9 Months

Dear James,

I cannot believe you are 9 months old already. It does not seem possible that you are the same tiny being that we brought home from the hospital back in October. You have grown into such a little person. I love to see the world from your eyes and see the amazement and wonder when you discover something new. You are so curious, adventurous and daring. I've never met a baby who loves to be scared! And what a nosy little busybody you are! I love to watch your mind work when you are people watching.

Your laugh is my favorite sound in the whole world. I could listen to it all day long. Your smile melts my heart. Staring at you, whether you are sleeping or awake, never gets old.

If I had to pick my favorite time of day, I really couldn't choose. I love the morning when you first wake up, with rumpled hair, and glassy eyes. There is nothing like that first smile, and first hug, and the way you bury your head in the crook of my neck. Or is it the moment you see me when I come to pick you up from daycare? When you look at me, and sheepishly grin, then look at your teacher with this look, that says, "Could it be? Could that be my Mommy?" Then you look at me again, and as I scoop you up, you give me the biggest smile when you realize it really is me. Or is it at bedtime, when you are nursing, and I get to watch you fall asleep and take you all in? Or is it in the middle of the night, when it's just me and you and the quiet of night, and we snuggle, and I get to hold you close? I really don't know how I could choose! I love all the little moments, the little smiles, the little noises, the little looks. I love everything about you.

All the cliches about motherhood are true. It is the greatest and most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. Thank you for being mine.

love,
Mom

Be Careful What You Wish For

Jim and I have been doing everything we can to encourage James to crawl for the past few weeks. We have watched his every move in anticipation that one day he will just take off and go. He still hasn't quite caught on, but that doesn't mean he isn't mobile. In the past week we have seen a complete change in him. Instead of crawling, he gets around by rolling, sliding, and scooting. I haven't decided if his new methods of mobility are creative or just plain lazy. Either way, he is into EVERYTHING! Guess it's time to baby proof!

James finally got his first two teeth last week, after what seemed like months of teething. His hair is also growing in and looking redder every day. The red hair seems to be what surprises people most about James. It's amazing how many times strangers comment on it. I repeatedly get asked, "Where did his red hair come from?" Trust me, it surprised me too. I never imagined my little boy would be a redhead. Not that I don't think it's adorable, because I do.

It's hard to believe our little guy is going to be 9 months old tomorrow. While it seems like time has just flown by, I really can't remember what life was like without him.

Happy Father's Day?

I had the best intentions of posting this almost two weeks ago, but along with everything else on my ever growing to do list, it just did not get done. So I'm finally getting around to my Father's Day post. Better late than never I guess. I thought long and hard trying to come up with some kind of activity to do with Jim to celebrate his first Father's Day. I really wanted to do something baseball related, but the Knights were out of town and every other option would have involved a long drive and overnight stay. So instead I decided that I would pack a picnic lunch with all of Jim's favorite foods, and have a picnic at Lake Norman and go on a hike. The whole day didn't really turn out as planned. As you can see from the picture, James was not exactly in a good mood. This shot pretty much sums up the entire picnic. After I packed up all the food, loaded the car, got James ready, drove all the way to the park, set out the picnic and put James on the blanket to play, he lasted for about five minutes before he got unbelievably fussy. Nothing seemed to calm him down, so we scarfed down some of our food, packed everything up again, got back in the car and headed home. Needless to say we never did get to hike. It was way too hot anyway. At least we got to spend some time together as a family and let Jim know how much he means to us, which is the whole point of Father's Day anyway. It's pretty obvious just how much James loves his dad. He lights up anytime he sees Jim and no matter what he's doing, when James hears Jim's voice, he twists and turns every which way just so he can get a glimpse of him. It probably makes Jim feel pretty great, that right now everyone and everything is Dada to James. The boy says, "Dada dada dada," all day long! I have to admit, I'm a tad bit jealous that he never says Mama.

