How to Wake Up While Shopping

I've been dragging the poor boy all over the county the past few weeks with Christmas shopping, hitting every Walmart and Target in the area. And usually this would happen at about his afternoon nap. So I would cover his little car seat and let him sleep. But when I see those first little wiggles under the cover I lift it up to see this...

And isn't it just wonderful?

He's finally learning how to put his paci in the proper way. But for the past couple of months he would just hold it and shove it in his mouth any which way.

And a bonus picture of him eating.

I'm going to miss this. Seriously, he's growing up too fast. Every night before we put him to bed I whisper to him and tell him that he's not allowed to grow during the night. But he never listens and every time he wakes up he gets a little bit bigger and another day older.

First flurries

December 6th we had our first official flurries of the seasons. We have still yet to have an amazing snow fall though. The weather man said we already had like 5 inches by this time last year. I don't think we're getting our white Christmas this year. We got spoiled the last two years.

But flurries!

So I wrapped up my baby and went on our balcony to stare at the falling snow. He just stared and stared at it. Look, he's not even staring at the freeway in this one! It takes quite a bit for him to focus on anything but those magical head and tail lights zooming down the highway. They used to calm him down when he was a wee baby.

Not quite sure what to think of it.

He's so excited. And it looks like his eyes are officially blue. And that's pretty much all the genes he got from his father. Those cheeks, little nose and crooked mouth are all mine.

And look, you can almost see it on the roof of the garages! Real snow please, I want an excuse to sit and watch movies and drink copious amounts of hot chocolate with eggnog in it all day long.

Oh Mr. Toad, Oh Mr. Toad

A little taste of what Christmas is shaping up to be in our household.

Here is my tree, in all it's glorious whiteness. A white tree I tell you! For some people this would not seem like such a to-do, but for those of us who always grew up with a green tree, the same fake green tree in fact (until I hit college and it was decided a new tree was needed) their entire life, it was kind of big deal for me.

The first two years we were married we had live trees. And that was a whole new experience after growing up in our house. They were lovely trees and filled our apartment with pine goodness. The first year though, we left the tree up WAY too long. And dragging it through our sliding glass door and too the dumpster ended in a massive falling off of needles. And we tried to vacuum up, but which mostly just ended up clogging and breaking our vacuum. So after Christmas two year ago, we hit the after Christmas clearance and bought us a big ol' fake green tree. So last year we put up are tree and it was super awesome of course.

But this year. Oh this year. What a year.

This year needed a crazy wonderful tree for the crazy wonderful year we've had. College degrees earned, babies born, new jobs got, new aparments moved into and all the waiting finished.

We moved into this new apartment which is better in almost every way, except one. The living room is like half the size of our old apartment! Crazy annoying and inconvenient. Point is, our tree was way too large for this place. And since I still wanted a tree, but didn't want a duplicate, I went AWESOME. I've always kind of wanted one of those white trees. And I got one this year! Only next year, I'm going with a pink/green/red theme (too bad Jameson! I do what I want!). And isn't it amazing?

And each year I buy us all a new ornament to add to the tree. So in a few years we will have an amazingly tacky tree full of ornaments and memories and traditions and everything wonderful.

And here is the first present we put under our tree. Isn't it the best?

He always makes that face at the camera. Smiles off, concern and interest turned on.

And just because he's cute and I couldn't resist, here's a picture of my boy eating his first Banana. Amazing!

Owl City at the Pageant

I have this list. Mostly in my head. And it consists of things I think one should do to be a true St. Louisan. Last Monday night I got to cross off one of my list items:

See a concert and the Pageant.

The Pageant is this cool little concert venue down on the Delmar Loop (which is were all the cool hipsters like to hang). But it's just one of things you have to do I think. The Pageant ranked number 4, in the world, in 2010 for most tickets sold at a club venue (being beaten out by ones in NYC, DC and Belgium). So, cool little concert club, check.

Driving down the Loop

Owl City

And some more Owl City

We ate at the Qdoba down on the Loop. I'd been craving the mexican food (that happens a lot) and goodness was it tasty. Then we headed over to the Pageant to see Owl City. It was a good show and Jamo and I had "fun fun fun fun". And a big thank you to Holly and Emily for watching my baby boy (who I missed like crazy the entire time).

