One month old...

and a few days.

(I'm looking forward to being out of the phase "James is sleeping and Hailee's at preschool, do I ... A. shower ... B. take a nap ... C. clean the house ... D. blog" ... usually it ends up being B. take a nap with him)

I honestly can't believe James is one month old. I've decided the biggest problem with babies is they just grow up too quickly. Looking at James it seems like just yesterday that Hailee was that size and now she is almost five and going to be starting kindergarten. Ah...where does the time go. I love every single stage and age of kids. I love seeing them learn new things, but it is always sad for me to see them grow up as well. I guess I can't have it all.


Already it seems that James is doing so much more than those first few days. So far we have loved the time as a family. It is so cute to see how much Hailee loves her brother. They other day I heard James fussing from the other room only to find Hailee up on the bed by him, giving him his pacifier and singing him a song. By the time I got there he was calmed down and just watching her. My favorite song she sings him is the "Papa's going to buy you a Mocking Bird, only she substitutes "Hailee" instead of "Papa." She sings him all of her favorite songs. She has also discovered that she can "carry" James. I'm not too sure it's a good thing, but she is very careful with him, I just hope he survives it.


The other really funny thing is how excited he gets for when Todd gets home. I think he is going to be a daddy's boy. As soon as Todd comes in the room he stretches his neck to find him. One day Todd got home and was talking to him, after a minute or two Todd turned around to set up his work computer only to have James instantly start fussing. Once he turned around and started talking he stopped fussing and just sat and listened to him. It feels like after a day full of girls, he is just so excited to have another boy around the house. I'm sure there will be quality boy time in abundance as he continues to grow. Hailee and I will just have to go shopping :)

I love watching him grow and start to pay attention to more and more things. He follows with his eyes the toys that Hailee brings him. He loves being held by his dad and sister. He is a great eater. He is a pretty good sleeper (except when he thinks he might die if he doesn't eat every two hours, but fortunately that has only happened a couple of nights). And we are just so happy to have him in our home, he is the perfect little addition to our family.

Wacky Wednesday

Wednesday was "Wacky Wednesday" at Hailee's preschool. They had to wear something wacky. Hailee had been anticipating it for a while and trying to decided what she wanted to wear. She decided on a long sleeve pink shirt, a dress, pants, two different socks and two different shoes. For her hair, she wanted to have 5 pony tails. She had the biggest smile on her face all day long.

Baby James decided since his sister was having Wacky Wednesday he would have his own version of Wacky Wednesday. Tuesday night he went to bed at 10, then he woke up at midnight to eat, then 2, then 4, then 6, then 8. He's usually been going 3 or 4 hours at night. Then the rest of the day he ate every 2 hours, you could have set your watch to him. He must have had a growth spurt or something. The next night he redeemed himself and slept really good, which I appreciated so much. I will be so curious to see what he weighs at his two month appointment.

Grandpa and Grandma

Easter weekend we also had a visit from Todd's parents. Hailee had such a good time with them. Saturday they went to the zoo. I sent the camera with Hailee and I got back 2 pictures of a monkey and a picture of flowers. I love her camera skills. I just asked Hailee what her favorite part of the zoo with her grandparents was, she said "having snack time and the polar bear that was sleeping." I just never know what she is going to enjoy.

Sunday they drove down to the coast. Hailee informed me the best part of the coast was seeing all the pretty rain. I guess it rained on them the whole time. At least the drive is nice.

Hailee also spent some time reading with them.

And spending time with the baby.

Happy Easter

We had a nice Easter this year. James and I still aren't really out and about quite yet so we just had a nice quiet easter at home. The day before Easter, Hailee found some plastic eggs and filled them with all kinds of treasures like rocks, jewels, coins, and all sorts of other things. She hid them all around the house and then had Todd and I go look for them. I guess she was just getting ready for her own Easter hunt.

She had so much fun finding the candy filled eggs the Easter Bunny left for her. She was a little disappointed that there was just candy in them, she wanted to know why the Easter bunny didn't leave rocks or other little things in the eggs. The Easter Bunny should have known that this little girl doesn't get too excited for candy. She was impressed that the Easter Bunny knew her and her brothers names and spelled it out on the couch for her to find.





Hailee also loved dying Easter Eggs. That was the only request she had for this easter. She loves eating egg sandwiches after easter, but this year she is having a hard time cracking some of her more precious eggs. At lunch time she keeps asking if there are any other eggs that Todd or I did. We still have about 4 she still can't bear to part with.

Hailee and James

We've had a few comments on how similar Hailee and James look. Here is a comparison of them about the same age. I think they do have quite a few similarities. He however seems to be gaining weight faster than Hailee. He is getting quite chubby, at least for one of our babies. The cutest thing however is how much Hailee loves her baby brother. She is so sweet and always loves to help in any way she can.


What a cute little pair. They do look quite a bit alike, it will be fun to see if we still think so as James gets older.

Little Green Thumb

Saturday we went to check on Hailee's radishes and were excited to find they had begun to sprout. Hailee has been so good at remembering to water them and take good care of them. Grandpa told her that she needed to water them on preschool days and she has been so good at remembering. Monday she informed me that although it was a preschool day she didn't need to water since it was raining. It has been so fun to see how excited she is about her plants.

