Wednesday, June 29, 2011

New toys!

James has lots of new toys from his birthday... here are some pics of him playing with just a few of them!

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse


Megablocks! Ok, I may have helped him a little with this one...

Teether and a horsie from my childhood

New trike!

Wee Ride from mom and dad so he can ride with us this summer!

Climber and slide!


Baseball! He put this up on the window sill when he heard kids playing outside. Makes me wonder if he was asking them to play ball with him...


And of course, me. James likes to try to climb on my back. :-)

Friday, June 24, 2011

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Tonight marks the first night of James's life where I didn't nurse him before bed.

Every single night for the last year we have had the same routine... dinner, bath, book, nurse, bed. Well, for the past week or so James hasn't really seemed interested in nursing at bedtime (probably because we started him on whole milk and he LOVES it!). I decided that I would like to cut down (gradually) to one feeding in the morning since that is all he really seems to want anyway. But I thought for SURE he would put up a fight going to bed because of the change in routine. It felt odd to me, I figured it would feel that way for him too.

Well, he didn't even notice. Or if he did notice, he didn't care. He just rolled over and went right to sleep after I put him in his crib. Back when he was 4 months old, I NEVER thought I would see that!! And here he is, doing it all on his own. I'm proud of him for growing up and starting a new phase of his life, but it is hard... as a 1yr+ nursing mom, it's weird to see him not need me in that way anymore.

I guess I should take a moment to celebrate that James was exclusively breastfed (no formula at all) in his entire life. It was a huge commitment, one I thought about giving up several times but knew it was the best for him so I kept at it. Eventually it became routine. Now it just feels like the way life is... and of course, now that I am ok with it and used to it, it's going away. I've never LOVED breastfeeding, I just wanted to do what was best for my kiddo... but now it's strange to see that part of our relationship change.

I'm happy though that he is growing and moving on. We had our one-year well-baby visit on Tuesday, and James is 19lbs 13oz (10th percentile) and 28" tall (5th percentile). The pediatrician said he is right on track in terms of growth, and that he's just a small kid like his dad was when he was a baby. His development is coming right along, and she says that at the rate he is cruising right now, he may be walking in a month or so *insert my jaw dropping here*.

My baby is a toddler. How did that happen??

Some things James also does... shrugs his shoulders, waves "bye-bye" and "hi," drops objects into containers, "walks" if I hold his hands, says "dada" more when Eliot is around, LOVES peas, bananas, and strawberries, and just erupts into giddiness when he sees Mickey Mouse! He's got so much personality these days, I wish I could explain how adorable he really is. I <3 my baby...er...toddler!!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

James is 1 YEAR old!!

Happy first birthday to my sweet little James!! He's growing out of babyhood and becoming a toddler... it's so hard to believe he's that old already. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday!

We had a great Mickey Mouse party for him yesterday with lots of friends and family. Even though it rained, James still had a good time opening gifts, having cake, and playing with his cousins and friend Henry. Here are some of the highlights of the party (the ones I managed to capture on film, anyway!). Sorry some of them are blurry, I was trying tyo chase James half the time!

James and Daddy play piano together

The decorations




James playing with his cousins!




James doing some acrobatics...



Opening gifts! James had a LOT of help from his cousins Levi and Asher, who were very enthusiastic about James's gifts. :-)






James observing his cousins playing with his new xylophone!

Uncle Nathan decided to help. :-)

Then James figured he'd play with it his own way!



Time for CAKE!! This was the smaller smash cake I made for James.






The cousins in their Mickey ears!

Uncle Eliot playing with the cousins


And opening some gifts on his actual birthday, which is also Father's Day this year!




Happy Birthday James!! We love you!!!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

All I want for my Birthday...

Is my two front teeth! I forgot to mention that James officially started teething 2 days ago when his first 2 front bottom teeth started poking through! They are not all the way up yet, but you can definitely see them!

That's my boy, being different than all the other babies and waiting till a year to teethe. :-)

Last year at this time...

I had been in labor since 11am when my water broke. Nothing was progressing very much, so we headed to the hospital around 11pm, where they gave me the evil pitocin to speed up my labor. And then, 8hrs later, my baby James was born! I can't believe it's been a year, it went by so quickly.

Today we celebrated his birthday with friends and family... I will post about that soon when I can get some pictures together. It was SO much fun and I am glad that everyone who came could make it! I am exhausted, though, so more details will have to wait. :-)

Friday, June 17, 2011

James's Birthday Cake!

Tomorrow is James's 1st birthday party, and I finally finished his cake today so I thought I'd share. It has three layers, chocolate with chocolate buttercream on the bottom, lemon with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream in the middle, and chocolate with vanilla buttercream on the top. I also made marshmallow fondant to cover it. :-)





And this is James's "smash" cake for him to dig into with his hands. It's a bit healthier, apple swirl cake with cream cheese frosting!

Hat!

James is finally learning his sign language, and his favorite by far is "Hat" by patting his head with his hand. He thinks anything is a hat, including food. :-)



James also does "All done" by shaking his hands and has gotten very good at waving to people when you say "Hi" or "Bye-bye" (though sometimes it takes a few minutes for him to figure that out). He loves waving to complete strangers when we're out in public. :-)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Dr Grasso, at your service!

Eliot officially graduated with his doctorate today, and I am SOOO proud of him!

Mary Helen, James, my dad, my brother and I all went to see his graduation (dad and Nathan were a surprise to Eliot!). We took a shuttle over from Autzen stadium to the university since there's not much parking there and there were tons of students graduating today.

When we got there, we were a few minutes late and there were NO seats left! We ended up camping out on the side of the auditorium where there was a bench but it was a million degrees. Nevertheless, we watched Eliot receive his degree and it was GREAT! James even did really well not being too fussy or loud until we were going on the shuttle bus back (4 hrs later) and he'd just had enough. But we had a great time watching Eliot become a doctor... I still can't believe it's all finally over and done!

Some pics from today:
Cake I made for Eliot

Waiting for the shuttle


Playing in the lobby

Our view of the grads

James hanging out with his grandpa

James with Uncle Nathan

Blurry Eliot getting his degree!


The graduate!







James enjoying his daddy's cake!