The best gifts ever

James is so well loved by his grandmothers and aunts that they have all volunteered to take him overnight.
The first time was at Christmas when we stayed at Sharon's house (Tim's mom) and his sister, Tonya, took him in his little Peapod up to her room for the night- woke up with him in the wee hours and gave him bottles I had pumped earlier in the day. I got 6 straight hours of sleep that night and I got to sleep in the next morning! Then Sharon took a night as well with James and his Peapod- though James was too excited to sleep and didn't really go down until 4am. I, however, was completely oblivious to his being awake as Tim and I had the whitenoise going on in our room and I had earplugs in as well. Those two nights were some great Christmas gifts to a new mom and dad.
Then this weekend my mom (James' Nana) and sister (Aunt Krista!) came down from North Carolina to stay with James while Tim and I got away for a day and night. Originally we planned on going up to Charlotte, NC on Friday night where my family would meet us to take James back home with them to High Point (about an hour and a half away) and then on Saturday we'd go to a flyfishing show then meet up again with Nana to get back James. But then that huge snowstorm came blowing through and we decided that the last thing on earth that would help us to have a relaxing weekend was to drive through snow with all the southerners who get totally freaked out when a flake hits the tarmac. Added to that, as a new mom I didn't want James to potentially get stranded in the snow with only frozen breastmilk with my mom. So my mom and sister gamely piled into the car and came down to GA on Friday night...and did a test run with bottles for James that night (again, I had the whitenoise going in my room with earplugs) and I didn't hear him until 6am- though my mom and sister had been up pretty much on and off the entire night with James). So even though he didn't sleep well, and therefore neither did nana or aunt, he did readily take the bottles so he obviously wouldn't be starving if I left the house for a night.
Saturday Tim and I left James in their loving arms in time for us to grab lunch at some local favorite restaurants (we ended up hitting two of them)- jumped back home quickly for me to nurse James one last time and finish packing for the night- then we were off to go see Avatar and then head on down to Serenbe for dinner and a good night's sleep.
Serenbe is a bit like Stepford...a bit too perfect- but it is also an intriguing community based on sustainability and strong community relationships. Check out the website and you'll see.
I had booked a room in the restored 1905 farmhouse but when I called ahead to tell them we'd be checking in late I was told that the couple who'd booked the room on Friday night decided they wanted to stay an extra night and offered to buy us a bottle of wine and cheese plate if we'd be willing to take a different room. In the end we got to stay in a studio apartment above a quaint little grocery store in the two block long Serenbe community. It was perfect for us...no neighbors to worry about being too loud, it had a kitchen so I could refrigerate the milk I would need to pump and it was also walking distance to the restaurant we were going to for dinner.
We had dinner at The Hil which uses a lot of the local organic produce. It was great- especially the charcuturie appetizer which had pretzel bread, whole grain mustard, farm fresh hard boiled egg, pickled snap peas, and two fabulous sausages.
Back to the room and enjoyed the wine & cheese and the evening cookies left by the Inn folks and was in bed by 11:30 and slept without waking once until 5am. I did then awake rather uncomfortable and probably should have just gotten up and pumped but I tried in vain to go back to sleep for the next 3 hours...sort of tossing and turning trying to get comfortable.
We had breakfast at Serenbe Inn as it came with the room and then headed back home to see Nana, Aunt Krista and James.
At first James didn't want to look at me and even started to cry when he saw Tim while I was holding him, but I think that was due to the combination of being hungry and maybe he was feeling some kind of emotion at seeing us after a full day of us being gone and didn't know how to express it other than crying. Regardless, he did quickly warm up and start cooing and smiling and being his typical happy content little self (on that note: he's not really all that little anymore- I did an informal weighing with him this afternoon and he's already over 16lbs!).
Back to reality now, but what a good reality that is these days!

Afternoon snuggling

At the beach!

