James's "First" Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We're counting it as James's "first" after spending last year in the hospital with RSV. A few weeks before Christmas, we went out to the tree farm to mark our tree. It was bitter cold that day, but we still scoured the entire selection before putting our name card on a tree (of course, it was one of the first ones we'd seen...). That night we enjoyed a wonderful fire and started putting out some decorations. (We didn't want to do the tree until after James's birthday.)

We were so excited to have Auntie Peg come up for a holiday visit! She arrived a day after the first big snowfall of the year. Dan went out and chopped down the tree that day, and we decorated it that night after James went to sleep. We decided to go easy on the decorating (we only put about 25-30% of our decorations on the tree), unsure how James would react/interact with it all. The next morning he oohed and ahhed quite a bit. There continues to be much pointing and saying, "see." Fortunately, he hasn't dismantled it!


In our holiday celebrations, we left James home with his grandparents and took Auntie Peg in to the city to see the windows and the tree and "White Christmas" on Broadway. So fun! (also so cold! Glad we left James at home.)

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is wrapping gifts. I enjoy making the paper match up neatly and tying pretty bows. Well, not so easy with my little elf-in-training. He LOVED playing with the tape (it was pretty hilarious watching him deal with the stickiness) and the rolls of paper. Many of our gifts looked like the paper had been used many times (which is something we've been known to do), but in fact, all the paper was right off the roll! Also, I couldn't be bothered to make things quite as neat and perfect as before because I was busy hiding the "pokeys" (pens, scissors) and wrangling the tape & paper from James. Funny.


On Christmas Eve, we went to the 4:30 service at our newly renovated church. Again with the oohs, ahhs and sees. So cute. James did quite well for most of the service. We did feed him a cheese stick (after all, it was his dinner time), and there was a bit of fussing when the stick ran out. At the end of the service we sing "Silent Night" and hold candles. James seemed very interested in the candles (I was holding two, and Dan was holding James), so I blew one out and let it cool off then gave it to him. Well, what did he do? Try to eat it of course-- it looks just like a cheese stick! Funny.


Grandma & Grandpa were at our house for supper after church. We then visited with friends (whose 6-year old daughter Heather was certain James kept saying her name; one of his catch phrases is "hi there") before having some nog and going to bed.


Christmas morning was nice. The three of us ate cinnamon rolls then opened our stockings. James ripped our cracker crowns right off our heads. I mean really ripped them! His is the only one that didn't get ripped in half, but he would not wear it. He did open some of his gifts, but we had to laugh because he kept going over to his toy basket to take out "old" toys. And, of course, his wooden spoon and empty gift wrap tube were always close at hand. He did kiss the penguin in the book from Uncle P and Auntie Ali. He also said "vroom vroom" and rolled his new wooden cars from Nana & Pops around quite a bit. He turned into a pumpkin and went down for a nap before he even opened any gifts from us (true fact: the few small items I got for him remain wrapped and under the tree today, on the seventh day of Christmas).


When James got up from his nap we headed up to Ramsey for dinner and gifts with the grands. Well, we weren't there long before I heard James exploring under the tree. I looked in the living room to see what he was up to. He had found his gift-- a Tonka dump truck! It was wrapped in cellophane, so he could see it. He was saying "vroom, vroom" and pushing the wrapped truck all around the living room. SO CUTE! Grandpa had fun putting James in it and pushing him around the house.


All in all, it was a very fun holiday. James is still dazzled by the tree and other decorations ("see!"). We're so happy to have been healthy & home to celebrate together. We look forward to many more wonderful holidays!

James is ONE!

We celebrated James's Big Day with a Birthday Brunch on Day 365, which, thanks to Leap Year, was on Dec. 14th. It was a lovely affair with a few guests: Grandma & Grandpa, our friends Rob & Tracy and their two-month old, and our friends Jenn & Matt and their two delightful daughters. (We really missed Nana & Pop, Auntie Peg, and Auntie Ali & Uncle P!)

In typical party fashion for us, we had way too much food-- muffins, banana bread, bagels, cold cuts, cheese & crackers, fruit, veggies, quiche, salad.... It was yummy though, and I was happy to have the leftovers to enjoy as the days went on! We also had Bloody Marys and mimosas-- delicious!

It was wonderful to spend the day with our friends!

At the end of the party, James opened his gifts (for which he still needs to write Thank-You notes!). Grandpa & Grandma gave him a "Music Parade Ride-On" which is a little Fisher Price truck that you can ride or push. Well, party-guest Jolie climbed right on! James was not bothered in the least because all he wanted to do was push it around! When Jenn insisted Jolie let James have a turn riding his new toy and took her off, all that we ended up with was two disappointed one-year-olds. James climbed right off and resumed pushing (and Jolie was all to happy to get back in the seat). James even gave Jolie's three-year old sister Sophia a ride!

On his actual birthday, it was a Monday. James & I went and had lunch with Dan which was a fun midday treat. We also had dinner with Grandpa & Grandma after which James was finally allowed to have his first taste of ice cream (Grandpa's been dying to give him some for months!). He wasn't too into it; we think he was just tired.

