One year older, and wiser, too

Sweet Baby James is now one year old.

 

Isn't his hair fantastic? After his first haircut, we are now showing off those curls. Other babies be jealous.

We celebrated his birthday last Saturday at a park in Bountiful with his twinner cousin Phin (born a few days before him). I really hope these two boy babies grow up to be good friends. They are so darn cute together.  Here is some of the Richards family that was there:
 

We stripped down the babies for their smash cakes. James's was my carrot cake I make from scratch. I made his a basketball in honor of one of his first words.  He knew what to do.

We can now fill in the blanks on his chart, because he had his one year checkup this week.

-He is 24 pounds 1 ounce, 31.75 inches long.
-He has 8 teeth and is not afraid to use them ("Mom! James BIT me!").
-He can now finally crawl on his hands and knees, pull to standing, and even stand for the splittest of seconds without holding on.
-Claps all the time, babbles and says "Maaaa!" for Mom and for Max.
-Loves his older brothers, loves to nurse on demand, and loves to sleep right by his mom and dad.

After the picnic, we went swimming at the rec center nearby. I first washed off all the carrot cake from his folds and hair with the cold water at the park, and baby James loudly squawked his displeasure. But he loved the warm pool water. And the older boys had a great time swimming with cousins and aunts and uncles.

Of cheeks, curls and words

One year ago this week I was going through contractions every night. Now I have a chunky, curly, curious, darling baby who is almost one year old!

You'll notice that is our bed he is sleeping on. I've done it again, just like when Andrew was a baby, I have created a co-sleeping monster.

I also apparently don't mind my babies eating rocks or wood chips.

(He's like, "What is this? Fugget about it!")

And now my boy says more words. For those not on Instagram, here is a video where Andrew and I prompt baby James to say his new word. It makes sense he would say "basketball" in this house of ours.

In Summer

"Sometimes I like to close my eyes, and imagine what it'll be like when summer does come." - Olaf



My bigger boys are now out of school for the summer, and they have mixed feelings about this. They loved their teachers this year. Here's Benny with his AM Kindergarten teacher:

And Max with his teacher who taught the 3rd/4th grade split class this year. Max did not get him again for fourth grade, he learned he has another male teacher so he's excited about that.

We are very grateful for their patience with our boys (Max maaaayyyy have been an interrupting talker at the beginning of the year) and how they would notice their strengths (Benny is very good at math, both boys are good readers).

Now we need to keep up that good work through the summer. I will still read every night with them, but I would love it if they would just pick up a book and find a cozy corner like I did growing up (and still like to do).

I know they have big plans to run wild with our neighborhood boys, but I also have a jar of suggestions if they come to me saying "I'm BOR-ed." They involve chores or making up math problems.

I imagine 3-year-old Andrew will want to tag along with whatever they are doing. This could be good, it could get problematic.  Just as long as I can still nap with the baby, that would be grrrreat. And if they could still go to bed at 7:30, that would also be ideal. Black-out window shades, here we come.

Hey look: girls!

-The Pontipee brothers going to town with Millie to get supplies, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Sometimes, the old sadness flares up again. But most times this is our family; we don't even notice it's all boys around here. Until funny moments pop up that remind me that these 4 boys don't have any sister(s).

For instance, my hair is getting pretty long now, and recently I put it in a simple braid for variety and to keep it away from my new habit of splitting the ends (you know what I mean, ladies. Can't. Stop.).

Benny sat behind me in the car and was awestruck by the braid. "Mom! How did you do that? What is it called? Could you do two? You would look like Anna on Frozen!"  He has no sisters with elaborate hairstyles and must not really notice girls' hair at school or church that much.

Recently, I painted my toenails again to get ready for sandals. 3-year-old Andrew was enthralled by my pink toes.

Another time, the older two boys asked me seriously, "What's Strawberry Shortcake?" A friend of theirs has a sister into this phenomenon and they were dumbfounded by it.

Besides Frozen (and Tangled and The Princess and the Frog a few years ago), they haven't seen many any other Princess-type movies. When we rode The Little Mermaid ride a year ago at Disneyland they hissed, "What's going on? Who are these people?"

Each time this happens I think, they don't have sisters, they have no idea.

