Busy Week

 

We have had a busy week at our house. Pretty much non-stop action since Sunday.

Saturday night, cousin Jordan came to stay with us. He and James had some fun before bed playing in the empty car seat box. Who needs toys anyways?! I think these two enjoyed playing together. Probably a lot of mischief ahead with these two.

Daddy had to leave us to travel to Indiana again for work- for 5 days (I digress)! Before he left, James made sure to help me with all of the laundry so he could pack. 

I received the shipment of some clothes for James from primary.com. If you do not know what this is, please do yourself a favor and visit the site. It's fabulous! Great kids clothes, super soft, and good prices. Oh, and FREE shipping for the rest of the month!  James was less than impressed with the long sleeved cardigan that mom picked out.

Grammy and Grandad decided to come rescue us for a few days. They arrived Tuesday, spent the day with us on Wednesday (my off day), and then headed north on Thursday. There was an abundance of playtime and book reading had by all. I think the three of them enjoyed their time together.  

 

A rare, still moment. Be still my heart.

With Grammy and Grandad's help, I made some spaghetti for dinner. James enjoyed himself as he made quite a mess. While some parents may find messes and mealtimes annoying, I find it rather humorous and love watching him explore new foods.

 

And then bath time is always a must after a messy meal. 

Rub-a-dub-dub, cute baby in the tub!

 

Thanks to a little cough, to finish off our week we got to re-start lovely breathing treatments. Better to be on top of things so we don't head down the wrong path given our respiratory history. James is a pretty good sport overall with doing these treatments.

  

Yet another busy week in the books! We are about three weeks away from having a one year old in our house and I cannot even begin to wrap my head around that. I've said it many times before and I'll say it again, but where is time going?! Our guy is growing and changing so fast and we are loving every minute of it!

11 Months!

James, how can it be that this starts the last month of your first year of life? How, just how? You are growing and changing by leaps and bounds each day and it is so fun to watch. Some things about you at this stage of life....

• You are full of energy. All boy, to be exact. You crawl around everywhere, try to climb on things, push things around, throw toys, etc. Total boy. And I wouldn't have it any other way. :)
• Your eating habits are becoming more of a "Birnbaum" with each passing day. You LOVE cheese and meat. Period. Oh, and Cheerios! ?You begrudgingly eat fruits and veggies. You are liking less and less of the pureed stuff and want to feed yourself most of the time (Mr. Independent already!).
• We are seriously living on borrowed time until you walk. Literally, you are going to be taking off running any day now! You are often antsy when we are out and about, letting us know that you just want to walk around and be "big".
• You are still so happy, always. I LOVE this about you. Your smiles are infectious and your snuggles are simply the best.
• You are still breastfeeding like a champ. I'm struggling with the fact that our your days of nursing are numbered and soon you will probably want nothing to do with me. Until then I am soaking up each minute. I am so blessed that I, ok "WE", have been able to power through this together. What a challenging, yet rewarding experience this has been. And now I have to change the subject because I'm starting to cry...
• You now have 8 teeth. Eight! And your toothy grin makes me laugh more and more each day. They definitely make you look like more of a toddler and less like a squishy baby. Sigh.
• Sleep: you are still sleeping like a champ (I say this as I cross my fingers!). It seems you have started to want to go to bed earlier lately. Normally around 6:30 or 7:00 you kind of start to lose your marbles and let me know that you're tired. This usually involves being a little fussy and rolling around on the floor, playing with toys as you lay down.
• Your speech continues to develop really well. You still say, "mama", "dada", sometimes "cack-cack" (quack-quack), "dun dun" (all done), and "mmmm"- as in "yum" when you bite into your beloved cheerios or cheese. You will wave "hi", although it is sort of a hybrid between the sign for milk- super cute!

You continue to amaze us each day, sweet boy! Your smile is still infectious, eye brows still oh so expressive, and your belly laughs will light up the room around you. We are so blessed to be your mommy and daddy and truly love each day that we get to spend with you.


Happy 11 months, sweet baby! We love you to the moon and back!

