First smiles

Prayer

Will's prayer tonight: "Dear God, I love you so much. I don’t want to disobey mom. And I never never never want to sin. And I want to be just like you, cuz you never do bad things. And I love you soooo much. Amen."

Imaginary friends.

Dad gum it! I just wrote all of this out and it didn't post. Now I have to start over.

A few days ago we were in the car and Kirstine was crying. All of a sudden she stops and yells, "NO!" I ask her who she's talking to and she says, "him. he said a bad word." What did he say? "He wants to wash my feet." And you don't want him to? "No." Who are you talking about? "Him." as she points to her pointer finger. is she not the weirdest little kid ever?
Last night she randomly says "You can't pass through" as she holds her arms out to block the way. I ask her who she's talking to and she tells me that "she" wants to walk though but she won't let her. I ask her if she has an imaginary friend, and she says yes. I ask her what her name is and she says it's Kirstine. She then tells me everything that Kirstine is doing at the moment.
Last night when we're telling daddy about imaginary Kirstine, she adds in that she has another imaginary friend named KiKiKiKi...
We are obviously having a lot of fun with her these days :)

Novel H1N1

has hit the James household. So far it's just me. We are hoping that it stops here. I started feeling the syptoms Tuesday morning. I thought it might just be due to lack of sleep because Benjamin had given me 2 bad nights in a row. I checked my temperature that evening just to be sure, and it was 98.5. So I went to bible study. While there I started feeling hotter and hotter, and when i got home my temp was 102.6. Wed. I went to the walk-in while Will and Kirstine were at school. I tested a VERY strong positive to Flu A. I didn't have much time after I left the office, just enough to grab lunch and call the school. I wanted them to send Kirstine out to the pickup lane even though 2 year olds aren't allowed to. When they called me back they said I wasn't allowed in the school, and they would definitely send them both out to me. Scott got home around 2 and I went to sleep. So far the illness is only bad when the fever hits. Then i am pretty miserable. But when it's gone I just feel like I have a normal head cold. (coughing and sore throat mainly). Let's hope it stays this way. Scott and the kids started on tamiflu last night, just in case, and so far none of them have any symptoms. The good news is that the doctors think Benjamin should be okay since he's breastfeeding. But just to be safe Scott is having me pump, and then he feeds him. So I haven't held or touched him in about 20 hours. That's the hardest part of all of it - not getting any hugs or kisses or cuddles from any of the kids. And it's just awful watching Scott hold Benjamin when he cuddles up in his neck. I'm so jealous! I will have to touch him soon, though. Scott went to his theology class at church this morning. And as long as I'm feeling fine he's going to grand rounds at the hospital afterwards.

Anyways, that's what's going on here. I'll post more later if there's any news. Also, mom and dad were here this past weekend and mom took some cute pictures. So when she gets them to me I'll post them here.

Hello all. Scott here, posting under Jaime’s name. I’m taking a brief detour from cute family photos, videos, and stories to put in a plug for a great book, or rather series of books.

Some of you may know of Andrew Peterson, who has been one of my favorite singer/songwriters since I first saw him open for Bebo who opened for Caedmon’s at a tiny church in Dade City Florida way back in 1997. He’s ridiculously good. Seriously, go buy all of his albums, especially ‘Behold the Lamb of God’, which is quite possibly the best Christmas-type album ever (without having a single standard Christmas song on it). Anyways, a few of years ago at his concerts he began talking about a book series that he was writing called ‘The Wingfeather Saga’. They seemed to me to be something like he would have come up with while making up bedtime stories for his kids. The first book was called ‘On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness’ – quite silly, I know (and so does he). I assumed it would be a whimsical kids fantasy story and though I always planned to read it eventually, I wasn’t particularly excited about it. It wasn’t until a few months ago when I saw that the second book in the series (‘North! Or Be Eaten’) was due out soon that I decided to go ahead and give them a shot.

I was honestly surprised at how great these books were. They definitely have the feel of a finely crafted bedtime story and are as funny as I thought they would be (he has a very interesting sense of humor), but I was amazed that the story itself was rich with plot, remarkable characters, great action, strong emotions, and just the right amount of mystery. Both books truly found a perfect balance where they are perfectly suited for a grown man to read and enjoy, and yet I cannot wait to read them out loud to Will, Kirstine, and Benjamin. I talked Jaime into reading them, and she thoroughly enjoyed them as well. Andrew has said that there are five books planned for the series (‘if everything goes according to plan, and it never does’), so we are looking forward to keeping up with them as they come out.

So this is my plug for all of you to run out and get these books. Read them for yourself and read them to your kids. If you take my advice and don’t like them, I’d be happy to buy you a cup of coffee and tell you why you’re wrong.

Here’s the cover of the second book (by which you can judge it) and a brief author bio:

Andrew Peterson is the author of On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, Book One in the Wingfeather Saga, and The Ballad of Matthew’s Begats. He’s also the critically-acclaimed singer-songwriter and recording artist of ten albums, including Resurrection Letters II. He and his wife, Jamie, live with their two sons and one daughter in a little house they call The Warren near Nashville, Tennessee. Visit his websites: www.andrew-peterson.com and www.rabbitroom.com

Baseball

Fall Baseball started today. fall ball is not the same as regular season baseball here like it is in florida. 7 weeks in a row on Sunday afternoons only from 1:30 - 3:30. the first hour they all practice together, rotating stations. the second hour they play a game. pretty sure the team he played with today will not be the team he will play with next week. basically it's just a 2 month practice session to get them more prepared for spring ball.

