MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Rolling Over?

James is starting to swing his hips in a "I may roll over some time in the next month" fashion. Pierre and I find it very exciting.

James Mania

Its been raining and cold here all week, so I have resorted to photo shoots to entertain myself. Here's some of our cutest.

Story Time

One of the most fun times of my day is watching Sandy and James interact. A lot of times the baby is fussy in the early evening, but Sandy takes it in stride and finds things to make James happy. He makes up funny songs, tries to get him to say Dad and reads to him. Last night, I heard this strange voice coming from James' room and found Sandy reading a book about fish to James in his "underwater voice." James loved it and was cooing the whole time! Here's a video of what I saw. And thanks to our friends Ella and Ryan for the book - we love it!

Happy Three Month Birthday James!

I can hardly believe that James is three-months-old today! He has changed so much. He can see and move his hands under semi-control, he can hold onto his rattles and small toys, and now he can hold onto me when I am carrying him, not to mention he has his two bottom teeth! Next up, college.

He is one of the happiest and most fun babies I have ever met (unbiased opinion here) - but unfortunately - that's not quite yet apparent in photos. I am still trying to capture that smile.

We celebrated today with lunch with Aunt Jan and cousin Andrew (who turned two months yesterday). Its so much fun to see the boys together, we can't wait until they interact. Here are a few photos of the cousins from last week.

Andrew shows his guns.

Gentles Family Xmas - The Movie

Uncles!

James had a great time this weekend with his uncles, Scott, Mark and Andrew. It was a great pre-Christmas visit and so much fun. The uncles took James to brunch and we all went out to dinner and opened Christmas presents from Yaya and GG. We even got to take some family photos in James' Santa suit. It was a great time and we can't wait to see them again soon!

Meeting Uncle Scott

Visitin with AndrewOpening the "giggle ball" Trying out my "wrist rattles"

Wearing Pierre's Christmas antlers

The Gentles family (we miss you Yaya and GG)

Pierre enjoying Christmas

Sitting Up! Well sort of...

Today we tried out James' little BeBop seat. He seemed to really like it, although he's not 100% in control of his neck. Its really so cute to see him in a chair like a boy. The seat is so small - and he's so tiny in it. I took a few shots of Pierre to give it some scale - Pierre's only 18 inches off the ground. My world is the floor these days.

We are so excited to see the Gentles (and Shannon) uncles this weekend! Many photos to come.

Happy Birthday (Grandpa) Dave!

Today is Dave/Grandpa/D's 60th Birthday! We celebrated Saturday night with an amazing party and a 10-pound lobster - his favorite. It was a great night - the very first snow for James and Andrew - a wonderful meal - and - the first night that James slept through from 10 pm - 7 am! Happy Birthday Dad - we love you!

Pierre sizes up the lobster.

Andrew sizes up the lobster.

Coco and Dave entertaining the boys.

The party's over.

Thanks Eagle Hill

When James was in the hospital (6 weeks ago) the team at Eagle Hill got us many great things - one of which was this balloon. It is still one of James' favorite forms of entertainment!

Tooth Cam

James' first tooth is fully broken through and the second one is about to make its appearance. He's getting so big and is so full of personality! Here's some very amateur photography of his teeth.

This Morning

Here's what we saw when we woke up this morning. Is there anything better?

James, the Movie

James is developing his little personality - and its a great one. He's very happy and smiles almost all the time and loves to "talk" to us. He's really starting to move around a lot as well and I am determined to capture it all on video. I'm probably the only one who enjoys these, but, I think they give a sense of what he's really like - better than the still photos.

Fun with James

One of the best parts of being in Baltimore was spending time with Coco and Dave and James. Its so much fun to see him interact with new people and fun to watch them watch him. While he was in Balti, he really mastered chewing on his fist- a must for the teething and started moving around a whole lot and wanting to sit up (with a lot of help of course).

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in Baltimore. We were a small group, just Sandy, Coco, Dave, James, Grandma and me, but we had a wonderful meal and a great time with each other. We really missed all the Gentles and John, Jan and Andrew, but will get to see them all soon. Grandma really enjoyed spending time with James who enjoyed the appetizers, but slept through dinner.

Laura and Grandma at dinner

James, asleep and STILL smiling

Not our best.

A pre-dinner nap

Dave with the turkey

Grandma giving James his Thanksgiving dinner

Winter Walk

Sandy, James, Pierre and I took a nice long walk in the crisp winter air yesterday in the woods by our house. James slept, but Pierre absolutely loved exploring. Tomorrow James and I are off to Baltimore for Thanksgiving and we are really looking forward to spending that time with our family!

Cousins

Today, Coco, Aunt Mary Jo, Aunt Gussy, Jan and cousin Andrew came for lunch. It was so much fun to be with so many great gals and to get the boys together. Andrew is so cute and has become so much more awake and animated in just the last week. The boys don't seem to know each other yet, but we know soon they will be great friends.

Here's Andrew...
I love this one, it looks like James just told Andrew a dirty joke...

A (very bad) photo of our first walk with the boys.