More Tummy Time

These completely crack me up.

"Whoa! Dude!"

It looks like he's saying, "Excuse me?"

This one shows the dino romper from Grandma Mary Beth to better advantage :)

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

James rolled back-to-front tonight! (If you remember, he rolled front-to-back about a month ago.) Sam was the one to see it, since I was putting Amelie down for bedtime. He thought he got it on camera, but it turned out not to cooperate! Surely we'll get a video of the baby rolling one way or another up soon. James has been getting up on his side for a few weeks, and last night he very nearly almost rolled over. Tonight he finally made it over all the way, and then proceeded to do it two more times, so I did get to see those.

Mom's Wardrobe

I have no idea what's so appealing about sitting in my wardrobe, but someone certainly seems to enjoy it.

Nana Jana

When Sam was gone last week, I had to call in reinforcements. Nana Jana came up and volunteered to hold the baby :) Grandma Mary had the unenviable position of watching them when Amelie was first getting sick.

Well Baby

I took James to his "well baby" visit today. He's actually little sick with the bug Amelie came down with, but Dr. Swofford said his chest sounded good and his temperature was normal.  I forgot my camera, but my flip phone does have a low-resolution camera, so the trip was properly documented.

Length: 25 inches (46th percentile)
Weight: 15 pounds, 1 ounce (48th percentile)
Head Circumference: 43 centimeters (65th percentile)
Shots: 3

I calculate the exact percentiles using this handy website. 

What's James Up To?

• Rolling front-to-back. I really, really, really thought he was about to roll back-to-front a few weeks ago, but he appears to have lost interest lately.
• Grabbing and gripping his toys (and my hair). 
• Smiling, laughing, cooing.
• Watching everything that Amelie does. 
• Kicking both legs hard on the changing table.

Videos

This is Amelie telling a very long story about a fox and a squirrel named Pawnee. I might try to caption it sometime -- but I'm not entirely sure what she's saying, either! I took it the night before Sam left for his conference. She's playing with our State Farm financial statement -- I promise it's only 4 pages long.



Here is a video Aunt Holly took way back at the end of November of James. I thought I'd already put it up on the blog, but I didn't see it when I went back to look. Sorry it's so shaky!

Catch-up Post: Shoveling Snow

Sickness update: Amelie has her appetite back! She ate a whole scrambled egg and some Chex cereal for breakfast, and then asked for "chock-lack" and a marshmallow. James is producing quite a runny nose, but has no fever (he did have a low-grade one on Friday and Saturday). We go to the doctor tomorrow for his "well baby" check and can get some advice then.   

These pictures are from last Saturday -- the snow has melted by now, but when we had some, we put Amelie to work. (I cleared the walk & she wanted to help. Conveniently, Grandma Mary had given us a portable kid-sized snow shovel for Christmas.)

Baby Fashion

While I'm catching up, I thought I should take all of the random photographs of James off the computer and put them on the blog.

Sports-themed sleeper. (This was a gift in a set, but I'm afraid I don't remember who it's from! If it was from you, please leave a comment or give me a call.)

Minky blanket on surprised baby with blue hat.

Color block jumper from Grandma Mary for Christmas.

Coordinating binky, sleeper, and boppy.

Thanks for the fishy zip sleeper, Aunt Barb!

Giraffe and lion jumper from Grandma Mary.

The bulldog shirt is from our friends Elizabeth & Jeremy P, and the footed pants (I think the feetie animals are technically supposed to be bears, but they actually match quite a few things we have) are from Karen S.

Surprised Baby, take 2. The shirt was a gift from our cousin Rylee & the pants are from Nana Jana.

Good grief, enough with the photos already!

Thanks so much to all of our friends and family for keeping Baby James so well-dressed!

Catch-up Post: Mall Play Place

Sickness update: Amelie is doing some better -- she's eaten some jello, some pudding, and some yogurt in addition to her all-juice-all-the-time diet. Her temp has gotten up to 101 twice, but it's come right back down with Tylenol. James is his normal self except for a small cough and a runny nose.

