davejenbarnes

Dear James,

Wow, you’re eleven months old today! That is totally cool.

I was going to brag on how well you sleep through the night but this morning you woke up at 3:50-something screaming your little head off. It’s okay though. I secretly love getting to hold you in the dark, nursing away your “wakies.”

Your personality is really starting to shine. You are the most darling little copy-cat I have ever met and the way you copy my coughing is enough to bring tears to my eyes. Yeah, mommy isn’t feeling well right now, and I have a feeling that you aren’t feeling too well, either. You’ll also copy daddy when he makes all kinds of noises. Right now it’s cute but I know sometimes parents can be annoyed by stuff like that. I hope we’re not those parents.

Today you ran to my open arms and wanted to be held so tight, so I held you and started singing all the songs that we sing. You know them impressively well and do the baby signs to some of them without us showing you. Today I was humming “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and you were doing the signs! I wasn’t even singing the words. I hope this is an indicator of some musical ability hiding in there somewhere… …anyhow, yeah, so I was singing songs to you and I made a funny sound… something like “Bleh” but sticking my tongue out at the same time. You giggled. I must have said “bleh” about 350 more times before it wasn’t funny any more. You thought it was the funniest when I would replace random words of the songs I was singing with “bleh.” Wow, that was a great moment today, James. We both felt better for a short time.

This month you’ve perfected walking, started standing from nothing, started copying what your daddy and I say and do, learned about 5 new baby signs, whistled, smacked your lips, started dancing, even running (oh boy) and gotten three molars, started swim class and held your breath for 2 seconds underwater, and gotten your first pair of real shoes. Wow. You’ve been busy. How about his next month you cut us some slack? You do realize we’re trying to move as well as take care of you, don’t you?

I can’t believe you’ll be a year old in a month.

I love you more than you’ll ever know.

Love,

Mama

Dear James,

It has been awhile since I have taken the time to do a monthly letter-update for you. You’ve been keeping me (us) so busy, there has hardly been the time to collect my thoughts. I missed your ninth month, so to catch you up… You started walking the week you turned nine months old. You were standing independently at eight and a half months old, but you were walking at nine months old… You now prefer to walk everywhere instead of crawling, though you will crawl after Mmbo! Yes, your first real word that you say and associate with something is Mmbo! for Mambo. And we know you know what you’re saying because you’re pointing at him. (Mambo is our tuxedo cat.)

Both your dad and I are astonished at how quickly you are learning things. On Mother’s Day you learned the baby sign for “more” and two days later you were signing “light” and “milk.” You’re getting much better at waving “bye bye” though sometimes you do it when only I am watching you! We are anxious to see what your next sign will be. So far, we’re showing you “eat” and “drink” as well as “bath” and “all done!”

This month, this tenth month, is the month of the molars. Right before you turned ten months old, you started teething again and today (May 25) I felt in there and that bottom left first molar is just about poking through. Any day now you will have nine teeth. The eight that you have are very dangerous - I don’t think one more will bother us and I am praying that it doesn’t bother you, either.

This month, your dad and I finally bought a video monitor to peek into your world during naptime. I think it has helped me realize when you’re up and when you’re just rolling over or adjusting and your naps have evened out into a 1.5 hour nap in the morning and a 1 hour nap in the afternoon. Much more predicable and much more consistient. Now that I’m typing this, you’ll probably change your routine, huh? Your daddy likes it when you wake up and stare into the camera when it’s dark because your eyes glow in the infrared light. The night vision is way cool, but you don’t know that yet.

Our lives are about to change with moving and so far, you’ve been taking all the packing really well. We took down all the shelves in your room pretty early in hopes that you’ll be okay with bare walls. We don’t know where we’re moving to yet, but we know that the Lord will provide a place for us to live.

And you’re starting swim class on Monday. Daddy will be there to take pictures of your first class. We are looking forward to it even though we know that you have no idea what the activities of the day will be. You’ll have to write a big thank you card to grandma and grandpa K for the swim classes. If it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t be taking them, and we know you love to be in the pool!

