James' First Date

Grocery Shopping

This shopping trip was WAY more successful than previous ones.  Apparently it's all about the ride.

James' Man Bag

Don't worry, Dad.  This man bag provides an excellent excuse to show off my guns!

This is also the first set of pics post "at-home haircut".  It might be a bit short.  

On The Deck

Cool Dude

The Kitchen Cabinet

James' new favorite spot:

Happy First Birthday, James!

James' One Year Stats:

Height: 30.25"
Weight: 23 lbs
Ear Infections: 5
Sleep: 11 hours a night plus 1-2 naps per day
Clothing: 12m-18m options.

James' Birthday Weekend

Saturday, July 21
3p - Family - please feel free to stop by our house early for family pictures.  Nothing terribly organized, but a family friend will be around starting at 3p to take group shots, and hopefully James will be up from his nap to join in the pictures.

4p-7p - James' Birthday Party with Dinner (Pulled Pork Sandwiches) around 5p.  Kids - bring swimsuits!

7p - James' bedtime!  Stick around for more of Patric's brews, a game of cards, or a tournament of bags.

Sunday, July 22
9:30a/10a-ish - Join us at our house for bagels, coffeecake, orange juice and coffee prior to James' baptism

11a - James' Baptism at RiverHills Methodist Church - Hwy 13 in Burnsville b/t Cliff & Diffley Roads.

So close to one year...

James' 11-month stats:

Height: 29.5"
Weight: 23 lbs
Clothing: 12m and 18m options.  I keep thinking the 18m items looks SO BIG but then you wash them and I put them on him and they fit.  I guess that means he is SO BIG!
Cool Tricks: Walking.  A lot.  Going down stairs by himself.  Actually "putting things away".  This is in quotes because he does put things away, but not exactly in the right spot.  Our favorite game is transferring DVD's from one side of the TV cabinet to the other.  I'm also amazed at the range of sounds he's making even though he really doesn't have any words besides mama and dada and ba.  Okay, fine, "ba" is not a word, but it has a lot of meaning in our house, so it might as well be.  "Mamamamamaaa BAAA" means "I want a bottle now" while "Mama Baba" I think means puppy and "Dada ba" means let's play with the ball.
Food: I failed our Pediatrician and gave James whole milk today.  I realize that he said one year, but formula is freaking expensive.  Month 11 will be his transition month.  Otherwise he eats what we eat, when we eat it, plus a morning and afternoon snack.
Sleep: 11 hours a night from 7-8p to 6-7a.  Thank God!
Ear Infections: We are at #4, and for #4 we upgraded our Amoxicillin, so hopefully it will work, because it seems we have started going in every 4-6 weeks for these ear infections.

James' First Bite of Cheesecake

And his tenth taste of Aquaphor

And his gazillonth taste of wipes

James and his girlfriends (Maddie & Abigail)

Exhausted!

"Swim Lessons"

My most recent Groupon purchase was "swim lessons" for James.  I figured $29 for 4 30-minute sessions was a steal (normally $75), but when Patric pointed out that I was really just renting a 2 sq ft space for James to play in the water, I updated that opinion to "just about the right price".  Our second lesson was tonight and, for the record, we do actually learn things during the class, like how to blow bubbles under water and how to reach for people while in the pool.  Next week we might actually go for his first full underwater submersion!

Consistent with any picture after about 10 months, they are blurry, but he's not really into sitting still, so this is what I could get:

I can float on my back!

And now I'm so over this swim lesson thing.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy First Father's Day, Patric!

(Although, I think Jackson & Sam would be offended that I'm saying it's your "First" Father's Day)

James' visit to Rock Falls

This is actually a combination of photos from three trips to Rock Falls in the past two months:

James helping Grandpa clean the hot tub

James eating Fruit by the Foot with Grandma

James and his paper plate hat at Kelly's

James playing in the McDonald's playland

James' first boat ride, helping Grandpa drive

James and Dad on the boat

Happy 10-Month BIrthday, James!

Height: 29"
Weight: 22 lbs
Clothing: Mostly 12 months, moving towards 18 months.
Food: 4 6-oz bottles plus breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks of regular food.  Loves mac and cheese, applesauce, and cheerios.
Cool Tricks: WE ARE WALKING!  Check out the video!

 

Happy 9 Month Birthday, James!

Oh, I am so late with this post.  It's almost time to start thinking about his 10mo post instead!

