Things that make you go, "Hmmmm...."

The mind of an infant is pretty simple. Feed him, change him, love him...it's not complicated. Satisfy their basic needs, and they're content. The older Jim-Jim gets, the more complicated he has become, though. As he's grown, he's become more complex and is expressing a wider array of emotions. He's recognizing when we're not in the room, and he lets us in on his displeasure. He's also expressing excitement about things that are about to happen. I take Jim-Jim in the bathroom while Jim prepares the bath water, and the boy gets so excited I can barely contain him! He has recognized that running bath water means he gets to kick, kick, kick.

Jim-Jim is also developing better motor control, and this is leading to actions I just don't comprehend. We set Jim-Jim in his bouncy seat, and he constantly lifts his right leg in the air. Never his left, always his right! Is he working out his abs, needing to ask a question but didn't get the memo that you raise your HAND, requesting a pair of socks, or lifting his butt cheek so he can fart inconspicuously? Your guess is as good as mine! Maybe babies aren't that simple after all!

The sight of him...

Jim-Jim and I watched our first A&M game together on Saturday. I got a little overzealous and dressed my 3 month old son in a 12 month A&M outfit. I think Jim-Jim looks great in maroon, but his daddy has a differing opinion!

Jim: "It's just not right when the sight of my son makes me want to puke!"

There's a little history behind those words. He grew up in a world where LSU and A&M were rivals, so it goes against every fiber of his being to see his son with an A&M emblem on his chest. I think he looks great as an Aggie! You be the judge...
Jim-Jim didn't quite make it until the end of the game to see the Aggies win.

Nine

Our little motor boat loves nothing more than to kick, kick, kick! Bath time is one of our favorite times. It's something Jim-Jim and daddy do together that they both thoroughly enjoy. Jim-Jim is such a nut about playing in the water! He vacillates between being uber serious (as he is in the video) and cracking himself up while he's kicking. Watch out Michael Phelps!

Thank you Jim for your amazing editing skills! Jim-Jim thanks you as well for not displaying his man-parts for the world to see! You are absolutely brilliant, and I am extremely lucky to be married to a tech geek....I mean nerd...I mean geek:)

Kara

Oh, no he didn't!

Anthropomorphism is attributing human characteristics to an animal or inanimate objects. Jim-Jim isn't an animal nor is he inanimate, but he's not very adept at verbalizing his feelings and I sometimes find myself imagining what he's thinking. When I saw this scenario playing out, I heard Jim-Jim's voice (or what I imagine his voice would sound like:) saying, "Oh, no he didn't!"
And Lydia with the save...

Wishful Thinking

Despite our most sincere and heart-felt hoping/praying/wishing on a star, Jim-Jim woke up at his usual time on Saturday morning...6:00am. I have vague recollections of the days when I would sleep in until noon on Saturday mornings. It's impossible to lament my past when I'm able to hide behind the lens and capture the fun Jim and Jim-Jim have catching up from a week of being apart. It's so much fun watching them bond, knowing they're going to be such good buddies!

He looks like ________.

Question: What does Kara hear when the statement begins, "He looks like _____".
A. Jim
B. His daddy
C. Your husband

Answer: All of the above!

Fall weather has arrived, so I can finally take Jim-Jim out on a walk in his baby Bjorn without wondering when I get back who sweated more, him or me. We went for a walk this evening and ran into three people that we know in our apartment complex who all stopped me so they could see Jim-Jim. Fill in the blank with A, B, and C and those were the remarks I heard! I promise I did carry him for 9 months, and 50% of his DNA came from me! He's getting so big (see the picture below) and changing all the time, and I keep hoping something will show up that even slightly resembles me. So far I've come up with his fingernails and his eye color, which we all know can change until the baby is 9 months old so that's not even a shoe-in. I once had his ears, but those popped right on out there just like his daddy's. I may not have much physically, but at least I can say the boy has my personality!
It's really hard to tell from the picture how much he's grown because I have the water a little higher than usual. He's become such a water nut, and he loves to kick, kick, kick! (video coming soon) Jim-Jim loves baths because he loves the water, and I love baths because they wear him out before he goes to bed:) He's now 3 months old and 18 pounds, and we're having an amazing time getting to know him!

Kara

Plan, meet monkey wrench. Monkey wrench, meet plan.

