ahh, they don't know I got the remote!

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James learned to stand up in his crib last week.

Then he discovered he could turn around.

And reach for those animals that have been taunting him for the past 8 months.

Those little fingers with their strong grip made contact.

Wouldn't let go.

And he was pleased.

Happy.

Gleeful.

Thrilled!

Ecstatic!

First family camping trip- Part 1: Uncle Matt's

James got to eat at his great-grandmother's kitchen table which my brother now uses.

James sitting with Uncle Matt wearing one of Matt's jumpers that my mother saved for the past 36 years for just this sort of occasion.

When contemplating what to do for a vacation this summer we realized it was the first one where we were a family rather than a couple and taking James into account made a huge difference in the options available to us. We finally decided that camping could be a wonderful family vacation- one that both of us did with our families when we were little. After discussing the many places we could go we settled on Hurricane Campground in Jefferson National Forest just across the border of NC into VA. Since the campground is first come first served we decded to prevail upon my brother, Matt, in Blowing Rock, NC for the first two nights (July 3rd and 4th) thinking that the holiday weekend probably had the campground filled to the max.
While at Matt's we discovered that James can accidentally end up UNDER the blowup mattress pad of his PeaPod. This was quite a shock to us- me in particular. I had put him to bed awake like normal and he went to sleep without much fuss, but later in the evening Blowing Rock celebrated the 4th with early fireworks (on Saturday night) and the huge booms kept waking James. Tim and I were watching a movie and heard James wake up several times fussing and one time REALLY screeching/crying but they were all for such short bursts that I didn't go in. Once we finally went to bed in the dark as to not wake up James (we were all sleeping in Matt's spare room) I asked Tim to just peek into James' tent while I shined the flashlight to make sure he was okay. Tim looked....and looked...and then said 'what's this?' pointing to the mattress pad that was elevated. I looked in horror to see that James was UNDER the mattress. My stomach sank and I felt like I was going to puke. Thankfully Tim kept his cool- quickly unzipping the PeaPod and lifting the mattress to see James curled up under it. I was shining the flashlight at him and it washed out his skintone so I in my panicked mind thought he was looking pale from not breathing, Tim lifted him out and back on top of the mattress- and in that my mind everything was going in slow motion- but James didn't stir even with the flashlight beaming him and even being moved. Ack. But a second later James made some sort of sound and the tears started streaming for me. I got into bed and just said over and over through tears of relief- 'Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you....' to God for protecting my precious babe. Poor little guy must have been scared being trapped under the mattress and that was why he had screeched. Next time I won't assume it is the fireworks!

You can see all the temptations on the left side-not many stayed on the shelf once James was done exploring.

James enjoyed pulling all of Matt's meticulously arranged DVDs and video games off the lower shelves (and I think put tooth marks into one before I could get it away from him). And he could get to all these treasures more quickly than I would have guessed because he also decided to start actually crawling. The first night when I blew up our queen air mattress James looked at it and without a moments hesitation climbed up on it and CRAWLED on hands and knees in a sprint to the outlet on the far wall behind the pillows. That was the beginning of a very fast moving James.
We stayed Saturday and Sunday nights with Matt (both evenings having dinner at Matt's Outback and having some specialty dishes he created and which we thoroughly enjoyed and shared with James - crab, lobster, scallops, etc) and headed out Monday morning to Hurricane Campground- less than a two hour drive north.

Whatcha eatin?

Whatcha eatin', Daddy?

I remember as a kid seeing one of sisters or brother eating and asking "whatcha eatin?" always concerned that somehow they were having a treat that I wasn't aware of. James has now entered this stage. He will eye our food and fuss until you give him a taste.
Yesterday James was happily playing on the floor when Tim sat down on the couch to have some veggies and hummus. James was immediately over to the couch and up peering into the bowl while opening and closing his mouth repeatedly.
James hadn't had hummus yet- I wasn't sure what the garlic or potential gas production would do to his system. But he LOVED it.
Far as we can tell it do a thing to him so I think this will become a staple baby food around here.
Only I will use a spoon because those little teeth just did not want to let go of the carrot and celery!

Talking

James finally progressed from animal like grunting and growls into more darling babbling while we were camping in early July. Since then he hasn't done this particular sequence of sounds much but has again moved on to other 'words' that I will need to capture and post.

A whole different animal at the zoo

Today we went to the zoo with Alison, Jude, Christi and Elsa. It was HOT but James thoroughly enjoyed himself exploring his new skills. Last time we went to the zoo he basically just slept in his stroller. This time he got to use his new crawling skills to go through the tunnel at the Naked Mole Rat exhibit and we were lucky enough to have Christi capturing it on video (I didn't realize she was so quick to see the opportunity and that is why I look a bit surprised at the end since I didn't know it was being filmed). James also got to go on the kids train (held in my arms). It didn't seem to faze or interest him that we were on a train, but he did love leaning forward and gnawing on the back of the seat in front of us.
Lastly, James rode the panda bear on the carousel. At first he loved it smiling really big- and about half way though he decided he'd rather be in my arms (most likely due to the fact that his normal morning nap was skipped as we headed to the zoo when I would normally put him down so he only got a 15 minute snooze). At this point James is just as interested in the other people, plants, etc as he is in the actual animals. I, on the other hand, thought the new tiger exhibit was awesome.

Computer down...

Our computer goes into the shop today for repairs- so my 8 month post will have to wait to have the pictures added and not much else will be going up this week.
I know James will be in Skype withdrawal!

Beyond the jar

My mother's baby food mill from when we were little.

I have been uber lazy about making homemade baby food.