Little Fish

Last weekend James had his first swim lesson. It wasn't much of a swim lesson; it was more of what I would call organized chaos, but he did seem to enjoy it. I think. James seemed to be much more interested in the little plastic toy his teacher let him play with than anything else. We did work on getting him used to the water and kicking and floating on his back.
Then on Sunday we decided to try out our pool. As soon as James woke up from his nap we started to get ready to go. It took almost two hours to feed James, change him, dress him in a swim diaper and bathing suit, lather him up with sunscreen, dress Jim and me, apply our own sunscreen, and pack up the towels, floats, and other necessary items. As soon as we finished all that, we made the trek over to the pool, got in the water, and James started rubbing his eyes. Perfect timing! After all that, he lasted all of about fifteen minutes and that was pushing it. All that preparation must have seriously worn him out, because I have never seen him that tired. He looked like he was about to fall asleep in his little float. So we got out of the water, dried him off, and headed home where we had to go through the whole routine again and change him, clean him up, dress him, feed him, change our own clothes, etc. and get him down for a nap. It was almost not worth all the trouble.

There's nothing I enjoy more than spending a hot weekend afternoon at the pool, but sadly I think those days are over. It looks like I may be joining Jim in the comforts of the AC from now on.

My Little Foodie

He still doesn't have any teeth, but James has gotten the hang of the pincer grip and gumming his finger foods. We are definitely finding alot more food on the floor than he gets in his mouth, but it sure is alot of fun watching him. Plus with all that food on the floor, it's an added bonus for Max. We are still working on the sippy cup, but James has made alot of progress there too. James seems to enjoy banging the cup on his tray and dropping it on the floor more than he enjoys actually drinking from it. He has turned it into a game of dropping it, and seeing how many times he can get Jim or me to pick it up before we take it away. Even Max has learned that when James picks up the cup and starts swinging, he better stop begging under the high chair and move out of the way.

The Wonders of Paper

It is so true what they say about kids and toys. James has piles and piles of toys all over our house that play music, flash bright lights, and make cool sounds, but right now his favorite thing to play with is paper. It doesn't matter what kind of paper - wrapping paper, newspaper, my grocery list, his daily report from day care, napkins, paper towels - you name it, if it's paper he will play with it for hours without getting bored. Uncle Greg told him yesterday that he's getting him a notebook for Christmas. I have no doubt that if he did, it would be James's favorite gift.

Almost Ready to Move

We spent the long Memorial Day Weekend getting in some good old fashioned time on the floor with James in hopes that he'll be ready to crawl soon. I'm not sure if he's quite there yet, but he looks so darn cute that I had to post this video so you could see what's he been up to. He props himself up with his hands, and kicks his legs out like he's trying to move, but he can't quite figure out how to make them go yet. The result is a cross somewhere between a flutter kick and a beached whale. He'll get there soon. He's also really starting to babble, which you can hear on the video. It sure sounds like he's saying DaDa even if he doesn't know what it means. Sadly MaMa is not anywhere in his vocabulary yet.

Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend we took James back home for the first time. I guess I shouldn't say home, because Charlotte is our home, and when I was little I used to get mad at my mom when she would refer to Escanaba as home instead of Lewiston. So rather, we took James to Western New York last weekend for the first time. It was a wonderful weekend, but wow, was it busy! I thought our trips back home before James were busy. I had no idea! We did the usual West Seneca Lewiston shuffle and back again. The highlight of our weekend was James's christening at St. John Vianney on Sunday. We also got to attend Kevin's law school graduation and party and see lots and lots of family and friends. Jim and I counted, and we were able to introduce James to over 70 friends and extended family members while we were there! And that's not counting all the people that he met in the airport and on the plane. Speaking of which, James did great on the plane for the first time.
James started off the weekend by meeting his great grandparents. They'd heard so much about James III, I know they were just thrilled to finally meet him.

He also got to meet Great Aunt Kathy and have some fun at Grandma's house.