This first video is from the base running station. They were supposed to run straight through first base. Here's Will's first attempt:


Here's what he's supposed to do:


Here is his first hit!

Stories

This was Kirstine's bedtime story before nap today...
"Once upon a time there was a little bitty girl. And she was in the car. And she was driving fast. And she went to church to meet her friends."

Pictures of Benjamin

Notice Kirstine's hand in the two pictures. She always cups it when she's holding him or touching him.

And one of Will and Kirstine. See her black eye? That's self-inflicted marker.

Crying

We had crying at drop off today. On the way into school, Will decided to be a baby and started crying because he wanted to ride in the stroller and make me carry Benjamin. So random. Yesterday I tried to carry Benjamin in (in the carrier) and he cried because he wanted me to "stroll him" (meaning Benjamin). I got him over these tears quickly today, however he then decided that he didn't like school. And I know that whenever this attitude comes, tears will follow. And I feel like I've tried everything to make this not happen, but I have had no success. Kirstine ignored him and went to her class wonderfully. Now I have a morning off to catch up on much needed sleep!

School

Will and Kirstine both started preschool last week. Will goes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings, and Kirstine goes Wednesday mornings only. (from 9am - 1 pm). Both of them did great. Will didn't cry at all (he usually cries when we leave him most places - just a weird phase he's been going through lately). His teacher said he did great and fit in great with the other kids. He's the only kid in his class that doesn't know anyone. Everyone else either goes to that church or has been in school there before. So he's the odd ball. But she said he didn't act that way, and the other kids treated him like he belonged. She also told me what a great colorer he was (it's true, he's pretty fabulous). No pictures. I thought about taking a picture on the first day, but really, it's just preschool. We'll definitely get first day pictures next year.

4 Weeks

Benjamin is 4 weeks old today!
The first 3 weeks of his life were pretty boring, as his brother and sister were in Tampa with their grandparents. But it's been anything but that since they came home! Will and Kirstine are both crazy in love with him, and don't leave him alone for a second. I'd probably say about half of their time-outs now are because they won't leave him a lone when we ask them to. The disobedience is not good, however it's still really cute that they love him that much.

Right now he's sleeping decently. He definitely had his days and nights mixed up for a few weeks, but the last few nights he's done pretty well.

So how does he measure up to Will and Kirstine? I don't remember too much about them as babies, which is probably why I keep having more. One thing I do remember: Will slept great the majority of the time, but when he woke up at night he was very hard to get back to sleep - and screamed a lot! Kirstine also slept pretty well for the most part, but a lot of times only on us. She'd fall asleep at the bottle, and then we'd go lay her down and she'd scream the second she touched the bed. So she slept on my chest lots of nights. Benjamin is incredibly happy when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and never screams. He just doesn't want to go back to bed. So it's good in the sense that he doesn't wake the other parent up, but whoever is up with him at the time has to stay up for a while. The last few nights have gone like this: he wakes up, I nurse him for 30 - 40 minutes, I give him 1 - 2 ounces of supplement, he falls asleep and I put him down, he starts whining 5 minutes later, I make Scott get up with him, Scott rocks the bassinet until he falls asleep, he wakes up 2 - 3 hours later.

Outings so far: None where there are crowds. He has been through the McDonald's drive-thru a few times, he takes Will and Kirstine to school with me (stays in his carrier in the stroller), we took him to the Aldridge Botanical Gardens the other night (stayed in his stroller), and went to church last night. There is overflow seating behind our sanctuary with screens to see the pastor. There was only one other couple back there. Right in front of that is the Nursing Room. So we spent the first 45 minutes of the service in there. This would not be practical at a standard church, since the service would basically be over, but since our service lasts over an hour and a half, we only missed about 1/4 of the sermon.

He makes adorable faces.

first bath (warning - explicit nudity)

first week

with the older two down in florida, the house has been oh so quiet. we are having some very good bonding time with benjamin, though we don't like that he wants to hang out with us in the middle of the night. he is a pleasant kid, though, and seems to have a good disposition. quite good looking too, if i do say so myself. here are a few pictures of the day we brought him home and the days following.

mo pics

here:
(will and kirstine in timeout is my favorite one)

benjamin baxter james is here!

(this is scott, by the way)
benjamin made his entrance on monday, august 10th at 12:44pm. no complications with the c-section, and that joker came out screaming and looking all perfect. he weighs 8lbs 1 oz and measured 20 inches in length (though i think they shorted him). jaime did wonderfully. she spent the majority of the day in a drug-induced daze, although she was cogent during the few times that she woke up. benjamin has been a pretty calm guy so far, and is starting to get the hang of this thing we call 'feeding'. will and kirstine have been up to see him a few times and they are great with him, but can be a little overzealous in their hugging and squeezing from time to time. special thanks to gran and papa for being so helpful while they are up here.
we're looking to go home on thursday morning/afternoon. thanks for all of your prayers.