Anniversary Weekend- Sans James

John and I just celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend. SIX! Not sure how that is possible, but anyway. We had talked off and on whether we should take a quick weekend trip to celebrate. After much debate and hesitation on my end, John took it upon himself to just plan something and surprise me. If you recall, our honeymoon was a surprise to me, as well as a past birthday trip. He finds joy in planning something and hiding it from me until we get to the airport while heckling me about it and giving lame hints. I digress. :)




My hints prior to the trip were:


1.) It would be hot.
2.) Might rain
3.) No beach time would occur (darn!)




My two guesses as we headed to the airport were either Austin or New Orleans, with New Orleans being my #1 guess. Turns out, I was right! :) I had a feeling it would be New Orleans, so I planned my toe polish color accordingly: O.P.I.'s Cajun Shrimp!


I should note....Friday as I was home with James, he made sure to raise the bar on snuggles being super sweet all day. Laying on the mom guilt SUPER thick!









We left home about 5:00 a.m. on Saturday, but not without everything for James prepped and ready to go. I may be a tad OCD about my frozen milk. Liquid gold, people!!





Grandmommy was given the run down of an abundance of instructions and we were on our way. A few tears were shed as I read a few Anniversary cards prior to our departure.










Once we were at the airport, John gave me my boarding pass- I was right, New Orleans!! We grabbed a coffee and boarded our flight. We had a quick stop in Dallas and then we were NOLA bound.


We arrived in NOLA around lunch time. As we were almost to NOLA I discretely pumped on the plane while also finding the perfect spot for our drink mixers. Ha!





We quickly checked in to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed for some food. First stop, The French Market, at J's seafood where we definitely indulged in some po'boy sandwiches, soft shell crabs, and crawfish beignets. Lets not forget the refreshing mango rum punch!












We decided it would be a good idea to walk off some of our lunch. He strolled through the French quarter before ending up at Café Du Monde to grab a famous beignet and wait for the rain to pass. I could eat these delicious little pastries of goodness everyday if I was given the chance. So good!





















On a whim we ended up at NOLA Brewing Co. next. Great beer, awesome atmosphere, and fun just relaxing sharing an uninterrupted adult conversation.













Once we had our share of good beers, we headed back to the hotel so I could pump before dinner. We attempted to eat at Acme Oyster house until we discovered the line to get in wrapped around the block. So, we settled for a similar restraunt across the street, Felix's.







Both still so full from the craft beers and snacks, we shared some gator bites and shrimp and grits. Both were amazing!! Tired from our first day of travel, we called in an early night to rest up for our Sunday of fun.






Sunday morning we got up to head to a cemetery tour. I'll admit, this tour was pretty awesome. It was neat learning about the history behind the NOLA cemeteries. Very interesting!
















We thought we would continue the fun on Sunday but hitting up the NOLA Rum Distillery to do some rum sampling. We were the only ones there when it opened and got a nice one-on-one sampling run down of all of the rums, and a few extra samples. :)













Next up, back at NOLA Brewing Co. Are you seeing a pattern here? :) We had to go back to NOLA to try the food this time. We had just finished lunch before we got there on Saturday and all of the food passing us by looked AMAZING. And it was amazing. We relaxed, sampled some more beers, and had great food while waiting out another rain storm.













The fun continued as we ended up at The Blind Pelican for oyster happy hour. Yet another win on our NOLA trip. We indulged in some fresh oysters, both raw and charbroiled. Both amazing! I was skeptical about trying oysters but they did not disappoint.

 

 

Monday's time in NOLA would be short as we had a flight to catch home. We made a point to try a different beignet place, Café Beignet. We both agreed the beignets and ambiance was far better than Café Du Monde! For lunch we dined at Emeril's. Yet again, great food!!


We headed back to the airport both tired and stuffed with good food, anxious to see our little nugget. 

I think it's safe to say we were all happy to reunited again! Kuddos to John for taking the time to treat me/us to some time away. Although it was tough to leave James behind we truly enjoyed our time together. Until next time, NOLA!

Oh, and P.S., we definitely missed this cute face while we were gone!

 

James- in pictures

Recents pictures of James and his silly, busy self. :)