Next it was off to Grandpa's house, where James had pastina for the first time. Grandpa also gave him a nice piece of pork tenderloin to suck on, which he really seemed to enjoy. Gotta start them young to keep up with all the eating in the Canali family!

He hung with Uncle Kevin. They have the same color hair, which we learned from Aunt Fran, came from James's great great great Grandfather.

Meeting future Aunt Lindsay.

Chillin with cousins Olivia and Lorena.

Great Great Aunt Betty.

Meeting his new friend Alyssa.

James loved Pina, but who doesn't?

James will have another new friend next time we visit. Jack or Sawyer is in Meaghan's belly.

Having fun with Rona.

I got to attend Meghan's baby shower while we were there. That's a Blue NA, but everyone at the shower did a double take.Kevin's law school graduation.

The graduate. We're so proud of him!

Suzi and Uncle Greg came all the way from Charlotte for the festivities.

Clowning around with his godparents, Uncle Jon and Aunt Alicia, before church.

Great Uncle Les and Aunt Jeanne came all the way from Escanaba.

At the baptism. Yes, James wore a gown. It was a beautiful handmade gown that came all the way from Venice. Grandma brought it back from her trip to Italy when James was born.

Meeting Great Uncle Tim.

What an angel! He didn't even flinch when the water was poured on his head. Monseigneur Gallagher said that means he is going to be a priest!!

Getting a congratulatory kiss from cousin Ava.

Proud Great Grandpa Guelfo.

We celebrated at Pearl Street Grill & Brewery after the ceremony.

It was a great weekend but very exhausting. I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep. We took hundreds more pictures during the weekend and I could only post a few here, so I'll post them on Kodak Gallery soon. Thanks to all our friends and family for making it such a special weekend and welcoming James with such open arms. We can't wait for our next visit!

My First Mother's Day

Last weekend I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day. It was nice to finally be able to think of Mother's Day as a day to celebrate, rather than spend the day being sad. Jim and James (and Max too) went out of their way to make my first Mother's Day very special. James came home from daycare last week with a homemade Mother's Day present. It was a little laminated craft with his handprints and a poem imprinted on it. It was so cute, that I teared up when I opened it. Now I know why my Mom used to say that homemade cards and presents were her favorite. I never believed her until now.

As usual Jim went above and beyond, giving me way too much. I got roses and a beautiful heart shaped locket with a picture of James for my charm bracelet. Jim also surprised me by taking James to get his picture taken. He picked James up from daycare, dressed them in matching outfits, and had the most adorable pictures taken of the two of them. All without me knowing a thing! We also went to brunch at Maddi's Southern Bistro in Birkdale Village, and I ate way too much. James was pretty well behaved. The only time he was really fussy was after the large table of people in his line of view left, our waiter wasn't interested in paying him any attention, and he cried because he couldn't get anyone to look at him. The entire weekend was wonderful, but the best part was just spending time together as a family.

I also spent the day thinking about and missing my own mother. No matter how much joy James brings to my life, there is always something missing. It's hard to believe she will never know James, or see me as a mother myself. It's also hard for me to believe that James will never get to know the amazing person I got to call mom. The best I can do is try to keep her memory and spirit alive by carrying on as many traditions as possible, and telling him what an wonderful person she was. Hopefully she would be as proud of me, as I am of her.

James 2.0

Introducing......the new James. After twelve very long days, James got the retainers out of his nose, and we were finally able to see the full effect of his surgery. His lip looks amazing. I was shocked by how quickly it healed. These pictures were taken almost a week ago, and he has healed even more since then. Dr. Matthews said that things will continue to change over the next year, so we won't know exactly how everything will turn out until then. Whatever the end result, we are more than pleased. Dr. Matthews is truly an amazing doctor. Everything we heard was true, and I'm so glad we found him. He may be a little quirky, but he really loves the kids and you can just tell that is why he does what he does. He still intimidates the heck out of me, and I've learned to not really ask questions for fear of getting either 1) much more confused than I already was, 2) a lecture about the many problems with my diet, 3) a stare of utter disgust for my pure stupidity, or a combination of all three. So rather than feel like we understood exactly what to expect during and after the surgery, Jim and I just had to put all our faith and trust in Dr. Matthews. It certainly paid off because, he sure knows what he's talking, or in his case, not talking, about!


