Well, apparently I've been nice :)

James' First Beer

James' First Beer - Shock Top Raspberry Wheat:

Happy Five Month Birthday, James!

James at Five Months:

Height: 27 inches

Weight: 17.2 pounds w/ diaper

Head: Big.  Helmet'ed.  Less misshapen due to helmet.  Very controlled.

Clothing: Mainly 9 month stuff.  Just bought a "My First Christmas" fleece sleeper in 9m that should be perfect for this week.

Food: Formula with an ounce of rice cereal every other day or so.

Gross Motor Skills (I know, I'll think of a better name for the next post): He's SCOOTING! Or something like that. We lay him in the middle of his crib, and he ends up tucked in the corner. We lay him in the middle of our bed, and he ends up close to the edge or smushed in the pillows. We lay him in the middle of our living room, and he ends up laying against a couch.  There's not really a word for how he's getting there, because he's definitely not crawling, but somehow his body is scooching around.  He brings his knees up, sticks his bum in the air and pushes his head into the ground, then shimmies his shoulders forward to straighten out his body and repeats until he's moved several feet to his desired napping location.  Kinda like a caterpillar on a branch.  And if he doesn't want to move, he's "swimming", with his arms stretched back like superman and his legs moving in all directions as fast as he can.

The Sad News: James only has two more weeks of Daddy Daycare! James will start official daycare the week of January 1.

Here are some pics:

Photo Card

Sparkling Snowflakes Christmas

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James at the Holidazzle Parade

Last night we made the light rail voyage to downtown Minneapolis with family friends for the Target Holidazzle Parade.  Surprise, surprise for Minnesota, it was cold and windy, but the parade was only 25m and afterwards we walked through the Macy's Christmas display, which was titled "A Day in the Life of an Elf".  Here are some pics.  Unfortunately, we didn't get home until after 9p, so it was a bit difficult to do a post yesterday.  Count this as Friday's post, and I'll do one this weekend as well.  Also, be sure to check out Patric wearing the Baby Bjorn - said he'd never wear it in public, but now I have pictures!




Patric and James bundled up watching the parade

 

Patric and James at the beginning of the Macy's display
The sign says "Welcome to Santaland!  Happy Wishes, Santa and Mrs. Claus"



Making Christmas Ornaments

We tackled a handprint Christmas ornament last night, and after three tries, we got a pretty good print...

James and Jackson hangin' pre ornament making

Making a handprint ornament

The end result

James and the Christmas Tree

James hanging out with Dad by the Christmas Tree.  Dad was pretty insistent on only white lights and red balls on the tree, and went WAY outside his comfort zone in adding gold stars from Grandma Lola.  I'm secretly adding a white plaster ornament with James' handprint on it tomorrow, so we'll see how he takes it :).  If there is no post on Thursday, you'll know why!

Sorry I couldn't get the second picture to rotate.

A Week of Posts, and Chinese Food.

So I am really behind on these posts.  Now that I am working full time and Patric is doing Daddy Daycare, the evenings seem to be a struggle to get everything done (read: dinner, dishes, laundry, bath time, helmet cleaned, play time with dogs, etc...) before passing out around 11p to start it all over again the next morning.  You would think the weekends would be an opportunity to catch up, but our friends have had so many great events planned, that we've actually been home less on Saturdays and Sundays.  Thankfully this coming weekend is under-booked and we might actually make it to church on Sunday and get a date on the calendar for James' baptism.

But that is not the subject of this post.  This post is about how I intend to do one post every day for the next five days to catch up on what I've missed.  And today's post is also about how Patric, James, and I spent yesterday evening:

Patric and Erin's Top Chef moment, titled Sunday Evening Chinese

Patric and I took a good 3 hours out of our Sunday evening to tackle 4 Asian-inspired recipes (starting top left and going clockwise): General Tso's Chicken, Crab Rangoon, Spicy Tuna sauce, and Chicken Fried Rice.  While the food was excellent when completed, except maybe the rice which was a bit mushy, we did learn a valuable lesson: it takes considerably less time, money, and dirty dishes to get take-out Chinese :).  But we really enjoyed spending the time together, so I guess that is all that matters.  In addition, James must have read our minds and took an 1.5 hour nap during our cooking fest, which really helped.  I was dealing with two pots on the stove and chopping vegetables while Patric was deep-frying everything in site, and I doubt we could have accomplish it all while entertaining James. 

Check back tomorrow to see if I really do a second post!

A forgotten post - James' first airplane ride

James went on his first airplane ride on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 from MSP to MLI on a Southwest Airlines' 737-300.  Patric took FMLA Nov-Dec11 and planned a trip to Illinois for 4 days to see his family with James, while leaving me at home.  Needless to say, I was bawling in the airport when I dropped them off, but the trip went just fine and James almost enjoyed his first plane ride!

Happy Four Month Birthday, James!

Happy Four Month Birthday, James!

This past week we had our four month appointment with Dr. B, and here are James' stats:

Height: 25.5" (his chart now says 2' 1.5" now that we are over 24") (75th percentile)

Weight: 15 lbs, 10 oz (67th percentile)

Head: 42 cm/16.5" (45th percentile).

     Head is still misshapen but slowly getting better.  Patric took James to the Lopsided Head Clinic a few weeks ago, and we determined that a cranial cap would be best.  We had to wait until he hit 42 cm to get the first helmet, so he has an appointment on Monday to get fitted.  If you see any cute stickers for his helmet, let us know!

     Head is also WAY less bobbly than just a few weeks ago.  Look for a future post on James kinda sitting up.

