6 Months

Dear James,
Look at you!!!! You are changing so fast! I'm barely blinking, and you are different every single day.
I know your pants are hiked up like old man pants in this picture above - sorry. I tried to get them down, but it's so hard to get you to be still for a picture now. You want to reach to the right and left and grab stuff or reach forward and grab the camera. I have SO MANY pictures of you this past month! You have been up to a lot....so let me just hurry up and get started with this update.

- You celebrated your first Thanksgiving! We went to Florida for the week, and you did great. We spent time with your great Grandma and Grandpa, Grammie and GatorPa, Aunt Krista and Uncle Matt, Nana and Grandaddy, Zach, Noah, Madison, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Tom, Aunt Olivia, and Uncle Bryan.
Here you are with Aunt Krista:

Here you are at Mia's (one of Mommy's favorite Crestview restaurants) with Grammie and GatorPa. You can see GatorPa has on his nametag - he was hanging out with us during his lunch.

Here you on Thanksgiving morning with your Turkey jammies on. Are you funny and cute or what? Daddy got up with you and let me sleep a little longer.

Here we are before heading to Nana and Grandaddy's to eat our first Thanksgiving meal.

Here's Daddy holding you - aren't you sweet??!!

I bought you some Santa jammies...although I think they are very cute, I think they are VERY HOT....so I hesitate to make you wear them because I'm afraid you could be burning up. I love your dimples!!!! You know, Nana was showing me some of Daddy's baby pictures, and you got those dimples from him, I think. He had sweet little dimples just like you do!

Here you are in a Gator jacket, ready to go outside on a windy day!

It's been cold here, so we've been testing out our winter clothes. The only ones you really can't wear yet are some PRECIOUS clothes Aunt Wendy bought you at Gymboree. They are still too big. This outfit below Mr. Ray and Mrs. Lisa bought for you at Cracker Barrel a long time ago - before you were born!

Grammie and GatorPa bought this outfit below for you. This was on a Sunday morning a couple weeks ago. You can see how hard it is for me to get you to be still so I can take your picture! You are everywhere!!

I thought you were so sweet in your little Christmas clothes that I gave you the Christmas spatula to play with. Now, you have to remember that Mommy is a new mommy...so sometimes I don't always do the smartest stuff. I realized after I gave it to you and watched you for a minute that you could SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT, so uh, I took it away. No harm done :) Probably not a good idea to play with spatulas at this point. Oh, and isn't your hair funny? You can see really well in this picture how that one part is just really growing...the other hair is catching up, but that one part is seriously growing.

These are overalls Grandaddy picked out for you a while back. We were getting ready to go to the mall this day, and you were so cute!

We went a couple weeks ago with our Sr. Adults to the Lake Lanier lights. We weren't that caught up on you having a "professional" picture with Santa this year, so we just took our own (for free) while you sat on his lap. You were great - not afraid at all!

Here you are with Caroline. You were very sweet wanting to touch her (although you probably just wanted to eat her), until you almost stuck her in the eye. Then we had to pull you away :) But, we know she's going to be your good, good friend, so we know you had good intentions.

Mommy made you make a craft the other day. It did not go well, but we got it done. You can see in the picture below that you were NOT happy about it. I was making you press your hand in some clay so that we could make an ornament. It did not occur to me how difficult it would be to get a 6 month to be still long enough to press your hand into a mold....it was rough with some crying (from you), but we got it made.

The finished product:

Ronald Blue always has a Kids' Christmas Party each year, so we got to go this year...with our kid!!! Jadie helped us make an ornament - it is super cute with your fingerprints on it! It's hanging on the tree now.

Let's see...this is already so long, but I have so much more to say! And, since this is my letter to you, I can make it as long as I want. Here's what else has been going on!

- You love to "stand" and "walk". If I lay you down on the floor on your back now, you immediately start to cry unless I begin entertaining you RIGHT THEN. You cannot quite sit up yet and you can't crawl yet, but you want to SEE and MOVE. You do NOT want to lie on your back and play with the toys on your infant gym. You are almost like a Riverdance dancer or a tap dancer because you are so funny on your feet. Since you are steady, it's almost like you are hopping around all the time, but you sure do love it. You like to be in on the action.

