It's been a while...

We traveled to GA Father's day weekend, and spent the weekend with Joshua's parents. We celebrated father's day with Joshua's side of the family on Saturday evening, because he had to drive back to KY on Sunday.  James was able to show off his new skill of walking to his grandma and grandpa. I know they loved seeing how much he had changed just since his birthday. 

On father's day Joshua took us to my grandparents house and we ate lunch with my family. Joshua left when James went down for his afternoon nap, he had to work on Monday morning.  James and I stayed for a week with my parents.  My nieces also spent the week at my parents house.  They were going to VBS at my parents church.

It was really fun to see James interact with his cousins.  At first he was a little scared of them, but he got used to them and was always happy to see them when they came in the room. I'm horrible about taking pictures with my good camera, but I was able to get a few with my phone. 

I took the 4 kids to Falcons mini camp and we had so much fun watching the team practice. We were able to get some autographs at the end of it!!

My main reason for going to GA the week I did is because my wonderful husband had bought me 2 tickets to the New Kids On The Block Package Tour!!!!!!!!!! I was beyond excited for a GNO with a lifelong friend!  I took my friend Jessie, we go way back and it was so nice to spend an evening with her.  We left pretty early so we wouldn't have to sit in traffic. Even though we were there by 4:30 we were still looking at a 50minute wait to eat at Taco Mac. We ended up just sitting at the bar and ordering our food there. The food was great as always, but the concert was even better.  Boyz II Men opened it up and were amazing.  98 Degrees came out next and they were great too.  New Kids were on stage for 2 hours! They put on such a great show.  I took so many videos and pictures. I wish I had been able to just video the entire concert. 

For some reason I can't get any of the pictures or videos from the concert to load. So I will have to do a separate post with them. 

James and I flew home on the 25th and thankfully the weather was perfect for flying.  James was an angel on the plane. At first he was trying to get out of my lap and I was very worried that he was going to cry the whole time.  But as soon as the pilot revved up the engines for take off he put his head on my chest and went right to sleep! I couldn't have been more thankful that he was sleeping.  He woke up about 10 minutes before we landed and he wasn't too happy. But he didn't cry loudly so we were good.

Since getting back I've been watching our neighbors little girl while the parents work. It's nice to make some extra money and so good for James to have a friend to play with every day. 

Officially Done Breastfeeding!

Before I had James I knew that breastfeeding was the way I wanted to feed him. Thankfully I didn't encounter many problems during the year of nursing. James was a bit of a difficult baby to nurse, he was always interested in what was going on around him. Even if I covered him up, he would still try to see what was going on. 

As stated in a previous post I cut out his 3pm feeding on April 30th, and his 11am feeding on May 12th.  I continued with the 7am and 7pm feedings until the end of May.  He really wasn't interested in nursing at all, but I didn't want to cut out multiple feedings all at once and end up suffering. On May 28th I cut out the 7am feeding and he did fine. I figured we would continue with the 7pm feeding for at least another week. Again I was just dragging it out for my sake at this point.  Well he wasn't having it any longer and on the 30th I cut out the last feeding. 

I was lucky and didn't have a single issue with the drying up process. I'm not sure if it is because of my suspected low supply issues, or just because James was eating so little towards the end. Either way I am happy with how the process went. 

I set a goal in the beginning to make it a year, and we did! I am proud of reaching my goal, and I know that James is healthier because of it. I'm really hoping that the next baby we have will be easier to nurse, but we will have to wait and see!

He's Walking!!

So James decided that he wanted to give walking a try just after he turned 1.  He's not walking fully yet, but each day he is taking more steps than the day before. I can't believe that this time last year I was snuggling a tiny baby, and now he is non stop on the go. I've captured a few videos of him taking some steps.

 

Braves Game

On May 8th we took James to see the Braves play the Reds. It was a 12:10 game, so that meant he would be skipping his afternoon nap. I made sure he got a good morning nap in and then we headed out.  We got there early enough to see the end of batting practice and were able to get Freddie Gonzalez' autograph and Chris Johnson's too. Brian McCann pointed to us and then threw us a game ball, and one of the managers also threw us a ball.  It was so cool. I know that James won't remember any of it, but it was fun for us! 

