Mommy's helper

Whenever we come home James loves to help mommy by letting Chloe, our malte-pom, out of her kennel. The first time James let Chloe out I thought it was a fluke but then he did it several more times throughout the week. I wanted to video this and James surprised me by crawling over to let our boxer, Coco, out of her kennel too!

9 months old!

So James Peyton, what are you up to at 9 months old???

You are 29 inches long and weigh 21 lbs (we will have the official stats after your Feb. 9th appt.)

We just bought your first pack of size 4 diapers (what a big boy!)

You wear 12 month clothing but a few 6-9 month onesies still fit

You stand up all the time and walk around holding onto furniture

You drink water out of a sippy cup

Your favorite foods are carrots and Earth's Best apples & blueberries but you will eat anything we give you!

You love your snacks of puffs and yogurt melts

You go to bed at 9:30 and wake up at 7:30 (usually waking up once during the night

You take two naps during the day

You started Mother's Day Out today and will go once a week

You have two teeth

You crawl up on all fours

You love to clap

You LOVE to "dance" to music by bouncing your knees

You have started to wave bye-bye

You say "da da" and "na na" for "Daddy" and "Mommy"

You give Mommy and Daddy kisses on the cheek all the time (they are slobbery with your mouth open but that's ok, Mommy thinks they are the sweetest and best thing ever!)

We can't wait to see what is in store for us next month! We love you!

Love,
Mommy

Mother's Day Out

Today I took James to Mother's Day Out at First Baptist Church for the first time. He will be going every Thursday from 9:00-2:30. Let's just say James did much better than his mommy. I cried when I walked in the room to drop him off! I was a little nervous about dropping him off since I had never left him anywhere. The only people I have ever left James with is family or Mildred and that was at our house, leaving him somewhere is completely different! I walked in the room and the two ladies remembered us from visiting the week before. They were so sweet when I started crying, and yes I felt ridculous. Do you know how many moms I have comforted dropping their children off on the first day of Kindergarten? I knew James would be fine and I would see him in a few hours but he is my baby and this was a tough "first" for me. I gave the teachers all of the instructions and James was already playing on the floor with his new friend Jake. I was happy to see there are only 5 babies in the class and two teachers, and the class is now full. I kissed James on the cheek and told him mommy was going bye-bye. He just smiled and kept playing. I had a productive day of catching up on work at the office and running errands. I went to pick him up a little early at 2:00 because I missed him so much but he was sound asleep in one of the cribs! Guadalupe and Tanya said he had a great day! I had fun talking to Jake's mom, Susie, while waiting for James to wake up. Susie is a part-time Realtor out of my office, grew up in Fort Worth and went to All Saints, and graduated from TCU in 1999, one year after me. We couldn't believe we didn't know each other. Susie has her hands full right now with three boys under the age of 3! I can't imagine! I will try to take a picture of James and Jake together next week, they are the only boys in the class and Jake is only three weeks older than James.

Harrison Cambell Howarth

James and I went to visit my good friend Meredith and her new baby boy, Harrison, in the hospital. It was so amazing to see this precious newborn baby boy and then to look at James and see how much he has changed in 9 months! Congratulations David, Meredith, and big sister Morgan. Harrison is adorable!

Happy 9th Birthday Simon!-January 23rd

9th Birthday 2010
Simon's 9th birthday was January 23rd. We had the kids the weekend before and had a family birthday party for him on Saturday the 16th. Simon told Grandma-ma that next year not only will he be in double digits but he will be a "tween"! I thought that was so cute. I can't believe the teenage years are only 4 years away! Below are a few pictures of Simon through the years. I can't believe how young he looks in the first picture. What a cutie! We love you Simon!

T-ball tryouts Spring 2006 Summer 2007

Red River Summer 2008

Christmas 2009

Sick

Mommy, I don't feel well
But I will always smile for you!

Last week was not fun. I could tell James was not feeling well Tuesday afternoon and evening. He wanted me to hold him all afternoon, would rest his head on my shoulder, and cry if I put him down. Wednesday morning he woke up with 102.7 fever. It went down to 100 with Infant Tylenol and since he had no other symptoms the nurse at our pediatrician's office did not recommend bringing him in. By Wednesday night he had a runny nose and fever of 103.8 and that was with Infant Tylenol in his little system every 4 hours. Luckily our doctor's office has a 24 hour nurse's line and the RN I talked to was so nice and calmed me down. I was a little freaked out that James' fever was almost 104! She said if it reached over 104 we should take him to the ER but if we could keep it under 104 then we could take him to Dr. Smith first thing Thursday morning. We were up most of the night and went to Dr. Smith's office at 9:30 Thursday morning. James' fever was down to 99.5, he tested negative for the flu, and Dr. Smith ruled out an ear infection. Basically James had a virus with high fever and a stuffy, runny, nose. Dr. Smith said it had been going around and should last 3-4 days. We continued with the Infant Tylenol and James had fever until Friday night. We all did not sleep much since James' nose was so stuffy he kept snoring really loud and waking himself up! We used our humidifier with vapo steam and it helped a little. He is so much better now but slept a lot Sunday and Monday to make up for his lack of sleep last week!

*Yes I know his shirt is a mess in the pictures but I thought they were too cute not to post. My sweet boy had been drooling, crying, and had a runny nose!

Happy 89th Birthday Grandmom!

James and I went to Fort Worth to spend the afternoon with Grandmom on her birthday! James got to go to lunch at Pappadeux's with Mommy, Grandma-ma, & Great-Grandmom to celebrate. It is always special when all four of us get together! I forgot my camera (the picture above was taken with my phone) but Papa took a few "four generation" pictures at the house after lunch. I will add them to this post when he emails them to me!

One quick note, can you see in the picture above that Grandmom has very little gray hair? She has never colored it even though her friends have accused her of doing so many times! I hope it is hereditary!!!

Crawling & Clapping

James has started doing a few new things this week. He finally starting crawling up on all fours! He has been doing the "army crawl" using his forearms since October and is very fast but all of a sudden on Tuesday night he pushed up and crawled across the room. I think his upper body is much stronger now since he has been pulling up to standing. He also cruises by holding onto furniture and taking a few steps!

Crawling

Up on all fours

Wearing his new Longhorn tee from Grandma-ma & Papa

One of James' Baby Einstein dvd's has the song "If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands" and shows a baby clapping. I had the dvd playing while I was folding laundry and James was playing on the floor. The song came on and James started clapping! It was so cute. He has done it consistently and also claps if I say "yaaaaayyyyyyyy" and start clapping. I will try to video him soon!

January 7th-4th Anniversary

Bride and Groom
Vows
Ceremony
First dance

Sean and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on January 7th. We had a wonderful dinner at III Forks while Grandma-ma and Papa babysat! I am so lucky to have such a sweet, amazing, husband who is an incredible father and my best friend. I can't imagine anyone else by my side. It is hard to believe we have already been married 4 years and together for almost 7!

GO FROGS!

TCU plays Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. Both teams are undefeated. Guess who James is cheering for???

Happy New Year

My good friend Ashley needed a baby model for a photo shoot for an ad in the January issue of The Advocate magazine. She was so sweet and asked James to be the baby model. James usually smiles a lot but he does NOT like hats so once he had it on his head he was not too happy. I can't believe the photographer actually got a shot with the hat on. James took it off as fast as we could put it on him! We had so much fun and I love the ad. Thank you Ashley for asking James to model!

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the photo shoot.