Ten on Ten :: November 2016

Ten on Ten.  Ten pictures on the Tenth day of the month! 

Here's a little snapshot of our November 10th, which was a Thursday. 

June woke me up at 6:20 to go potty.  She goes by herself, but she always asks me to walk her back to her room when she's done.  She was in her bed for about 20 minutes before she came back in my room and crawled into bed with me.  Morning snuggles are the best. 

The kids had their favorite breakfast: cereal.  I seriously can't get them to eat anything else for breakfast these days.

We dropped June off at school and then James and I hit up Target.  My little shopping buddy.  He's actually very good at the store (most of the time).  

After Target, we went to the park.  James would play at the park all day long if he had his way.  He loves to be outside. 

We picked June up from school and then went to...wait for it...Target again!  Target is right next to June's school, so I'm there almost every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  It's an easy place to kill some time.  Today we were shopping for our Operation Christmas Child and I wanted June to be a part of that, which is why we went twice.  The kids were starving, so I grabbed some cheese and crackers from the refrigerated area and they ate while we shopped. 

While the kids napped, I prepped dinner: Savory Crust Chicken Bake.  

We played in the play room while dinner was cooking.  June's game of choice: pretend princesses.  June was Rapunzel and wanted me to be Jasmine.  James wanted to be Mother Gothel, but June wanted him to be her chameleon sidekick, Pascal.  A fight ensued.  James then decided to be a "fireman" which is what he calls the construction worker costume. 

Paul was home for dinner (yay!) before he had to go back to work for study hall.  Because Thanksgiving is around the corner and June is learning Psalm 107:1 in school, I thought it would be fun for all of us to say something we're thankful for each night.  I need to think of a cute way to display these. 

We got ready for bed and then watched a little bit of Tangled.  Because when your kids ask you to snuggle up with them, YOU DO IT! 

I put the kids to bed and then packed my suitcase because I'm going to Bozeman, Montana with Paul for the football game.  Mimi and Grandpa are coming to stay with the kids and I'm pretty excited to get away for 24 hours!

And that was our November 10th! 

James: 11 month

James is 11 months old!

 I can’t believe we are one month away from his first birthday. This year has blown by! I blinked and all of a sudden my little baby is a big boy.

 This month has been all about movement. Baby brother does not want to be confined for one minute (which made for some fun car trips and airplane rides, ha)! Changing his diaper and clothes has been quite challenging. He is crawling everywhere and getting in to everything. 

He mostly crawls on his hands and knees, but sometimes he gets up on his hands and feet and does a bear crawl, especially if he’s on a hard/rough surface. 

He is also pulling up on everything and cruising along the furniture. One of his favorite things to do at my parents' house was push one of their kitchen chairs around while walking behind it.  

He had fun climbing over the bottoms of the bar stools and kitchen table at my parents’ house too. He had a little circuit he would do and we called it his obstacle course. Maybe he’ll follow in his daddy’s footsteps and be a hurdler?? 

I can just tell that he wants so bad to be able to get up and run around with his sister, but he’s not quite there yet.

James is quite verbal, babbling when he’s happy and screaming at the top of his lungs when he wants something or doesn’t get his way. He’s been doing a lot of mimicking too. There have been a few times that he has said “hi” or “nigh nigh” after we say it, but I think it’s mostly coincidental. Oh well, I’ll write it down anyway and pretend that our little guy is a baby genius ;) He also mimics things like sticking his tongue out, making smacking noises with his lips, etc. And he learned how to do “So Big” this month too.

He is a great eater and has a huge appetite. He is eating all table foods, no more purees, and we haven’t found a single thing he won’t eat. 

Just like June at this age, he can’t seem to get the food in his mouth fast enough and screams when he wants more. He knows the sign for “more,” but still screams while signing it. He is also still nursing 3-4 times a day.

He sleeps about 10 hours at night (8pm-6am, however he is currently going through a phase of waking up at 5am. Ugh) and he takes two naps a day (9am and 1pm).