We went to the doctor for his one-year check-up on that Tuesday. He was 30 inches long (59th percentile) and 19 lbs 1 oz (5th percentile). In case you're interested, he's grown about a foot (11.5 inches) and more than tripled his weight in a year. At the doctor's visit we discussed increasing his intake of cow's milk and working on his sleeping habits. Also, he was cleared to eat anything other than nuts and shellfish. The other highlight was that the doctor was impressed with his pointing to and "naming" of everything in the office; she said she could tell he'd be advanced verbally! (I was thrilled, of course.)

It is AMAZING how fast the year went by!

There, I Have Done It!

OK, so I mentioned before that Dan's been the one to put James in bed awake and have him fall asleep each night. I tried a week ago when Dan was out Christmas shopping. Thank goodness Auntie Peg was here because it was a screamfest.

Well, tonight Dan had to work late (ah, the joys of yearend). I nursed James, then read him his three books. After that, I put him in bed AWAKE. I told him goodnight, covered him up and let the crying begin. It was not too bad, so I sat in the rocking chair. After a few minutes, he stood up and really started hollering. I just rocked and tried to say cool. I let him cry for a while, then finally got up to comfort him. As I stood up, he laid down! The crying stopped. I covered him up and rubbed his back. There was some whimpering, but eventually, he fell asleep.

Amazing!

Sweet, Sweet Dreams

Another quick and exciting post:

Dan put James to bed around 7:30 last night. He (James) slept all night until 5:15!!! We heard a few coughs and sputters throughout the night, but he never awoke! At 5:15 he got a "snack" (nursed) then slept from 5:30 until almost 7:30!

It was glorious.

**We've spent the last two weeks working up to this. Dan puts James in bed drowsy but awake. If James awakes before 5:00, Dan goes in to comfort him (without taking him out of bed). He'd pretty much only been waking one time during the night. Sometimes Dan would just have to point at the bed, and he'd fall back asleep.

Breaking News

I know I need to post about James's big birthday, his party, his stats from the doctor visit, and, of course, about his "first" Christmas (we aren't counting last year!). Well, for now, this little update will have to do:

James now has FOUR teeth. He's been a jack-o-lantern lately: two teeth on the bottom and one on top since Thanksgiving. This snaggle-tooth-ness is one-part cute and one-part redneck. Sorry, it just is. Well, for Christmas, James got his two front teeth! Yippee. Top tooth number two is getting bigger day by day after having broken through on Christmas Eve. Nice!

In even bigger news, James is officially a toddler. Yes, folks, he's taken his first steps! He'd been standing unassisted for a week or so, cruising whilst holding furniture, and was "pivoting" and taking one hands-free step last weekend. (He's also been walking/running all over the place with the help of a car to push.) On Christmas he took a few steps a few times. He stepped longer/farther when holding a rubbermaid lid in each hand. Dan called them the magic lids. Funny. Yesterday he walked down the hall while holding a sock in each hand. SO EXCITING!!!

He's still crawling for his main transportation needs.

Mmmmmm.... cheese!

Just a quick post to share a recent (amusing) development. James likes cheese. Well, that's not new, but this is-- Whenever he sees me with a stick o' cheese, he says, "Mmmmm." He will not eat anything else when cheese is in sight. He'll point and say "Mmmm." After a few bites he claps his hands. "Mmmm."
It is pretty funny. And cute.

The Most Terrifying Moment of My Life

Well, we made it back from SC yesterday (Sun.) morning. We left my parents' house at 7:00 Saturday evening, after dinner & James's bath. He fell asleep before we even got out of their neighborhood. I nursed him in the backseat twice when we stopped for gas, and other than that he slept until 6:30 Sunday morning when we were about 45 minutes from home. Yea!

Unfortunately, we had a major catastrophe later in the morning. Dan was napping (he did most of the driving while James & I slept), and James & I had just come up from doing some laundry in the basement (he loves to "help"). I was getting his lunch of chicken out of the oven and heard what I thought was James knocking on the basement door. However, when I looked over, I saw the OPEN basement door and no James. I immediately began screaming hysterically, and continued to do so as I saw James at the bottom of the stairs!

Dan came running, and we called the doctor. Meanwhile, James seemed to be alright (thankfully)! He was conscious and had no visible major injuries.

We took him to the ER, and they said he's fine. He somehow came away with just some bruises on his head. He was his usual energetic, curious and peppy self for the nurses and doctor. No vomiting, passing out, bleeding in the ears, pupil problems, etc., so they just observed him for a while and decided against a CAT scan. He was diagnosed with a "minor head injury."

We went to the pediatrician today for a follow-up, and they said he's fine.

I, on the other hand, am still recovering-- I keep flashing back to seeing that basement door open! It was absolutely the most terrifying moment of my life. We are just SO VERY THANKFUL that James appears to have come through relatively unscathed.