Introduction to James, Elias, and Cora

James enjoyed Walt Disney World for the first time this weekend. We were celebrating Teri's (Tobias' youngest sister) high school graduation and 19th birthday. My friend, Marissa, did all the hard planning so the trip was stress free. Another Navy wife, Tory also joined us on the trip and the 5 of us had a wonderful time. We left early Saturday morning for Orlando and were at Magic Kingdom by 930. We had a blast even though we had to put on our ponchos due to a couple of nasty thunder storms. James is in the stroller posing with Marissa, Teri, and Tory. While at Magic Kingdom James did his first ride ever - the Haunted Mansion. Here we are waiting in line. He didn't really seem too impressed with that ride, but he absolutely loved It's a Small World . You can tell by his expression that he is loving the display in this picture with Marissa. Aunt Teri even took him on his first carousel ride. I think he enjoyed that a lot too! Sunday we went to my favorite Disney p...

James' development has been so rapid this month! It's amazing how much his motor skills have advanced. Exciting skills now include almost crawling, putting everything in his mouth, and holding his own bottle. Gotta love livin' in Florida. The weather here is perfect... for now. The miserable days are on there way! James is now mobile - which is funny. It was the fastest change ever. One day, he was only able to roll over and the next he was getting up on all fours. A couple days after that he was able to move backwards (that's right, babies crawl backwards first). While in the shower one day, I had James on the floor of our bedroom. I came out and he was almost entirely under the bed! The pictures below show the progression. All these were taken within a week. Phase 1: James is on his stomach. Phase 2: James under the bed - looking a little distraught. Phase 3: Up on all 4s. Don't mind the drool, it's still a sweet picture. In other news, James and Bandit, our d...

Tobias left for deployment about a week and a half ago and we're doing well so far. We hear from him almost every day via email. He'll be gone for about 7 months, but we're already anxiously awaiting his return. The day before Tobias left his squadron had a change of command ceremony, which is why he was all dressed up in chokers in the above picture. He looks pretty impressive with the medal and ribbons. The morning Tobias left we were able to escort him aboard his ship, USS BOONE ( FFG 28). This picture was taken by one of the Sailors. James seems to be more interested in looking at the flight deck than the camera, but Tobias looks great! For a baby who once hated being on his stomach, he's sure grown to love it. This is how I found James when he woke up from a nap last week. He is now able to roll over to from his back to his stomach and his stomach to his back. Pretty exciting! Sweet boy! This past weekend James and I flew up to New Hampshire to visit w...

Today is the season opener for our very own Jacksonville Suns, which is the minor league baseball team here. Tobias really wants to take James to his first baseball game, so we're going. In honor of the occasion I put James in his little baseball outfit - doesn't he look cute?! Yesterday we went to the zoo with our friend Joanne and her 22 month old twins, Naomi and Julius. Aren't they the sweetest looking kids ever?! These kids are destined for greatness - both their parents were varsity athletes at the Naval Academy and very intelligent (Joanne was a math major and Dan was a computer science major). Not only are they smart and intelligent, they're also so nice and very funny. My wonderful roommate, Stephanie, from the mighty warship, USS PRINCETON (CG-59), was in town from San Diego for a conference and came to visit. Stephanie was only here for one night, but watched James for us so Tobias and I could enjoy a date before he leaves on deployment. Look at Steph with ...

Today marks the first ever Walters' Family Day. We will always celebrate today because it the day that James became a legal member of our family. The 3 of us with the judge who signed the adoption papers, recognizing us as James' legal parents. This morning we met with our lawyer and went before a judge to finalize our adoption. The entire hearing took less than 10 minutes, including time for pictures. We were sworn in and asked simple questions like our names, place and date of marriage, and if we were willing to accept responsibility for raising James. Our social worker, Tramona, was able to join us for the hearing and the four us went to lunch afterwards to celebrate James! This afternoon we had our first ever family pictures taken to celebrate Family Day. James is a very smiley baby, but he's also very curious. We had a hard time getting him to smile, he was more interested in looking at the photographer, the fancy lights, and her camera. We're pleased with the res...

Earlier this month James had his 4 month checkup. He's now 27.5 inches long (that's above the 95t h percentile) and 16.8 lbs (75 th percentile). The shots and everything went well for James and developmentally he's doing great. At the appointment we got the go-ahead to start feeding James food. So far we've tried fresh bananas mixed in with rice cereal, pears, peas, and carrots. Any guess what he was eating when we took this picture? Carrots are by far his favorite. Weird , we know, but he loves them. James is also learning to roll over, he did it twice this morning. He doesn't love belly time, but it's important developmentally, so we have him on his belly a lot these days. He loves the little tractor from Grandpa and Grandma Walters and will push it between both hands. It's funny to watch him because it takes a lot of concentration to move that little tractor. James was also lucky enough to have his first trip to the zoo last week. Tobias' good frie...