Back to Happy

Well, I can't handle having a sad picture at the top of my blog very long. ;) Sure enough, just after I posted that entry about James being sick he started to get better! We had a fun afternoon, and by the evening James was his old self again. Today he ate a normal sized breakfast and seems to have pretty much kicked the bug.

Here are two happy videos I took yesterday to make up for the sad.

First, I filmed James' attempts to say "cracker". It's pretty funny, if you ask me. It's a bit long, though. My favorite part is when he mimics me saying "Yeah!"

Then, later in the afternoon, I could really tell James was feeling better because he started laughing up a storm! He was ticklish all over, and he was having a wonderful time. :) (Pardon the clutter in the background...James loves to make messes!)

This video is so similar to the ticklish neck video from a few months ago. He's even wearing the same shirt. So funny. I guess no matter how much he grows and learns, some things won't change. :)

Sick Baby

We have a sick baby on our hands once again. I don't know what it is, but James seems to be having malady after malady lately. Must be the season!

Note: This picture actually isn't from his recent bout of sicknesses. We took this one when he had a cold with a fever before Christmas. Isn't it sad? :( Up until that point in his life, James had never really been sick. Now he seems to catch little bugs all the time.

Anyway, he had a little stomach thing the weekend before last, but it cleared up pretty quickly. A week or so before that he had a cold that left behind a nasty cough and an off and on runny nose. Then, he had a few days of fever and grumpiness due to his 12 month immunizations followed by a little rash on his face and tummy also caused by the immunizations (MMR specifically). By Friday he seemed happy and the rash and fever were gone. He still coughed quite a bit in the mornings, but we thought we were on the road to recovery.

Then, on Saturday afternoon out of nowhere, James threw up. And it wasn't just a little one like happened with last week's stomach bug. It was an honest to goodness, empty your stomach, event (sorry, TMI). It was the first time he had a real non-baby puking incident. He's a big boy now! I could have gone without this particular milestone, though. ;) Anyway, that's the only time he's thrown up so far, but he's not completely better either. His appetite is very small still and (more TMI) he's got a bit of diarrhea now.

Here's hoping he decides to get better before our trip next week!

"Baay bee!"

Take a look! (And no, this is not an announcement. I promise. ;) )

James has gotten quite good at mimicking words lately. One day I was holding him and said something like, "Oh, James, are you my sweet little baby?" And he replied, "Baaaay beee?" I just think it sounds so cute when he says it, so I make him say it all the time. It's my favorite of the words he mimics.

Also, he says, "wassaat!" in this video too, which translates to "what's that?" He says that all the time these days. :) He points around the room and says, "wassaaat!" I figure if I answer him enough, he'll start picking up the words for the things he points to.

Pardon the nasty face, arms, and tray...bananas make quite a mess!

James Turns One!

Well, I am still overwhelmed by the vast amount of photos and videos that we have from James' birthday, but I think I've got it figured out for the most part. (Yeesh! It only took me FOUR hours to do it!) In order to keep the post from being insanely long, I split the birthday stuff into two posts. One for the presents and one for the cake. They're both still long, but I hope at least manageable. SO! Without further ado...here we go!

James was so handsome in his new church outfit that he got for his birthday. We took some cute pictures of him before we got started on the present opening.


We even caught a couple of him standing up on his own!


Then, we sat him down in front of his pile of presents, and......he crawled away. He wasn't interested! He definitely thought his other toys were more interesting than a weird pile of colored blobs (I didn't wrap them very tight so that he would be able to open them more easily).


We eventually got him started though, and once he did, he really got into it! He wasn't very interested in the new clothes, but he really loved every toy and book. :) Mommy and Daddy did a good job picking out presents, if I do say so myself. ;)


Here's a video of James opening his squishy bat and baseball. If you listen closely you can hear him say what we have decided is his Official First Word: Ball. (It comes out more like "baaoooo", but it's really cute.)

Then, in this one, he says it a few more times. It's very quiet (he sorta growls it), so you should turn up your volume and listen hard!

In addition to the bat and ball, James got a couple new outfits, a stacking toy, three books, and some blocks. He LOVED the blocks:

We were only going to get him a couple small things, but Grandma and Grandpa Peterson sent James a very generous gift card which helped pay for James' new carseat (front facing! woo hoo!) and many of these presents. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!


There are even more pictures and videos on our photo album: James Turns One!

Oh yes, there was cake.

As is customary, we gave James a cake for his birthday to demolish however he pleased. Paul and I were quite excited for this part of the birthday celebration. (Paul was very cute about it. He insisted on chocolate cake because it "shows up better". :) ) And, oh boy, James did not disappoint us.

First he was very cautious and seemed a little bit scared to touch it.

He kept pointing at it and finally smashed his hand into the frosting.

Soon, though, he was all about the frosting. He just couldn't get enough!

And eventually he was eating cake by the fistfuls. At one point he even decided he didn't need to use his hands at all:



This video shows what he was like by the end. He was just having a grand old time! :) It was so much fun.

Here's the after shot:


That is one happy baby! Then, of course, we went straight to the tub!


It was a good time.

There are more pictures and videos on the picasa album: James Turns One. As you may notice, this is a new picasa album. We filled up our other one, and we're tightwads that don't want to pay for extra space. ;) I put a new link to it on the side menu of the blog.

I still can't believe James is already a year old!

Hooray for Professional Photos!

We finally got a real family picture taken!


The real reason for the photo shoot, though (as you may guess) was to take One-Year portraits of James!

Our little guy is such a trooper. He had four immunizations this morning, and he was still happy and well-behaved for the photo shoot. :)

First we did these baseball ones (I can't believe he actually left the hat on for one of them!):


(Recognize the hat, Jonathan and Kristina? Recognize the bat, Grant and Stacy? ;) )

Then we did some great close-ups:



And last, we got James all dressed up in his snazzy, new Sunday outfit that he got for his birthday (complete with tiny little Converse shoes :) ):



I know it sounds prideful, but I totally have the cutest son in the world! ;)

I have an overwhelmingly large number of pictures/videos/stories to post about James' birthday. Stay tuned in the upcoming days as I attempt to corral it all into a coherent post!