Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Joys of babyhood....


It's kinda sad to me when even the bathwater has trouble getting the food off his face!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

James' 1st birthday party!


I had meant to post this sooner but we've been living in snot city here this week. It's been a really hard week because every single one of us has been sick. Xander got his first ear infection since having tubes...all I can say is YUCK! It started with his left ear and wasn't so bad and then after his nap Wednesday he woke up rubbing his right ear and it was just nasty... So he has had the ears and a runny, snotty nose and James has had a runny, snotty nose but so far he seems to have escaped the ear infection. I've been sick as a dog myself. It's so much harder being sick when you are a mom b/c you can't just spend the enitre time lying in bed. I managed to make it to the couch for the most part of each day but needless to say the house is totally trashed- oh well. Why is it that kids can still manage to wreck havoc even when they aren't feeling well? At least I was able to stay home from work. Frank has been sick too and he can't stay home from work right now or we can't start with his insurance for a whole extra month. So anyway I am finally feeling mostly human, the kids are still snotty but given their energy level I am guessing they must feel better. And Frank is still suffering but he has to go to work anyway!

Anyway last Saturday we had James first birthday party. It was a great sucess I think. Melissa baked a beautiful and delicious cake. We had some yummy food. The weather was beautiful and we spent most of the party outside. There were a whole bunch of little boys running around and only one little girl! James had a lovely time mashing his cupcake all to smithereens and licking the frosting off- and the dogs had a lovely time cleaning up all the leftovers. James opened some of his presents and Will and Xander opened the rest! The kids had a blast with the presents. I think we'll have to have a whole bunch of playdates centered around the boy's new train table and all the trains that James got.

Friday, September 24, 2010

James' one year appointment!

So James had his one year appointment on Monday. He is doing well overall. He weighs 18 lbs 11 oz (4th percentile) and is 29 in tall (26th percentile). His head circumference was 18.5 in (69th percentile), which means that now he and Xander actually have the same size head! He only got three shots this time around and he will get more at his 15 month visit and at some point here we'll have to do the flu shot. Someday I wish that daddy had to take them for shots and not me..but really he did well and chilled out as soon as it was over! He is trucking all over the place these days and now he's trying to run but mostly that just means he trips over his own feet and face plants- his poor forehead has non stop scrapes and bruises! He seems to be fine with giving up the bottle, although he does steal Xander's whenever he is done with it! That being said he is still breastfeeding but he also drinks milk and water from a cup. Getting the bottle from Xander isn't going so well but one day at a time! He does seem to like some of the new sippy cups we got handed down to us from Naomi but first thing in the morning all he wants is that bottle!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Monday, September 20, 2010

a productive day...

I have to say I am feeling pretty good about today went. Recently I have been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done around the house/farm and that overwhelming sense of not accomplishing anything wears at you. But today was a good day. I had a really hard time falling asleep last night which is usually a sign that the next day isn't going to go well but we got up and going early as James had his one year dr appoint this morning (updates on that and his birthday party in a late post). So we went to his appointment, went to the grocery store for a milk run (in an effort to simply our lives we took milking out of the equation and are going to focus on a beef herd and until I can find a supplier of fresh milk it's store bought for us- blech...), and then hit the pharmacy for some new vitamins for the big one year old boy! And to stock up on motrin in case the inevitable fever post shots set it. We headed home after that and went straight out in to the garden where we picked raspberries(4 quarts), zucchini(probably 20 or so none smaller than my arm), and summer squash(again a bunch of huge honkers...). Back into the house for lunch and naps, at which point I dyed my hair- time to get rid of the grey! Of course the second I mixed the color both kids were screaming but Xander's issues were resolved with the quick changing of a diaper and I think James was just crying because Xander was! After hair dying I took the raspberries we picked and made a batch of raspberry jam- mmmmm, James and I enjoyed the extras once he got up from his nap! Then it was onto shredding zucchini for relish and slicing cucumbers for pickles. 2 gallons of relish fermenting in the fridge and 14 lbs of sliced cucumbers soaking in lime later it almost time for bed. Now I just have to clean up the mess I made in the kitchen so the flies don't go totally beserk and pack the diaper bag for tomorrow b/c we are leaving first thing to head over to the seacoast to visit Pop, Nan and to get James' 1yr pictures done- followed by a shopping excursion to Kittery and I need to be home in time to can that 2 gallons of zucchini relish- yikes! It's going to be a LONG day.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

James is ONE Year Old!