I am so excited about planning your birthday party, little guy. You’re growing up way too fast, but it sure is fun. Thanks for all the laughs and memories!

Love,

mama

Dear James,

You are growing before our eyes. Just this month has flown by at warp speed. It seems like just yesterday that you were born, but you’re wearing 12-18 month size clothes now. We need to have a little talk about the clothes, too. No baby needs as many clothes as you have. Your wardrobe is better than your mom and dad’s combined! So what you need to do is stop asking for summer clothes from your grandparents with those grey-blue-brown-green eyes of yours and start asking for big kid clothes, like in the “T” sizes.

The things you are doing astound me, really. Just last night, on your 8 month “birthday” you looked at me and copied me - I was asking you if you wanted some milk while showing you the baby sign for milk and you got big alligator tears in your eyes (I knew you were so tired and hungry) stuck up your little pudgy arm and gave me the sign for milk. I am just amazed. I was hoping you would pick up the sign for milk first because I think it will be the most usefull for you to know, so we will keep working on it until you can ask your mommy for milk anytime you want. Newborns should come with that baby sign pre-programmed if you ask me.

Grandma K has taught you how to stand up in your crib which has completely ruined your naptimes. Now you climb up and just stand there for the duration of your nap, which means you no longer take naps. I mean, I can hold you and rock you and you’ll get a nap that way, but a nap in your own bed… it just isn’t happening these days. Now, we need to get Grandma to show you how to get down from standing and we’ll be set for naps again.

This month, you’ve completely mastered crawling (not that you couldn’t crawl before but now you’re Way. Fast. Better. Watch. Out. Here. I. Come.) and pulling to standing on any and everything. You’ve learned how to fall down backwards (plop, into a sitting position) and how to stick out your arms to catch yourself falling forwards. You’ve sat from crawling and started getting into everything. Your daddy and I have followed you crawling from the livingroom to the kitchen then all the way into your room where you like to pull all the cloth diapers off of the shelves of your changing table. Oh, that’s another thing! That changing table is almost obsolete. Sure, it’s an easier height for us, but you roll and wiggle to no end and we are finding it harder and harder to diaper and dress you. It’s much easier on the floor where I can throw a leg over your belly and keep you from rolling over. I don’t think I’ll ever throw a leg over you on that changing table, though!

Daddy has taught you to clap and say “Bubble” and “Apple” and “Bible” although they all sound alike and you have no idea what you’re saying. You’ve been saying “Mama” for a couple of months now and it’s very sweet though you only seem to use it when you’re mad. I wonder if you’re saying it on purpose?

Uh-oh. As I type this you are sitting next to me in your pack-n-play and you are making a stinky diaper! Better go clean that up!

Love,

Mama

Dear James,

Today you turned five months old. Today, your mommy and daddy’s marriage turned 6 years old as well. We left you with Grandma Knight and went on a date, but all we could talk about was you. Silly, huh… leaving you behind just to talk about you the whole time.

You started sitting about two weeks ago, and although you can’t recover from leaning back, you’re able to sit for as long as you can without leaning backwards. It was truly amazing to sit you, at 17 weeks old, on the floor with other, older, more-able-to-sit babies and have all the other mommies in the house say, “Nuh-uh, he is NOT sitting at his age! NO way!” Yes, James, that was fun. Thank you for that moment! We know you can sit in your highchair as well, though we put it back away because it takes up so much room and, really, there’s no need to sit you in the high chair when you can sit on your own on the floor!

You’re not eating anything besides mama’s milk still, though you have tasted bananas. Real banana, mashed up and mixed with some of mama’s milk - and you loved it and wanted to eat the little plastic saftey spoon. You won’t be getting bananas consistently for at least another month but it’s good to know that banana won’t kill you. If you’re anything like your daddy, you’ll grow up eating tons and tons of bananas. The only reason you got banana at all was because I was making banana bread.

