Mr. Mister

Ever since James was just a teeny, tiny little zygote, we've made up funny nicknames for him.  Most of them originated from random things he'd make us think of.  We get such a kick out of all the ways James makes us laugh and all the silliness he brings into our lives.  He just cracks us up all the time.  Just for posterity, these are some of the names James is known by:

Bubs, Bubbles, Bubbie, Bubble-Up, Bubblesome
Bubbler, Bumper, Bumber
Lovebug, Mr. Loves
Jammy Jammy St. Jamerson, James St. James
Jimmyrock (sung to the tune of "Lollipop"), JR, LBG (Little Big Jim)
Mr. Mister
Starstuff (Carl Sagan reference)
Little Buddy, Buster Douglas (I don't know why, these are Dad's names for James)
Peanut Butter and Jammy

Anyway, here's some of my 6-month favorite shots.  Sorry this blog has turned a little James-obsessed lately.   We're totally James-obsessed ourselves so that's probably why.  :)

I'm six months old!  I laugh and smile all the time.

James does great push ups and is so strong.  He loves the vantage point from way up high...

I had this little phone when I was a baby, and my mm found one at a garage sale for James.  Mostly he likes the string, but someday I bet he'll like pulling it around behind him like I did.

James LOVES doorknobs, cabinets, pulling on everything... Operation Child Proofing is set to happen this weekend!

These are just some random pictures I happened to like.

James and Grandpa.  A few weeks back they visited during a heat wave and we let James hang out in his diaper because it was so hot.  He'd love to be naked all the time if I let him.

James in his little rocket ship pants laying in bed like a little man.  This was early in the morning when we snuck in to wake Dad up....

Shopping with mama at Nordstroms.  He played in the dressing room and gave some good fashion advice.  

He soon discovered he could crawl over to the lady next door...oops!

James trying one of the only foods he hasn't liked - peas.  He just sat there with this sad look on his face and let the peas just sit on his lips.  I think we will try again, though, because they were baby food peas from a jar, which truly are disgusting.  I'm going to try my hand at making my own with sweet peas which I think are much tastier.

James and Adam swimming at Mt. Scott Community Center.  I came here all the time at the end of my pregnancy to swim laps and used to just dream about the day I could bring James in with me.  Now it's actually happening and it's so much fun!  The kiddie pool has a moving "river canal," water factory feature, and a huge slide.  I know we're going to have a lot of fun times here.

James loved the water, and loved being swished around by his dad.  He was so worn out by all the splashing and "swimming" he did that he took a long nap afterwards so Adam & I took in a nice long lunch at Foster Burger.  Lovely way to end a family outing!

We're going to start our little "Angelfish" swim classes here soon and I can't wait!

My Grandma Johanna from Phoenix came to visit and helped me put together my first real garden as a Mother's Day gift.  I haven't had the opportunity to grow much since we've been living in apartments the last few years and LOVE having some earth to dig my hands into.  I've planted five tomato plants (two heirlooms, two large varities, one cherry) zucchini, sweetmeat squash (an Oregon specialty - I hope it does well because they are so delicious!), carrots, lemon cucumber, basil, parsley, and a few varieties of peppers.  My most favorite thing of all, though, is this little guy:

Tomato baby

Squash blossom baby

On days that I work, I often come home and bring James outside with me to water and weed the garden.  I let his little feet touch the dirt and grass, and talk to him about all the neat things we're growing.  He really enjoys being outside and I love our little evening ritual we have out there together.  Sometimes when he's fussy, I'll just open up the back door and sit on the steps on the deck with him and he'll immediately become calm and contemplative.  

On days that it's too wet to be outside, he will often hang out in his little walker by the back door and gaze out there watching the rain.  

Speaking of homegrown veggies and all, our local Farmer's Market is in full swing every Sunday just down the street.  James and I strolled down there on a particularly hot afternoon the other weekend so I doused him sunscreen and tried out his baby sunglasses.  They eventually ended up his mouth, but were pretty cute while they lasted.   :)

Beautiful sleep

As I write this, James is 7 months old - amazing.  He talks, eats, crawls (well, it's sort of a "fish flop" on all fours across the floor bit), and also.......sleeps!  Mostly.

