9 months old

I know that I'm getting bad about blogging but I am really trying to keep up with it despite my crazy schedule. Can you believe that our sweet baby James is already 9 months old? He is just as cute as ever! Over the past month he has met several milestones:
* He now has EIGHT teeth!
* He is cruising along the furniture as fast as his little legs can go.
* In addition to mama he now says byebye and dada (more like "blabla").
* Our long-legged boy is wearing 12 month pants but he can still fit into some of his 6 month shirts.
* James has become a daddy's boy over the past couple of weeks. He is happiest when he is playing with Rod.
* He shakes his head a lot. I'm not sure exactly what it means because he does it while eating, whenever music plays, and sometimes when he wants to get our attention. Whatever the case, it gets a laugh almost every time!

3 milestones this week

James started 3 new things this week and I have to blog about them so I don't forget to inclcude these milestones in his baby book.

First, he started waving last weekend.
On Wednesday he got two new teeth for a total of 6 little chompers!
Yesterday he waved to Rod and said byebye. It was actually more like "buhbuh".

New camera = new pictures to blog!

James loves to watch his Daddy play instruments. He likes to touch them, listen to the different noises they make, and try to play them himself.

"Is this how you do it, Dad?"

Cuddling with Daddy after an instrument lesson. :)

Always a happy boy!

Chillin' with Dad on Thanksgiving. Don't they look cute in their festive hats?

EIGHT months old!

James has reached many milestones this last month. We are so proud of our sweet little boy!

* He now has 4 teeth.

* He finally learned how to sit up this month.

* As you saw in my last post, James began crawling last Thursday.

* He is starting to pull himself to a standing position.

* James still needs a lot of sleep. He typically takes 2 2-hr naps and 1 1-hr nap every day.

* He usually gets up in the middle of the night for a bottle. I think we could probably wean him off this habit, but I like it because when he drinks a bottle at 2 he sleeps at least until 6:30. If not, he will wake up between 5 and 5:30.

* He says "mama" a lot, but I'm not convinced that he knows what it means.

* Learning is clearly something that he absolutely loves. It is so much fun watching him explore his world!

He is on the move!

Boy is he ever!

James started crawling last Thursday and has not stopped exploring every corner of the house since that time. He is learning about how doors open and close, what kinds of carpet fuzz taste best, how to corner the cats, and much much more! I can tell that this new skill of his is going to lead to many grey hairs for me. Already this morning I caught him attempting to crawl down the basement stairs (yes, I learned a very valuable lesson about ALWAYS double checking to make sure the basement door is closed!). All in all he is soooo much happier now that he can explore the world on his own.


Here are some pictures I took this morning. My camera batteries were almost dead so the flash refused to work. I thought they were clear enough but now that I see them on the big screen I know they are fuzzy. Although they are not as crisp as I expected, I still wanted to share them with you because I think he is such a cute little crawler!

2 Peas in a Pod

James and his cousin Tyce have started to really enjoy each other's company. We have gotten the opportunity to spend lots of time with Tyce (and his parents) over the past week or so. I can barely resist the urge to take constant pictures of ONE cute baby. When there are TWO cute babies in one spot I just can't help myself! So, I am going to share my pictures with you. :)

Tuesday, November 3 was a gorgeous day for a walk. Lindsey and I put the babies in their strollers and took a walk around Fairgrounds park. Tyce sat quietly in his stroller watching the world go by. James squealed, wiggled, tried to climb out of the stroller, and yelled at the passers-by.

Tyce was sick on Halloween so we decided to dress the babies in their outfits for a photo shoot last Saturday night. Unfortunately, the little ones did not like this plan.

Sunday evening we went to Dad and Linda's for a birthday celebration. I snapped this one of Linda, James, Lindsey, Dad, and Tyce.

Last night Tyce came over for a little playdate. The boys had so much fun "sharing" toys and trying to pluck each other's eyeballs out.

When they got tired of playing, I gave them both a bottle. They were so fascinated by watching the other one that they couldn't focus on eating.