This past month has been so cool. You learned to roll over from your back to your tummy in a flash. It happened almost instantly. You still can’t roll from your tummy to your back, though. Oh well, that will come with time. You still love standing and I really think you’d almost rather stand than be held if only you had a little more balance. At least tummy time isn’t that bad anymore.

Your favorite toys now are the little “¡Olé!” rattle from Uncle Philip and Aunt Kimberly and the little piano/bell toy from the Cedar Park Middle School Band Parents. We’re not supposed to let you play with that until you’re a year and a half old, but who really follows those age rules, anyhow? I think your least favorite toys are the jumperoo (because you don’t JUMP yet - you only use it to poop in, so we’ve dubbed it the “Pooperoo” in our house) and probably any kind of silent toy. Your ultimate favorite is playing with crunchy plastic bags, like the tostitos chips bags… but bags are not toys. Of course, you don’t know that yet, so you still reach for them any chance you get.

Thank you for your smiles this month, James. They’ve brightened up every day. Thanks, also, for making sounds when your dad does that finger-up-and-down-in-front-of-your-lips-thing he does. You won’t do it consistently for me, but you will do it every time for your dad. He loves it. And I love watching him make you “talk.” You two are hilarious together. I love seeing your dad become a great father. And I love seeing you learn new things.

Love,
Mama

Dear James,

You officially have your own room now. Doesn’t it feel great? Your first night in it was not a very sleep filled night, though. You would wake up when you realized you didn’t have that blue-green silicone sucking device in your mouth. So, I got up about 20 times to pop it back in between your lips. I ended up sleeping in the bed in your room so I didn’t have to walk so far and so I wouldn’t wake up your daddy who needs his sleep because he has to earn money so we all can eat. This binkie habit of yours is beginning to drive your mommy nuts. See? I’m even talking in the third person now… I know you didn’t get much sleep because you took a two hour long nap right after daddy left for work in the morning after that first night in your own room. You usually only nap for about 45 minutes at any given time.

You’ve started sleeping longer. Much longer. But I haven’t fully decided if this is as “good” a thing as people make it out to be because, you see, our food-to-baby relationship is off somehow. I’d rather nurse you at all hours of the night and have a great food-to-baby relationship during the day than to get all the sleep in the world at night and have you kicking, punching, pulling, squirming, and screaming at me during the day. Unless the kicking, punching, pulling, squirming, and screaming are going to happen regardless. Then you better bet I’ll take the sleep, thank you very much.

This is the month that I realized I’ve gone from working part-time teaching clarinet to full time teaching James. You learn so much every day and I just want to find the remote control to life and play it back in slo-mo so I can savor all the changes. Your giggles. Your huge social smiles, you flirty baby you! Your lengthy conversations with yourself. How you used to hate to be naked but now you love it because you know that being naked means BATHTIME. And how you have learned to splash! Just today, at the end of your 3rd month, you can sit if we bend you in the middle and your arms are touching the ground even though you are admittedly a little slow on the rolling over. That’s okay. You don’t need to roll over much as an adult. It would take too long to get anywhere if we had to roll to get there.

On your 4 month birthday you grabbed your feet. Just as if you’ve been grabbing them your whole life. It was amazing. Of course, anything you grab has to go straight into your mouth for you to chomp on but your foot was attached to your leg (still is, last I checked, too) and your leg is not yet ready to give your foot up as a living sacrifice to the slobber god that obviously already has control over your mouth.

Just tonight, I tried talking to you in the Roz from Monsters Inc. voice and you did not like that one bit. You’re already able to tell a happy voice from a not-so-happy voice and the not-so-happy voices cause your bottom lip to stick out so far, I could dive off it if I were an olympic platform diver. BUT IT IS SOOOO CUTE! We, your parents, admit it. We love your pouty face.

You know, I was thinking just last night how you’re not really ours. You don’t belong to us. Truthfully, you’re not mine and your not daddy’s, either. You’re just on loan to us for a time from God. He blessed us with you and you, ultimately, belong to Him. He is your Creator… not me, your Mom. I was just a tool God used to protect you in your tiniest stages of life. I am so thankful to God for you.

