What We've Been Up To: Christmas Edition Part 2

This is the mom suctioning the nose on the face of the boy who had the cold which preceded the RSV that visited the boy during Christmas break (thankfully it ended before Christmas day after a couple of days of breathing treatments).
If you ever need to suction a baby's nose, this is a very helpful position. My friend Missy showed it to me. It keeps their head from moving back and forth and their hands from trying to tear the suction bulb from their nose. James is amazed at how immobilized he is.

James is always after remote controls and cell phones. So, if we come visit, beware.

This is a game we play. Dad or Mom puts a homemade helmet on James' head. James crawls around a bit and then pushes and pulls until the helmet is in pieces. James wins.

I found James sitting like this after a nap one day. He's a pretty cute little jailbird.

Are you here to free me?

I'm no longer sure I want to go. My crib has been so good to me...

Hey Jordan, what's that bulge in your cheek?

You didn't!!

Oh yes he did! He ate a piece of our Christmas Express! Our friends, the Nelson family, invited us over to make candy Christmas trains. It was fun and tastey! I think we may make candy trains a Christmas tradition at our house.

Here's the first mountainous view on our trip to Utah. I think it was in New Mexico.

I was really excited about any geographic feature above ground level when we left Lubbock, so here's a nice little rock formation.

I think this was our first view of Utah mountains.

It's amazing how breathtaking tall rocks can be when you haven't seen them in a long time.

Here is James with his great-grandpa James (Jim) Kelly. James was in awe of his great-grandfather's presence.

Two of a kind.

Still in awe.

James REALLY enjoyed chewing on carrots over Christmas break. It was a favorite activity.

I was trying to get a good "What's Up Doc?" picture (as in Bugs Bunny). I think this one's pretty good.

James spent some quality time in this play deal at my mom's house. It's my cousin McKenzie's. My Aunt Carol loaned a number of toys to my mom for James to use while we were in town. Thanks Carol, McKenzie, and Mom!

I think this is the best one. "What's Up Doc?"

This was supposed to be a serious picture...we just can't seem to do serious.

This picture doesn't do the ice spectacle justice. The icy frost on the window at my mom's house was really cool.

A beautiful view of mountainous Utah!

More Utah beauty.

I can't get enough of it! I love the mountains!

James has always loved strings: drawstrings on pants, my hair, pull-toy strings, drawstrings on sweatshirts, any string within his eyesight. Here he is enjoying the pull string on McKenzie's Alphabet Pal. The string was the best part of this toy...simple pleasures.

I can't remember how this even happened. But at 9 months, this was the worst battle wound he'd had besides the cut he received when he pulled the DVD player onto his toe. He's a tough little boy.

The first half of our Christmas break was spent at my mom's home in Sandy, Utah. Sadly, James was sick most of the time and sleeping a lot. But we did have some fun times. We went to the Living Planet Aquarium with my mom before going to Lindon to stay at Jordan's parents' home for the second half of our trip. James enjoyed looking at the fish, but I think he would have been just as happy doing this the whole time. He just LOVES playing with hair.

I think James is a little concerned about the large aquatic animals swimming toward our heads.

James and his uncle David spending quality time together.

Jordan's sister Tiffany and her husband Darren.

James is usually only cuddly when he's sick, but when he was reunited with his aunt Cindy, that all changed. He LOVED cuddling with his aunt Cindy and his grandpa Cullimore. James also, of course, enjoyed cuddling with his aunt Tiffany. (Now at 12 months old, he will cuddle with us even when he's not sick...yay for cuddling!!)

My brother Scott is credited with first teaching James to stick out his tongue. Here he is reminding James of old times they spent together.

James opened his first Christmas present on the lap of his uncle Darren. It was a book from his great-grandma Skeem.

so much to blog about and so little time

Now that's it's been forever since we've posted, it seems such a daunting task to blog again. I want to print our blog for a memory book, so I want to make sure to get everything in. So, it may take a couple weeks or months to get us to real time. I'll get to work.