Anyway, I took these photos maybe two weeks ago. It's been too cold to go to the park & Amelie got kind of stir-crazy, so we all went to the play place at the mall to run around.

Amelie learned all of the kids' names who stopped in to play in the hour and a half or so that we were there. She even introduced one of the kids to one of the other little kids -- Aunt Barb must have been like that as a child :)

Sick Kids

Since starting classes at the beginning of the semester was not quite enough excitement while Sam was gone on a week-long conference for work, Amelie scared me to death with a frighteningly long episode of struggling to breathe around 10pm on Tuesday night. The three of us wound up in the ER and came home with a pile of medicine and the news that she had bronchitis/bronchiolitis. Since then there's been a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

Going on in the Buffaloe household. Plus lots of coughing and added today a nose running like a faucet. James appears to have the bug, too, but he's in much better spirits (so far). It probably helps that he's still nursing well, but all Amelie wants to eat or drink is juice. Anyway, we've been taking it easy with lots of naps, fluids, books, and PJ time. I hope they're better soon and I'll be glad to see the end of the cold weather/virus season.

Hanging Out on the Couch

They both look just absolutely thrilled that I'm taking pictures, don't they?

More Movie Commentary

This is what Amelie had to say about Happy Feet 2, which we rented a few nights ago. It's about singing/dancing penguins. Here's her commentary -- she was a little more subdued than she was the last time we watched a movie:

I want popcorn.
I want to watch it again.
The little baby penguin dropped in the tunnel.
The penguins! The penguin's being squashed.
I don't know what happened.
They're walking  home to their house and stuff.
He slided to get the birds away.
That mean that the birds have to fly away.
He's a bird-thing!
He's just a bird.
The bird-thing flies like a bird.*
I want my popcorn.
Those are bugs. They're bugs! They're bugs.**
One, two, three, four, five.
They're taking a ride.
Elephants are splashing their trunks like that in the snow!***
Everyone's stomp.
Something crash.
A penguin movie.

* In a major plot point, the flying penguin is revealed to be a puffin.
** They were, in fact, krill, but I think bugs-of-the-sea is fair enough.
*** Elephants = elephant seals.

I Am Not Quite Sure What to Make of This

It's possible that she's pretending to be a baby, but it's also possible she's just that jealous of her brother's toys.

Cousins

James seemed just a little more interested in Benny than Benny did in him.

Aunt Barb took this one with her phone. She captioned it, "Why won't you play with me, Ben?"

I can't get over THOSE CHEEKS! My goodness.

More Snow

Amelie played in the snow some yesterday. She's showing off her spiffy new coat from Caitlin, her warm hat from Grandma Mary, and her stylish boots from Grandma Pat.

What is this stuff, anyway?

Dad demonstrates proper snowball-packing technique.

Just throwing handfuls works, too.

Or we could toss some snowballs in the neighbors' direction.

Snowman Hat

So cute! Thanks, Aunt Tara!

James's Day

I periodically kept track of Amelie’s activities throughout the day when she was a baby. (Here’s the link to one I did when she was almost3 months old.)  I’ve started to do it with James on a few different days, but always got sidetracked. Yesterday, I managed to keep up with the record all day -- but it wasn’t a very typical day for James at all! He didn't sleep well during the day, and then we went to a New Year’s party and things got even more off schedule. Some of the details are a little more vague during the party, but the basics are all accounted for. This is a 24-hour period when James was 3.5 months old.