James is such a happy, sweet little boy. He loves to give us big hugs and open-mouth kisses. I just love the way his whole face lights up when he sees me, Paul, or June. He is very emotional and you can see exactly what he's feeling just by looking at him. He is just so full of heart and seems to already have a zest for life! 

We just love this little guy to pieces! Happy 11 months Jamesy!

11 MONTH STATS:

weight: 21 lbs.

height: ?

diapers: size 3

clothes: 9 month in shorts (he has a tiny waist) and 12 month in everything else 

eyes: blue

hair: blond

teeth: 7

nicknames: Jamesy, Jamesy Boy, Jame Jame

likes: swinging (he laughs hysterically when we push him in the swing), playing with June (she gets him to laugh harder than anyone), baby elephant, climbing everything (especially the stairs)

dislikes: being confined, hungry, tired, or itchy (his poor eczema has been bad this summer)

James: 5 months

James is 5 months old! 

Ugh he KILLS me with that smile!

This month James really turned a corner. He was so much happier. His tummy seemed much better and   I finally figured out a sleep/nap routine that worked well for him. Up until a month ago, he was just kind of falling asleep in my arms randomly throughout the day at which point I would put him in the swing. But then around 4 months he started waking up and crying every single time I tried to put him down. And trust me, I would love to hold him for every nap, every day, but that just doesn't work when you have a two-year-old running around. It was kind of a nightmare. And the thing I realized about James is he goes from happy to over-tired in a matter of seconds. By the time I realize he's tired, it's too late! So, I read a book on sleep that helped me figure out a normal sleep/wake pattern for babies his age and what sleep cues to watch for. The key is to put him down to sleep before he reaches that over-tired state and so far, it's working! We also moved him into his own room this month, but he's still sleeping in the swing. That's the next hurdle to tackle. 

He's pretty good at sitting in the bumbo, but he really doesn't like to. In fact, he hates being in a sitting position, even in my lap. He arches his back and tries to completely straighten his body and let me tell you, he is strong! (side note: when he was born, the nurse in the labor and delivery room warned us how strong he was and told us to be careful because he had almost kicked himself right off of the scale when they weighed him :) He's tried to fling himself out of the bumbo a few times, so now he has to be closely supervised when he's in it haha. 

Sweet boy adores his sister. He completely lights up when he sees her. It's like he knows that she's on his level. And the the feeling is mutual for her. They have their own special little thing going on and it's so cool to watch. 

James also had his first taste of food this month (two days before 5 months). 

We decided to just give him a chunk of banana. He absolutely loved it! 

And then at the very end of the month, James was baptized.

We were touched to have so many loved ones there to witness this very special day in James' life: Grammy and G-Daddy, Hammy and Grits, Mimi and Grandpa, Uncle Buzz and Aunt Ashley, Aunt Jane and Greg, and Aunt Pat, Uncle Mike and their boys. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day. It's my Grammy holding James who is wearing the baptismal gown that all of 5 her children (including my dad) and 7 of her grandchildren wore. James is the first great-grandchild to be baptized in it. 

James William truly is a gift from God and we are so blessed by him. He is such a joy! 

5 MONTH STATS:

weight: 14 lbs 9 oz at last weight check (4.4 months)

height: 24.5" at last appointment

diapers: size 2 

clothes: 3-6 and 6 month 

eyes: blue

hair: he doesn't have much! seems blond?

nicknames: Jamesy, Jamesy Boy, Jame Jame, Buddy/Bud

likes: itsy bitsy spider (with hand movements) the paci, the car seat, the swing, baths, and big sister

dislikes: being in seated position 

James: 4 months

James is 4 months old!

I mean, just look at this little guy.

He is SO smiley! 

One of my favorite milestones happened this month-James laughed for the first time. He is actually a very ticklish little baby. Nothing melts my heart more than the sound of a baby laughing. 

James also learned how to grasp toys this month.

And this is what happens when we do tummy time-big sister wants to do it too and likes to coach James ("C'mon, roll over Jamesy Boy."). He has only rolled over a few times. He doesn't love being on his tummy, but he doesn't hate it like June did. 

This month was a busy one with James' first Christmas...

and first plane ride.