Jim's previous post really summed up the whole surgery experience, so there's really not much to add. The only thing I'll say is that it was alot more difficult and emotional that I thought it would be. Everyone kept telling me how resilient babies are, and how quickly he would bounce back, etc., etc. And that is all true, but I don't think anyone can really prepare you for seeing your baby in the recovery room hooked up to all kinds of machines and struggling to come out of the anesthesia. At least I wasn't prepared for how hard it was to see James like that. It was a feeling of helplessness like I've never felt before, because there was nothing I could do to make him comfortable. I keep playing that first day and very long night in my head over and over again. I can hear him crying with that horrible hoarse cry from the tube in his throat and see him thrashing in pain, and it just makes me sad. Luckily by early afternoon on the day after, he was nursing again, and we started to see signs of the old James shining through. Then as we were walking through the hospital to take James home after we were discharged, I had a major reality check as I saw all the families who weren't taking their babies home. I hugged James a little tighter that day as we walked through the lobby, because no matter how tough the last 24 hours had been, I knew just how lucky we were that James only had a cleft lip.

From James J. Lilley I to James J. Lilley III

It seems ironic that as my father's birthday approaches tomorrow, today was a wonderful day for James III. James had his retainers removed today and the last of his stitches wiped away and we were left with the unencumbered vision of our most handsome son. It is so wonderful to see our son a few weeks after his surgery. He looks fantastic and his personality just shines through a new and improved lip and nose.

As proud as I am to have such a wonderful son, there is always a sadness that comes about when an anniversary or birthday approaches for one of our family's special angels. In this case it is my father's birthday tomorrow, cinco de mayo. My dad would have been so amused by James. His personality is so infectious and my dad would have just melted when he was around him. The first James J. was a wonderful wonderful father. He was perfect in every way. He coached all of our teams, was the first one at parent / teacher conferences and made sure that we not only had everything we needed but also everything we wanted.

It is days like tomorrow that I am so grateful to Christy for naming our son after my father. There is only so much that you can do to pay tribute to a man that did so many times more for you than you could ever imagine doing for him. Our annual golf tournament is something that brings so many friends together to reminisce about my dad but there is something about looking into the same blue eyes that my father had and knowing that, although James will never know his grandfather, I can someday tell him why he is named James III.

James makes it easier to get over the loss of such a special person as he greets us with a smile and a giggle every morning and is that kind of playful that makes you never want to say "no" to him. I would like to think that was the way my father felt about Jon and me and the reason he was such a good father to us. I hope to use everything he taught me to be the same kind of father to James.

It is in thinking about the baseball, basketball, and hockey games; the trips to the golf course at a very early age; the tutoring that came when helping with homework; the times I would come out of last period in high school to see my dad waiting for me in the foyer; the times when he would come to my games in college with my mother just to turn around and immediately go to one of Jon's games right after mine ended; and all of those hours just sitting around in the garage on a warm summer's night just talking about the day that leads me to say, "Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you enjoy your very special present, a precious young boy named in your honor."

My Boy!

