Feeling Better!

As you can see, James is back to his usual, happy self!


Hooray! I'm happy to have that bout of sickness (the worst yet! :( ) behind us. Hopefully we'll get at least a small break before something else comes our way. Cross your fingers!

In other news, I can't seem to find my camera cord! After searching the apartment, I decided to try the SD drive on my computer (it's sometimes a bit unreliable), and thankfully, it worked. I copied all the pictures I need for upcoming blog posts so that I have some time to find my cord. It's gotta be around here somewhere!

I have lots to blog about, so stay tuned. I'm even thinking multiple posts per day! Oh yes.

Ups and Downs

I can't remember the last time I went this long without posting on our blog when I wasn't out of town or anything. We've had quite the week.

James has been sick for about a week now. Poor guy continues to have bug after bug these days. This time, his cold (a yucky cough and runny nose) turned into his very first ear infection. This led to his first experience with antibiotics, Amoxicillin. Yes, the pink stuff. ;) Unfortunately, James' little tummy (which was already a little bit distressed with all the mucus and such) didn't take to it very well. So, on top of the ear infection and coughing, James has had to deal with throwing up and being dehydrated. Poor guy!

On the bright side, it seems that James is getting better slowly but surely. He hasn't thrown up since yesterday morning, and he's starting to eat and drink more willingly. His cheerful attitude is mostly back, and in a week we'll be able to put the whole ordeal behind us (that's when he will finish the antibiotics). I hope!

James very kindly shared his cold with me and Paul as well. ;) Luckily, it hasn't been nearly as bad for us as it has been for him. We are both feeling quite a bit better today.

During this whole ordeal, one of the things that has really struck me is what a wonderful spirit James has. All through this unpleasantness, he has had an amazingly good attitude. Both times I took him to the doctor he acted so happy that the doctor had a hard time believing he was really sick. Even when he was at his worst, he kept trying to smile through it. At 13 months, he is an example to us of what it means to be a true optimist. I love him so much.

Here's a perfect example of James' happy (and kinda crazy ;) ) personality. It's a video Paula took of him when we were in Utah. He couldn't get enough of all the attention his aunts and uncles (and grandma!) gave him throughout the week. Yeah, just give it a watch...it'll bring a smile to your face, guaranteed.

What a weirdo! Well, he's his mother's son, what can I say? ;)

Also, as you can see, he says "hi" now. It's pretty cute. He says it when he crawls into a room, when Paul comes home from work, and when he holds things up to his ear like a phone.

First Steps

We're back from Utah! We had a wonderful time and got to see lots of family and friends (there was even a surprise visit from Paul's mom for Kristina's baby shower!). I don't have many pictures, so I'm going to try and collect some from various people that took them, and then I'll do a post about the trip.

In the meantime, James made some big progress with his walking while we were there! In the last week or so, James had been taking 2-4 steps at a time on a pretty regular basis, but only when we coaxed him to. While we were in Utah, we practiced walking quite a bit. Aunts and Uncles like to see this type of thing, you know? :) So, we kept standing him up and cheering him on, and he surprised us a few times by walking a little bit farther.

Here's a very short video clip Diana was able to catch from Saturday night:

Then, yesterday, James had a small milestone. He started taking steps spontaneously, without any coaxing from us. He still only goes for a few steps at a time, but we're relatively certain he's on his way to discovering that walking can be more effective than crawling. I'm sure he'll be running all around the apartment before I know it!

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!