We flew from Sacramento to Richmond with a layover in Houston and James was an absolute prince on both flights (despite his face in this picture).

We spent 10 days at Aunt Sara and Uncle Jeff's house, including Christmas. 

Cousins! 

I think everyone had a good time in Richmond except James. I'm not quite sure why, but he was so cranky the whole time we were there. He wouldn't sleep unless he was in my arms, didn't really want to nurse, didn't want to be held, didn't want to lie down, nothing would make him happy. Well, I take that back, Hammy (my mom) discovered one thing that calmed him down a little…the pacifier. We had been trying for months to give him the pacifier and he would gag on it and spit it out. But then all of a sudden he kept it in his mouth when my mom gave it to him and he has been hooked ever since. 

When we got back from Richmond, I took James in for his 4 month check up. His doctor was a little concerned because he hadn't gained any weight from 3-4 months and his eczema was really bad. She thought the poor weight gain and crankiness in Richmond could have been from his reflux, so she told me to get him back on the Zantac. As far as his skin, she recommended that we only bathe him once every 3 days, with no soap, and cover him in Aveeno lotion followed by Aquaphor 4-6 times per day. She scheduled us to come in for a follow up appointment two weeks later. 

When we went back in, his skin was looking a little better and his weight had come up, so she said she she didn't need to see us again until 6 months.  

Poor Jamesy had a bit of a rough month! 

We just love him so much!

4 MONTH STATS:

weight: 14 lbs 3 oz at 4 month appointment, then 14 lbs 9 oz at weight check

height: 24.5"

diapers: ?? I don't remember! 

clothes: 3-6 and 6 month 

eyes: blue

hair: he is losing some hair and its lightening up

nicknames: Jamesy, Jame Jame, Buddy

likes: the paci, the car seat, the ergo carrier (but only when facing out and it's short-lived), baths, and big sister

dislikes: sleeping anywhere other than mama's arms, nursing on my left side (he has come to really prefer my right side to the point where my left makes half as much milk as my right).

James: 3 months

James is 3 months old!

James changed a lot from 2-3 months. I feel like once babies hit the 3 month mark they seem more like little people instead of little blobs :) You start to see tiny glimpses of their personalities which is really fun. At 3 months old James was smiling all the time and he had just started cooing. 

We took a little road trip to San Louis Obispo for one of Paul's football games. The kids and I rode down there with Paul's parents (Mimi and Grandpa) and met Paul there. It was about a 4.5 hour drive and James did great! He slept most of the way and we stopped to feed him a few times when he was hungry. Doesn't he look happy??

James is constantly making this face where he scrunches his eyebrows together. People are always stopping me in the grocery store and saying, "He looks so serious!" The funny thing is, June used to make the exact same face. 

On the way home from San Louis Obispo we drove to Kernville to visit with Paul's aunt and cousins and then we stopped at the Trail of 100 Giants in the Sequoia National Forest. It was pretty amazing.

I found a pine cone bigger than James' head!

During this month we also took a little trip up to Tahoe for Thanksgiving. 

James' first Thanksgiving! 

Mimi and Grandpa rented a cabin for all of us. It was very cozy. It even snowed one day. We pretty much hung out by the fire in our jammies for 4 days. 

Unfortunately, James had entered a phase where he was having a hard time sleeping. The whole time we were there, he would fall asleep in my arms, but wake up and cry the second I tried to put him down. It was exhausting. It's a good thing he's so cute!  When we got back from Tahoe, I implemented a 7:00pm bedtime and tried to transition him from the rock n play to the pack n play bassinet. It didn't go so well. James HATED the pack n play. So we settled on the swing in our room and he was back to     sleeping pretty well.

And then at the end of the month, one day shy of 12 weeks, James rolled over from his tummy to his back. Yay Jamesy! 

3 MONTH STATS:

weight: 14 lbs

height: ?

diapers: ?? I don't remember!

clothes: some 3 month and some 6 month

eyes: blue

hair: brown, but getting lighter?

nicknames: Jamesy, Jame Jame, Buddy

likes: the swing, the car seat, tummy time, sucking on anything/everything

dislikes: diaper changes