The Peanut Gallerie

While I take delight in your morning shenanigans, it would be greatly appreciated if you kept it down. Your mommy is very tired and trying to sleep. Your cute little babbles and shaking of the crib loose their adorableness at 6am. It is no longer funny despite the smile on my face. You should know better. Furthermore, the added blanket over the head, while a nice touch, only reminds me that you think it's playtime. It is in fact, not playtime, but sleeping in time. You should be well aware of how many times I got up last night to put you back to sleep (once). You should also be aware that I need to wake up at 8:50am and roll out of bed to start work from home. It is a hard life. Many lessons will be learned. One of the more important lessons is, "Do not poke the sleeping bear". I am giving you a warning this time. I feel the need to hand this out only because it seems you are deciding to wake up earlier and earlier each morning. I am afraid that by Sunday, I'll be up at 5am... and since church doesn't start until 10am, it would indeed be disastrous for both of us. If however, you decide you would still like to wake up that early, please keep it down. Your bottle and formula are in your dresser. Papa will be up at that time. You may ask him to get you some warm water. If you need anything else, I will be available at 9am. Thank you.

Your Loving Mother, 

Janette

... than James is all sorts of greatness. Here is the house before I got all set up. As a quick fix, Austin ran the phone line from the living room all the way to the bedroom. Unfortuantely, we didn't factor in the "cord monster".

He was crying, but it was so hoarse, you couldn't tell it was him. He coughed and you can see the pain on his face.

I called the advice nurse, again. (I had spoken with them in the morning and they had informed me to call them back if he got worse.) They told me to take him into the ER. He was weezing, so it was precautionary. 

Austin had just gotten home from work, only to head on back into work (what a trooper). We sat and waited in the lobby. They called us up and brought us back to another waiting room and we sat and waited and waited and waited and waited there. Austin's mom came to hang out with us for a bit, so that was fun :) However, even after we got our own room, we sat and waited there too.

By the time the doctor came in, it was 8pm (and waaay past the peanut bedtime). By this time, James was crawling all over the place. Such a happy baby. The doctor informed us he has an upper respiratory infection.. and basically, there's nothing we can do about it except to let it pass. 

Bummer.

On the bright side, I did want to get out of the house yesterday... just didn't think I'd spend my time sitting in waiting rooms, lol.

Settling into our new place has been easier than any other move the Peanut and I have had. 

Last night, I gave him a bath. I promised to never do naked pictures, but I figured this one was decent enough to post. Plus... look at that face :)

He has always loved baths, but it hasn't been until recently that he started playing (and talking) with his rubber ducky and splashing water all over the place!

I would have let him play longer, but the water was getting cold and he was getting all wrinkly.

Peanut and I moved in with Austin. He now has his own room to frolic... and frolic he does. He's all over the place! He crawls everywhere. He sees something he wants and he bolts. We are in the process of baby proofing the whole house. Goodbye to open outlets, messy wires (he loves those) and easily open drawers. Hello to "frustrating locks that you don't remember have those stupid child proof things on them so you go to open it and it gets stuck, so you remember and then tell yourself not to forget so the next time it wouldn't get you so angry while you're trying to watch the baby and cook dinner at the same time", lol. Ahh, life.

The move actually went quicker than I thought. I didn't have to get a moving truck that I couldn't afford anyways. Austin and his dad helped me move all of my things. Plus, his mom watched James while I supervised Austin and his dad, lol. After getting all of my stuff in the house, my OCD kicked in and I was running around like a mad woman trying to fit my stuff in the bachelor pad. (Both Joey and Austin have been very accommodating.) I try not to put up things too girly and secretly 'handle' the things to manish. Although, I have to constantly keep my eye out for things that get accidentally tossed. 

Last night, I asked Austin where he put the bag of groceries I brought over. He informed me that it was out all day so he threw it in the garbage. Normally, I wouldn't fret over my stuff. Things break, get old, stuff happens... but this... lol... this was something else. You see, my bag of groceries was carrying my BC (that cost a pretty penny and was the last of it before my appointment next month). To make a long story short we ended up dumpster diving, lol. (It was in three separate bags, by the way. I wouldn't have gone in to get it otherwise.) 

Lol, good times. We're just not there yet. 

We know we want more kids together, so we've been discussing his relationship with James. We never want James to feel left out. If our kids call Austin "dad", will James feel like he didn't get that opportunity? Or will he feel like he only has one and awkward for calling him anything but "Austin". He's so young and obviously cannot make this decision on his own. If we start calling him Austin around James, he will too. So, I knew a decision had to be made. (He's a smart kid and his language is picking up. At least in my dream he was making full sentences.)

It was important for me to make that decision too. Realizing that Austin was going to be a part of my life, my partner, it was going to affect all of us.

We decided not to use "dad". We never want anyone to make James feel strange about having two. Austin did some research on alternative names (like in German) but didn't come up with anything cool. We decided on "Papa". 

It's simple and a title he more than deserves.

I read about this.

It said that James was going to begin to understand that when objects are no longer in there sight, they are still there.

Case and point, I hid the camera behind my back so James wouldn't reach for it. He climbed over me to search for it anyways. Smart booger.

This is one of the many games we play. Peek-a-boo. Ah, a classic. Only this time, I'm not the one hiding, it's him. He seemed to get a real good laugh from it.

Too much going on. Way too much.

I'm moving, Sarrah is moving, family members are having surgery, I'm applying to different jobs, among other things... Plus, I have a growing baby who is showing new signs of development every single day.

Way too much.

Yeah, I'm a little overwhelmed with it all... lol... but this is my life we're talking about, so I just deal.

Right now, James is crawling. He is uncontrollable and all over the place. He wants to be somewhere... he goes. He eats with his hands. Tried to grab the spoon and do it a few times. Loves to hold the little puffs and teething biscuits we give him. We tried spaghetti, but he just holds it up in the air. We also tried steamed carrots, but he just shoved them in his highchair. He talks. Says da-ba-ba-da and we encourage him. He enjoys other children. Fascinated by them. He likes to share. That may change, but it's nice for now. He claps his hands, smiles and laughs at funny things. My favorite? When we turn on music, he dances. When we play 'tickle butts', he squirms. When we look in his crib early morning, he looks up at us and smiles.

Oh, he is such a joy. 

We love him so much. It really makes all the other things in our life seem unimportant... stressful and needing to be handled, but none the less, small compared to James and his progress.