Diaper Boy

Time for some updates...

Wow, can't believe my last post was so long ago!

That said, it was a LOT easier to take pictures in the days before James became mobile!!! He definitely wasn't on the EARLY side of the curve for crawling--he began army crawling a little before Christmas and then liked it so much, he decided to wait until about 2 weeks ago to actually give normal crawling a go--but he's endlessly curious about what's under the fridge? what's in the cat dish? what's that piece of lint in the corner? and what is SO fascinating about the fireplace that everyone keeps dragging him away from it all the time?!?!? The apartment is getting smaller every day...

We also had to lower the crib last week once I discovered that he had learned to pull himself up on the rails. (Hauling himself up onto his knees and then over my torso as I lay on the ground with him is one of James' favorite activities these days.) It is such a delight to see his personality develop as he's getting older; James is a comical combination of seriousness and sociability, very chatty and observant of other people, will eat ANYTHING he is offered, and has some very serious likes and dislikes. He's definitely a character!

Above: James in his bouncy chair
Below: Having fun with Aunty Jessica, who came out to Portland for a visit after New Year's. What a little man!!!


Above: Ah, camera strings...endlessly fascinating!
Below: Baby Nikes!!!! (Thanks, Susan!)





Above: No cat dish is safe around the Jimmy boy
Below: Or cat, for that matter...


Above: We got ourselves a little button pusher
Below: Trying carrots (the tears are because the bowl happens to be out of reach)




Above: These boots were made for...ahem...vaulting?
Below: And eating!!!

Belated Christmas photos

Well, everybody probably knows this already, but we had a lovely Christmas week sharing a beach cottage in Lincoln City. Above is a picture of James playing with his new Elmo plane, and below are mine and Matt's gingerbread creations. Matt also made some pretty impressive gingerbread F-14's and tanks, not shown...what a man's man! :o)

James got LOTS of time hanging out with the aunts and Grandma(s)...


Hope your Christmas was merry and bright!

Fall Pic's

I knew I wanted to get some pictures of James' first fall, so the other day we went for a walk at Washington Park and I took the camera along. Here's Jimmy all packed up and ready to go!








Oh, and P.S. This was the kind of shot that I was going for:



...but here's the kind of shot when Daddies get tired of Mommies who get shutter-happy:



Happy Fall, everyone!

Visit to Grandma's

It's been kinda quiet here on the blog-front, but for good reason. James and I just got back last weekend from a long, relaxing trip back east to Grandma and Grandpa's. The plane rides out and back went well, thanks I'm sure to a LOT of very fervent prayer on that topic; and we had a great time visiting with lots and lots of relatives. :) We discovered just how much James loves puppies and kitties (and cows), and I was SURE that either James would have a) finally figured out how to crawl, or b) gotten his first teeth by the time we headed back. But, surprisingly, here we are back a full week in Portland and a) he IS managing to move himself a bit...just backwards; and b) now we're REALLY feeling the pain with BOTH bottom and top gums swollen, but still NO TEETH. It's so sad, there's only just so much Orajel in the world!!!
Anywho, here are some of our favorite portraits from the trip:


James with Great-Grandma Mariette


James with Grandpa


Having fun with Grandma and the other Baby


James with his Great-Godmother

Gotta love the digital camera

Since I am taking the opportunity to download everything from the last month off the camera, I'll post a few here. I sure do love being a parent in the age of digital pictures; it's so much fun to sit down with James now and then and just start capturing the funny expressions he makes. I never knew how expressive babies were! A lot of mine do unfortunately turn out blurry or with a slightly dopey expression like this...

...but then you get the whole gamut of emotions from "happy"...

...to "feeling sorry for myself"...


...to "MOM, PUT AWAY THE STUPID CAMERA, ALREADY!!!"


One last shot--I love this one because it just says "mama's baby" to me. Have a great weekend, everybody!

WHOO-HOO!!!

Mark today on your calendars, everybody, and declare a national holiday! Little Jimmy slept through the night for SEVEN STRAIGHT HOURS!!! And then this afternoon he followed up the amazing feat with an almost 2.5 hour nap! I know, technically he slept a 7-hour night once or twice when he was 3 weeks old, and his normal night used to include 4 and sometimes 5-hour stretches (the latter which many people count as "through the night.") Unfortunately, we went through a long spurt recently where he was waking up more like every 3 hours. A couple of times only 2. (ugh) But I believed in you, little guy, I KNEW you had it in you, and you didn't let me down! Sleep, what a beautiful thing!

In other James-related news, we are experiencing LOTS of drooling, so teeth must be somewhere in the distant horizon. He's also taken to exploring the ultra-high range of his vocal abilities, so that last night Matt and I started calling him our little R2D2. If he keeps it up with the super high squeaks and whistles, he'll soon have some impressive communication skills, albeit only audible only to dogs and cats. I, naturally, think it's the cutest thing ever, and keep trying to make little videos of his baby-talk. I'm sure if it was anyone else's kid, I'd think they were a little crazy to devote so much video to squeaking and gurgling, but I just can't help myself.



For Labor Day, we all took a bit of a whirlwind trip out to Bend for an overnight vacation. The trip out there is absolutely gorgeous--and I wound up getting to drive by the Sisters City Hall, whose roof trusses I got to design back when I worked at Trus Joist. That's the second old project of mine I've run across in the last few weeks--the first being a pair of retail buildings at the edge of Dundee called The West End. So, below are a few pics--first of the Three Sisters mountains, then of me and baby James outside The West End.