Introduction to James, Elias, and Cora

First off - congratulations to Crystal (Tobias' totally awesome sister) and Kyle! Kyle popped the question yesterday and Crystal, being the smart woman she is, said yes! I spoke with Crystal this morning and she sounds so excited. The pictures are from Kyle and Crystal's visit down here right after James was born. James is also very excited for Kyle to officially become 'Uncle Kyle!' How you can follow up news of an engagement 10 years in the making? By showing the world how cute your son is! James and I have been doing pretty well since Tobias has been gone. Our friends have been great and have offered me rest and adult company too. One of the guys at Tobias' squadron, Matty, was even nice enough to watch James for a couple hours yesterday evening. Thank goodness for good friends! The pictures are just random ones I've been sending to Tobias while he's been underway. I try to send Tobias a picture every day so he can see how much James has grown. I ...

James was able to get to know another Grandpa this past week. My dad, Mel, was here for a quick 4 day visit. James and his grandpa were fast friends. I wanted to show everyone some pictures of their visit. It had been about a year and a half since I had last seen my dad and it was great to visit with him. Introducing my dad to my son was amazing! My dad is an orthodontist in the Sacramento area, so if anyone reading this is looking for a good orthodontist check him out at waltersortho.com . In other James news, we had another play date yesterday. There were 3 babies there - a 9 month old named Cole, James, and Cole's cousin - Chase, who is 4 days younger than James. Chase and Cole are dressed the same. James is the other cutie in stripes. James is the same height as Cole but little Chase was probably the biggest guy there! It was great fun and here are some pictures - posted with their mom's permission of course.

James has developed more in past week or so than ever before. He can kind of roll over - one arm has to be under him. He also laughs and is desperate to hold his own bottle! Today we tried rice cereal for the first time. That was so much fun. The video and the picture are from this morning. The look of surprise was priceless! This past Sunday our church chior hosted a beautiful baby shower for us. It was just like something out of Steel Magnolias - so glamorous! The ladies who hosted the shower are true Southern Ladies. It was so much fun - thanks so much. James recieved this really cool play thing at the shower. I have him propped up with blankets since he can't sit that well, but he loves it. He figured out how to push the buttons for sounds and lights. Such fun to watch him learn! Some sweet pictures of James with his Daddy. I just realized that Tobias leaves in six weeks! Who knew April would come so quickly! Tobias' parents, Jim and Edie were in town this past weekend t...

James and I have had a really great week so far - I realize it's only Tuesday though. We just came back from the library and now James is taking a quick nap. This morning Tobias, James, and I voted in the Presidential Primaries here in Florida. We're both registered democrats (Tobias just wanted to be able to vote for anyone but Hillary) so our votes don't really count. We just thought it was important to introduce James to the important civic responsibilities we enjoy. You'll notice James is wearing Tobias' 'I voted' sticker - that's going in the baby book. James doesn't have enough muscle to sit up yet, so when I placed him on the couch for a couple pictures he started in a sitting position and slowly ended up on his side. I started laughing and so did he. I love this picture. This picture is from yesterday and I thought it was so sweet. You can really see his dimples in this one. This one is for Jill Mama. I realize it's not the best pi...

James is finally over his cold and is doing very well. Yesterday I tried to put him in 3-6 month clothes and they were too tight. So now we're up to size 6-9 month clothes and we're in toddler size socks! It's amazing to me since he's not even 3 months old yet! This past week has been really busy for James. We had our first play date at a friend's house. There were 3 eight month old babies (2 boys and a girl) and a two and a half year old little girl. All the kids were great and the little two year old was a huge help. She would get bottles for us and make sure all the babies were okay! James didn't seem too interested in the other babies, but still the interaction is healthy - for both of us. Also, the 2 little boys get to see their dads for the first time in 6 months today as they're both returning from a 6 month deployment! In other exciting news, yesterday was our first time going grocery shopping just the 2 of us. James was great! Everyone was so imp...

I wanted to share some fun pictures of us in KS with Tobias' family. The Jim Walters' family as of January 2008. Jim and Edie are holding James. In the back row is me, Tobias, Josh (21, student at Colby Community College), Crystal (28, speech pathologist in Denver), and Teri (18, senior at St. Francis Community High School). James loves to smile. Here he is with Grandpa Jim laughing! Grandma Edie and Grandpa Jim with James. This is their first grandchild - you can tell how proud they are! On a completely different note, I wanted to share some pictures from this morning. For all those curious people out there, here's what James Douglas does in a typical day. He wakes up - cute a button. Last night he slept really well. Then time to eat and get ready for bath time. I wasn't able to get a picture of eating, but I'm sure everyone has seen a baby chowing down on a bottle. And time for bath time. James loves bath time and is learning to splash and have some fun. And...

James is now 2 months old! It's hard to believe that he's only been here for two months. He is such a wonderful part of our lives and we're so thankful for him. We went to the doctor and he's now 12lbs 11 oz and 25.5 inches long! That's 4 inches in just 8 weeks - no wonder he eats so much. We made it out to Kansas on Sunday afternoon and are having a great visit. The weather here is pretty different than what we're used to, but we're making the most of things. We celebrated New Years at home with Tobias' family, although we didn't make it past 10pm! I hope everything is going well for all of you. The FL family still tries to pretend we can handle this cold weather. In reality we're wearing about twice as much clothing as the rest of Tobias' family! James' first snow angel! Just relaxing in KS! I thought James looked so sweet in this picture!