December 31^st

7:15am - fussing in bassinet

7:18am - nursing-dosing in bed

8:00am - new diaper

8:05am - waiting/playing patiently in bed

8:30am - dressed for the day

8:45am - joins Mama & Sister for breakfast by sitting in the bumbo at the big table (yesterday was the first day we tried the bumbo, and James liked it for about 10 minutes)

9:00am - floor time

9:05am - fussy

9:10am - calmed by Mama shaking a rattle

9:15am - walking tour of the house with Mama

9:25am - working out in the play gym, grabbing at things, grabs the rattle and can’t let go

9:30am - fussy, Mama removes the rattle

9:35am - still fussy

9:40am - nurses, acting tired, gets oiled up

9:45am - diaper, swaddled, protesting, put down for nap in swing

9:50am - pacifier re-inserted, betrayed face

9:55am - pacifier re-inserted, asleep-crying

10am - asleep for morning nap despite Sister running around like a madwoman

11:05am - Sister barges in, opens eyes, miraculously goes back to sleep

11:15am - just kidding! Awake, end-of-the-world crying

11:16am - new diaper, chilling out on the changing table

11:20am - nurses

11:35am - fussy

11:40am - reads a book in bed with big Sister

11:50am - fussy

11:52am - walks around the house with Mama

Noon - quickly stepped out to see the snow, didn’t like it

12:01pm - another lap around the house

12:05pm - tummy time

12:06pm - done with that!

12:07pm - fussy

12:10pm - new diaper, oiled up again, hanging out on Mama’s lap

12:30pm - joins Mama & Sister for lunch, again in the bumbo

12:36pm - tired of the bumbo, finishes lunch on Mama’s lap

12:40pm - reads a book with Sister on the couch

12:45pm - drifts to sleep during the book (it must have been boring)

12:48pm - attempted to transfer the sleeping baby to the bassinet for nap

12:50pm - not having it, swaddled & put in swing, immediately falls asleep

1:30pm - What do you mean you put me down for a nap without feeding me????! Nurses a long time, sleepy, put back in the swing

1:45pm - crying

1:46pm - largest poop in the world, part 1   

1:41pm - part 2

1:54pm - oiled up, new diaper, new outfit

2:00pm - happy playing on bed with washcloth, Schroeder joins us

2:10pm - cuddles Mama

2:20pm - tummy time

2:21pm - practicing standing & making Very Loud Noises

2:31pm - hanging out on Mama’s lap, playing with blanket

2:45pm - nurses, drifts off 

2:55pm - another attempt to put the baby down in the crib

2:59pm - swaddled in swing -- takes a 2 hour nap!

4:39pm - awake, new diaper, end-of-the-world crying

4:49pm - swaddled, nurses

5:10pm - unswaddled, new outfit, hanging out on couch

5:30pm - poop! New diaper, hanging out on bed

5:45pm - nurses to top off before the party, dozing off 

6pm - braves the cold, snapped into carseat, fusses on the car ride over

6:10pm - arrive at party

6:15pm - actually make it inside with all baby accoutrement. Happy, hangs out with Dada, Papaw, Grandma

6:50pm - fussy, Mama wears the baby in the wrap

7:15pm - asleep in the wrap, tries to transfer to the bouncy seat, fails, awake, nurses, put down in bouncy seat to nap

8:30pm? - awake! New diaper, nurses, swaddled, bounced in chair

8:50pm? - bounced in the chair while awake & happy to join the rest of the party

9:30pm - falls asleep in the car on the way home

9:40pm - arrives home, disposable diaper for overnight

9:45pm - nurses

10:00pm - bounced in chair

10:20pm - Dada gives a 2 oz bottle, bounced some more

10:45pm - asleep

11:20pm - back awake! Wants to ring in the new year!

11:50pm - didn’t quite make it, back asleep

1:00am - Awake! Desperate times call for desperate measures. Nursed & put back to sleep in the swing. Sleeps for 6.5 hours

7:30am - awake, nurses in bed, happy

Grand totals:

Asleep -  13 hours, 8 min

Fussing - about 1 hour, 20 min

Diapers - 10

Wardrobe Changes - 3

Nurses - 11 times

Bottles - 1

Happy New Year!