The Post-Christmas Post

James and Great Grandpa

James with Auntie Kristin and Auntie Erin

I don't really know what was happening here, but I thought it was pretty funny.

James's baptism photo with the whole family, plus Pastor Sea

James's first hotel room (where we did not let him touch the bedspread, just in case)

     We apologize for not updating the blog sooner, but it's been a very busy time.  James had a lot of new experiences this past week, and he handled them all quite well: his first interstate trip, his first night in a hotel, his first church service, his first Christmas, and his first crack pipe smoker, just to name a few.  Overall, it was a wildly successful trip.  

     In the car, James was nothing short of wonderful.  He slept much of the time on the way to Virginia, waking only to eat.  He would then stay awake for a while afterwards, but would play quietly with me in the back seat while Patrick drove.  Of course, finding somewhere to feed him occasionally proved difficult (that's where the crack pipe smoker comes in), but we were usually able to find the back of a parking lot somewhere to satisfy his hunger.  Changing him in the car was more difficult due to the lack of flat surface area.  He kept rolling towards the back of the seat.  However, aside from a few crooked diapers, we all faired quite well in our travels.  

     The visit itself couldn't have been better.  James saw his Aunties Erin and Kristin again, and met, for the first time, his great grandfather, his great uncles Dan and Tom, his great aunt Cindy, and his second cousin Jason.  James was beautifully behaved for the entire trip, and we all enjoyed visiting with the family.  The first big highlight was James's baptism, which went great.  He didn't even cry when the pastor poured the water on; he just looked at him skeptically.  My grandfather arranged for a nice reception after the baptism, where Grandpa wielded the cake knife like a samurai sword, and all the Lutherans were enamored with our beautiful boy.  

     The Christmas festivities were spectacular.  James was awake at all the right times, asleep at almost all the others, and everyone had a great time.  We couldn't have asked for more.  

     The trip back went almost without a hitch.  About at the Virginia-North Carolina state border, we realized that I had given my house key to the cat sitter, Patrick never had one, and, though we had my mother's keys, her house key was not on that ring.  Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), all the doors to my parents' house were locked, and, in an effort to be helpful, the cat sitter had locked the key I gave her in the house so we would have it as soon as we got back.  My parents' neighbors who used to have a key moved last month, and the only key we could come up with was the one my mom had back in northern Virginia.  Since we had just spend about four hours trying to get out of Virginia, we weren't wild about the idea of traversing back through that whole state to retrieve the key.  Therefore, my poor mom had to rush over to the FedEx drop off and overnight the key to her friends down in Alpharetta so that someone would be able to sign for it, and then we went to their house to pick it up.  On the up side, the night we stayed in North Carolina, Patrick finagled a low rate at a swanky hotel, so that was really nice.  :)  

     All in all, the trip was spectacular.  I think James had a lot of fun, and Patrick and I did too.  Our next excursion will be to Augusta to visit with Patrick's side of the family again on Friday. 

     We hope you guys all had a great holiday, and Happy New Year!

And They're Off

We're getting ready to head out on our big, two-day road trip to VA.  Packing for this thing has been interesting.  We pretty much have to take all of James's possessions with us.  After all, he'd be sad if we didn't take his seat with the animals.  He'll most certainly need a bath.  There's no telling what kind of weather we'll have up there, and James has days where he goes through five outfits, what with the spit up and leaking of other fluids and whatnot, so we need to bring all his clothes.  We'll need his pack and play, but we should bring his travel bassinet too, because that's really more comfortable to sleep in.  Turns out that everything doesn't fit in our car, so we have to take my mom's.  It will be a long trip.  Wish us luck, and, if I don' post again soon, Merry Christmas.

We are officially homeless!

Auntie Kristin tickles James

James is happy with Auntie Erin

     Yay!  We successfully finished our closing today, and we are now proud homeless people.  :)  Now, we just wait to see if the house we really want is going to be available.  We should find out within the week.  If it turns out that we can't get it, we'll go back to hunting.  James needs a room and a yard.  

