My little Easter bunny

A little visitor came today. It was a cold snowy spring day but a little boy hopped hopped hopped to my house with a basket full of eggs. He was happy and smiled, and soon scampered off.

And he nommed on a carrot a bit.
And he wiggled and smiled.

And showed off his cute little fuzzy tail.
Little bunny bum.
"Mama, I'm happy to be your little Easter bunny, but don't you dare share these photos with my future girlfriends."

Dinner tonight

Tonight was a big night, we started James on solids! I've been hoping he'd sleep better at night since lately he's been getting up more and more. When I mentioned this to my doc she said that I could try James on rice cereal and see if that helps a bit. I didn't want to start last week right before our trip, so I decided to wait until tonight to start him on his new dinner.

He was a little unsure at first, but did end up swallowing a couple of bites. Near the end, however, he was making a face that looked like the cereal was utterly horrible. So funny! We'll try again on Thursday night (tomorrow we are dying eggs with E's family) and let's hope his nights get a bit better.

And then after the babe was in bed E and I made a yummy dinner of huevos rancheros. We started with a tortilla, topped with black beans, then added another tortilla and folded and filled that one with scrambled eggs. Then we topped with more beans, lots of cheese and salsa. Then we broiled and got it all melty, then added guacamole and more salsa. It was amazing. And easy.

E layers cheese, tortillas, black beans and eggs. Yum yum!
On top of the folded tortilla goes more beans.
After more cheese is added we toast under the broiler.
Then add sour cream, guac and more salsa. Easy dinner is complete!

Baby's first National Park

Last weekend James had a lot of firsts. First vacation. First long car ride. First hotel stay. First National Park. Overall it went well, after E and I figured out what the heck we were doing. We did learn a few things about James: he doesn't like to be in his car seat for extended periods of time, he hates the wind, when he wants to nurse (even if he just finished) he is not joking around, and he loves to flop his legs at night (E named this maneuver "whale tail").

With all the new learning, I was a little stressed at the beginning of the trip, even crying with James on one of the trails due to pure frustration. However at the end of the trip nobody wanted to leave, we were LOVING it!

I have so so so many photos, so I better get started.

Day 1 - We left Friday morning and drove the five hours to Zion National Park. Some of the drive I sat in the backseat with James. For 90% of the drive he was happy or sleeping. The 10% that he was crying, however, was horrible! Luckily we made it in good time and got the babe out of his car seat.
After feeding him and looking around the historic Zion Lodge we walked across the street to take the Emerald Pools hike. At first James seemed to be enjoying himself. He cooed and talked and looked around. Then about half way in (a mile from the trail head) we had a major major baby meltdown. Nothing calmed him, and I was so so so stressed. I felt so guilty and started to cry myself. Luckily James calmed down a little and we were able to get back to the car quickly.

Aren't these pre-meltdown photos cute though?

After a hard night of sleep in the hotel room with a very awake baby we took a little drive in hopes we could covert James into a park loving boy. We stopped at a pull-out and decided to explore around near the road. James seemed to enjoy it and our spirits were lifted!

And who doesn't love Southwestern cactus and blue sky?
And the sandstone was delicious. The warm golden light cast over orange stone. Nothing says spring like a trip to Southern Utah.
James was a little uncertain at first, but at least he wasn't crying.
And the weather was so so perfect.
E and I were so excited to take James to the visitor center and get him his own Passport to the National Parks! E and I got one of these back in 2002 and we've LOVED filling it up over the years with cancellations from all the parks we visited.

1- James at the Zion visitor center. Don't worry, E is behind him holding on tight!
2- Looking at the signs inside the visitor center. Something we always love to do.
3- Yea! He now has his very own National Park passport!
4- As you can see, we had to take a photo of James "stamping" his new passport with his very first national park!