As Christy gets some much needed sleep and there is finally a free minute where James decided to do the same, I figured I would take a minute to update everyone on James' surgery last week. After our pre-op on Tuesday, we felt comfortable with what we were in store for on Thursday for James' surgery. James had been as personable, cute, and entertaining as we had seen him in the days leading up to his surgery and that hadn't changed the morning of the big day.
We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 am for the schedules 8:45 surgery. James was not able to eat after 2 a.m. so we were hoping the surgery would start on time. James was in such a great mood and decided he wanted to show off for everyone who came into the room presurgery by rolling over, talking, laughing, and doing anything he could think of to get a reaction. Of course surgery was delayed so we had to spend an extra 30 minutes keeping James occupied and keeping him from realizing he was hungry.
Letting James go with the nurse into surgery was one of the toughest things we had to do. Nervous about the anesthesia, the surgery, and how he would be after the surgery, we seemed to have it hit us at once as it was time to let him go. After a few healthy tears we were actually given our own waiting room (I am guessing we will see that on the bill at some point) and didn't have too much difficulty getting through the two hours. Our first update, after a half hour, assured us that the anesthesia had gone well and Dr. Matthews had begun working on James. We had one more update an hour later and then Dr. Matthews came in right around 2 hours after they had taken James back to give us the recap.
He said that surgery had gone well. He was very pleased with the lip and had been able to help the nose also. Because of the cartilage in the left nostril, a retainer was needed to help form the nostril. The stitches are desolvable so the only thing that would eventually need to be removed besides the retainer was a piece of tape over the lip.
We were then able to see James and he was really struggling to get over the after effects of anesthesia. He seemed like he was in some pain but the nurses explained that as the anesthesia wears off it is similar to a hangover. And as you can imagine, if a 25 year old has a problem with a hangover, you can imagine the discomfort for a six month old. Also, by virtue of the tube that was down his throat during surgery, he had considerable discomfort in his throat for a few days after. The next 24 hours were spent in our own hospital room with James seemingly in and out of pain and getting over the anesthesia. He was able to sleep an hour or two in his hospital bed and then spent another 3 or so hours sleeping in my arms. Around noon on Friday the old James started coming back. His personality came back a bit by bit and it was interesting to see the old personality coming through two swolen cheeks, a swolen lip, and a very raspy voice that sounded like offspring of kermit the frog and 60 year old two pack a day smoker. The nurses took off the bandage and we were able to get our first glimpse at the repairs. It looked great. The lip was unbelievable.
James was reluctant to eat for the better part of 24 hours after surgery and as Dr. Matthews visited us on Friday morning, he said we were ready to be discharged after James ate. We proceeded to wait on Mr. James for a while until he decided it was time to put the new lip to work and get some nourishment. He ate twice and we were discharged around 3 p.m.
We arrived home to our good buddy Max and Uncle Greg and had a wonderful, albeit relatively sleepless, weekend.
As of today, James is doing wonderful. We visited Dr. Matthews today and he said everything looked great. We are scheduled to visit again next Tuesday at which point the stitches should be desolved and the retainer will most likely be removed. James goes back to daycare tomorrow and that will be the last step to resume regular activity. He continues to have an abundance of personality which makes every minute with him a blast and he also continues to not want to sleep which makes alot more of those minutes for us to spend with him.
Thanks to all for your well wishes, prayers, and follow up. Although it was the three of us in the hospital, we knew there were many more with us in spirit and thoughts. We will look to get some pictures up soon and I am sure Christy will be much more eloquent with her post in the upcoming days.

6 months

Our baby boy turned six months old yesterday. It's hard to believe he's a half year old already! It's the strangest feeling, because it feels like it has gone by so quickly, but at the same time, October 15th seems like forever ago. James celebrated his half year birthday by expanding his repertoire of solids and eating some green peas made by yours truly. The little guy made me so proud, and devoured them! He also had his six month well visit and got two shots and drank one vaccine. He weighed in somewhere between 15 and 16 pounds, and measured around 25.5 inches. We didn't get an exact reading because in typical James fashion he peed on the nurse as she was trying to weigh him! He's still on the small side, with his weight and height only somewhere around the 10th percentile, but his noggin is in the 34th percentile. Even so, his doctor says he's doing great, and was impressed with his strength and determination to move and wiggle around like a bucking bronco while the doctor was trying to examine him.