Thanks for all the memories this month, Lord! Thanks for all the smiles, James!

Love,
Mama

Dear James,

You are officially three months old now and I can’t believe it. On Monday, you graduated to your crib, which I must admit, makes you look very grown up. I know, I know, someday you won’t believe that you slept 90 nights in your pack-n-play bassinet but you did. The poor pack-n-play matress is bent because you grew so much and got too heavy for the 15 pound weight limit but we still put you to bed in it! Thankfully, mommy assembled the crib with casters on the legs so we can at least wheel it into our room. So, you’re not sleeping in a different room, just a different bed.

You stayed in the church nursery for the first time last Sunday. It was so hard to hand you over to the nice looking woman and I couldn’t have done it so your daddy carried you into the church because he knew he could hand you over. We filled out the paperwork to let the nursery ladies know that you don’t eat formula and you can have a binkie and that you like swinging.

You LOVE swinging. We have already changed the size D batteries in your swing 4 times! And the swing takes 4 of them! Why the heck they don’t make an AC adapter for the swing we will never understand. So, when you turn 16 and wonder why mom and dad don’t buy you a car it’s because of all the batteries we had to buy for your swing addiction when you were three months old.

This month, you totally disarmed both of us with your smiles which you made us work for - but they were worth it. It’s hard to get pictures of you smiling because you can’t see mommy when she has the camera to her face and when you can’t see mommy, you can’t smile for her. This has resulted in mommy trying to blindly aim the camera to catch your smiles, so we have plenty of blurry partial pictures of you. Enough to last the rest of your life.

Love,
Mom

Dear James,

Today you are officially two months old. Nevermind that you were eight weeks old six days ago, or that you will be nine weeks old tomorrow… today you are two months old! I am sitting here typing this and you are resting (RESTING!!) in your own room in your crib by yourself (BY YOURSELF!) can you believe it?! I laid you down thirty minutes ago and I braced myself for the onslaught of cries which I can hear in my imagination at any time but you simply relaxed.

Your dad and I have discovered that you LOVE sleeping on your tummy, even though everyone who gives any kind of “official” advice says to put you on your back. We know you would rather be sleeping on your tummy on our tummies all the time, but that’s just not practical, now, is it? When you’re on your back, you had better be swaddled or watch out world, James is m-a-d! I think it has something to do with hitting yourself in your face. I’d wake up and get mad, too, if I got punched every time I laid down on my back!

***

That’s all that I wrote on your 2 month birthday… Your shots gave you a fever and you wanted to be held for the rest of the day so I’m continuing this letter to you on a Friday. Let me tell you, this ninth week of your little life has been quite an adventure. There is a hurricane about to land in Texas or Louisiana that is named Rita. Three weeks ago, there was a hurricane named Katrina that caused lots of people lots of pain and we’re praying that, tonight, no one gets caused any personal injury though we are pretty sure that some people won’t have a home to come home to.

All this buzz about hurricanes has made me think long and hard about how I would feel if I were to lose you, and James, I don’t like that thought one bit. I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter if we hold you too much… every minute you spend in our arms is full of love, right now especially. Our hearts would break if we ever couldn’t hold you.

Two months of studying you has given your dad and me some time to pick out our favorite James parts, and we agree, it’s the toes that win. There’s just something about how you wiggle them… something facinating… they look like little sausages… all the same size and perfectly delicious. Why do we want to eat you?! Every little baby part is so scrumptious!

Your favorite sounds are “ohhh,” “whoooo,” and “oh-ga!” Your dad loves to get you to try to make new sounds and you study his face so hard then you move your lips in all kinds of ways, smile, and then exclaim “oh!” no matter what sound daddy was trying to get you to make. It’s a whole body experience and so much fun for everyone.

I am really looking forward to this next month and all the new things you discover!

Love,
Mom