When I was little we used to go visit my grandparents in CA and go to the beach. My brother and two sisters each have a picture of my nana introducing us to the uber-cold Pacific ocean. James had his first visit to the beach this past weekend- down on St. George Island, FL. I had every intention of dipping his toes in the water and capturing it on film...but as you will see it would have been a form of child abuse- so instead he stayed cozily snuggled up next to me in a sling and wrapped with a blanket. Though even with all that he was still making adorable noises of protest as the wind whipped away his breath. So his first ocean dipping will have to take place with his nana (my mom) in the warmer waters off of Oahu this March.

2 months old

Yesterday James had his 2 month checkup and received his first shot- DTaP- which he reacted to very stoically by looking over me and scrunching up his face and gave a 1 second squawk- hopefully he will be fine with shots since I am and he won't get any "this is horrible" vibes from his momma.
He is BIG- 13 lbs. 14 ounces! 90-95%, 24.5 inches 90-95%, and 16 inch head circumference 50-75%.
In the past month he has learned to coo, smile & grin, suck on his fist, bat at objects, sleep 7 hours straight in his crib (yeah!!!!), focus on and track people and toys.
We spend of a lot of the day "chatting" with one another. Need to spend more time getting him on his tummy. And now that night sleep is getting more predictable (5/6 of the past nights he has slept 7 hours for the first stretch and has gone to bed between 8 and 9:30) we need to figure out how to get him to sleep at nap times in his crib. Currently he is sleeping whenever he gets sleepy for no more than 40 minutes...usually in my arms or in his swing. (Once this past week he slept for 5.5 hours in his swing during the day and I had to wake him up at 7:30pm for fear he wouldn't sleep that night and that was the 1/6 nights he didn't sleep the 7 hours.)
We also revisited swaddling- determining that even though he doesn't like being constrained having his arms restricted at night helps him not wake himself up (poor babies-they all must think someone is out to get them always hitting their faces and not realizing it is their own doing.) We got a Halo sleepsack with swaddle and have been using it all week- it is GREAT- keeps the arms down but allows for kicking.
Other 2 month milestones- head control is much better, skin is cleared up, pooping is coming less often (so bigger messes when it does happen but at least it isn't every diaper change), and the area of his head where his hair fell out (or perhaps was rubbed off like the velveteen rabbit by his loving momma who thinks his head is just the best thing in the world to rub her cheek on) is growing brand new uber-soft peach fuzz, and, lastly, all the weight gain has given James many dimples and rolls to admire.
It's hard to believe 2 months have already flown by- but it has been easier than I anticipated and much more rewarding.

Christmas

James' first Christmas tree-as you can see he's thrilled by it.

These are the ornaments that we received this year- the bell from my sister Krista because we had bells instead of birdseed or bubbles at our wedding as favors and the guests rang them as we left the reception, the blue nativity ball from my mom because I have always loved blue and white wedgewood, and the brass bass from me because I am sure James will inherit a love of fishing from his dad and when I was growing up my mom always gave us a brass ornament each year. The Snowman is also from my mom and dad- the red ball and angel from Tonya and made in Botswana. All these ornaments (except maybe the nativity one) will go with James when he grows up and moves to his own home.
Here are my brass ornaments from when I was little- they have my name engraved in them and when I left home I got to take them with me to start my own tree (the angle holding the bell is the one from my first Christmas and is inscribed with my nickname 'Peaches' (I didn't have anything other than peach fuzz on my head until I was 2 years old). The bells are from our wedding. The angel is one more we received this year and will also go with James.

8 weeks old- already!

Our baby James has uber long toes...they seemed even longer when his feet hadn't pudged out, but you can still see how long they are- check out that pinky toe!

My little pudge-meister

The beginning of his 7 hour straight sleep- snuggling with me while I was eating dinner on the couch.

James turned 8 weeks old yesterday and had a few pretty big accomplishments lately. He has started really smiling- even grinning- at Tim and I (and still at the ceiling fan), has had one bout of "laughing" when Tim tickled him, AND has slept 7.5 and 7 hours straight the last two nights! He even went to bed last night at 8pm which is the earliest ever...so early that I hadn't even put him in pajamas so he slept in his normal day/play clothes. This Thursday is his 2 month checkup with his first shots...wonder how much he'll weigh by then.