12 Months

Wow!  I cannot believe James Darren is a year old.  It has been a wonderful year and we are so blessed to have such a precious little boy in our lives.  We look forward to many more years to come. 

James Darren at 12 months

Height 32 in

Weight 27lbs

-          He is still not walking but he is really close.  He loves to walk holding one of his push toys.  He also cruises around the room moving from one thing to the next. 

-          He is drinking primarily whole milk now.  He still has a little bit of formula at school but once this container is gone he will be on all milk.

-          He still has 1 bottle in the morning.  Mainly because I love to cuddle with him first thing but we are going to try and transition away from the bottle over the next month. 

-          We are also going to try and get rid of the Passy in the next few months.  I am not looking forward to that.  He doesn’t take it too much but he does take a Passy at night and at naptime. 

-          James Darren has started talking and singing a lot more.  Most of it is still unrecognizable but he can say “Momma” “Daddy” and “ball” very clearly

-          He still takes 2 naps a day and I don’t see him giving one up any time soon.

-          He can be a picky eater some days.  It all depends if it is an eating day or a not eating day.  Some days James Darren will eat anything you give him pizza, cheeseburger, French fries (I know very healthy), fruit, yogurt, coffee, macaroni & cheese, turkey, crackers, anything.  Then some days all he will eat is yogurt and eggs (those are our go to items).  Even if he ate the very same item the day before he may not touch it the next day.

-          He still LOVES bath time. 

-          He loves to play peek-a –boo and will initiate a game himself. 

-          Loves to be outside.  Most of the time if you sit him down outside he will just sit in one place and watch what everyone else is doing.  He also loves to look at the moon at night.  He will spot it and point to it all on his own. 

It has been a truly amazing first year!  We love this little boy more than he could ever know. 

Enjoying Birthday Cinnamon roll 

Don't miss the new post below!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday! We started the holiday last Sunday, James Darren’s birthday, and continued all week.  Sunday night we went to the Fantasy in Lights at Callaway.  This is my favorite holiday activity of all time.  We got to enjoy the whole 5 miles with Pops, Agogo, and Auntie Sarah.  I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but we still enjoyed preparing for the end of the week.  Tuesday night we did our big shopping trip and got all the items needed to cook our wonderful Thanksgiving meal.  Except for the Turkey.  This year Darren found out that one of our favorite local restaurants (Creole Shack) was frying turkeys.  We were super excited and ordered one right away.  Well truthfully it did not get ordered until Tuesday evening because being the local restaurant it is their hours are somewhat random.  Wednesday night I made Pumpkin soup for Darren.  He has been asking me to make pumpkin soup for umm, about 2 ½ years, ever since we got back from our honeymoon, where we first had it.  The soup was pretty good especially with the Gouda and French bread grilled cheese sandwiches.  Thursday morning we got up and went to Agogo and Pop’s house to watch the Macy’s Day Parade and begin our cooking.  We had our fabulous Thanksgiving feast Thursday afternoon.  Then we were all pretty much useless so we crashed on the couch.  Thursday night around 9:30 Sarah, Darren and I left to start our Black Friday shopping.  Darren planned out the whole adventure and had a plan for each of the 5 stores we visited.  We had a great time and even scored some great deals like Sarah’s computer and Mom’s coffee pot.  We shopped all night, literally!  We did not come home until 7am Friday.  We did stop for a quick snack at McDonalds around 3am.   Thanks to Agogo and Pops for keeping James Darren that night and some the next day so we could get some rest.  After a quick nap Friday we went back to the store to make some exchanges and catch a few more deals.  All in all it was a great day and a good time was had by all.  Saturday was very quiet and relaxing until that thing called a football game came on.  I never thought I would stop watching an Iron Bowl to clean and go to Wal-Mart but…  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and I am so thankful for all my blessings.  I am so glad we got to share even more with James Darren this year. 

Don’t ruin Thanksgiving! ;)

Our attempts at a family photo

 

Looking at the lights with Pops

1st Birthday!

For James Darren's First Birthday we had a tailgate at our house.  We were so blessed to be able to share this wonderful day with so many friends and family.  It was a gorgeous fall day. After the party all of the family, 3 great grandparents, 4 grandparents, 2 aunts and uncles, and 1 great aunt plus the 3 of us all headed to the stadium for some football.  It was a great game to go to.  We got to see the Alabama A&M  band and Auburn won!  War Eagle.

As you can see, I am now opening the gifts and
 James Darren is playing with his new toys.  

He was wore out by game time.  But he was such a good baby and had a great day!  