Has anyone printed their blog posts? How did you do it? Did you go to a print shop and print it on nice paper in color? I'd like to have a fairly nice product. Any ideas? For example, is there a printer-friendly version of blogger?

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

James Jordan Cullimore Eats Solid Foods and Likes It!

Slurping Water Brings Untold Joy to Sweet Baby James
(as does making silly sounds into cups)

Carrots Prove to be Missing Link in Boy's Enjoyment of Solid Food
Finger Foods Help Establish Food Credibility

What We've Been Up To: Christmas Edition Part 1

Delicious gingerbread houses...yes, I can say delicious, because I ate mine. Yum!

James explored the living room while the Cullimore family opened presents.

I think this photo says it all. Ahhh...the excitement of Christmas.

James decided to use this chair to practice his gymnastics. He apparently didn't know how to dismount. He just tottered back and forth until we rescued him.

Sometimes I wonder whether we have a baby or a puppy...

I think this is the coolest family picture ever! We are so photogenic!

James received his first driving lessons as we left a Cullimore family dinner at Macaroni Grill or while we were waiting for our friends to come home so we could visit. (I can't remember which it was.) He felt most safe with his hands at 10 and 2 and his mouth at 12. He's a cautious driver.

We were grateful to visit with family and friends over the break. One such occasion was our stay at the Schmutz home. Over one meal, I smiled and laughed so hard my face hurt; tears may have also been present. We sure love them!

My dear friend Allison of the Schmutz Clan and myself. It was fun to have a sleep over like old times...except I was in a room with my husband and baby...but, other than that, like old times...

"Santa's little helper" turned 9 months on Christmas Eve.

Grandma attempted to feed James pureed apples and pears. This was his response to one such attempt. He held his tongue out for 5 or 10 minutes.

Jordan was sick the last third of our trip. He slept a little bit as you can see. He was sick on our anniversary, so we didn't snow shoe this year. We did, however, get P.F. Chang's. Thank you take-out!

This is what I saw for the nearly 20 hour drive back to Texas. I finished crocheting the edge on my first baby blanket (with crochet edges). I made up the stitch that I used as we were driving. I really like it. The only downer is that I did the first rows too tight, so it bunches as you can kind of see in the picture. But, I still think it's cute.

What We've Been Up To

Our Thanksgiving celebration was enjoyed with friends from Texas Tech Law and spouses. James was being quite a ham. He repeatedly tipped himself upside down in Jordan's arms to look at Greg and squawk at him pleasantly yet somewhat threateningly :).

Up to mischief in the electronics section.

James enjoys cruising along the couch. This was his 8 month picture with his bunny. He really likes the spongy letters and numbers I got for him recently. He can regularly be seen crawling with one in hand or sitting while gumming one (yes gumming...he still has no teeth).

We still like to go on cold morning walks. James finds it hard to move in this suit. It got quite cold here before we left for Christmas. Since we've been back, though, it's been in the 70's. Love it!

James loves to pull himself up using the TV stand. He especially likes discovering just what the shiny electronics can do. The VCR now has a burp cloth semi-permanently taped to it to keep him from sticking his hand into it (as he did on multiple occasions). He has also experimented with the radio; he's quite proficient in ejecting tapes from the tape player. He also managed to eject Mario Kart from the Wii and bang it against the TV stand a couple of times before I got to him. Needless to say the TV stand is his favorite part of the house to explore.

This picture was taken the first time he ever stood up in his crib. He now enjoys pulling himself up and walking around it while holding onto the sides.

Two months or so ago, James started perusing his old bouncer (now turned toy chest) for entertainment. I think it's just so very cute. It makes him look like a big boy.

Again...just cute.

This was the first time I ever saw him climb up on anything. He was doing a Superman on the wipes box threatening to tip over onto the tile from which the boxes are supposed to block him (he had a thing with sucking on the tile for a while). James will now climb onto anything that is low enough to allow him to. He climbed his first sets of stairs at Grandma and Grandpa Cullimore's over Christmas. He caught on quickly; however, he occasionally tried to sit down after climbing a couple stairs...treacherous, of course, when climbing stairs. Thankfully, we have no accidents to report.

