Big Milestones for James!

James keeps doing new things and amazing us every day. Here are a few things that he's been up to lately:

First off, I mentioned it before, but James has been eating rice cereal! The doctor said it might help his sleeping...and it seems like it might have! He has slept pretty much the whole night for the past four nights! Here's a video from the first time we fed him the cereal:

Also, as I alluded to in my list of things for upcoming posts, he found his feet! It's adorable. He plays with them all the time. Sometimes he doesn't cry when he wakes up because he's amusing himself by playing with his feet.


And, last but not least, he scoots! He's a bit upset in the video I got because he had been doing it for a while, and he was getting tired of it. I'll try and get another video of his antics soon. :) Today he spent a good hour rolling/scooting all over (and off of) a big quilt I laid on the floor for him. For now, I hope you don't think I'm a bad mom for posting a video of him when he's upset.

He's so much fun lately! (Well, except when he's hungry and refuses to eat...but that's another story.)

Well, James and I are leaving for Colorado tomorrow, and I'm not quite caught up with the blog. I think my internet access might be quite limited while I'm there. And really, who wants to spend time on the internet when you can spend time with your family? :) So, don't expect any posts from me in the next week. I'm sure we'll have many adventures while we're there, and I'm very excited to see my family!

Bye for now!

Oh, and if we're very lucky, maybe Paul will blog about his trip to Chicago when I'm gone. :)

Tonkatsu

Paul cooked us a delicious Japanese dinner last night! We had gyoza (Japanese prepared potstickers) as an appetizer while we were waiting for the rice to finish cooking:


Then, for the main dish, we had tonkatsu which is breaded pork. It was VERY yummy. It is served with cabbage, rice, and a very specific sauce on top. It was great! Either my taste for Japanese food is changing, or Paul's just a great cook, because I absolutely loved it!

I feel spoiled when Paul cooks dinner. It's so exciting to try all these new things!

Becca!

I was going to do another long-ish post today, but I don't have time. The apartment is a mess, and the relief society president is coming to visit me tonight. Before I get to the cleaning, though, I just have to post this picture of my adorable niece, Becca. I'm so excited to see her (and the rest of my family!) this weekend!

She looks all grown up in this picture. I know it's only been a month since we moved away, but little kids change so fast! I love Becca's sweet spirit and good humor. I can't wait to give her a huge hug this weekend! :)

(I hope it's ok that I stole this picture from your brother in law's photo album, Paula. If it's not, let me know.)

Happy Father's Day and a Fun Weekend

We had a pretty great weekend. It was nice to be back together again after Paul was gone for most of the week. Paul even ditched his softball game on Friday night to stay home with me! :)

On Saturday, Paul and I made our weekly trip to Uwajimaya. As we were getting off the freeway we saw a homeless man with a sign that said "Dreaming of a Whopper with Cheese". We thought it was cool that he actually was asking for food and not money, so we considered going to Burger King to get him one. After we did our shopping, we saw that there was a Burger King right across the street, so we figured we just had to buy the homeless guys (the guy with the sign had a friend standing next to him) whoppers with cheese. We were so excited as we headed back to the intersection where the man had been standing...and he was packing up to leave! His friend was sitting down and eating something from a bag that looked suspiciously like it had come from Burger King. We were too late! Discouraged, we tried to figure out what to do. We didn't want the burgers to go to waste (whoppers are surprisingly expensive, come to find out). So, we drove down the ramp a little further and found a couple more homeless men about to pack up and leave. Paul caught the attention of one of them, and we were finally able to give away the whoppers. We were pretty amused. And James slept through the whole thing. :)

Saturday was also a big day for James. We gave him his first solid (well, barely solid) food! I'm going to post a couple pictures and a video of that later, but he seemed to like it quite a bit!

Sunday was Father's Day as you all know. We didn't do anything extravagant, but I hope Paul had a good day overall. I had asked him what he wanted for dinner, and he didn't really know. I gave him some options, and he decided I should try something new. So, I had my first cooking adventure! I made slow-cooked pork chops in the Crock Pot. I got the recipe from a blog I came across called The Newlywed's Cookbook. They were tasty! They weren't much to look at, so I didn't take a picture, but Paul definitely loved how flavorful they were. I'm going to keep trying Crock Pot recipes in the future. It was pretty simple, and they just sort of cooked themselves!

Well, this blog entry is getting long, but I wanted to post a couple pictures of Paul and James in honor of Father's Day (I know I'm late...oh well!):

James stares very intently at people in general, but he's always had a special look for his Daddy. It's a mixture of love and awe. He loves it when Paul gets home from work and picks him up.


James also loves playing with his Daddy. They had some really good play time on Sunday (I was making dinner, so I didn't get any pictures, sadly). Here are a couple pictures of them playing together:


I love my husband so much, and I am grateful for the father that he has become over these last few months. Thank you, Paul!