The benefit of this is that James has probably eaten a much wider variety of foods than I would have cooked myself. Whenever I do to a new store I see what the organic baby food options are and pick any he hasn't had previously. I usually get at least two jars/pouches/meals worth. Often he makes a face the first try but will consent to eat it. The second time around he totally fine. So far he hasn't refused/spit anything out. I am hoping by continuing to serve him a wide variety of foods he won't become a picky eater as I was. Tim apparently ate pretty much everything. So far James is following in Tim's footsteps but I know he will eventually hit those phases where every child become particular about colors, textures, tempatures and smells.

The downside to jarred baby food is the expense. With a baby boy who eats more like a toddler- somedays eating up to five 6oz jars his food is more expensive than mine. So I have been introducing more finger foods- which help a bit both with filling up his belly and with fine motor skill practice. However often those finger foods - cooked carrot, cheese, banana and Os- don't make a very complete or nutritious meal. So I introduced scrambled egg yolks- which he LOVES- and who wouldn't love a yolk whisked with heavy cream and scrambled in butter?
Then this past Thursday our girls' bookclub got together and I made Red Lentils with Coconut Milk. Before salted the dish I put some aside for James to try the next day.

Post-baby foodmill.

Success!

Give me more, Momma.

Highly nutritious are lentils. And highly diaper filling! All that fiber...
Some of the new tastes for James in this dish are: red lentils, coconut milk, ginger, tumeric, cardamon, cumin, coriander, red pepper, and cilantro.

This is what happens when you refuse to lie down

The other day James fell asleep in the car at noon and slept 30 minutes. Even though it was his second nap of the day (he slept 30 minutes earlier that morning) I decided there was no way he was going to make it to bedtime from 12:30 on only an hour total of napping. So at 3:30 I tried putting him down. Normally while I nurse him he gets sleepy and groggy- not this time. I put him in the crib wide awake but knowing that he needed to try to nap.
He played and fussed for a good 20 minutes before getting increasingly upset at being stuck in his crib. Finally the fussing stopped momentarily, then started again, then stopped, then started and on and on. I decided to peek in and see if he was finally going to sleep or if he had given up fussy and was playing. If the latter I decided it was almost getting too late for a nap and would get him up.
I looked peeked my head in and saw him...sitting up in the corner of the crib facing the doorway to our bedroom holding on the bumper...asleep. And as I watched I finally understood why I was hearing intermentent fussing. He was sitting up asleep but as his body truly relaxed he was starting to fall over and that was waking him up enough to straighten back up and he fussed being woken up. I watched this happen a few times while covering my mouth to suppress my laughter. Finally I decided it seemed like he wasn't going to fall fast asleep with this viscous cycle going on so I went in and tried to lay him down.
He was furious and immediately popped back up into a sitting position. I tried lying him down and patting his back a few more times but each time he popped back up. Finally I picked him up and rocked him until he was calm and laid him back down- obviously he needed the nap since he was tired enough to fall asleep sitting up. But as I left the room with him crying at me he was already sitting in that corner again. I left him hoping he'd fall asleep and finally he did. The above pictures are how I found him when I checked on him. When he woke up just 25 minutes later he had the imprint of the bumper seam going across his cheek and forehead.
Next time this happens I hope I can get it on camera!

Pulling Up!

I have been falling further and further behind on posting this past month. Camping for a week without internet certainly didn't help!
This video will have to do until I can get the rest up.
What is most amazing is that James went from commando crawling at over 7 months to what you see in the clip less than 2 weeks later.

Wow- 8 months!

This has been a momentus month for James. He has learned to sit up on his own, properly crawl on hands and knees, climb up onto objects that are less than 9 inches high, and to pull up on things to balance on his knees. He has also gained 4 top teeth pretty much all at once, the front left was the first to break through but the other three came in right after. Despite some major teething he has learned to sleep through the night, only once in the past few weeks being fussy long enough in the night to convince me to get up and nurse him. He has graduated to proper finger foods- banana chunks, cheese (both montery jack and colby jack), bread (from Outback Steakhouse while visiting his Uncle Matt), macaroni & cheese (thanks, Elsa, for sharing!), fettecini alfredo, salmon, scallops, crab, lobster, hamburger and sucking/gnawing on a large piece of steak gristle.
He has learned to turn the pages of board books- which makes reading with him even more enjoyable as I amazed at how fast he is catching on.

He also went on his first camping trip to Jefferson National Forest- including a hike in Grayson Highlands to see the wild ponies- though we didn't end up seeing any as they were too far away. He did great with camping- sleeping in his PeaPod. We will definitely be going again!

James now weighs 23lbs, is 30 inches long and his head is 18.5 inches around. He is nursing 4-5 times a day and sleeping two naps (on a very rare day he is still getting 3). Lately he has been sleeping longer naps, some days even doing a marathon two 1.5 hours naps! Since he is eating solids between 4-5 times a day I calculate we spend almost 3 hours every day eating/nursing! Add in the 5-6 poopy diapers (we recently began again with gDiapers with the cloth inserts as I was spending a fortune in disposable and filling and entire landfill all by myself) that then are produced from his volumious appetite (eating 5 6oz. jars of baby food (which includes lots of fiber rich fruits and veggies), finger foods and some unknown quantity of breastmilk) and I am amazed at how much of our day is spent with his digestive system.

Thankfully the rest of the day is mostly spent in play and exploring. He still loves his books: especially enjoying: Moo, Baa, LA LA LA; 10 little ladybugs; and Where's Spot?
His still likes the same songs but has added Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
And, of course, he is intent on tasting EVERYTHING. Anything that will fit goes in.

We need to babyproof the house!