davejenbarnes

ditto

We drove up to Plano with my parents on Wednesday and when we got to David’s parents’ house, I noticed that the 1 GB memory card I have in my camera only had room for 30 pictures left. This was even after I had manually deleted the blurry, messed up shots. I don’t know about you, but I will take 30 pictures in 2 minutes these days so that just wouldn’t do with the visit to Plano lasting 4 more days! So my bro uploaded them to his iBook via his USB2.0 CF card reader. I then deleted all the pictures off the camera (which was painful to do… I always erase them using the mac, so to press the OK button on the actual camera itself was hard) and I had a clean gig to start filling again. The point of this is… I have over 100 pictures on my brother’s iBook that I can’t wait to upload to flickr! (Yes, only about 100 files… now that I’m shooting 100% RAW mode, the pics take up more memory…) I also learned how to up the saturation on the camera. That may save me a little time on each file in my post-processing if it works since I found myself boosting the saturation levels on every single picture I’ve taken. I am anxious to get the photos on the mac and see how that setting changes the pictures. They looked great on the LCD viewer on the back of the camera, but that doesn’t say much.

Today was nice. We had a visit from David’s Aunt Carol and Uncle Mark and they got to meet James. David’s brother Philip was here as well with his wife, Kimberly, and their kids: Ransom, Tait, and Kambry. Ransom is 7, Tait is an adorable 4, and Kambry is almost 1.5 - I can’t believe how big they are! I know James won’t rememeber this visit but eventually he’s gonna have so much fun with his cousins when we meet up again.

His first tooth is coming in and we are wide awake. Thankfully, though, he is asleep right now in his daddy’s arms. I figured something must be up when he didn’t fall right back asleep after awakening in the middle of the night. At least we’re past being sick for the most part.

UPDATE: Per comment request, it’s the front bottom lower left tooth, or left lower central incisor, or tooth “O”.

CRW_8044, uploaded by Jennifer Barnes

He sat on his own and tore off the wrapping paper with much gusto. I was amazed at how long he lasted before he started getting tired and that we didn’t have to teach him how to tear into his gifts.

The year 2005 will go down as a year forever etched in our minds as a great year. Why? Need you even ask? I’ll tell you in three simple words: Jesus rose again. I bet you were expecting something like “James was born,” or “James Michael Barnes,” or “we became parents,” which, I’m not denying is true, but knowing that Jesus rose again makes every year a great year and every day a great day.

I know you looked at the picture of James first. Don’t we all go for the picture, first thing? But I want you to look at that picture again and think about how the Bible says in Genesis 1:27 that we are created in the image of God himself. What better reflection of God’s image than that of a baby?

The thing about babies, you see, is their total lack of worldliness. Don’t worry. I won’t turn this into a debate about the inherent goodness or badness of mankind. That’s not my place or purpose in this letter. But I will ask you to pause and think about the last time you trusted someone as wholeheartedly as a baby trusts his or her parents.

Having James, or more accurately, being blessed with James this past summer has been indescribably awesome. It is a huge responsibility to be trusted as much as James trusts us. For everything: food, shelter, cleanliness, warmth, entertainment, we are it for him. And being everything for him is more than worth the exhaustion you experience when you’re a parenting-newbie.

We are truly blessed to have a young baby and see God’s love reflected to us every day in the things James learns every day. Here’s where I can brag about James a little bit. He was born on July 19, 2005, which makes him between 4.5 to 5 months old, depending on when I get these mailed out. He’s just started rolling over without trapping his arms in awkward places and can sit up unassisted for about 45 seconds before he bites the blanket (I thought about typing the word dust and then figured you would think me a bad mom for letting him sit somewhere dusty), literally, yes, he bites the blanket. Everything he touches goes into his mouth. Babies are like that. He has no teeth yet, and even no sign of any forthcoming, so don’t go jumping to conclusions! And he weighs a hefty ~19 pounds, so we’re getting a workout just carrying him to and fro. Speaking of fro’s, it’s too bad his Santa hat is covering up his hair. The boy has hair! Lots of it! And curly, too!

Having a baby boy, especially with the quickly approaching Christmas season, I am constantly thinking about what Mary must have experienced with baby Jesus. This Christmas is likely to be our most intense Christmas ever as we reflect on Christ’s birth and divine purpose. I am praying that you will spend some time thinking about that as well. Jesus was born for you, just like He lived for you and died for you and rose again for you. All the other things I could write in a Christmas letter are trivial and selfish. Please take the time this holiday season to think about the reason for the celebration.

I think this is the first year it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. I guess that’s because there are no gifts under our tree. David and I just don’t do gifts for each other… and we’re waiting to see what all the family gets James before we go out and buy him some stuff. Oh well. Gifts under a tree aren’t the true meaning anyhow.

In attempt to make it feel a little more Christmasey, here are the contents of our Christmas “Card” mailout, in case you did not get one from us. In fact, if you didn’t get one from us, and feel you should have, please leave us your mailing address in a comment. First is the letter and second is the photo we included with the letter:

Merry Christmas, Internet!

James has a head-cold, or, officially, an upper respiratory infection. Dr. Wacker said it would take about 7 days to run it’s course. The words “upper respiratory infection” sound so specific when coming from a mom but they sound so generic when coming from a Doctor.

On the other hand, at 5 months old, he is weighing in at 18 pounds, 8 ounces.

Looks like we will be staying home this Christmas eve and will miss David playing his trombone in church on Christmas day. Let’s pray that James feels better by then.

UPDATE: 12-22-2005
James slept the night in his swing which worked because the swing keeps his head above the rest of his body and his congestion can drain. He only woke up for real at 4:00, his usual wake-up time to eat. I’m sure he woke up periodically through the night as well, but he never cried. Either that or he is still pretty hoarse and we never heard him cry. He did cough a ton though. I remember that. At least we all got some more sleep. Tonight we will try the swing again, but I am putting mittens on his hands because they were frigid. I’m also going to move the swing away from the outside wall of his room… that part of his room is always cooler than the inside walls.

UPDATE: 12-23-2005
James is doing much better. Thanks for the prayers if you prayed one for James!

Yesterday, James came down with his first cold. David came home sick from school on Friday and didn’t feel great for about 4 days… then I came down with it on Sunday and didn’t feel great (and still don’t feel great, to be honest) and yesterday, James was the one to get sick. He slept a lot yesterday. He nursed a lot yesterday. I am glad to still be nursing him because he relaxes so quickly no matter what is bugging him when he nurses. I was glad to have that time with him yesterday. Last night was hard. I knew it would be. Anytime he is laying flat, he can’t breathe. So we only got an hour or two of sleep before he was awake and unhappy. James and I spent two hours rocking in the rocking chair before I got too tired to keep the chair moving. I set him back down in his crib and went back to bed. But neither of us slept. I could hear him through the monitor. When he started crying an hour later, I was up again with my little boy, nursing and rocking - rocking and nursing. All in all, I got maybe 2 hours of sleep last night total before David got up this morning and took over and let me get another hour of sleep in.

Hopefully tonight will be more sleep filled. James has a 3:30 appointment with the pediatrician and I am praying she will have some kind of medicine to clear up his coughs and all the mucous so he can sleep on a flat surface… like his crib mattress!