Only One More Day . . .

until we close on our house!  I'm soooo hoping that it goes smoothly.  We'll see.  Wish us luck.  

James continues to do well.  He had a bit of the sniffles this morning, but he doesn't seem much worse for the wear.  He was still full of smiles this morning, which is my absolute favorite time with him.  Right now we're both morning people, and Patrick thinks we're both crazy.

In other news, I've just discovered the wonders of facebook and have reconnected with friends from seventh grade.  It's amazing.  I'm sure the whole thing is really just an ingenious plan by the government to track all Americans under the age of thirty-five, but I'm ignoring the Big Brother factor and just enjoying it.  :)

The pictures, by the way, are of Patrick entertaining James with a puppet he made out of a bag from Jason's Deli named Mr. Crinkles.  

Busy Days

Sorry it's been so long since an update.  Things got quite intense with the moving thing there for a while.  Patrick had been packing up things at a somewhat leisurely rate starting late last week.  However, on Tuesday, our real estate agent called and said, "You're not out yet?  Why aren't you out yet?  Those cats aren't still there, are they?  My cleaning people are coming.  You need to get out."  So, we ran over, grabbed a UHaul, and went crazy trying to get everything into storage by Wednesday, when we HAD to be out, according to good old Bob (the real estate agent).  

Patrick did all the packing and moving himself since I was mostly caring for James.  The poor guy had to carry an entire bedroom set, a queen mattress and boxspring, all my boxes of books, two tall bookshelves, and a desk down the stairs by himself.  It's a wonder he can still move.  It's also a wonder that there aren't any holes in the walls.  Unfortunately, he doesn't believe in labeling the boxes, so it could be months before I see my socks again.  Alas.  

On the up side, we should close on our house on Monday at four, so we'll be free to buy a new house.  Also on Monday we should find out if the house we really want is free to be bid on.  Wish us luck.

On the James front (a much cuter front, I must say), things seem to be going well.  James seems to be over his little virus thing.  His cute tummy is no longer all bloated, and he doesn't do that groaning thing very much at all.  Also, he's growing so much.  When he had his weight check on Monday, he was nine and a half pounds.  This morning, the bathroom scale said he was ten, but the precision on that one leaves something to be desired as it seems to think that I can lose as much as two pounds just by brushing my teeth.  To be fair, they did need brushing, but they didn't need brushing that badly.  :)  

Our First Road Trip

Patrick's dad (Papa), James, and Patrick's grandma (GG)

James and Papa

James, Patrick's mom (Meme), and cousin Hannalee

James and Meme

     Well, we survived our first road trip with James.  He and Patrick and I went to see Patrick's family in Augusta on Saturday.  All in all, it went quite well.  James slept for pretty much the entire time in the car, both there and back.  The worst thing we had to contend with during the drive was a bad Tori Amos rendition of Little Drummer Boy.

     We started out going to Patrick's mom's house.  Though Patrick's brother Allen, his sister Amy, and her daughter Hannalee came to see James on the day he was born, Patrick's mother wasn't able to make the trip.  Therefore, this was the first time she had a chance to meet James.  We had a very nice visit with them.  Of course, they completely showered him with gifts.  He now has tons of Christmas clothes including but not limited to a Christmas bag to wear while sleeping, an outfit that looks like a little bear, a John Deer onesie and a motorcycle hat (not Christmas related, but absolutely adorable), and an outfit that makes the wearer look like a Christmas tree.  We will have lots of cute pictures to post here shortly.

     After we visited with that crew (minus Allen) for a while, we headed over to Patrick's grandmother's house to visit with her, Patrick's dad, and Patrick's Aunt Vicky.  Patrick's grandmother is the nicest lady, and she made some very tasty lasagna for us.  James was so good the whole time the adults were eating.  He just sat in his little car seat and watched us, occasionally making little noises, while eating his fist.  