I can't believe I have a little boy now and not a baby!!!

12 Month post coming soon.

Opps!  11 Months first then Syrup Soppin!  

Wow!  I cannot believe our baby is 11 months old!  This year has gone by so fast and we are enjoying every moment, really!  James Darren is such a happy baby and very social.  He loves to interact with adults and children.  He loves to watch bigger kids when they are playing and running around.  Our eleventh month has had some ups and downs but here are some things we would like to remember.

-          Wearing 18-month clothes (except some pants he is still wearing 12-months, he is just so long!)

-          Now wears a size 4 diaper (you have to make them tight but the 3’s were leaving some red marks, uh oh!)

-          Not walking yet – I think he could if he wanted to but he doesn’t see any reason.  He can get anywhere and on anything, so why do you need to walk?

-          He loves books especially his Baby Einstein books.  He likes for you to read to him then when he is finished he throws them as hard as he can.  We are really into throwing these days. 

-          He can say a few words now but most of what we here is Uh oh! (It’s about 3 syllables).  He says it for everything!  He loves to throw his toys, food, Passy, anything and then say “Uh oh”!

-          He also makes a “barking” noise whenever he hears a dog barking it kind of sounds like “ffff” “ffff”

-          He loves his bath! He has learned to splash and thinks that is very fun!  Yesterday when I was giving him a bath, usually Darren gives baths, I let him run his hands through the water as it came out of the faucet and he thought it was the funniest thing ever!!!

-          We also had our first AND second antibiotic this month.  He has had a double ear infection and croup this month!  Not fun however I loved the extra snuggles!  We are now on Augmentin so hopefully this will clear it up.  It has not been nice to us so far.   I will spare you the details but its why I was giving him a bath yesterday…

Here are 2 new blog post that I have been trying to get up for days now!  So I started one last week and the other on Saturday but it took me until Tuesday night to actually get them on the blog.  Oh well...

 

Saturday was Syrup Soppin, one of my favorite fall traditions.  We had a a great time and James Darren really enjoyed getting to see all the people and animals.  He also got to try some fun new foods.  He had apple cider and lemonade made with sugar cane.  He really wanted some of Daddy's Cajun boiled peanuts but we didn't let him try those yet.  I know we are so mean.  Here are a few pics from Syrup Soppin.

 

 

Don't miss James Darren's 11 month post below!!!

North Carolina

James Darren made his first trip to North Carolina this weekend.  Unfortunately it was bad circumstances since his Nana was in the hospital.  However we did get to enjoy some of our favorite North Carolina things… I even had 2 Carolina Burgers (burger w/ chili and slaw). Don’t judge, it’s amazing. J

James Darren got to pet and feed lots of animals which he loved and we got to enjoy some beautiful fall weather.  Thankfully Nana was released from the hospital before we had to head back to Alabama.  Glad she is doing better! 

We love you Nana!

Having fun on the car ride

Here are some recent pictures from my phone as well.  

Pajama Day

Hated having a sick baby but I sure enjoyed the cuddles

10 Months!

 I cannot believe that our baby is 10 months old!  I know everyone says it and I will be saying it the rest of my life but… it feels like just yesterday that we were heading to the hospital to have this beautiful little boy.  He is such a joy in our lives and we love him more and more each day. 

 At 10 months James Darren is

-          Crawling everywhere (he thinks it is really funny when you try to chase him)

-          Eats almost anything – loves yogurt, cheese, bananas, muffins, pears, pineapple, and peaches

-          He pulls up on anything and everything and loves to climb up the stairs

-          He wants to be down and crawling most of the time even outside on the concrete (so he has some rough knees)

-          Still naps twice a day sometimes 3 times – this has been an adjustment with preschool and him learning to nap at school.  A few days he has not napped well and then will sleep for about an hour after I pick him up.  However this has not affected his sleeping at night – Praise the Lord

-          He sleeps from about 8-6 or sometimes a little later J

-          We are trying to cut out the bottles but he still has at least 1 a day.  At preschool he only drinks from a sippy cup

-          Is having a slightly clingy stage but nothing bad – he will cry a little bit when I drop him off in the mornings but he has stopped by the time I get out the door.  If he is really tired in the evenings he will fuss a little when Darren or I leaves the room or the dinner table.  

-          He talks a lot and is beginning to make several new sounds

-          He has begun to shake his head and wave his arms when he doesn’t want something, especially if I am trying to feed him something he does not want. 

-          He loves to play peek-a-boo especially after his bath with his towel

-          He is very ticklish and absolutely cracks up when you tickle him

Don't miss Tigers and Football below!