Now that James has moved on to solids, I'm determined to make him a healthy eater who eats all kinds of foods. I've decided to make his baby food myself using the Babycook I got for my birthday from my Dad and Liz. It's really simple to use, and the food tastes great. At least Max and I think so!

Yesterday I made peas and sweet potatoes, and I was so impressed by the colors that I had to post a picture.

Here's the finished product stored in little baby food containers that can go right into the freezer. I had so much fun doing it, that I'm thinking about going into business like Diane Keaton in Baby Boom!

Just Swingin

James had his first experience on an actual outdoor swing this past weekend at Hailey Zakrzewski's 1st birthday party. After months of sleeping in his baby swing, it should come as no surprise that he loved this swing as well. Here's the video to prove it.

Working Mama

I finally have an excuse for being a complete slacker in my blog posts. I went back to work a few weeks ago, and we are still adjusting to being a two parent working family. I never thought I would be a working mom. I just always thought I would stay at home when I had kids, but so far things are going well. Of course I miss my little James, but it is nice to be back in the working world after more than five months off. I loved every minute I got to spend at home with my baby, but wow, was it hard work. I really don't know what's harder - being a working mom or a stay at home mom.

James seems to be adjusting to daycare. He's gotten better at taking a bottle, and he even takes a short nap most days. This is much improved from the first day when I had a good laugh when I went to pick him up. On his daily report under naps it was listed that he slept from 12:55pm to 1:00pm! That's our boy. He doesn't sleep much, even at home, but he's getting better. He's too afraid he's going to miss something, and he really likes to take everything in. I think that's what he likes most about daycare - all the action and people to watch.

Here's a pic of James all worn out after a day at daycare. Look at how he fell asleep gripping his chains. What a little cutie pie!

5 Months Old!

Well once again I have been slacking off on updating the blog. I swear, keeping family and friends updated with pictures of a baby is a full time job. Between uploading pictures to Kodak Gallery and Facebook and trying to keep up a blog, it can consume you. So here is a long overdue post with a video of James from his 5 month birthday this past week. James tried rice cereal for the first time on his 5 month birthday, and I tried to upload the video here but had some technical difficulties. If you want to see the video of him eating cereal you can check it out on my Facebook page. Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's our little Valentine in his festive holiday outfit. It says "All you need is L-O-V-E (and naps)". It's not the greatest picture of his outfit, but it's still pretty cute. He's actually more interested in his feet in the picture. You can see that he's grabbing them, and trying to talk to them! That's his new trick, talking to everyone and everything that will listen.

Last year we found out that we were expecting James on Valentine's Day. I surprised Jim by wrapping up a positive pregnancy test and giving it to him in a Valentine's gift bag. It's pretty hard to top that gift, but Mom and Dad get to enjoy a Valentine's night out on Friday. Thanks Suzi! We are going to try to go to dinner and a movie, but I'm not quite sure I'll be able to make it that late!

February Already?

I cannot believe it's February already. That means our baby boy will be 4 months old in less than 2 weeks. It also means I have to go back to work next month! I'm actually not going back until the last week in March, so I still have close to 8 weeks left, but I still have to say I'm going back to work NEXT month. I hate the idea, but I know it's something I have to do. I try not to think about it, but I can't help it. When I first had James, 24 weeks seemed like an eternity, and now with less than 8 weeks left I have no idea where the time went. I thought I'd really take advantage of the time off and have a chance to do all kinds of projects and go all kinds of places, but my days have been filled with diaper changes, feedings, trying to get James to nap, and singing silly songs and doing crazy dances to try to entertain a screaming baby. Sometimes I ask myself what do I have to show for all my time off? Then I look over at my happy, healthy, growing baby and realize that's what I have to show for it. Taking care of James was what I was supposed to do over these many weeks and that's exactly what I did.


We survived North Carolina's first winter storm of 2010. We actually got about 5 inches of snow, which is quite a bit. They don't plow the streets here, so our neighborhood was a sheet of ice all last weekend. I'm proud to say that with the exception of walking Max, I haven't left the house since last Thursday! I've really embraced the Southern way of life!