     All in all, it was a great trip.  We made it back at a reasonable hour, and, on top of that, we finally found the Sirius Christmas station and were no longer plagued by Tori Amos every tenth song (we only brought the one CD, so it just looped).  

     Tomorrow we go to the doctor for a weight check for James.  Last time we went he was nine pounds, five ounces.  Hopefully tomorrow he'll be up to at least nine and a half pounds.  His appetite has been pretty good today, so perhaps he's finally getting over his little virus thing.  More later.  :)

They Shot My Baby!

Beautiful James

Far and away our funniest Thanksgiving picture

Chich pretending to be taller than Kristin

Chich and Kristin in actual size

     I couldn't resist sharing some of our more humorous Thanksgiving pictures.  On to the post.

     Well, James had his well child visit at the doctor today.  He's now in the tenth percentile for length (21.75"), the sixth percentile for weight (9 lb. 5 oz.), and sixty-fifth percentile for head size (15.94").  No doubt he'll be a genius.  :)  

     Though James is not yet recovered from his virus, the doctor assured us that James was not likely to get any of the thing against which they were inoculating him.  Therefore, they went ahead with his vaccines.  One of them was just this thing they gave him to drink through a dropper.  He didn't mind that one at all.  Sadly, the same cannot be said of the shots.  They gave him one in one thigh and two in the other.  Poor kid screamed bloody murder and turned a frightening shade of purple.  It was somewhat traumatic for all of us, but he seems fine now though.  Not much worse for the wear.  He does have some swollen thighs, but other than that he's fine.  Apparently he may be fussy and get a fever, but we're supposed to give him some Tylenol.  Patrick bought that and an ear thermometer as neither one of us was terribly keen on checking his temperature the other way.  :)  More later.  

Stomach Bug

Mommy and James in our jammies

Grandma and Danny (in a characteristic pose)

Auntie Erin and Min (with Adam in the background)

James

Auntie Kristin playing with James

     I couldn't resist sharing a few more Thanksgiving photos.  Chich took such great ones.  I'll likely put up more tomorrow.  Ok.  Now back to our regularly scheduled post. 

     Sadly, James, according to the doctor (something of a schmuck in whom I have somewhat minimal faith as he said James was fine two days before the poor kid ended up in the hospital for four days and only speaks to Patrick--truly, will not look at me--when we both bring James in), James has developed a stomach bug.  He's been doing this awful thing where he's straining for a significant portion of the day.  He flings out his little limbs and tightens all his muscles to the point that his little belly button (an innie) protrudes from his person.  He turns an interesting shade of purple.  It's torture to watch, though it rarely leads to James crying.  We saw the doctor yesterday, and he thinks James has some sort of stomach bug and will be following up tomorrow when we take James for his well child two month visit.  I'm not sure what they do on that visit if James is not technically a well child.  Perhaps he'll get over this thing before tomorrow and it will be a moot point.  We'll see how it goes.

*A special message for Nims:  We missed you at Thanksgiving.  Maybe next year.  :)

A New Post at Last

James learns about Tofurkey

L-R: Adam, Danny, Auntie Erin, Min, James, Patrick, Me, Auntie Kristin, Mr. Zinn, Mrs. Zinn (not pictured: Chich [the photographer and family friend], Grandma, and Grandpa)

James hangs with Auntie Kristin

James gets a cuddle from Auntie Erin

James's special Thanksgiving outfit

     As I have received some criticism for being so long in posting again, I figured I'd best get down to it.  James is sitting in his bouncy seat enthralled by his animals (particularly the zebra), so I have a few seconds to update everyone on James's exciting life.  

     And exciting it has been.  Thanksgiving was wonderful.  James finally got to meet his aunties, among other important people.  We had great fun.  I'm sad it's over, and I think James is too.  He's wanted to be held all day today.  I think he got used to Erin and Kristin holding him all the time.  Oh well.  Only twenty days until we start our Christmas celebration.  :)  A new countdown begins.