- You are talking more - especially in the mornings. You are squealing like crazy, and saying mamama (but have no idea that's me), and bababa (but have no idea that's your bottle).

- You are reaching your arms out to us more. I wasn't really sure if that's what you were doing, at first, but I'm more and more sure that is what's happening. If I get your out of your exersaucer or up from the crib, you usually hold your arms up for me to get you - could be because you want to eat my hands though....

- You are making the funniest faces with your mouth. You are putting your top lip over your bottom lip - making sort of a "duck" face - and just drooling all over the place. It's really, really funny. You are doing the motorboat sound a lot.

- You have had a cold on and off this past month. Then, a couple of days ago, your right eye started getting gunky and kind of pinkish. We weren't sure if it was a cold or pink eye. We took you to the dr. (because we always take you to the dr. since we have no clue what we're doing). They said you were fine - even though you've had this little cold (which we took you to the dr. for about a month ago), they said they couldn't see any infections and that your lungs sounded great. They gave us eye drops to put in both of your eyes just in case it is pink eye. It's been very challenging getting those eye drops in your eyes - good grief it is hard! I cannot get your eye open!!! The coughing from your little cold scares me. I think it sounds like a fake cough, but when I tried to ask the dr. about it, she acted like um, no, that could not happen. So...I'm hoping the eye drops will clear up your pink eye or whatever it is and that your cough will continue to get better and better.

- You are teething like crazy...BUT STILL NO TEETH!!!! You are chewing on EVERYTHING. I mean, anything. paper. my hands. my hair. anything you can get your mouth on, literally. I'm really hoping soon a tooth will come through just so maybe you can get some relief for a little while before the next one breaks through!

- You are sleeping great. You are going to bed around 9pm every night and waking up around 7am. Between 7 and 7:30am. I think because of your gums hurting, you wake up sometimes in the early morning - like starting around 4, and usually I have to go in 2 or 3 times and put your paci in and you go right back to sleep. Sometimes this doesn't happen, but probably half the time, it does. You are taking 3 naps a day. One from around 9:30am-11:00am, a short one from about 1:30-2:15 or so, and then a longer one from about 4:00pm - 6:00pm. You still wake up a lot crying during your naps. I still don't know why, but usually I can help you go back to sleep. Times that you don't wake up crying are a huge victory to me - I'm hoping those times will begin to be more than the wake up crying times. Oh, and you are sleeping on your stomach almost all the time now. I put you on your back, but you immediately roll over onto your stomach. You can get over great, but still have a difficult time getting onto your back from your stomach, so that is frustrating. You aren't too happy when you wake up on your stomach in the morning or from naps, yet when I lay you down, you immediately roll onto your stomach.

- You are eating pretty well. In fact, when we went to the dr. about your eyes a couple of days ago, you weight 15 lbs - you gained a whole lb. this past month! Thank goodness because Dr. Evans was worried about your weight a month ago when we came in about your cold. You are supposed to be eating at least 24 oz. a day, and I'm feeding you oatmeal banana cereal for breakfast and then a fruit or vegetable for lunch. So far you have liked everything you've eaten. You've made funny faces, but you seem to like all the foods. You ate sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving - I felt like that was the closest to Thanksgiving food I could get for you. Not sure what I'll give you on Christmas. If you don't get to 24 oz one day, then I don't feed you real food the next day. The nurse line (my best friends) at your dr. office told me the most important thing is that you get your milk each day, so take out the food if you are not getting enough milk.

- Oh, this is a biggie. So...we learned that the entire time you've been alive, we've been buckling you into your car seat WRONG. We were doing the straps around your legs wrong. Thank goodness we didn't have a car accident (not that I hope we have one now since we're buckling you in right). Olivia buckled you in at church, and I told her no, she was doing it wrong, so she called Tiffany over and Tiffany buckled you in just like Olivia. Well, sure enough, I was wrong. HELLOOOOO!??? Did we not read the book!? It shows clearly in the book, in red, where the straps go. AND, we've had you buckled in the middle of the Murano, and you're not allowed to be in that seat - you have to be on one of the sides.

- Joy took our pictures for our Christmas card and just as a milestone for you at around 6 months. They are FANTASTIC. I mean, when she sent the preview, I just cried looking at them thinking how blessed my life is. It's a lot of work and trust me, I'm glad when you go to bed a lot of nights!....but boy I love you and Daddy!

- The crawling status is this: you are putting your legs up under your bottom to stick your bottom in the air and try to move, but you have no idea that your arms have to move too. It's like the top half of you is dead weight and you don't want to move it. I keep trying to push your feet to help you, and you move then, but still haven't figure out your arms. The sitting up status is this: You are almost sitting up on your own, but you don't understand that if you reach for something, you have to balance yourself with your other arm. So...I've tried to let you fall a few times (cushioned by me, of course) to help you see that you have to balance yourself. I think you'll get it in the next couple of weeks - it's definitely close.

- You have been so funny about the wrapping and tissue paper for Christmas. Just like you liked the leaves on the trees, you like the tissue paper rattle. I tried to give it to you, but you just want to eat it...I let you eat it for a second, but then I had to take it away from you since it like immediately starts melting in your mouth.

- One of your favorite things to do is sit in the bathroom sink (with no water, obviously) and look at yourself in the mirror. You love this, and so it's our go to when you are a maniac sometimes in the evenings. You also like to touch the Christmas tree, and the lights on it, and the ornaments.

- You are sitting in your toddler bathtub with no sling now!

- A funny thing - you love tags. I mean, on all of your toys, your favorite part is the tag. In your bouncy seat, you love the tag. In your exersaucer, you find the tags. You like to feel them between your fingers. This totally cracks me up because I truly thing some of your favorite toys are the ones with tags.

We are so excited about our first Christmas with you. Don't worry, I'm sure Santa will find our house! Daddy and I loved letting you look at the lights at Lake Lanier a couple of weeks ago. You were able to sit on our laps to look at them as we drove, and you actually paid attention! I know you won't care about presents, except maybe about chewing on them, but that's okay...I know those years will come. I love you, I love you, I love you, sweet Punky!! Please stop growing so fast - this mommy's heart can't take it!!!!

Your Mommy

P.S. I have to add to this - you had your actual 6 month appointment today - 01/07/2011. We had to go late for your checkup because of the Christmas/New Year's holidays. Here are your official stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 9 oz (22%)
Height: 28.25" (90%)
Head Circum: 16.75 (12%)

So...the dr. thought you looked GREAT! You are VERY, VERY tall! Yay! Daddy says if you are over 6 feet he will quit his job and teach you mad basketball skills and we'll just live off you, James :) You are still very skinny - but your percentile is going up, at least, so Dr. Evans says she is okay with it. You'll soon be 7 months!!