Alright...this gets us to December. I will get to work on another post for December to present.

A Report From the “Keeping Tiffany Honest” Watchdog Organization

On May 2, 2008, Tiffany wrote these words on her blog after I (Jordan) graduated from BYU. I have not modified the words, and they can be found in context on Tiffany’s blog. I present this as exhibit A.

“I'm glad Jordan is no longer actually attending BYU, hopefully the subject of BYU will not come up much in the future, because when Dad was trying to get Stadium of Fire tickets, and it was looking like he would not get them, I made a personal promise that if, oh if, Dad could get tickets, Please, that I would not ever, ever make fun of BYU again. (I know this is shocking, and it's not even that I wanted to see Miley Cyrus at all, it's that one of my life goals is to be the Stadium of Fire Super Fan when I'm 95, and though the committee that chooses such things--okay, it doesn't exist yet--might overlook the ONE time I've missed--yes, ONE time since the beginning of Stadium of Fire existence--and that because Darren would not let me go with a one-month old baby--oh, I would've gone--the committee would not overlook a lame excuse like ‘It was hard to get tickets. EVERYONE wanted to see Miley Cyrus.’
‘Miley who?’ they will say.
So you see, I had to make that promise, and Dad DID get tickets. So let's all agree to not talk about BYU anymore. It is a matter of eternal importance.”

I now present to you exhibit B: a quote taken from the comments section of the November 1, 2008 post on our blog.

“Hey Jordan--did you know that here in Utah we are all afraid to wear our red shirts? No one wants to get hit with a Max Hall pass.”

Exhibit C is the November 25, 2008 post on Tiffany’s blog. I will not reproduce it here because it shocks the human soul and is repugnant to the eyes and ears. If you desire to subject yourself to such things, you may do so to your own detriment and at your own risk. All you need to know for our present purposes is that it “makes fun of BYU.”

With the evidence now before you, I invite you to ask yourself, “Has Tiffany broken that personal promise she made but months ago in a moment of gratitude for the Stadium of Fire?”

And last of all, to Tiffany I say: I’m watching…

Looks Can Be Deceiving

The above picture may lead you to believe that the joy of solid food is back. Oh how far from the truth that assumption would be. This picture was taken after one of our alternative method feeding sessions. James was given a bowl (one that Jordan and I use--a grownup bowl) with some pureed sweet potatoes in it. He was, of course, first stripped down to his diaper. Then we let him go to it while he sat on my lap. As you can see, he painted a pretty picture on his face, but that's about as close to his stomach as the sweet potatoes got.

This is a rather difficult time. All I can say to anyone approaching the introduction of solid foods is to take it slowly. It doesn't matter how much they eat. Getting a half a baby spoonful each day for months and enjoying eating is much better than what can result when you try to urge them to eat just a little more (i.e. refusing to try anything and vomiting whenever food makes it into the mouth). Follow your child's cues. When he/she turns his/her head, let that be the end of the feeding. If anything, give the baby less than they may want to keep the desire alive.

This of course is just my experience (however an excerpt I read in a pediatric book today confirmed my sad mistakes). I simply feel the need to warn that I may possibly prevent anyone else from making the mistakes I did. I also feel that there is no need to rush thickening the cereal...I think that was what pushed James over the edge. Humans have their whole life to eat...no need to rush things. Make it a happy, fun, pleasant experience. Don't worry that they need to eat more. Trying to persuade to eat more seems only to lead to eating less. If only I'd known how important and fragile those first two weeks were.

The good news is that James is happy and healthy in spite of his distrust of anything but mother's milk. I am just thankful he doesn't have any teeth yet, because I have a feeling I might be nursing him a little longer than I'd planned. Hopefully there will be a great turn around when he can pick up the food on his own and get it to his mouth. His doctor provided me with that hope. So, hope I will that it turns into a reality.

Happy eating!