He was so good throughout the entire game. He wore his hat and sunglasses the whole time, and seemed to enjoy the game.

 

 

1 Year Old!

 

 

Oh my goodness I can't believe that my baby is already a year old. Time sure does fly when you are having fun. It really seems like yesterday that I was going to the hospital to have him. I loved when he was a tiny baby and would just let me snuggle him all day and we could nap together. But I am really loving seeing him grow into a little boy, although I do miss the sweet snuggles all day long!

 

We went to GA to celebrate James' birthday. I wanted the great grandparents to be able to be at the party, so it was perfect for us to celebrate there. On the 22nd we were able to go to the Braves game and we had great seats. So James went to 3 baseball games before his first birthday! He was so cute at the game, just chilling out watching everything around him. 

 

 

 

For his actual birthday on the 23rd we didn't really do anything special. We did get him a cupcake to eat though.  We needed an oil change so we did take a trip up to our favorite dealership in Roswell. So he got to see some friends that day. 

 

 

We had James' party on the 25th at my parents house. We had around 36 people there. I was surprised that James was so happy around everyone, since he is used to it just being the 3 of us all the time.  He really didn't want to eat the cake. Which didn't surprise me, cause he didn't want to for his pictures the day before either.  It just meant he was very easy to clean up!  He got so many gifts! Lots of books, blocks, and little people toys.  My grandmother Mane and grandfather Hal gave him a rocking chair that has been in our family since 1949. She had it recovered and James climbed right into it!

 



 

 

James had his check up today and he is 21.25lbs, 30 inches long, and his head is 18.5cm.  He is in the 50% for head and height, and 25% for weight.  The doctor is pleased with his growth and said he is perfect! He only had to get two shots and only cried for a minute.

 

This past year has flown by and I would give anything to have time slow down.  I am doing my best to cherish every minute with my baby. I am so blessed to be his mommy!

 

Weaning Process

On April 5th I started mixing James' oatmeal with whole milk. I had been mixing it with formula, but ran out and didn't want to spend $35 to get another can. So I decided to make the switch.  For a few weeks I only put it in the oatmeal. Then I started giving him a cup of milk with his meals.  He has done so well with the cup that I decided to start weaning him from breastfeeding. 

On April 30th I decided to cut out the 3pm nursing session.  James had been fighting me each day at that time so I knew he was ready to let it go. I gave him a snack of cheese and milk. He seemed so happy to be eating a snack instead of nursing.  Today I decided to cut out the 11am nursing session.  For over a week James has been fighting me at that feeding. So once again I knew it was time.  When he got up from nap today I gave him his lunch and he did fine. 

Tonight at the 7pm feeding he wasn't very interested, but I'm not going to cut out 2 feedings at once. I plan to continue nursing him at 7am and 7pm for a few weeks.  I haven't had any issues with cutting out 2 feedings so far. I hope that I don't experience any engorgement when I cut the last 2 feedings out, but I will just have to wait and see. So far so good!

Struggling

I am struggling to get healthy. I keep making excuses to not work out or eat healthy. I want to do it, but always find a reason not to.  I am so tired of being the weight I am, and my clothes being tight. One day last week we took James to the park to take some pictures of him for his birthday invitation.  Joshua took a picture of me and I looked and it and thought "dang I'm ugly". 

Now I don't think I'm ugly all the time, but this picture doesn't make me feel pretty at all.  No my hair wasn't done and I'm not wearing any makeup. But I should still be able to look at myself and think I am pretty even when I'm not done up. 

I am making the decision to try much harder to make an effort at taking walks every day that it is pretty, and trying to do more exercises at home. I am going to find some recipes that are healthy and easy to fix. I want to get healthy not only for me, but so I can chase my little guy around.

I know that I only have 4 people who read this blog since I made it private, but I figure I can get some accountability from yall!  I'm gonna list my goals, and then do updates as I reach them!

Goals:
1. Lose 10lbs. I ultimately want to lose 90-100 or even more. But I know small goals are easier to reach!
2. Eat healthier
3. Exercise regularly

I weighed myself yesterday morning and I weighed a whopping 245. That is 4lbs less than the day I gave birth to James almost a year ago.

Here are some current pictures so that I have a before: