Living with and loving our James

Why am I nude and wet?

Hello mom!

Today I am loving the musical star on my activity mat!

Content in a swaddle and swing

Giving mom lots of smiles!

Whew! Our third week with James was very busy...and very fun!

It started with giving James his first tub bath. He was so adorable! He just stared at us with a very confused look on his face. His second bath was also fairly well received. I think that once he gets used to it he's really going to like baths.

We had two days when James was a bit of a bear - this in comparison to the sweet angel he is most of the time. We couldn't seem to make him happy! Joe and I were getting pretty frustrated (not to mention sad), but we think we know what the deal was after reading something in our parenting book. Apparently, babies go through a growth spurt right around 3 weeks. As a result, they want to eat all of the time. He wasn't really giving me clear hunger cues so he'd cry and cry while Joe and I tried to figure out what he could want. We didn't think it could be food since he had just eaten! In the end I'd end up feeding him so I was basically feeding him non-stop (this was hard on mom). I sure wish I would've read the info about the growth spurts BEFORE the experience so I would've just fed him right away and avoided the whole thing. We learn!

After that the rest of the week was very smooth and we've been having so much fun. We've been playing with James and trying to stimulate him to help him grow. That means lots of time on his tummy, which he doesn't love. When he's on mom or dad's belly, he can lift his head right up and look us in the eye. It's so awesome! But when he's down on the ground he gets frustrated. We'll keep working on it. He is also enjoying "talking" to us and making expressions. He is getting pretty good at smiling when we smile (see photo above) and it's so cute! We also busted out his activity mat this week. We weren't sure if he'd be into it at this age but he really loves it! He is so intrigued by the music and lights.

We also had a lot of visitors last week! Auntie's Erin Hawkins and Erin Burke and Kristin Hubner came to visit, as well as Brian Korbutt. James had a good time hanging out with everyone.