I'm not quite sure I would be able to point out a monkey wrench in a wrench line-up, but I am very familiar with the concept! Jim is in Canada this week. It's probably our least favorite thing when he leaves, but we manage and we make up for the sleepless nights that come from sleeping apart by sleeping in extra long on the weekend (we're hoping/praying/wishing on a star that Jim-Jim's plans involve sleeping in, too!) The only kink we had to deal with during this trip is that I am finishing my masters, and I have class on Tuesday nights. Jim-Jim is low maintenance so I figured I would bring him to class with me. It's a televideo course with the professor lecturing from Houston, so I could sit in the back of the classroom with Jim-Jim and no one would be the wiser. Monkey wrench = exam! My first exam fell during the week that Jim is gone. How awful would I feel if Jim-Jim were to cry while everyone is taking an exam?! Time to come up with a plan B...
We asked our Bible Study group if anyone would mind taking care of him and an amazing couple offered to help out (thanks Hillary and Brad!). They picked Jim-Jim up from daycare and let him hang out at their house until I could get there after my exam. He was a perfect gentleman (minus one very ripe diaper!). Jim-Jim must have had tons of fun, too, because he fell asleep during the car ride home, and he didn't wake up the rest of the evening! We all survived our first babysitter experience with flying colors (AND I aced my exam:)

Compromising Canine

There comes a time in one's life when a decision needs to be made. What's more important? My beliefs or what I want? I can tell mommy and daddy are trying to pay more attention to me, but the more attention they give, the more I crave!

I hate, hate, hate the bathroom! I tolerated the place while mommy was pregnant because she needed my help in taking care of the growing baby, but it is now a place of doom once again. A place where they throw me in the bathtub and douse me with water and shampoo. A place to be avoided. You can tell by the photo which won, my belief that the bathroom is to be avoided or my desire for attention. Yes, that is me sitting between mommy's legs while she potties. Call me weak in my convictions if you want, but I'm brilliant! I have figured out that this is the one place mommy goes where she NEVER takes Jim-Jim. Her hands are free to love on ME! Well, until it's time to wipe...

Bailey

Bridging the Generation Gap

As Kara mentioned, there are so many things that will be different about Jim-Jim's life than ours. For instance, Jim-Jim will never know a time before HDTV. He will never have to rely on outdated encyclopedias for report information, because he'll be able to Google anything he can think of. He will grow up thinking that the ease with which we catalog our lives through digital cameras is the only option.

With all of these differences, there are some things that stand out so strongly in the minds of his mother and me that we intend to introduce them to his consciousness. One of these is Star Wars. The original Star Wars, episodes 4-6, not some Jar-Jar-infected snore-fest. I want him to grow up knowing the age-old struggle of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, Rebel Alliance vs. Empire. I fully expect his first word to be "Vader", which would be completely fine with me, though I have reservations about his mother's feelings on the matter. She'd probably prefer any number of choices before that.

The way I see it, this is something that he and I can share, something that we have between us. His mother has breastfeeding, I have Star Wars - that's fair, and I intend to hold on to it as long as possible! God forbid he ever become a Trekkie....

Milk. Does a Body Good. Pass it on!

Does anyone remember that slogan from 20-some-odd years ago? Jim and I frequently talk about what knowledge and adventures we want to "pass on" to our son. It saddens us that he won't know what we're talking about when we refer to Punky Brewster, Thundercats (ROAR!!!), Snorks, The Flinstones, Saved by the Bell (NOT the college years)... How many times are we going to hum the theme song from the Smurfs while Jim-Jim stares at us blankly, thinking how old and irrelevant his parents are? Some of my fondest memories from childhood come from running around in the middle of the night with all of the neighborhood kids playing night crawlers. I'm new at this mom thing, and I'm aware that times have changed but are kids allowed to do that anymore...to run around the neighborhood in the middle of the night playing night-time hide and seek? Aren't there curfews and pedophiles that prevent it?

There are some things to which Jim-Jim won't get out of being exposed. Star Wars is mandatory! Jim has been talking about introducing Jim-Jim to Star Wars since the minute we found out that we conceived. The second is Curious George. Jim has long been a fan of Curious George and has a Curious George stuffed animal that is older than I am. Jim-Jim now has one of his own (thanks Gran!), and we hope that he grows as fond of it as Jim did to his. AND we hope Bailey doesn't find it and decide it's a dog toy as most of Jim-Jim's toys that end up on the floor will become!
Kara

Current pictures have been uploaded to the "Growing So Fast" album to the right.

Start 'em young, Raise 'em right

This is for all of the Cajuns I offended in my previous post when I commented on their inability to speak phonetically. Consider this my penance:) And for daddy- Happy Anniversary!
Does it still count even though I couldn't resist putting Jim-Jim against a maroon background???

Kara