Ten Months Old! -- 7.22.09

Happy Fourth of July

(James at the Beach)

(Cameron and James waiting for the parade to start -- of course they started ripping the decoration off the wagon)

(James, Cameron, Me, Whitney, Mark, Matt and Nan with the cute bull dog!)

( James at the kids concert at Tilly Pond! We had so much fun dancing to the music)

Happy Fourth of July!!! James had a great weekend with his girlfriend Cameron. They went to the beach together, had lunch together, and even participated in a parade together! We all laugh and call them the "old couple" because they have so much fun together and act as if they see each other everyday! They even share their binkis and sippy cups!

This weekend was such a fabulous weekend of firsts for James that instead of writing about them we are going to list them!

1. Saw the sun and experienced a warm weekend - first time in over 30 days! (yes we now live in Seattle)
2. Enjoyed participating in his first parade
3. Played with the sand on the beach
4. Swam in the pool
5. Swam in the sound
6. Got his first top tooth
7. Climbed stairs
8. Said his first word (dada) and is now babbling
9. Saw his first concert
10. Drank from a sippy cup with a straw -- Cameron taught him that!
11. ENJOYED HIS FIRST FOURTH OF JULY!!

Nine Months and Counting!!!

James turned 9 months on 6.22.09! So exciting that we are now so big. After going to the doctors we now know that he is 19 pounds 5 ounces and 29 inches long! As many of you already know, James is almost walking with out support these days, he crawls, walks holding onto furniture and walls!

We also made a visit to the ENT finally! James will be getting tubes hopefully sooner than later, as we will schedule the surgery in the next week. Hopefully, that will be the end to all of our doctor visits!!!!

On other news, James is getting his top two teeth now, they should hopefully break through any day. Its amazing how much better he has dealt with these new teeth compared to the first bottom two!

Weddings, Birthdays and laughter

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of fun for James. First he had his grandparents come visit and take care of him for an entire weekend while mom and dad went to Sarah Taylor's wedding! He had such a great time playing and hanging out with his grandparent!

The following weekend was a big weekend, we headed down to Connecticut where James attended his first birthday party! He had so much fun celebrating Cameron's first birthday. He loved meeting all of her friends, and of course seeing his "girlfriend". James and Cameron definitely make us laugh as they seem like an old couple when they are together! And, James was so happy to be able to share this exciting day with his good friend!

James also had a lot of fun hanging out with his Gramps and GiGi and of course his Aunt Moo-- he especially loved stealing all of Gramps' cheerios! While a short visit he really enjoyed going for a run with Mom and Aunt Moo -- and playing with Aunt Moo!

(Aunt Moo and James)

Next, we moved up to Glastonbury, Ct. Happy 30th Birthday Uncle Mike! James really enjoyed surprising Uncle Mike along with the rest of his friends and family! He had so much fun at his first lobster / clam bake. He loved seeing and playing with his Aunt and Uncles and of course, grandma and grandpa!

(Uncle Mike and James)

(Aunt Jen and James)

James had a great time seeing all of his family and friends over the past couple weeks and to top it off he loved seeing and celebrating Abby's birthday with Abby, Beau, Kristy and Coulter! He loved to show them how well he is cruising and his new crawl! He now crawls the right way -- no more army crawling!

(Fun with my friends)

Fun, Fun, and More Fun

Its been quite a while -- James is getting bigger and bigger every day and having a great time. He spent Memorial Day weekend meeting his new friend Grayson and had a great time waking him up early and running circles around the coffee table. He loves the new onesie and puzzle that Grayson and Lynette gave him -- he especially loves the puzzle and listening to all the sounds it makes! He also got to meet his new friend Parker. The two enjoyed hand holding and talking during lunch -- needless to say it was the cutest thing ever.

James unfortunately is still battling the ear infections and we have decided to proceed with getting tubes for James. We see the ENT at the end of June and then hopefully that will be the end of the all the ear infections.

James also had a fun play date with Finn. He and Finn had a great time pulling up on furniture and making a mess of the place. As we are starting to find out, James likes to play rough -- something that took Finn by surprise (especially since he is three months older!). We have to work on that -- but overall the boys had fun playing together -- well as much as one year olds and eight month olds play together.

This past weekend, James spent his first full weekend away from his mom and dad as we went to Sarah Taylor's wedding -- which was beautiful and a lot of fun! James had a great time hanging out with his Grandma and Grandpa Pawlowski. They went on walks and played lots of games. It was great because we didn't have to worry at all and were able to have a great deal of fun!

8 Months Today!!!!

Sunshine, Parks, and Milestones

James has had a lot of fun over the last two weeks. He is now crawling up a storm and getting into everything so we had to start the dreaded baby proofing of the house! He can really move now.

Matt graduated from Northeastern with his MBA on May 1st. James had a fun time hanging out with his grandparents. He was such a good baby, enduring the longest ever graduation ceremony. He handled it better than the adults -- thanks in part to his grandparents for their endless entertainment :). We all went out to Legal's and James had a great time eating his dinner, and trying to eat the table! Anything is game at this point. It was sad to say goodbye but James loved seeing his grandparents and his daddy getting his diploma!

He had his first night away from his parents and had a lot of fun with GiGi and Gramps -- we don't even think he missed us. He spent the entire weekend terrorizing the dog! He even got to see his Uncle Mike and Aunt Jen -- which he really enjoyed especially since he hadn't seen them since Christmas.

