Our little man is 8 months old and has surpassed the 17lb mark!  April has come and gone, and the flu and RSV season is finally finished.  The last few weeks Jimmy has began his exploration of the world around him!  With the kickoff of April, Jimmy went to his first restaurant – our local pizza spot.  He wasn’t too amused with the outing, as he slept through it.  Over the past two months, he gradually started meeting new faces and checking out new places!

Jimmy has some new talents that he practices every morning.  We wake up to him singing, blowing bubbles, and literally putting his foot in his mouth.  Additionally, he does 180s in his crib.  He does get frustrated at times when he reaches the top of the crib and can’t figure out how to switch directions.  When he is outside his crib, there is no stopping this little man — he rolls and shimmies right off the tummy time mat.  He is growing stronger every day with his push ups and with a little help, he can sit-up too!  He’s just starting to position himself for crawling and we’re anticipating he’ll be on the move in the next couple of weeks.

Jimmy is also diversifying his taste buds, by exploring vegetables.  Squash and bananas have been a hit.  He sure can make a mess, but Dunder anxiously awaits his turn for clean-up and leftovers.

Last week, Jimmy went to his first story time at the local library.  Although he wasn’t interested in story time, he did find a new hang out — the train platform with Thomas the Tank Engine.  With some help, he stood and played with the wooden trains for close to an hour.  It was so much fun that he took daddy to play later that week.

With the start of the new year, Jimmy has ventured into 2012 as happy as could be!  Since the new year, he has been sleeping through the night in the comforts of his own room with his bunk mate Dunder!  He seems to be quite content with his big boy crib.  Each morning, he wakes up testing his vocal cords, laughing, and all around happy.

It is amazing how he is on the move these days!  Jimmy turns his body around in circles in his crib and has even been attempting his new move of “roll over”.  We are thinking that he will have this figured out sometime this week, as he is getting super close!

Day by day, Dunder is recognizing that Jimmy is more a friend and is very hopeful that Jimmy may even play fetch.  As Jimmy hangs out in his bouncer, Dunder is eager to bring all of his toys to Jimmy.  Dunder is always watching out for Jimmy and is really fascinated with his new found buddy.  Either that, or Dunder is hopeful that Jimmy will let him play with his squeaky toys 🙂

Starting this past week, Jimmy starts his day with a couple of teaspoons of rice cereal.  Currently, he prefers his bottle of milk, but he is acquiring the taste of rice cereal.  Until he masters how to eat with a spoon, most of his cereal winds up on his chin.

During playtime, Jimmy is in awe with his books!  He spends hours starring at the pictures.  As we turn the pages, he shows excitement by kicking his legs, throwing his arms in the air, and giggling out loud.  It is precious to watch him be in such a playful mood.  He is also beginning to reach for his toys and even surprises himself when he actually grasps one of his rattles.  This morning, he tested out his Jumper-Roo and was completely engaged with all of the gadgets.

Oh, and Jimmy is almost 5 months, weighing around 13 pounds!

For starters, from our family to yours, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The photo above is one of a million reasons why we are blessed and illustrates our happiness this holiday season.  It is amazing how much faith has guided our family through the ups and downs over the years, and during Christmas Eve Mass, a key message hit home.  During Father Gallagher’s Homily he focused on a simple statement his father voiced a couple of months ago — “It will be nice to have a newborn at home for Christmas.”  How true these word’s are, and what a blessing our Jimmy has been to our family.

Last week, Angie received a phone call from our Church office asking if our baby Jimmy would like to be baby Jesus during the Children’s Mass.  This offer was a tremendous honor, however, we had to politely decline due to Jimmy’s immune system and limiting his exposure to crowds.

It’s remarkable how fast Jimmy is growing, and this became even more evident with us having to adjust his car seat harness.  We estimate that he is around 11 pounds!  Watching Jimmy develop over the last month has been nothing less than magical.  He is studying the world around him more and more each day, and he is mesmerized by those who are around him.  Jimmy has shown a lot of enjoyment, by displaying a smile grinning ear to ear, through reading books, singing nursery rhymes, and of course watching TV (he takes after his Mommy and has grown quite fond of Ellen).  Thanks to advances in technology, Jimmy has even been introduced to family and friends far and near through FaceTime 🙂

The other area that is amazing to us is how much control he has over his head and body in general, this is especially true during his nightly tummy time with mommy and daddy cheering for him.

As you probably would recall, per doctor’s orders, Jimmy is to stay clear from daycare until the Spring time, at the earliest.  The last few weeks have been a transition time for Angie, as she has been fortunate to be able to work part time from home and has successfully worked around Jimmy’s nap time.  Angie has juggled this act superbly — way to go Mommy!

The photo above was taken during Jimmy’s first of many photo shoots to come.   His Grandma and Grandpa gave him an early gift when they found the reindeer outfit, and Angie and Jim knew from that moment it would be the perfect photo to spread holiday cheer!  Dunder and his best buddy Jimmy had a lot of fun during the photo shoot, and we even caught Jimmy trying to ride Dunder :-0.  Out of the 200+ photo’s we were able to find the perfect photo above, and even snuck in a few candid photo’s in the gallery below.  Enjoy!

Love,
Angie, Jim, Jimmy & Dunder

If one thing is for certain, we are full of emotions this week, forever thankful, and truly blessed as we kick off the holiday season with Thanksgiving.  Watching our family grow with our bundle of joy, Jimmy, has been remarkable these last couple months!  As we celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s given us a lot of time to reflect and we find it difficult to express in words all that we have to be thankful!

This past week was an exciting one at best, and further emphasizes how grateful we are this holiday season.  For those keeping track, Jimmy’s original due date was November 19th, just this past Saturday.  It is hard to comprehend how far Jimmy has come these past two months.  Before Jimmy’s arrival, one of our goals was to see that he was baptized prior to Christmas and maybe even Thanksgiving.  Well, given his early arrival, we were able to meet that goal and celebrate Jimmy’s baptism on November 20th (one day after his expected delivery date 🙂 ).  The celebration was certainly special and it was wonderful celebrating James Xavier’s entrance into the Catholic faith.  A special thanks goes out to St. Philip Neri for accommodating a private service so as not to expose Jimmy to germs ;).

One other important update…. Jimmy had a super followup at his eye doctor on Wednesday.  The hemorrhages they were monitoring are no longer an issue at this time and he won’t have to go through another eye exam for another 10 months 🙂

We know if we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times… we are forever thankful for all of our Family and Friends love and support.  From our family to yours, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Angie, Jim, Jimmy and Dunder

(Note, this post is back dated… stay tuned for more updates)

Last week Jimmy had his two month doctor visit, which included his 8 week immunization shots.  He was not a happy camper afterwards, as there was lots of crying!  There was so much crying that once he finally settled down, Dunder Dog was able to get some rest and immediately starting snoring heavily.  Unfortunately, the office didn’t have all of the shots and Jimmy had to go back to the office on Friday to received his RSV shot.

Little Jimmy is probably around 8 1/2 pounds now. Also, Jimmy passed the 20 inch mark – a whole 3 inches longer since birth.  Based on a preemie growth chart of babies at 39 gestational weeks, he was right in the middle of the pack – 50th percentile.  As the doctor described, he is a newborn but is starting to acquire the skills of a 2 month old baby.

Jimmy went on another field trip to Valley Forge park to eat lunch with his grandparents near Uncle Matt’s tree.  It was a beautiful day of 70 degrees and the leaves were falling.  Like last week’s adventure to the park, Jimmy was sound asleep through it.