Halloween 2011

Our Halloween weekend (yup, it deserves a whole weekend... sometimes an entire week) started off with the ward party. There were games for kids, the trunk or treat and of course, chili, lots and lots of chili. Sometimes, I wish I liked chili more. But I ate enough so people wouldn't ask my why I wasn't eating. I find it fascinating that every ward seems to do a chili thing at the Halloween party. Only in my old ward, there was a competition involved, and also, baked potatoes. So we hung out and ate chili and showed off our adorable tootsie roll.

Lion and Tootsie Roll

Panda and Tootsie Roll

On Saturday night we had some friends over for our yearly Halloween party. There was tons of food this year, oh my gosh.

Carolyn and Trevor

My carmel apple. Awesome, I know.

Mandy

On actual Halloween, Julie, James and I took off on an adventure. First we went to Old Town St. Charles and looked at all the silly little shops. I found an ear warmer head band thingy I want at a store that sells astrology books and special healing crystals. Also, a pretty sweet pocket watch necklace. Christmas maybe?

Then we went to see the Virgin Mary that looks over the river between Missouri and Illinoise. I fed James, while Julie laid about.
The Illinois River, looking over at the Illinois side.

Julie.

My baby boy, being cute, as always. He was a trooper that day as we dragged him all over the county.

After the river, we met up with Jamo at Smash Burger. The food was pretty good. I had some sort of spicy burger that was quite to my liking (it had quac on it, enough said). And they have gooey butter cake shakes! Now, if you're not from St. Louis, you should go online and look up a recipe for GOOEY BUTTER CAKE, and make it immediately.

And now to finish we will have some pictures of my baby being a tootsie roll.

Avocado Bacon Grilled Cheese

Making grilled cheese for the kids for dinner? Want something a little more adult for yourself? Here you go. And can I say, delicious?

I made four sandwiches. I like to make mine right on the pan cause I'm messy and stuff.

So I butter my bread and get to work.

Use 2 whole avocados. Cut them up and put em on.

I cooked my bacon (we do ours in the microwave here, cause it's easier and a whole lot less clean up. Just put it on a paper towel on a plate and cover it with another paper towel and cook).

Add bacon.


Add cheese. I used mozzarella (wished I had used more).

Butter the rest of your bread and put on top. Turn on the stove at this point and start grillin' that grilled cheese.

And flip!

And eat! (See? needs more cheese.)

Ok, and this was one seriously delicious sandwich. But can you really go wrong with avocado, bacon and cheese? Nope.

Buffalo Chicken Rolls

The other night I brought something home before that has never entered our apartment. When Jamo saw it he said,"Coleslaw??!?".

Yup, I bought coleslaw for the first time ever. And do you want to know what I did with it? Well here you go, you lucky person you!

First I got some chicken. Two pieces was enough for the two of us. I have to remember to make my meals smaller when cooking for two. We lack portion control :). So I took my chicken breasts, put them in a frying pan, put it on the stove. I added some Frank's Hot Sauce, garlic powder, onion powder and some extra water as needed. Cook thoroughly.

Then shed the breasts. I do it with a couple of forks. Put it in a bowl, add some more Frank's Hot Sauce. Use as much or as little as you like. Just remember, the more you use, the hotter it will be. We like things hot around here. Then I added in blue cheese dressing to bring it together and make it most delicious. Again, add to you taste and creaminess preference.

Take a break to have a dance party with your baby! Giggles and smiles for all.

I just bought some refrigerated biscuits for this. You could always be an over achiever and make your own dough. Frozen roll dough would probably be good too. But I just used the small ones for these ones. I tried the bigger ones later, it worked too, just not so fun and bite sizey. Roll them flat, easy enough.

Top with cabbage/coleslaw mix (the kind next to the bagged salad, not the premade coleslaw in the deli section, just the greens), then top with the chicken mixture, then add cheese. I recommend the crumbled blue cheese, cause yum.

Wrap the dough around all of it. It kind get tricky, just make sure you don't fill it too full. And I like to have my biscuits thinner, better ratio after it's been cooked.