Tillamook and the Coast

While my parents were here they also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Cannon beach. I forgot to send my camera with them, so these were taken with my dad's camera phone.

Hailee LOVED the cheese factory. When I asked Hailee what her favorite part was she said "My favorite part was watching the cheese." They had a place where you could watch them packaging the cheese. In Utah we could only get Tillamook cheese, but here in Oregon we can get cheese, butter, sour cream, and ice cream that is so yummy. She also loved getting ice cream there. She informed me that she got her favorite kind....VANILLA. Ah, a child after my own heart.


The day they went to the coast was beautiful in Hillsboro, but unfortunately on the coast is was cloudy and wet. They stopped just for a minute to get a picture then came home. Hailee had such a good time.

2 Weeks

We had his 2 week appointment today and everything is looking great. He is now 8 lbs 13 oz and 22 inches long. So in 2 weeks of life he has gained a pound and a half and grew an inch and a half. He is in the 51 percentile for weight and 90th percentile for height. Looks like we have another Hailee on our hands, this is exactly how she started out.

It has been so fun having him in our family, but the people that told me boys are easier than girls were lying. He is a great baby, but keeping up with laundry has been crazy. He lulls me into a false sense of security then pees all over his bed and clothes. The other night he woke up and after I fed him I went to change his diaper which was really wet. Thinking in my head there is no way he has any more in his bladder I got busy changing him. I did make sure he was nice and covered, but that just means it goes down all over his blankets and sheets. He peed two times during the diaper change. I was trying to not get it everywhere and was successful at saving his crib sheet, but his clothes, clean diaper, and blanket were not so fortunate. I took him out of the crib and set him on my chair and quickly put a diaper on him. As I sat down on my chair to nurse him again I felt something wet on my chair and couldn't figure out how he had managed to pee on my chair, he was on there without a diaper for one second. While nursing I was conteplating how to go about clean up the mess without waking up Hailee and wondering how much I had to do because I was so tired. I was so happy when he finished eating and I found it was a baby wipe that was causing the wet spot and not a pee spot. Girls may be more emotional, but I have to do a lot more laundry with a little boy. Even with all the peeing and pooping we are all completely in love with him and wouldn't trade him for anything. We are so happy to have him in our family.

Grammy and Grandpa

When Hailee found out that my parents would be coming when the baby came she started making her list of things that she wanted to do with them when they were here. None of the things on her list were taking care of the baby. My parents got here on Friday and stayed through the next Saturday, it was so wonderful to have their help and Hailee loved spending time with them.

It was V week at preschool and one day they had to take vegetable seeds, so my dad and Hailee planted radishes and peas once she got done with the seeds at preschool. Hailee also had to plant a few flowers since, according to Hailee, "we like flowers at our house."

One day they went down to Woodburn to see the tulip and daffodil farms.




Hailee and Grandpa planning their next trip to the coast. "Where are we going tomorrow Grandpa."


Slumber Parties with Grandpa and Grammy. When Grammy would fall asleep Hailee would wake her up and say "Grammy, this is a slumber party, you can't go to sleep." She would stay up and watch Curious George with them then go off to her own bed for sleeping.

Even though Hailee thought my parents came just for her, they did get to spend a little bit of time with James.

My mom gave him his first sponge bath, which he wasn't to impressed with, and helped out so much around the house and at night.

Baby James

I realized very quickly in our marriage how much a boy can eat. I remember early on I made salad for dinner and Todd was still a little hungry after. Being from a family of all girls a boys appetite was very new to me. Todd has repeatedly told me that if we ever had a boy I would be in for a surprise. What I failed to understand was that it would start from day one....in fact 20 minutes after he was born.

James came out hungry and he hasn't stop eating since. I'm sure it was very frustrating to loose 2 oz in the hospital, especially because he was trying so hard to fill up. The only time he really gets mad is if you change his diaper when he wakes up instead of letting him eat first. If that happens he will glare at me while he's eating for the first 10 minutes or so. He really thinks he might starve to death if he is not given food quickly.

This is his weigh gain over the last couple of days. I'm excited to go to our 2 week appointment to see how much he's grown.

Birthday: 7 lbs 6 oz
Day 2: 7 lbs 4 oz (day we went home from the hospital)
Day 4: 7 lbs 6 oz*
Day 6: 7 lbs 11 oz
Day 8: 8 lbs 4 oz

* We had an appointment with the nures at the hospital to make sure things were going well since being released from the hospital. One thing they checked was how much he was eating duringa feeding. They only had time for me to nurse him for 15 minutes (he usually eats at least 30) and in that time he had 3 oz (they weigh him before and after eating). The nurse was shocked that he had had that much. Apparently that is a lot for a 4 day old, the funny thing was he wanted to eat as soon as we got home, 3 oz wasn't quite enough.

It will be interesting to see if he continues at this pace. I'm not sure what I'll do with a chubby baby.


Todd watches the baby when I'm putting Hailee to bed, this shot is usually what I find when I get back. It's nice for me to get some time with Hailee and for Todd and James to have some one on one time.

James has been the best baby. He usually has 3 and 4 hour stretches at night and he is just such a mellow kid.