My little man is one year old today! It's hard to believe that one year ago I was sitting in a hospital room about this time with Frank passed out on a cot in the corner wondering if my labor was ever going to start- and yet 7 short hours later James was with us! He came into the world at 6:57 in the morning much more quickly than his brother, which was a great relief to his mother, and weighing in at 8lbs 10oz, which was less of a relief! Then he was a fat round chubby hairy dark little man and now, well he still has a big round head and dark skin but his hair has turned to be more like a dark blond and his eyes will probably be hazel like his daddy's. He looks very much like his namesake in my opinion which is some ways may be why when he was born he just looked like a "James" to us. He's walking and pointing and occasionally waving. He says ma-ma and da-da and ba-ba and he points to things and hisses as if to say "this!" He's gone by various nicknames in his life- including cue ball, fang, crankpot, booger baby, bubba, Jamie James, Baby James, My James vs. your James, Jed, and most consistently JJ. And he is the most perfect and precious baby in the world today! Happy Birthday JJ!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Updates...

My poor sadly neglected blog! I keep meaning to write about the things that have been happening in our lives but I have been too busy living it to write about it! So what have we been doing... on August 31st Xander had PE tubes placed in his ears. Not an experience I would like to repeat anytime soon but all in all it went well. We had to get up quite early and I was worried about how he'd do without being able to eat or more specifically drink but I got him up and just plopped him straight into the car and he didn't complain. When we got to the hospital we got registered right away and pretty quickly got taken back to the pre-op area. They were ready for him- in his little cubicle they had a dvd player with some kids movies and a wagon with pillows for him to cuddle in. We waited in pre-op for awhile while the Dr came to talk to us and the Anesthesiologist came to talk with us and then they gave him some oral versed- actually I gave it to him and he took it quite easily but then I thought for sure he was going to puke it right back up. Versed must not taste very good! But he managed to keep it down and after about 15 min he voluntarily lay down in the wagon with his stuffed elephant, at which point the anesthesiologist was like "that's our cue" and they wheeled him off down the hallway to the OR. That was a sucky moment- when literally I felt like I was putting my child's life in someone else's hands. I went out to the waiting room to sit and wait- longest 15 minutes ever! Thank goodness that it wasn't a long procedure b/c otherwise I would have been a total wreck. So the Dr came out, told me everything was fine and took me back to him and I swear it was a different kid. Alexander waking up from anesthesia is no fun at all! He was flailing and kicking and just screaming at the top of his lungs. It was awful- like he was awake but didn't know where and who he was. It took him a long time to calm down and then when he finally calmed he was having a hard time walking- he kept stumbling around like he was drunk- it was just unsettling to see him like that. Plus he just smelled like anesthesia- I don't know how to describe it but pts after they have anesthesia just have this nasty funky smell to their breath that I just think is nauseating.


So we headed home after the tubes and Xander did well all things considered but he was in a funk for a few days. I almost wonder if his environment seemed more overwhelming since he could hear better. I do think that having the tubes placed and the congealed fluid sucked out of his inner ear has helped with his hearing. It has not been a dramatic, overnight change but gradually we are noticing improvements in his speech and understanding. He is mimicking more and he has several words that are quite clear now which were garbled before. He has used several 3 word sentences like "I want Ba (bottle)", "No my choo-choo", and "I did it!" (thank you Dora...). He calls James by "JJ" pretty consistently now and he has developed a new fascination with the television. He would watch Backyardigans before and liked that but almost anything else wouldn't hold his attention for more than 20 minutes. Now all of a sudden we hear "I want tv...tv...TV" more than I would like to admit. I was quite frustrated with it until Frank pointed out that he probably likes it more now b/c he can actually hear it! So in addition to Backyardigans he now enjoys Dora and Diego especially (it could be worse...Barney anyone?)