That night we decided to try the hiking thing again. This time we took the River Walk to the entrance of Zion's famous narrows hike. Luckily this time James seemed to quite like the hike! We made sure to give him lots of positive reinforcement, and he smiled and looked around for the majority of the hike (and no crying!).
Here is our first family photo in a National Park!
He generally enjoyed hanging with Daddy in the front carrier and looking around.
That night we felt so happy, and the beautiful park seemed to mirror our good mood. The evening light was dreamy and magical. Then, once the sky darkened more the moon rose over the red cliffs of Zion.

The second night in the hotel James slept awesome and woke up happy and rested. We decided to do one last hike before heading home, and we are so glad we did! The weather was perfect and James was grinning from ear to ear. Everyone we met on the trail smiled and grinned at the happy little hiker.


At the end of the trail there was an unbelievable view of the canyon. We were happy to get another family photo.
And doesn't this shy little smile just kill you? He is so so sweet.
I just love him.
We had such a good time and were so glad James seemed to love it to. The drive home was awesome, with no crying and a happy rested baby when we arrived back in Salt Lake.

We are back!

Mama, Daddy and Babe are back from our first vacation! E and I decided to go to Zion National Park this weekend and enjoy the red rocks, the Southern Utah sun, and the amazing park. Plus, we needed to introduce James young to National Parks, since he is born into a park loving family.

I want to write a day by day post tomorrow and add lots of photos, but for now, I'll leave you with my best hiking partner:

4 months old! Photos with Wolfy

I am literally blown away. It has been four months since my life changed forever. In some ways I can't believe my baby is already four months old, time has just slipped away so quickly! In other ways, it seems like it was forever ago that my family was just E and I. And sleeping through the night is a distant distant memory.

James is doing fantastic! Yesterday at his four month doc visit we learned that he is growing perfectly. He is 35th percentile in weight (I thought he was a chunky monkey, but still only in the 35 %) but 75th percentile for height! What a good tall boy! He is hitting all of his milestones well, but still has not learned to roll over. Mama and Baby are working on that one though.

It seems like every day James learns something new. He has started to giggle in the last few days and it is so so wonderful! Luckily the first three or four times he did it E was around to see first hand! So awesome. He also has this new loud baby squeal that he does when he's happy, so funny! And, because he is getting better and better at using his hands, his new favorite trick is to grab his binky when it is in his mouth and remove it. This results in some fussing because he's not quite old enough to realize that he's the one that just rudely pulled the binky from his mouth!

Here are some photos of James at four months with Wolfy. He's huge!

Since James now can control his hands a little, he decides to give Wolfy a little scratch between the ears.
Heck yea it is exciting to be four months!
And there is a big baby smile!
And I took a little video today! It is super hard to hear, but James gives a tiny giggle at minute 1:00. Also, I've been trying to keep my blog tags organized, and I decided to add a video tag today (see the top of the post, under the title). You can click on it and see all the posts with videos in them! Or you want to see all the Wolfy photos? Chick on Milestones!

Day at the zoo

E and I have been so excited to take James to the zoo. He's not nearly old enough to really realize what is going on, but we were excited nonetheless. Especially since last year the zoo had a baby boom! Three baby tigers, a baby elephant and a baby giraffe were all born in the same year that James was born.

We met E's family at the zoo around three (after a nice long baby nap!) and had a fantastic time looking around. James was happy to be passed from person to person and look at all the animals. The weather couldn't have been better, a real taste of spring.

Now, for the plethora of photos:

Grandpa Steve and Granny Con love to see James. As you can see James was quite alert and enjoying looking around.

The baby elephant is only a couple of months older than James and is SO DARN ADORABLE!
Family photo with some giraffe.
James seemed to quite like sitting on Daddy's shoulders and looking at the tigers (can you see the tiger above James's right shoulder?)
Mama tiger had triplets last year! And it looks like she's lost all the baby weight!
Love the monkeys and the owls.

At the end of the day I decided to take this silly self photo of our group in the reflection on a black granite ball. So, there is me, E, baby in the stroller, Steve, Connie, Chelsea, Joe and David. Fun day.