Baby's First Halloween and MORE!

I finally got around to uploading a whole bunch of pictures from this past week. It is SO hard to edit pictures of James because I think I need to keep every single one! He is such a little sweetie pie and I want to hold on to every moment with him.

Last Tuesday Lindsey and I went shopping for baby clothes. I found this little hat on the clearance rack at Children's Place. James was in his stroller looking at himself in a mirror. When I put this hat on his head he gave himself a huge smile so I HAD to buy it!


Every time we go into Target's toy department, James has his eye on this set of drums. They were charging $17 which I thought was a lot for a baby toy. This week I found them on Craigslist for $5 so I bought them for him. They would have been worth every penny of the $17 because he loves them!


After 7 1/2 months James is finally sitting up by himself! He has had the strength to do it for several weeks now, but he didn't want to try because he would much prefer to stand up or lay flat on the floor. I think he is finally starting to see the value in sitting...he can reach his toys much better!


I was doing laundry yesterday and plopped James down in the basket of clothes while I moved a batch from the washer into the dryer. He loves any new experience and this was no different. He laughed and watched my every move.


For James' first Halloween he dressed up as a lion. He does the cutest little growl that we say sounds like a lion cub...so it was a perfect match! He was somewhat overwhelmed by all the lights and noises so he didn't seem to even notice the costume.


This little boy is so lucky to have a bunch of grandparents who love him dearly. Here he is with Grandma Jo.


He had just finished giving Grandma Rose lots of kisses when this picture was taken.


Riding on (and sliming) Daddy's head is one of his favorite past-times. :)


Because we had to feed him, change him into his outfit, eat our dinner, hand out candy to the cousins, and take pictures, we ran out of time (and energy) to go Trick-or-treating. He got a little whiny by the end of the party.


This evening the kids in our neighborhood went TOTing. We sat on our front porch and gave out candy. James was really tired but he had fun looking at all the costumes and trying to get into the candy bowl. Here he is cheesin' with Daddy.

He had been trying to lick the pumpkin we have on our porch. Goofy little boy!

Cheesin' with Mama. It was quite windy...that's why his hair was going every different direction.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

My little pumpkin

The Target Dollar Spot had all kinds of cute little baby Halloween items last week. I bought the hat, bib, and socks for James. He wasn't too thrilled about being dressed up like a little doll, but he humored me. :)

7 months old

Here are some things I want to remember about James at this age.

*He loves noises. It seems like each day he discovers a new noise. Last week he started making this deep growl that Rod and I can't even do. He also likes to do a spitty "shhhh" sound. The squealing hasn't completely stopped but at least he mixes that in with other noises! He is fascinated when I make different noises at him and it is fun watching him try to copy me.

* James still loves to be outside even though the weather is getting cooler. He enjoys walks in the stroller, sitting on the porch watching the cars go by, and watching the trees go by as we ride in the car.

* He is definitely starting to recognize that Mommy is the best for cuddling with and Daddy is the most fun playmate in the whole world. Every time either of us walks in the room he gives us a huge smile.

* Crawling is definitely the next thing on his agenda. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. Sometimes he scoots backwards but usually it ends in him pushing forward and smashing his face on the ground.

* He has the strength and balance to sit if we trick him into it, but he will not willingly sit because he would much rather be standing up.

* He hasn't met a baby food that he doesn't like. The mesh feeder continues to be a great source of nutrition and entertainment for James. He also loves teether biscuits but he doesn't get them unless I have the energy to clean him from head to toe in addition to the floor, high chair, and wall. He makes a huge meses with them.

*Cause and effect are starting to make sense to him. Every time we walk by a lightswitch he reaches out and tries to turn the light off. He also makes a little "huh" noise if he wants your attention, then he laughs when you turn and look at him.

* Every day is a new adventure for our little guy and we can already see his love for learning.

