Introduction to James, Elias, and Cora

After a wonderful visit in KS James and I are heading home to FL tonight. We have a red eye flight and will arrive in Jacksonville at 5am Thursday morning. I hope everything goes smoothly. Traveling alone with James has me a bit worried. We're visiting with Great Grandma Leah today, and I'm on her computer to post some much awaited pictures. Enjoy! James and Great Grandma Leah. This is James in Tobias' old letter jacket from high school. Take a look at that! Bonding with Grandma Edie. Isn't that a funny little face! James' first Thanksgiving meal. Take a look at all that yummy food. James slept through most of the meal! It was so wonderful to share the Thanksgiving with him - there's some much to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Tobias, James, and I made it safely out to St. Francis, KS (as good as it gets) on Sunday after a long day. We woke up about 3am and were out of Jacksonville on the 6am flight to Denver. James did great on the flight. We only had about 10 minutes of a crying spell and that was it. Tobias and I worried the entire flight, of course! We made it to Denver before 8am and were able to have breakfast and visit with Great-Grandma Leah. It was a great visit. I'll have to post pictures in a later post, I don't have that camera with me. James slept the entire 3 hour drive to St. Francis, and we made it out to Tobias' farm about 6pm that night. We were so tired and thankful that we made it to the farm! What a day! Jim, Tobias' dad and the person Sweet Baby James is named for, was diagnosed with prostate cancer about 2 weeks before James was born. Jim had his surgery on 11/15 and made it home on Monday evening. What a joy to see James with Grandpa Jim a...

It's been really cool to see Tobias become a dad. And not just any ol' dad, but a GREAT Dad! Tobias had a pretty rough day and didn't make it home at all yesterday. He came home about 10am this morning and James and Tobias spent some quality time together. Fun stuff! Here are some bonding pictures I thought were just too cute. And now on to some other really cute pictures from earlier in the week. This one was taken yesterday. I thought the little rugby jumper was so sweet on him. And just to compare where he was last week with now. Look at my sweet boy - my goodness how he's grown.

Nothing too exciting happening - except that James is getting so big. It's amazing how strong he is now. Here are some great pictures to see how much he's changed just in the past few days alone! Sun bathing with Aunt Crystal. It's amazing how well he fits on the armrest of our chair. Feeding with Aunt Crystal. Look - he's awake! We can occassionally see his eyes. They are still a very beautiful slate blue color. And now we have a double chin - woohoo !!

James is doing very well! We went back to the pediatrician yesterday, and he's now 8 lbs 6 oz and his jaudice is no longer a problem. He's gained so much muscle control and is changing daily. Since the last post we've enjoyed a short visit with Jill Mama and are now enjoying getting to know Aunt Crystal (Tobias' sister) and Uncle Kyle. Jill Mama fell in love with Sweet Baby James within minutes. She said we spoiled him by holding him too much - so she held him instead! Sweet Baby James is getting some good cuddle time with Aunt Crystal and Uncle Kyle. Last night we went to visit Tobias at the squadron and got a little tour of a helicopter. How exciting for the little aviator - he slept through the whole thing. =) This afternoon we enjoyed our first visit to the beach. The fun of being a FL baby - even in November you can enjoy the beach. It was about 70 degrees out there today.

What a day this has been. This morning Tobias and I took Sweet Baby James to his first pediatrician appointment. He is perfectly healthy, but just has a touch of Jaundice. As ordered by the doctor we're now sunning him. I thought that made a cute picture. Then Tobias had to work and we hung out at home. James discovered the fun of a swing today. That was kinda cool! Then we went to pick up Jill Mama (my mom) at the airport. That was his first time at the airport and first time in the parking garage. What fun to have Jill Mama here - too bad she leaves tomorrow. This evening we gave James his first bath! What an experience that was. We had to be really careful with his belly button, but we made it through. And (of course) as soon as we got him out of the bath and were drying him off he peed everywhere! =) Ahh, so fresh and so clean! And now it's time for bed!

While Tobias and I were very proud of ourselves for posting pictures on Saturday, we soon learned that the pictures weren't good enough. We now realize that no one really wants to see what Tobias and I look like, James is the one everyone wants to see! Not that we can blame anyone for that - he's a wonderful baby! We returned home safetly last night. James and Bandit had their first meeting and that was not very eventful. =) James is a very good baby so far. He is a very good eater!

Welcome to the world James Douglas Walters! He joined us yesterday at 6:16 pm Eastern Daylight Time. He weighed in at 7lb 14 oz and 21.5 inches long! He's long and lean. Tobias says we can call him 'Slim.' Everything with the labor went very well for the birth mother and I was actually in the delivery room for the birth. I also got to cut the umbilical cord. Wow, what an exciting experience. His birth mother did very well and seems to still be comfortable with her adoption plan. Tobias and I arrived at the hospital yesterday about 11pm, so we weren't really there for very long. While we waited we tailgated for a while (we needed some energy), which we thought was kinda funny. We stayed at the hospital until about 1am last night and were back this morning. Things are going so fast and it's such an amazing experience. We are so thankful for everyones thoughts and prayers. He's a very healthy baby - APGAR score of 9.9! We know you're just wanting to see p...