Max loves the snow. It's so much fun to watch him try to figure out what it is when it first covers the ground. James didn't make it out to play in the snow this year, but I can't wait to see him in it next year with all the other kids in the neighborhood. The kids here really take advantage of the snow. They are out playing before 8AM and still out when I'm putting James to bed at night. Yesterday during our walk I noticed more snowmen in our neighborhood than I think I ever saw in my entire life growing up in Western New York!

Infant Massage

Over the weekend we took James to an infant massage class. Before you laugh and call me crazy like some members of my family did, I will tell you that the classes are taught at our hospital by the same RN who taught all of our childbirth classes, and the benefits of infant massage include parent child bonding, relaxation and stress relief, reduction of fussiness, relief of discomfort from colic, gas, teething, and congestion, and improvement of sleep quality, among many other things. So it's not like we took him to spa to get a baby massage like Uncle Greg thought.

James really seemed to enjoy the class. He was the only boy in a class full of girls, and there was one little girl in particular, Mackenzie, that he couldn't take his eyes off of. He smiled, made all kinds of noises and kicked like crazy while mom and dad learned the different strokes and massage techniques. The instructor had us undress the babies from the waist down, including their diapers, in order to get the most out of the massage. Well at one point James must have been feeling really relaxed, because he just started peeing. The stream went right over his head in a huge arc and caught the attention of all the moms and dads in the class! Everyone started laughing including James himself. He seemed quite proud of himself and gave us the biggest smile and let out a huge giggle. Being fathers of girls, the other dads hadn't seen such an act before, so they were quite impressed by this feat. They all wanted him to do it again. Luckily he didn't, but there is always next week!

That's our boy!

James's Busy Week

Well let me first start by addressing the title of this post
"James's Busy Week". Ever since considering giving our son a name ending in "s" I was bothered by the fact that I was unsure of exactly how to form the possessive singular of James. I have seen it both ways - James' and James's. If I write "James's" spellchecker immediately flags it as incorrect and changes it to James'. Not wanting my baby to grow up in a world where his mother doesn't know how to correctly form the singular possessive of his name, I consulted "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. Strunk and White is basically the bible for American English grammar and writing, and as a lawyer I keep my copy within arm's reach at all times. According to Strunk and White, we form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. This rule should be followed whatever the final consonant. Thus write, "Charles's friend", "Burns's poem", and "the witch's malice". This is the usage of the United States Printing Office and the Oxford University Press. So to form the singular possessive of James, I should write "James's". Do you see why I have trouble sleeping at night? These are the problems I plague myself with!


Ok now that I've got that cleared up and off my chest, I can get on to the subject of this post - James's busy week. Last weekend James got a visit from his friend Carly, and what a great time he had. It's hard for me to believe that I have been friends with Carly's mom Rachel since we were six years old. We've been through everything together and now we are experiencing motherhood together too. It's crazy to think about.


We spent the weekend just hanging with the kiddos. It was so much fun to see Carly at ten months old. She is so active and such a sweet and happy little girl. She has the greatest little faces and definitely tells you exactly what she is thinking! She seemed more interested in Max than James, but she gave us a preview of what James will be like in just a few short months. It's amazing how much babies change in the first year of life.

This week James also had a playdate with his friend Dominic. James is just a little more than two weeks older than Dominic, so I got to experience my entire pregnancy with his mom Theresa, and now I am experiencing motherhood with her too. It's so nice having a good friend going through the exact same things at the same time. Dominic and James were so cute together. At one point when they were laying together they grasped hands and held onto each other for a few minutes. It was so cute. I think it means they will be best buddies for life!

Also this week James started reaching for objects. Here he is grabbing for Mr. Giraffe on his play gym. So far he only really grabs with his left hand. Does that mean he will be left handed? I guess only time will tell. It may be a good sign for his future as a Yankees first baseman ...