Last week we found out that James once again has another set of ear infections but they seem to be bothering him less and less -- not sure if that is really a good thing or not. Anyways, he is back on medication and we are hoping to make it through the summer without anymore or its off to get tubes!

James has hit some big milestones this week! First of which is clapping. He woke up one morning and just started clapping and loves to do so. It is so much fun to watch and who thought such a small movement would create so much excitement for both parents and child! The other milestone is that James is officially pulling up, standing and even trying to step towards objects. James has really figured out how to get from his stomach to his feet swiftly and he can pretty much use any object. We now have to bring his crib down to the last level as he tried to pull himself out of his crib last night!

We had such a wonderful mother's day weekend. The whole weekend was so nice for the most part and we spent a lot of time at the park. James isnt so sure about the slide but he loves the swing. He would even throw his own weight back and forth to make the swing go higher. It had us all laughing. James even enjoyed going for an early morning run with both mom and dad!

We did confirm that James is also moving classrooms at DayCare. On May 19th he will be joining the infant II classroom which means he will no longer rule the roost as he will be one of the little kids again. We will miss Melinda and Mercedes though!

We Are Healthy and Happy!

Well, we have had a great couple of weeks with James not being sick! First we went up to Syracuse to visit with the grandparents and to go to a Hamilton rowing race. James loved seeing his grandparents! He also had fun at the Hamilton rowing race and enjoyed seeing Tricia, Justin, Steven, Adam, Alexis, Mrs. Houlihan and Mr. Houlihan and of course Hudson (James loves dogs!).

(James and Cameron at Pear Tree Point)

Next, we were off to Connecticut. James had a lot of fun visiting with Cameron and Aurora at the beach. It was so much fun seeing the babies first reaction to sand and the beach! They all had fun together, but after a long walk they were all in need of food, naps, and downtime. Hopefully as they get a little older they will have more fun together!

James also had fun with seeing his Gigi and Gramps and playing with them! Aunt Molly did a great job with him on Saturday going for walks and playing at the Park which he loved. He also enjoyed finely meeting Sarah Taylor! James was flirting up a storm with all of the girls. Even more, Saturday night was the first night since James got really sick that he actually slept through the night! It was very exciting for all of us!


James is also still enjoying solids and has even started chewing on bananas, apples, rice crackers and whatever else he can get into his mouth. We put him in his high chair and he really loves it! He loves that he can pick up food off the tray and he loves slamming his toys down on it too!

The Perfect Storm and Happy Easter

Last week presented another hard week for us. James went to the Doctors on Monday for his last shot of antibiotics. Only by the time we got there he had a fever and was presenting with some GI issues. The Doctor did some tests and confirmed that his white blood cell count was high so we were to see him on Tuesday if the fever did not go down. Tuesday presented even worse. The baby had 103 fever and was not eating. Off we went to Children's Hospital for some further testing. Luckily after all of the testing we were pretty certain that he only had a GI virus. So on top of ear infections, James was teething and has a GI virus. Fortunately, Thursday night his fever finally broke and by Friday he began eating again -- yeah to no longer feeding the baby with a syringe!

(Easter Sunday!)

After our long week of no sleep and dealing with a very cranky baby we ventured down to Connecticut for the Easter Weekend. Of course, James was still not himself -- still not sleeping, but we had a good weekend and James actually cut his First TOOTH! Its officially in. We were very excited. James had a lot of fun meeting his aunts and uncles and cousins too! Aunt Jan and Uncle Chris did a wonderful job pulling the whole family together for an Easter celebration. James also had fun seeing his grandparents and enjoyed taking walks by the water! James even did well at church, ultimately falling asleep during the sermon!

Now we are healthy, eating and on the mend. James is even beginning to sleep through the night again. Last night he slept from 7:45pm to 5:45pm with only a couple of peeps for his binki! Hopefully he will be back sleeping through the night by the end of the week!

A Hard Couple of Weeks

(James asleep crossed legged in his crib, trying to lean against the missing bumper -- the bumber was in the wash bc he had vomitted all over it and his bed -- he missed being able to snuggle! But was so exhausted that he did sleep a little!)

Well its been a trying couple of weeks. James had ear infection #3 a little over two weeks ago and was put on a strong antibiotic. He seemed to be doing better and a week after starting the medication he was on the mend. We had his six month check-up and found out that James is now 17 pounds 3 ounces (48th percentile)and 27 1/2 ounces (95th percentile)! The doctor was certainly pleased that James is finally starting to gain weight and is ahead of his developmental goals. Even better James' ears were starting to clear up!

We had to lower James' crib over the last two weeks because James can now pull himself up and we found him pulling himself over his aquarium! Scary to think of him falling out.

We had a pretty good week this week until Wed. night and when we went back to the Dr. on Friday we found out that James' ear infection was back. Now James has to have 2 shots in his legs for three days. Hopefully this antibiotic works -- we are keeping our fingers crossed. Because, if he doesn't he will need to go see the ENT :( . On top of all this poor James is teething, the tooth is almost completely broken. Hopefully once the tooth comes in we will get some sleep and poor baby James will start eating, smiling and sleeping again!

On a positive note, James through all of this is developmentally doing well. He is pulling up and even "army" crawling, pulling himself around the room. Its very amazing how fast he can get around the room by rolling and pulling himself. He also loves this toy that a colleague of mine handed down to us. Amazingly at six months old he loves to close the pop ups. He is fascinated with the "rubber ducky" song!