Except Andrew doesn't seem to be fazed. As we talk through potty-training we go through everyone we know who poops on the pot (if you are reading this, your name has probably come up, too). He told me the other day "My brudders and sisters go on the potty."  Then, on our walk, he talked about his sister named "she-gator." I asked about her, and he said she liked to eat sandwiches.

So, maybe he knows something we don't know. Or he has been watching Frozen too much.

Stapled

I have been known to warn the boys not to jump on the couch/climb trees/goof off on concrete/climb the outside of a slide/you name it, because "You could crack your head open."

Imagine my shock when Max came running up the sidewalk from our neighbor's house recently crying, "Andy cracked my head open!"

He had a gash on the back of his head. He said Andy accidentally pushed a wooden swing and it hit him. Heads bleed a lot but JB knew right away it needed stitches.

I gave him my other homemade Pinterest icepack (JB took the other one to the Instacare almost exactly a year ago when a shovel cut his forehead. That icepack, too, did not return home. I liked how flexible it was) and he held it to his head as JB drove him away.

Despite all these active boys, we haven't had much in the way of trauma, so I gathered the littler boys and we said a prayer for Max, and soon JB texted this picture:

"With the numbing gel about to get stitched."

Brave smile.

In the end, they decided on 5 or 6 staples, because it was the back of his head under hair, and staples are much quicker in those cases, they said.

You could barely see them:

He got them out last Thursday, and the nurse put them in a cup for him. He left it at Uncle Joe and Aunt Sarah's house, but they are bringing them back for him for show and tell.

By the way, Andy and his mom and the neighbor with the swing were all so apologetic and horrified and brought Creamies over for Max. Benny almost wanted staples, too, so he could have his own box of Creamies.  Andy told his mom they were playing a game where Max would try to miss the swing as he went under it while Andy pushed. Apparently they had a near miss right before and laughed in the face of danger, ha ha ha.

We are very glad it wasn't worse!

Derbied

Max participated in his first cub scouts Pinewood Derby this week, and won third place!

I like to think JB really won third place, because he basically did the whole car. It was cool looking and fast, only losing to the others by a little bit on the official timer.

Look at how happy Benny was for Max when his name was called after the official scores were read:

Max also got candy....so.....that's a win. But it kinda meant a hard time for Benny on the way home. He felt his cheers and support also warranted at least a handful Swedish Fish in return.

Max attended a derby when he was a toddler but doesn't remember it. At that time I mentioned I expected a lot of Derbies in my future because I had two boys.  Now we have four boys!

I can't wait to see the cars they -- I mean JB -- makes.

James 11 months old

James is rolling around the floor, occasionally squawking for attention as I try to post this....almost a  week after he turned 11 months old. One. Sticker. Left.

Also, I think Andrew has the nail clippers and is trying to clip his own nails. Momma has to post about our happy lives, children!

I'm also trying to watch Call the Midwife as the older boys and JB are at jr jazz basketball practice. The closed captioning is on: "Mommy, is that baby James on the TV?"

Anyway, back to baby James.

He's so squishy and kissable and chunky.

He's in size 4 diapers (so is Andrew at night. James's bum is quickly growing bigger than Andrew's bum). He wears 12-18 month clothing. I love shirts on him that ride up and show his belly.

This month he has really stepped up his eating of our food we eat. But he still loves to nurse, and nurse-nap with me, and still has been known to wake up at night to drink, too. But I can't expect him to go from 7 to 7 yet. Cuz he's my baby-est of babies.

Also this month he has started more intense babbling and rasberry-blowing and looking at us seriously as he says stuff. He bleats MA! for me like a baby goat. He says BAH for ball. He claps and finally pulls to standing (sometimes) and is doing those things he should at this age. Except he sits up differently than other babies. Instead of pushing up onto his hands and knees and moving to sitting, he starts flat on his back....then sits up straight with his abs of steel in a sit-up. It's hilarious really. Sometimes he gets an elbow under to help him.

I haven't gotten that on video yet, but I did try to catch his bum-scooting he does. He can travel far on the wood floor.

He does a combination of rolling, stretching, sitting and turning, then rolling again to get around. It's cumbersome but very effective.

And now he's squawking and pulling on my shirt. Time to go! We love this boy.