Having a baby who sleeps through the night is pretty much the holy grail of first year parenting.  We've had a long, winding road when it comes to our family sleeping this year.  Swaddling, putting James in the cradle, Rock n' Play, holding and rocking him, couch sleeping, carseat sleeping, random/desperate co-sleeping, stroller napping, crib sleeping....you name it, we've done it.  I've read a pathetic amount of books on the subject and well versed in topics such as "puting your baby down 'drowsy but awake', 'the Sleep Lady Shuffle', Ferber, Weissbluth, The No Cry Sleep Solution (hogwash!), the limp limb test, and more.  I think I gleaned some mildly helpful information and tools to try, but what I ultimately learned was none of the books knew James.  Only we did.  I've wished and longed for a book that describes how to parent my baby but it just doesn't exist.  We just had to get to know him, read his cues, find out what worked and what didn't.  And the real kicker is, just when I've thought I finally had it all figured out, he'd go through a growth spurt or some other type of developmental change and totally throw us for a loop.  He's a moving target, our boy.

After all this, I'm happy to report that James can fall asleep on his own now, and our nights are about as restful as any new parent could possibly hope for.  And I've learned I would endure a thousand sleepless nights if it meant seeing his gummy little smiles light up our hearts.

One of the best things about sleeping babies is how beautiful they are.  It's funny to me now how many photos I have of James sleeping.  See, for the longest time I think I felt that he hardly slept.  Obviously, photographic evidence exists to the contrary because we have a plethora of adorable sleeping baby pictures.   I guess the key difference here would be honing in on the fact that though James was, in fact, sleeping, I was, in fact, exhausted.  But, I think I'm going to wrap up about the sleep deprivation talk for now.  It's taken up so much space in my mind over the past 7 months.  On bad nights, I've been talked off the proverbial "I'm seriously going to die if I don't sleep" ledge by my mama friend Amelia.  I've commiserated about it, laughed about it, cried about it.  The truth is this:  having a baby is so incredibly tiring (and amazing, and incredible, and wonderful.)  It just is.  We've learned there are many ways to be tired.  I can be justifiably self-pitying, grumpy, and irritable.  I can ignore it, power through it and be in denial.  You know, that'd be the good ol' "fake it til you make it" routine.  I can stop appreciate the fact that many parents sleep less than I do, and for that I should be thankful.  But the reality is, it just IS what it is.  I've stopped having conversations comparing notes about sleep and babies - none of it has ever been useful or helpful to me and my baby.  Adam & I used to talk about it a lot more.  We'd compare notes about how many hours we got, how many times we got up, ask each other for help and lay down desperate for the other to keep the baby for awhile so we could just be alone and rest.  But we no longer talk about it, both because it's improved so much and because doing that never really helps.  We're tired.  That's all.  Nothing to write home about, nothing horrible, just tired.  What else is new.  I pretty much expect at this point to be tired for the next 20 some-odd years.  And I'm totally okay with that.

So, confession.  I'm totally one of those stalker moms that sneaks in at night and snaps photos of my sleeping baby.  I love wondering what sorts of nice thoughts are drifting through his head.  I love dressing him in his pajamas and his sleep sacks, which keep him toasty and warm all night long.  I love that he is all smiles when he wakes and is always in the best mood first thing in the morning.  God, I wish I could be so happy just to awaken - alive, excited, just thrilled to realize the world is still there waiting for you.

I have so much to learn from my son.

Bedtime, but someone is definitely not tired.  

James is a tummy sleeper about 90% of the time.  Now that it's totally safe for him to do so, he sleeps so much better this way. 

Nothing better than being held by your Grandpa while you get to sleep on his shoulder for an hour.

Insane pajama cuteness.

Reading

Reading is already a favorite activity of ours...

Reading Green Eggs & Ham together.  James is older now and mostly wants to eat and "help" turn the pages, so we're sticking to board books for awhile.

James says:  "Support your local library!"

Having some reading time/diaper-free time with mama

Easter baby

Easter

As per usual, I'm behind on posting on our blog...so until I have time to write more, we might just do some photo blogging.  We spent Easter at home, since both Adam & I were sick.  We still had a nice day, though, and James had fun with some goodies from the Easter bunny (aka his grandparents).

Our Easter bunny

Bib party on the kitchen floor!

Chef James showing Mama his secret recipe for deviled eggs