5 Months

Dear Jamesy,
I am LATE writing you for your 5 month birthday! And, this may not get written if you keep waking up from your nap crying! It's been very busy, so even though I've thought of all kinds of things to write about you, I just haven't had a chance. Here's what's been going on with you!
- You are definitely teething. I keep hoping I can feel a tooth. I can't. I keep thinking that ridge in the bottom middle of your gum is a tooth. It's not. You are drooling A LOT, chewing on EVERYTHING...like hair, anything you can find on the floor, clothes, fingers, thumbs, TOES...and the list could go on. You have been running a low grade temperature on and off this past month of around 99 degrees, but still no tooth yet! I am ready! I can't wait to see that sweet little tooth pop up! Plus, I'd like to see some fussiness subside. It is not encouraging to me that for the first two years of your life you get teeth! I'm hoping the process will hurry up a little...but if it doesn't (and I'm sure it won't), that's okay :)
- For the first time since you've been born, I got a bad, bad cold and ear infection this past month. My ear drum ruptured!! It really showed me that a momma has no time to get sick. You don't care if I am sick! You just want to play! One night I had taken a lot of Sudafed and could not sleep. It was like you'd taken Sudafed too (though clearly you had not) because you just weren't sleeping well. You spit out your paci and it fell off the crib down by the wall where I couldn't get to it in the middle of the night. Finally, I fed you about 2:45am, but then you kept rolling over on your stomach and crying because you couldn't get your arm out (you know your hate relationship with tummy time). Finally I sent Daddy in to help you. The first words I hear on the monitor after all that frustration from me was, "Good job, James!" Even in the midst of my cold and Sudafed and you not sleeping, it totally cracked me up. We know it's a big deal that you are rolling over, and we are proud of your milestones even if it's in the middle of the night!
- You have started to eat FOOD!!! In the mornings we try to eat oatmeal with bananas, and then a fruit or vegetable for lunch (your favorites are squash and sweet potatoes...and you really like carrots too!). We found out from the dr. that you should be eating at least 24 oz of milk every day, and that has been a real struggle for you. You just are not a big eater. I've had to back off several times on the real food to make sure we get in the milk we are supposed to. I have called the nurse line so many times at the pediatrician that they know me WELL. But, I will say that although you're not a big eater, you are getting the hang of eating really well. You know how to open your mouth and are barely pushing out any food when I feed you. I've learned better how to hold your hands down so we don't make such a huge mess, too (Grammie did such a neat job feeding you that I was inspired to try).
- Your friend Caroline was born this month! Eric and Kelli had Caroline and she is beautiful! We can't wait for you guys to form a life long friendship (no pressure though, of course).
- We got rid of the swing this past month! I mean, we boxed that thing up to send back to Jason and Jeanette! Dr. Evans thought it was getting dangerous for you to nap in there since you are sitting up so well now. So...although it's been a struggle, you are now napping in your crib, and for the most part, it's going great. You still wake up crying at least once in each nap, but I just put the paci back in and usually you go back to sleep.
- You learned to pull your socks off and eat your toes! We were in Wal-Mart a while back, and I looked down at you and your sock was in your mouth! What in the world? Just in time for winter! The next several days you worked your foot closer and closer to your mouth...and finally got it in there! You suck on your toes sometimes, but mostly you just like to suck on anything you can get in your mouth. I can barely get your diaper changed now because you so want to pull your feet up to your mouth. Sometimes I just pull your sock off for you while I'm changing your diaper so I can just get a second with your feet down!
- You are squealing a ton! Talking well...you started this really funny thing of putting your upper lip over your bottom lip and making an "mmmmm" sound.
- You are playing so well in your exersaucer and your jumper! You love those things! You are learning to jump up and down, and learning how to turn around in them so you can play with all the toys.

You didn't go to the dr. this month for a checkup, but you will next month for 6 months! I know you are getting taller and are pretty tall since you are now wearing 9 month pajamas so that the footies are big enough and the legs are long enough!

Boy, being a mom is something that is hard because I question everything - I so want to do the very best for you, and sometimes I feel like I'm definitely NOT the best because I have no idea what I'm doing. I am reminded, though, that God gave you to us for a reason. You are not a random baby that He just dumped into our lives. You are with us for a purpose. A purpose for us and a purpose for you. You, James, are supposed to be with us, Landon and Bethany Frymire. Whether we do things perfectly or not (clearly not), there's grace for it because God intends for you to be with us. Before time began, you were supposed to be our baby. We were supposed to be your parents. I am so thankful for these blessing and unworthy of His grace in my life. Before I go, I want to remind you (and me) of this.

The entire Psalm 139 is great, but here is my favorite part:

v 13 - 16
For You formed my inward parts; You covered my in my mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret,
and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
the days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

Don't ever forget that God has a purpose for you - right here it says "in Your book they were written"...God has a very special plan for you, and that plan included the privilege of Daddy and me being your parents. The Message says you are MARVELOUSLY MADE - WHAT A CREATION! and that "the days of my life were all prepared before I'd lived even one day."

I love you, Precious One. I'm sorry your update is late...real life is tough!!