Clothing: 9 month sleepers, 6 month other outfits.  Size 2 diapers but we are probably going to size 3 this week.  

Food: Mostly milk/formula with a bit of rice cereal.  The rice cereal really hasn't added anything, and sometimes actually messes up his eating schedule, so we really haven't stuck with it.  Otherwise, he's eating 6-7 7 oz bottles per day!  So much for the doctors note that infants his age should eat between 25 and 40 oz.  

Other tricks: James is almost a supported sitter.  He's been rolling over from front to back, but just added rolling over from back to front this week.  He's rolling EVERYWHERE, so much so that we are wondering if he's secretly crawling and just not telling us yet.  He starts in one location and is a few feet away just a minute or so later.  Now I understand the purpose of crib bars.  And finally, just yesterday he found out that sucking on his feet is WAY more fun than sucking on his hands.  

Here are some pics:

James - Week 15



I'm getting so big!


James' Week 15 stats:

Height: 25.5 inches
Weight: 15 pounds
Sleep: If only he could decide!  Goes to sleep between 9:30p-10:30p and sleeps until 4:30a-7:00a.  Occasionally throws in a 2:00a-3:00a wake up, but has done pretty well this past week even with a cold.
Head: Misshapen, but appears to be getting better with more sitting up.  Heading to the Gillette Misshapen Head Clinic on Monday.
Clothing: 6-month onesies and 6-month two piece outfits; 6-month and 9-month one-piece sleepers.
Diet: Finally something new to write!  3-4 6 oz bottles and 2-3 nursings per day PLUS 1 tablespoon of rice cereal around dinner time.

Happy Halloween!

James First Taste of Rice Cereal

So apparently there are a lot of opinions about when an infant should have his first taste of "solid" food.  And by "solid" food, I mean a mushy mix of rice cereal and breastmilk.  The more recent pediatrician standard is 6 months, while some common baby books mention the trends of 4 to 6 months, and others say that some rice cereal in the bottle earlier than 2 months will help a baby sleep at night.  It's a bit exhausting to listen to/read about.  And I don't know which one is right (or if there is a right answer), but our munchkin was drinking 3-4 6-oz bottles a day plus nursing 2-3 times and still looking super hungry, so we decided to introduce rice cereal.  Just a few "bites" in and he really took to the spoon and seemed to like the rice cereal/milk mix.  Looks like we'll be adding a "dinner" of 1 tablespoon of rice cereal to James' daily routine:  (It was a really slow process, so I tried to clip together some highlights, but please forgive the phone conversation in the background)

A visit from Grandpa James and Uncle Keith

This weekend, Grandpa James and Uncle Keith drove up to Minnesota to visit.  

Little James was super excited to hear the news :)

But Grandma James and Uncle Keith left a bit late on Friday, so little James had to entertain himself by watching TV with Dad on Friday afternoon.

They arrived late Friday night and Saturday morning we went shopping for brewing supplies.  Grandpa James received a brewer's kit and was really excited to get some more supplies for his first brew (which I hope to mention more about in a future post - approximately 4 or so weeks from today).

Saturday afternoon we watched football on the deck; it was the first time for James to wear his sherpa outfit:

Little James and Uncle Keith.  One of the few moments where James wasn't fidgeting and Keith could actually hold him.

Grandpa James babysat on Saturday night, and Patric, Keith and I went to Real Steel at the IMAX.  I totally recommend.  Very cute movie, with great action.

Sunday we went to the Mall of America.  Goal: get Keith a pair of shoes.  Result: Grandpa James +3 pairs of shoes, Patric +1 pair of shoes, Grandma James +gloves/scarf/hat for Grandma Theresa, Keith -no shoes.  Oh well, we tried.

Grandpa James and Uncle Keith left later Sunday afternoon.  It was great to see them, and for Grandpa James to see how much little James has changed since August.  What changes will happen by the time we get to Kansas in a few weeks?

Happy Three Month Birthday, James!

Three months ago today, this little munchkin was born.  He was 20 1/2 inches and 7 lbs 15 ounces when he arrived.  Today he is 25 inches and ~14 lbs.  He has gone from cute little ball of complete helplessness to a range of facial expressions and the ability to actually hold his head up.  He has gone from eating every two hours (completely oblivious to day versus night) to sleeping 7 straight hours the past few nights.  He's grown so much in the last three months, and I can not wait to see what the next three months will bring.

Look at my belly!

Tummy Time!

Check out that noggin.

James and his friends

This past weekend, we celebrate our friends engagement with a football bbq on Sunday.  James dressed up in his best tie for the occasion...

But that outfit didn't last very long and he changed into his fleece vest and sweats instead.  

We had quite the packed house with Patric, James, and I, plus newly engaged M & L, recently moved N & B with son L and daughter M, and L & K with daughters A & A.  We convinced the boys to take a picture with all the children (and Sugar, A's doll).

Boys and the children, plus Jackson and Sugar (the doll)

View of the game from the kitchen

James also got some play time in with one of his girlfriends, A.  She's one month and one day older than him.

James - Week 12

James' Week 12 stats:

Weight: 14 lbs with diaper

Height: 25 inches (but head is still misshapen)

Sleep: 7-8 hours at night

Head: a bit bobbly still, but definitely making progress.  He can hold his head steady when moved from laying to sitting, but doesn't like holding it up in his bumbo.

Clothing: retiring the 6 month sleepers this week and moving up to 9 month; he's still good in 6 month onesies and 6 month outfits with separate tops and bottoms.

James after a tiring tummy time on his boppy.

James giggling at the tv.

Patric and James (they were dancing to Old Time Rock n Roll)