The Four Month Appointment

James' Four-Month appointment last week went well. The doctor thought he was adorable (of course ;) ), and that he was a very active and social baby. He was rolling all over the table and making cute talking sounds. As always, he was quite a hit with the nurses. :)

Here are the stats: James is now 14 lbs 4oz. I must admit, I thought he would weigh more at this appointment. Many babies have doubled their birth weight by this point, and James is still two pounds away from that. It's ok though, he looks healthy and he's still in the 50th percentile of weight. He's 26 in. long which is the 90th percentile (who knew he was tall!). The weird part (and the only thing that could cause any worry at this point) is that his head is rather big. It's in the 95th percentile now, whereas it used to be in the 40th. Jumps in head size are worrisome, but the doctor said she didn't feel anything unusual in his head. Just in case, I'm bringing him back in a month to be measured and checked. I've decided not to worry until then. That appointment is the second week in July, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

As for the shots, James is quite a trooper. He calmed down very quickly--even more quickly than last time, and I thought he calmed down quickly then! He had to get stuck four times, which was sad. I'm always in awe of what a strong boy James seems to be. He slept a while (while I drove to Puyallup, WA), and when he woke up, he was a happy camper! No fever, no grogginess, no fussiness! It was like any other day.

I'm glad that I was able to find a highly recommended pediatrician so close to home (it's less than a mile away).

And because every blog entry needs pictures, James and I had a little photo session this morning:


He gets really happy in his jumper lately. Paul and I decided it was a very good purchase. :) He'll play in it for quite some time now.


And now for his close-up, ha ha.


He sure is a cutie! He really does make me happy. I was playing with him this morning on my bed, and he was reacting to everything I did. He loves unconditionally. There's a reason Christ taught that we should be like children, and I can see it in James.

And before I go, I thought I'd leave a teaser of all the things I have to post about in the near future (things have gotten a little backed up). A lot has been happening, so that means more updates! Here's what's coming soon:

• My trip with James to Puyallup, Washington to see my aunt.
• Paul's first ever business trip to Chicago, including a visit to historic Wrigley's field.
• James' first solid food!
• Paul and I attempt to feed the homeless.
  
• James found his feet!
• My first new cooking endeavor - the crock pot.

Be excited. :)

The Cuteness Continues...

Just after I caught the smile from the last post, I actually captured something that is even harder for us to get on film. It's something that James only recently started to do. It will bring a smile to your face, guaranteed. See for yourself:

Sorry for the bad camera job. I was tickling James and holding the camera at the same time. :)

Cuteness Overload!

One of the things we very rarely capture on film is James' whole body smile. He opens his mouth wide and his whole body gets happy. It's adorable. Well, the picture is once again blurry, and it's a little dark (I didn't use the flash because the pictures with the flash washed him out), but I caught it today:


In honor of the sunny day today, I put James in a new summery outfit. It's 6-month size, so it's a tad big, but I think it's great. (Thanks for the outfit Grandma and Grandpa Hansen!)

Oh no!

So, today I decided to splurge and buy a loaf of bread from Great Harvest. While I was there, an old lady started fawning over James (as old ladies are wont to do). She thought he was adorable, especially when he smiled at her, so she called her granddaughter (presumably) over to see him too. She gestured for her to come over and said, "Look at the cute baby! Isn't she cute?!"

SHE! The old lady thought James was a GIRL! She kept going on and on about what a cute little girl he was! Paul is going to be horrified. ;) Yeah, I know this happens all the time, but it was the first time for me! I don't know why she thought he was a girl...he's wearing a blue and white outfit with helicopters and planes on it, and he had a blue blanket on top of him.

Old ladies crack me up!


This is what James does when I take out the camera lately. Ha ha ha.

Trees!

One of the biggest differences between Provo and here is the number of trees. It's one of the first things you notice about Oregon. Everywhere is green! It's beautiful. Here are some pictures of our new surroundings:

This is the pathway leading to our apartment. Our front door is up the stairs you see on your right.


This is the street we live on. I took this picture as I was walking home from Barnes and Noble the other day. It's a busy street, but the trees help muffle the noise.


This is the view from my bedroom window. We wake up to the sound of birds chirping...lots and lots of birds chirping...every day.


And this is the view from our living room window.


It really is beautiful and peaceful. I sat on our front porch with James and read a book for a little bit yesterday (James got a little bit cold after a while). It was so nice! I'm grateful to live in such a beautiful place.

Narcissistic James

My routine in the morning usually begins with feeding James and then putting him in his jumper while I eat breakfast and check my email, etc. James usually gets tired of being in his jumper before I'm ready to pick him back up (of course), so I'll hear him making fussy noises while I finish my breakfast. The other day, this very situation was happening, but then James suddenly went silent. Surprised, I looked up at him, and he was staring at himself in the mirror on his jumper:
You can't tell in this picture, but the thing James is staring at is a mirror. :) It was the first time since we got the jumper that he figured out it was there. He sure loves looking at himself! Ha ha ha.

James is now four months old, which means he needs to have a check up...which means I need to find him a pediatrician. My goal today is to have an appointment for him before the day is out. Right now I'm waiting for a call back from a friend who said she had a recommendation. I'm excited to see how he's grown (not so excited for the second round of shots). I'll post a full report of how he's doing after he has his appointment!

Oh, and incidentally, I typed this entire post one-handed because James is asleep in my lap. :)