Who's that Baby?

Morning awake time at 6 months...one in 2008, one in 2010...

I think the ears give it away :)

So for some reason blogger won't upload the last two photos with the correct orientation, which they are on my harddrive.  I can't figure it out.  Oh well, you get the idea.  Also, I couldn't decide which one to use, so you get three babies for the price of two! 

Happy Half-Birthday Baby!

I can't believe its been six months since we met Jamesie!  He is wonderful and lovely and all things sweetness and cuddly.  He is soft and smells like a baby and loves his mama.  He's a good sleeper, a great eater and his big brother loves kissing him.  He's a keeper!

What a handsome little fella

King for the day!

I've always wanted two little girls to put in matching sundresses....

But two too-cute boys in matching Baylor shirts is just as nice :). 

Especially when the big boy reminds you as you are getting him dressed in the morning, "Baby has Baylor shirt too. Neece gave it to you" ("you" in this context really means "me.") and actually wants to be dressed in matching outfits with his baby brother.

Sure, he wants Baby to dress like him, but actually touch him...now that's another story.

Now that's better! Two boys in matching outfits holding hands.  What more could a mama want?

Reading with Dad

Before and After

Remember these skinny little legs?

Amazing what 10 months and 16 or so pounds can do:

And just for fun, because we have our camera back, here are some more shots of that skinny little baby playing in his exersaucer: 

I still think of James as a newborn, even though we are nearing his 6-mo birthday.  So, when he does something like smiles....

...or purposefully reaches for and plays with a toy...

...or even stands up in his exersaucer... I am so amazed!  Each little milestone is a wee bit bittersweet-- it makes me sad my newborn baby is growing up, but it is so fun to watch him explore his world and discover things.  Just this week we started solid foods (which has done wonders getting him to sleep all the way through to 7 a.m.) and I thought it looked so funny to have a "newborn" in the highchair!  Much to my surpise he fit perfectly and stays sitting up throughout his meal.  Cute, but a little sad.

Heard Around the House

After a rather large (huge) lunch this afternoon producing a big-bellied toddler, Sean said to me, "soporific baby in Seannie's belly."  I have Beatrix Potter to thank for my son's growing vocabulary.  Soporific (we didn't know what it meant before the Tale of Benjamin Bunny either).

I also have Ms. Potter to thank for my son's future career ambitions.  We had friends over this weekend and one of them asked Sean what he wanted to be when he grew up.  Sean usually answers "Pope" to this question, but yesterday he said "Priest. Father Jeremy...Mr. Jeremy Fisher."  I can understand the progression (regression?) from Pope to priest (he's just being realistic) and Fr. Jeremi said mass that day, so we can understand him emulating the local parish priest, but Mr. Jeremy Fisher is a frog in a Beatrix Potter story. 

Here is the future Mr. Fr. Jeremy Fisher, contemplating his vocation

This move was accompanied by the statement "Jesus does that."  So sweet. Except that he stole Baby Xavier's baptismal candle and wouldn't give it back to him. (Jesus doesn't do that, Seannie).

Jesus, if you want me to be the Pope, I'll do it for you. Just say the word.

The Jane Austen Breastfeeding Club

I am not one for leisurely reading.  In fact, Cody and I always talk about what we would do with one free hour.  He would always sit and read.  I would either go for a run or take a nap.  While pregnant and postpartum sleep is always more important than reading, and even if I try to read, sleep wins out nearly every time.  This all changed a few weeks after I had James and my sister came to visit and brought a copy of Masterpiece Theater's Jane Eyre on DVD.  I watched it with her as I was nursing James and Sean was asleep.  I loved it.  We never read Jane Eyre in high school, and my first exposure to it was magical.  As soon as I could I bought the book and began reading it while breastfeeding James.

Jane Eyre became my first Nursing Novel as we now call them around here.  Once I finished with Jane and Rochester I watched the DVD one more time (this time with Cody, now having devoted a full month to watching or reading Jane Eyre as it is a long-ish movie, especially to watch twice) and picked up The Jane Austen Book Club only for lack of having another British Lit novel on hand.  This book however inspired me to read all of Jane Austen's six novels, and thanks to our friends at Blue Bicycle Books, I'm now working on that.  I read Sense and Sensibility when I was pregnant, and just finished Mansfield Park.  I just started Northanger Abbey and will move onto Persuasion after that.  That leaves Emma, and of course, Pride and Prejudice, although having read P&P and seen the movies (yes, mulitple) so many times, I'll likely leave that for the end. 

I love reading while breastfeeding James now!  In fact, I was a little dissapointed when he went to only 4 meals a day because that was less time for me to read.  I associate Jane Eyre and Fanny Price with quality time spent cuddling my little babe.  Cody would often catch me reading by the hallway light in James's dark room for his dreamfeed at night (the hallway light fell directly onto the rocking chair--I could read without waking up the baby with the light-- it was perfect!).  Even now, I have at least one or two nursing sessions a day while Sean is asleep and James and I delight in Catherine Morland's adventures in Bath.  I might have to become an extended-breastfeeder to continue this newfound pleasure of mine!