Speech therapy continues and is going well at this point. Like I said we are seeing small improvements week by week in the number of words he is using, our comprehension of those words, mimicking, and his ability to create sentences. As we approach his turning 2 1/2 we will have his 6 month revaluation and assessment to determine where he falls developmentally. At age 3 he will age out of early intervention and into the school system so the preschool coordinator will hopefully be a part of this assessment so they can start developing an IEP for him (if he needs it) for when he starts preschool next year. I guess the benefit of him needing services would guarantee him a spot in the Winchester preschool. I should put his name on the wait list in any case.

James has been pretty miserable the last couple of days b/c it looks like he is cutting some more giant honking teeth- I swear the kid has the teeth of a 5 year old! Hopefully he will be ina good mood tomorrow in time for his birthday party...yes can you believe it? My JJ is going to ONE year old tomorrow! Oh my goodness I have so much to do before his party- yikes! I promise all who are coming that I will try to have the house reasonably clean and enough food for all!
The pictures in the post are from our visit last weekend to the Franklin County Fair in Greenfield, MA. We had a great time and the kids seriously enjoyed the kiddy play tent b/c there were all kinds of tractors to play with. They ended the day by playing on a real life JD Gator- trying to convince mommy and daddy that we "need" one for the farm. Heck we'd never get Xander out of it! Doesn't James look like such a big boy trucking across the seat! More updates after JJ's party...

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

My little man...

Photobucket
is looking like such a big boy.... Today I went to daycare to feed JJ on my way to work and Xander didn't even notice that i was there for like 25 minutes. It's good in a way to see him so wrapped up in his play to not want to leave but somehow it's a little sad that he didn't even notice me! I think if I had tried to make him leave he would have fought me tooth and nail so I guess it's good that I left them there to go to work!

This morning was interesting as the barn and apparently the house were both hit by lighting. The barn was a definite strike with a huge rumble of thunder. Poor Jake was in the barn when it hit and I thought for a minute he got hit too. It must have been pretty loud though and at least one of the light bulbs exploded. Thank goodness it didn't catch on fire seeing as there are about 1000 bales of hay in the loft right now. The house must have gotten hit before that b/c we heard the thunder- it woke us both out of a dead sleep but we didn't realize anything was amiss till the evening when we tried to turn on the TV and realized the satellite is toast! Oh well we were planning on getting rid of direct tv here soon so I guess this was just the kick in the butt that we neded to do it. Too bad it couldn't have waited one more week until all the summer finales were over.

Friday, September 3, 2010

James is almost one year old!

How fast this year has flown- yikes! I can't believe my little munckin is almost a year old. In fact it totally snuck up on me so I didn't get around to do invitations for his party b/c well frankly until the other day and I realized it was Septemebr I didn't realize it was time to plan a party. I made sure I got the day of his birthday off months ago and then kinda forgot to plan the party! So instead of individual invites you all get a blog posting (and for my freinds on FB and event invite...gotta love technology...).

James' 1st Birthday Party
Saturday, September 18, 2010
at our house
3:00pm

If you are planning on coming or need directions, etc just let us know. We'll have food- burger and dogs but bring your own drinks. You're welcome to bring a side dish to share but we don't expect anything but your company! Presents are unecessary but if you really want to get him something he loves books, anything he can chew on, wooden trains (like for the Thomas wooden train set), any Fisher Price farm toy, and his parents would accept donations towards a big boy carseat (why they have to be so expensive is beyond me!).

Hope to see you all there!