11 Months Old!

I cannot believe my sweet Baby James is already 11 months old! When people tell you time flies...they really mean it. He has changed so much over the past month, and I know he is not going to slow down any so I better just keep up! Here are some things about this 11th month: Warning this is a little lengthy...

He weighs 20lbs. 8 oz. and about 28 inches long. He is still looks short for his age, and he is still wearing 6-9 month pants! We are starting to transition into 12 month clothes, but he still fits in most of his 6-9 month clothes. This is just a tricky size for him.

He eats EVERYTHING! I do not feed him much homemade "baby" food anymore. He always wants to eat what we are eating. He does eat baby cereal with bananas or applesauce in the mornings, followed by some vegetable and/or fruit at lunch, and then whatever we eat at dinner. He just tried cantaloupe this past week and loved it! I think between the three of us we ate a whole cantaloupe in two days! He LOVES broccoli and cauliflower! I can heat them up in the microwave and he will just eat the big pieces. At one sitting he can eat 1/2 lb.!!! We also introduced whole milk yogurt this past week. He really enjoyed it. I only give him some every other day or so because the dairy issue still bothers me. He still nurses 4 times per day, but we are going to work on dropping to 3.

He is becoming more and more adventurous when it comes to standing alone. He will purposely let go and smile while standing there. If you ask him to come here or walk to you, he will lean his whole body forward and fall into you. It is too cute.

We love to sing songs throughout the day. Two of our favorites are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Itsy Bitsy Spider. I do hand motions with the song, and now James tries to mimick my moves. It is so cute and he loves to try!

About two weeks ago James started clapping. Now he will do it all the time. I thought he would never just clap, but he will clap every time I say "Yea!"

James has a silky he sleeps with in bed. Every morning James is holding it when we come into his room. We tell him to leave it in his bed, and he drops it. Then we like to tell it bye bye until nap time. He really likes this. He always gets a huge smile on his face, and he will finally wave bye bye! He is also starting to wave at appropriate times.

I decided it would be a good idea to start putting James on the potty so he is not scared. Plus, he is very predictable in when I should put him on the potty. So, we bought a little seat that fits in the big toilet and we put him on the potty a couple of times a day. The first day he actually tinkled on the potty, but yesterday he did the other on the potty. We were very surprised, impressed, shocked, but so happy because now I might be able to get him trained before the age of three (maybe even 2!).

One more thing. James has gotten the hang of signing for more. It looks like his clap, but has a subtle difference. This morning when I was giving him his cereal he was signing Eat More. I didn't even know he remembered EAT! This is so exciting!

I think I might have covered everything that has happened over the past month in James' development. He is the best boy we could have ever hoped for and each day is full of surprises! We love being parents and are blessed to have such a wonderful little family! Here are some random pictures.

James just finished dinner...pretty sure that was spaghetti!

Happy boy after bath

Our little family on game day

Clapping!

Pushing our laundry basket around the house...so fun!

Eating cauliflower! He loves it!

Our new set of wheels

My Big Helper

Today, I have been working on laundry. I fold all my clothes in the living room, so James can play and I can work. I set a fresh basket of clothes on the couch, and I walked away for less than one minute. Here is what happened next...

Yes, all the clothes were dumped out onto the floor.

Then he tried to put them back into the basket!

He is working really hard at helping me.

Uh-oh! He got a little stuck...

I guess he is admiring his work. Half the clothes on the floor - the other half in the basket. I am so glad to have such a big helper with laundry!

Standing Alone

We are now one step closer to learning how to walk! On Saturday, James started letting go of whatever he was holding on to. At first he would only let go for a few seconds, but his time keeps increasing each day! Last night we put him down and he stood there, then after a few seconds he started to squat down, but instead of sitting down he stood back up! I think he thinks it is neat because he will get this cutest little grin like 'this is so cool'. I love it! We try to give him lots of praise for doing such a great job. We are so proud of him and all the hard work he does! Now it will only be a matter of time before we are truly chasing him around!

What James is Learning

James can find anything you don't want him getting into throughout the course of the day...so I have been coming up with creative ways to keep him entertained! We have the ever so popular GloWorm that plays music when you push his tummy. James thinks he is pretty cool, but not cool enough to play with for more than 30 seconds! I have been "teaching" him how to hold a baby. We are learning to be soft and gentle with the baby and to love the baby.

Holding the GloWorm "Baby"

Loving on the Baby

Hopefully this will pay off in April when he becomes a BIG BROTHER!

That's right! We are expecting in April! Due dates don't mean much, but for those that care the due date is April 21st - James' 25th birthday! We are really excited. We always wanted our children close in age, but I never expected it to happen so soon! James IV and the new baby will be 17 1/2 months apart. I know talk about being busy and tired, but I am up for the challenge! Of course any tips would be great! I have been feeling alright. I am definitely really tired all the time, so I usually nap when James IV naps. Other than that, everything has been great. I went to the doctor two weeks ago and had an ultrasound. The baby was measured and James IV and I were able to hear the heartbeat! That is such a sweet sound! I look forward to going to the doctor again in two weeks. Hopefully then we can hear the heartbeat with just the doppler!

Right now I am nine weeks along. I feel like my mid-section is growing rapidly...I am sure most is just in my head. The baby is about the size of a grape, measuring about one inch long! We are praying for the baby to grow and be healthy. Also, pray for a healthy family this fall/winter with the flu lurking around.

Fun Bath Time

Here is my first attempt at uploading a video. It is from the beginning of August, but it is too cute - at least we think so!

Jungle Room

The little monkey in his new and improved Jungle Room!

This is on his door to his room. It says God Bless our Little Buck-a-Roo!

His crib and dresser. We have five different colors for sheets all to match the fun colors of his room...red, orange, yellow, green, and blue!

The monkey rug in front of his crib. I couldn't turn it around, but you get the idea.

One angle of the top of his dresser.

These are hung above his dresser.




Another view of his dresser. I love the monkey bank!






James is showing off his dresser.

The constantly used changing table!

Pictures from Fayetteville Trip

So, it has been really hard these past few weeks to update the blog, but I figure a little is better than none. Here are pictures from our Fayetteville trip minus the first one.

James playing the James IV guitar...he is really rocking out!

Me, James IV, and Lolli right before we left to come home. So sweet!

James IV and his Pumper Dunk. Just chillin!

A present for Gigi...surprise it's a precious baby boy!

Uncle B. dragging James IV around the house. James loved it!

They went really fast on the kitchen floor!

James IV slouching in his high chair at Lolli and Poppi's house.

We went to eat at Red Robin and Uncle B. thought James IV needed the balloon. He really loved looking at it though!

Uncle B. and James IV hanging out on the floor, playing with toys.

Uncle B. getting James IV hooked on Guitar Hero already!

Too cute!

I didn't get any pics of my parents, but we have a lot of memories...sorry mom. At least you have pics on your camera!:) Well, the reason I have trouble updating our blog just woke up...so I guess this is all for today! Maybe more another day.