Put in oven. Follow temperature directions on biscuit can. If you make them thinner, take a couple minutes off the bake time. I think these were done at 400 degress for 8 minutes.

And then you're done. Eat them up! And I got to say, they were pretty tasty tasty. If you like the buffalo chicken wings, I would recommend this. And I got to say the coleslaw makings added the perfect crunch (all foods should have a crunch to them).

4 Month Dr. Visit & Formula

James had his 4 month doctor's appointment last week. Stupidly, we couldn't find the insurance card and will have to go back later to get his shots done (quit losing things Jamo!). But James did not enjoy his visit this time. Poor kid was crying almost the whole time, and he even lucked out on the shot thing. I think he was tired and the table was just too cold. But my little good is growing.

His height was at 26 inches, which is close to the 90th percentile.

His weight was 13 lbs 9 oz., which is in the 25th percentile.

And his head was about 16 inches, which is about the 50th percentile.

So we have one long and skinny baby with a normal sized head. The doctor said that his weight was ok, that it would go up and down. But I would have liked it to be more towards the average, especially since he is so long. So I've made the decision to start supplementing my breast feeding with some formula. I just feel like I can't keep up with his demands and growing self. And so once or twice a day I give him a bottle to make sure he's getting enough food. And I'm pretty sure he gets his taste buds from his father. The kid doesn't mind the formula. I was worried he'd hate it and not take it. But truth be told, it's harder for me than it is for him. But I can almost see his little thighs chunking up before mine eyes.

Between the forumla and the rice cereal, he's getting all sorts of different tastes. One day we'll add other things, but for now, I'm content with what we got going on. Although I will say, I miss that new baby smell he had before. He always smelt a little bit like sour milk or something from the breastmilk. I think the smell of him is what I miss the most. But I will say, it is nice to have a break from the endless breatfeeding sessions. I find I'm able to enjoy it more now that I have a choice and that's a beautiful thing. And now Jameson can help with the feeding and have some of that bonding time also. The kid gets to see me for hours and hours every day. But Jamo has to work and then we have to put him to bed a couple hours after he gets home. Hooray for the weekends!

James' Bathroom

Before James' was born I would head down to the Target off K. And browsing the bathroom aisle, I came across this wonderful shower curtain. And I fell in love with it. Silly, yes. Then I thought man, I need a second bathroom. And even more importantly, man, I need a baby! And now I have BOTH of those things! And now, the whale bathroom...

View of it from James' room. Isn't the orange a nice pop of color? Not in the shower curtain, but I love it with it.

Pictures I took of James and had mounted at my favorite website Artscow when they had a sale on stretched canvas. And my towels (for looking at only Jameson!).

The shower curtain that inspired it all. This is the view from the hallway. And if you were to come to our apartment, this would be the delightful room you get to use to do your business.

More up close view, yup.

B.A.T.H. Not much to explain here, just some frames and stuff I made.

And there you have it. And isn't it one amazingly fun bathroom?! I must say, that I love this little apartment. I love what it's becoming and all the memories that are filling it. It's actually starting to feel like home here.

James' Room

I've been meaning to post pictures of Jame's bedroom for quite a while now. I mean, he is 4 months old and stuff. And of the main reasons we moved to this apartment is so that he could have a room to call his own. And I think, all things considered, it turned out spectacularly. The walls are the color the apartment was painted when we moved in (no painting for us thank you very much). Good thing it was a decent color. And since we didn't paint I bought those wall decals to add a little something to the walls. And really, I heart circles, a lot. Anyway, here are lots of different view of my baby boy's room.

Here is what you see when you enter the room.

Here is his cube filled dresser shelf.

And of course, the crib. Don't you just love the crib set? I was in love.

And here are the elephant photos I made all hung up on the wall.

Here's the view from his bathroom.

His closet and little ottomans stuffed with blankets and toys.

And here is my rocking chair. It was ridiculous to find one in that color. Months of waiting.

And here's a picture of James' just sitting in his crib. One day he'll be able to do it all by himself.

And the little James' frames I made all up on the wall, yay!

And his changing table with all his supplies.

So that is his fantascilly cute room. And now that he's four months old, we're actually starting to use it, yay! Well, we've been using the changing pad for months, oh, and the dresser, but now the crib (more on that later).