or Jay or I (like when he used to bite me while nursing, I would say "ouch, that hurts Mommy, we don't bite"). We're trying REALLY hard not to use "no" with him, and we never shake our heads. They don't use those methods at daycare either, so hopefully we can avoid the "no, no, no" phase. Or at least postpone it. We bet it's cute and funny, but neither of us are fond of being told no, especially when we're in charge. We'll see how that goes though...

Other fun "words" (if they count) include "mm-hmm" (which he says sometimes in seemingly affirmative answer to questions, like "Do you want me to pick you up?") and "yum-yum" or "mmm-mmm", always said in response to his favorite foods or something new that he approves of (he especially liked the chocolate fudge I shared with him from my cookie the other day, a reward for him being a perfect grocery shopping companion yet again).

As far as the silliness, well, James learned how to give "zerberts" this weekend. We were trying to take a family nap this afternoon and he was having a hard time giving in and settling down. He's such a goofball sometimes! He would trick me into thinking he was going in for a snuggle, then he'd latch his mouth onto my arm, zerbert me, and giggle. Needless to say, this caused me to giggle. Then Jay, until we were all laughing hard enough it's amazing we ever fell asleep. Good times:

Also, along with the whole weaning adventure came the addition of whole milk to James diet. We started off on Friday, March 5th (after his 12-month well-baby exam) by offering a couple ounces in a sippy cup just to see what he'd think. He wasn't impressed. Pretty much just let every sip dribble down his chin, even though he knows perfectly well how to drink out of his sippy correctly. So then we tried it in a bottle. No dice. Next step was to mix it with formula, so we started with a 2:4 ratio (milk:formula), and that worked. We did that for a week without issue. He even seemed to finish more of his bottles than usual. Then, this weekend we offered a few bottles with a 4:2 ratio and had success. We even tried the sippy cup again with just milk in it and he drank some of that without dribble or fuss. We'll keep up with all that this week, and hope to have him on whole milk exclusively by the end of next weekend (we'd sure love to not have to buy another can of formula). Then it will be time to start phasing out the bottles, which will be a whole other adventure...

LITTLE HELPER

James has become such a WONDERFUL helper around the kitchen lately...

He helps us put away the groceries:

And then he helps us take them back out:

This is his food drawer (mostly snacks, since we're still making purees for daycare, and he just eats what we eat when we're home) and he knows it. And we just don't care if he takes everything out. He does the same thing with the tupperware drawer. And the placemat drawer. It keeps him busy and lets us get things done, like cook dinner and wash the dishes. That was, until tonight, when he figured out how to open the boxes and bags and get the food out:

Yup, that's a "cookie" in his hand (an organic apple cinnamon cookie). He went right for the good stuff (he's gonna get my sweet tooth, no matter how careful we are). And since we can't have him spoiling his dinner, I suppose we'll have to reorganize the kitchen yet again... This kid sure keeps us on our toes!

THERE'S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING...

As Jay was attempting to feed James lunch before heading out to our first babysitting gig, this happened, not even 4 bites in...

We started lunch on-time, so who knows why he fell asleep. Maybe we just wore him out playing all morning...

CHEESE!

As you all know by now, cheese is James' favorite food. He eats it every single day, and sometimes twice a day (don't worry, babies don't have to be concerned about cholesterol during their first 2 years). We usually serve it in cubes or sticks, but the other night we decided to try shredded. James thought it was awesome. We thought it was extremely messy. Extremely. I think we'll stick to the cubes from now on...

Here is James' excited face (which he makes all the time now - and it's SO darn cute, and which is almost always accompanied by an "oh" or "ooh"):

Grabbing a handful (and taking it seriously):

After he cleared the last pile of cheese from his tray and already ready for more. This is the face James makes when he's annoyed by something (like waiting for a cheese refill), but not upset yet. I actually snapped this photo the second time he made the face... I thought it was so funny the first time, that before I shredded him more cheese, I asked him to make his crazy face and showed him the expression I was talking about, and he imitated it right back to me (oh man, is this age ever fun!):

And finally, happily chowing down on round two of shredded cheddar. Sharp cheddar: And no, he never eats just a little bit of anything, ever. We have to limit the number of bites we place on his tray because he often just scoops everything into his hand and shoves it all into his mouth at once. Picture a chipmunk and you get the idea...

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...