Camping and Lemons

James went on his first camping adventure last weekend. We went with our friends Amy, Tony, and Lucas. It is an annual tradition of ours that has lasted over 10 years! A 6 month-old baby wasn't a good enough excuse to miss the trip (believe me...I tried!). It was a LOT of work but I'm glad we did it. James had been fussy the whole week prior and the weekend was no different. I spent most of the time holding him because he cried whenever I set him down. Thankfully we didn't have a lot of plans other than sitting around the fire so that allowed me plenty of time to cuddle my little whiner.

The hillbilly high chair (a booster seat on a campchair).

Getting ready to go on a walk with Daddy. We were really glad we brought this carrier because he seemed to be content if he was strapped to one of us.

He slept great in the pack 'n' play inside the tent.

The 2nd night was pretty chilly (in the lower 40s). In the morning I dressed James in this little fleece outfit. He liked it!

James and I accompanied Lindsey, Tyce, and Mom to Johns Hopkins earlier this week. Lindsey treated us all to the Cheesecake Factory on the way home! I gave James a little taste of a lemon and he loved it. One time when I wasn't looking he grabbed my hand and stuck the lemon in his mouth. I was amazed that he didn't even make a funny face when he first tried it.

Pumpkin Patch

I finally got around to uploading our pumpkin patch pictures from two weeks ago!

I LOVE fall and have dreamt about taking my little boy or girl on their first visit to the pumpkin patch for many many years. Our adventure was even more fun than I anticipated! James enjoyed every facet of our trip: riding on the hayride, picking out a pumpkin, and looking at the animals.

Here he is riding on the hayride with his Mommy.
"Let me taste this one and see if it meets my specifications."

What could be better than taking a walk on Daddy's shoulders on a beautiful fall day?

"Yum. This one tastes even better than the last one I tried!"

Rod did pretty good with this family self-portrait...he even got the pumpkin in there!

6-month Doctor's visit

James was 17.5 lbs and 28.75" long. This puts him in the 96th percentile for height and 37th percentile for weight. He got 4 shots during which he cried his little heart out. After I got him settled down and dressed again we walked out into the hallway. He smiled at most of the people out there but started screaming again as soon as he saw the nurse who had administered his shots...such a smart little cookie he is.

Pictures of my favorite little 6 month-old!

I guess 6 months was the magic age James needed to reach before sleeping through the night. All week he has gone to bed around 9 and gotten up around 6:30. His Mommy is really enjoying the uninterrupted sleep!

Here are some pictures from the past week. We will start with Mom's big 50th birthday bash last Saturday.

This is the cake Lindsey made. I wanted to get a cake with a sculpture of Mom in her convertible on top (yes, I've been watching too many shows like Ultimate Cakeoff, Ace of Cakes, and Food Network Challenge). It was going to cost a minimum of $200 to get it done by a bakery. My sister, being the creative genius that she is, offered to attempt to make my dream a cake-reality. I love the end result!


James' Great-Uncle Rob lives a couple of hours away. This was only the 2nd time that they got to see each other. At first James cried but then Rob held him facing out and he was happy as a clam!


Tyce, Grandma Jo, and James were having a grand time together!

I wanted a picture of the boys with their Great-Grandma Knotts.

This past Thursday Rod and I wanted to take our little brother Blake, our nephew Jeremy, and James to the park for a picnic. Here is a self-portrait of James and his Mama watching the boys play at the park.

Jeremy loves his little cousin James and was begging to hold him on the swing. They had fun playing together like big kids!

James also enjoyed the baby swing. He was yelling and smiling at all the kids who ran by.

After running around with the older boys for a while, Rod took a few minutes to toss James around. I snapped this picture and I love the way it turned out.

A friend of my Mom's noticed that her neighbor closed down her home daycare and put all her baby stuff out on the curb with the trash. She called Mom to see if she wanted it. It filled up Mom and Cait's car to the brim! This week we were finally able to sift through all the toys. James was thrilled to get some new things to chew on. He was getting bored with his old toys.

I took this picture of James and Grandma Jo playing with the drumset at church today. Isn't that little smile contagious?