Height: 29"

Weight: 20 lbs

Clothing: 12 mo

Food: 4-5 6oz bottles per day plus breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 2 snacks of regular food.  He'll try everything, but he doesn't eat very much unless it's apple sauce, mac & cheese, or very messy.

Cool Tricks: Lots of climbing up the stairs, but he can't really climb back down, so we need to work on that. 

Sleep:  Still 11 straight hours at night. Mostly 2 1-hour naps per day, unless we are lucky and get a 2-hour nap at some point.

DON'T FORGET: James' First Birthday Party - July 21, 2012 @ our house in Eagan, MN.

James' 9-Month Pictures

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/thumbpage.aspx?eid=01WA63QL
Password: lusky

Hectic Weekend

A quiz:

This past weekend, a member of our family was in:

A) Minnesota

B) Nevada

C) Illinois

D) Iowa

E) All of the above

Answer: E)

Our original plan was a nice weekend in DBQ for the University of Dubuque's Flight Team Fly-In Breakfast, with maybe a detour to DeWitt to visit friends.  Patric's grandparents recently came home from Florida (snow birds) and we decided to detour to the Quad Cities as well to see them (or rather let them see James - it's not like anyone gets really excited about seeing Patric or I anymore!).  And this was all still a reasonable weekend trip if not for the fact that Patric, in reaction to the not-so-exciting news that his employer has filed for bankruptcy, thought it would be a good career move to make the Airline Job Fair in Vegas the Friday we were planning on leaving.  While Patric is the only one who actually was in all 4 states, it was a hectic, but fun!, weekend for all.

Happy Little Traveler





James & Patric in James' first small plane at the DBQ breakfast



James & Erin, still in the plane



James in the cargo hold

 

James at the controls (scary!)





James pushing his walker

And shortly after learning to crawl, he learned to push his walker.  Hope running doesn't soon follow.  I guess he doesn't need us anymore!..

James First Crawling (a bit late)

James started crawling in Feb12-ish.  Here's a video of James trying out the bear crawl versus the normal crawl...

James and Jackson

Poor Jackson, all he wanted to do was sleep!

Happy Eight Month Birthday, James!

Pictures first this time:

On St. Patty's Day, James helped Daddy grill for friends at our house

Then on Sunday, James invited his friends to the MN Zoo.
Here he is looking at his reflection in the stroller tray.

Group who went to the MN Zoo

By the time we left the zoo, James was asleep

But when we got home, James was absolutely ready to play again.
First he hid from us behind the couch.

Then he played with his puppy, Jackson.
This is my best attempt at a non-blurry picture while they were playing.

And played by himself

And then got caught getting into the dog toys

So instead he helped Daddy study for pilot's class 

Height: 29"

Weight: 20 lbs

Clothing: 12 months.  Just retired a bunch of 6-month-but-really-fit-like-9-month sleepers and some 9-month outfits.  He's right on the edge of 9 months and 12 months, but with the weather change up here in MN, we purchased a bunch of 12-month summer outfits from Kohl's.

Food: I have no idea.  In the past two weeks he's gone from 5 8-oz bottles and baby food for snacks to full-on real food meal times.  On Friday, he had a 6-oz bottle at home and blueberry pancakes at school for breakfast, followed by puffs for snack, then meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and a sippy cup of formula for lunch, followed by puffs again for a snack and another 6-oz bottle of formula before coming home for bananas, string cheese, and squash for dinner and another 6-oz bottle to go to bed.  All bottles was easy; a bit of baby food wasn't too bad; this in-between bottles, food and baby food is it a bit more challenging, but it's getting easier.  We have a lot of soft fruits, vegetables, and string cheese in our fridge at this point.

Cool Tricks: Crawling, and fairly well.  He does a normal crawl about 50% of the time, and then a half-bear-crawl the other 50% with one foot down and one knee down.  He is also pulling up to standing on furniture and "couch surfing".  There is a boy in his class that started walking at 9 1/2 months and his teachers are fairly certain he is on that schedule.

Sleep: 11 hours straight overnight.  He did have a 7p bedtime for awhile, but after this past weekend, I think we've moved it to 8p.  Last night he didn't want to go to bed until 8p and this morning he slept in until 7:15a!  Patric and I almost had a party :).  He also takes 2 naps of between 45 and 90m during the day, and sometimes a third nap when he gets home from daycare.