Friends have birthdays too

James was sad to have missed Grandma Rose's party (we'll have to re-celebrate!) but we did make it to his friend Gavin's party on Sunday. They held it at their development's club house, like a party room.

James and his buddy Luke open their party bags and play with favors.




Gavin's family rented a Tumble Bus and it parked in the lot outside. It's a converted school bus that has tumble mats and obstacles inside. All but two of the bus seats are removed.



James isn't in the picture because he refused to participate. He mostly watched. He did want to jump in the ball pit and they let him. I was disappointed by my shy guy but he makes the most of it.

There was a zip line that went from the back of the bus and has the kids land in the ball pit. The owner was very careful about kids landing and not on top of each other.

James' (former) teacher Kathy got James to wander to the back of the bus. He never jumped on the zip line or climbed on much, but he played with balls and laughed with his friends.

We went back into the clubhouse about 10-15 minutes before the rest of the crew because James became obsessed with cake. He kept asking, "when are we having birthday cake??" Eventually we did. There was also a Spiderman pinata!

James' girlfriend Kailtyn can swing!

I finally convinced James to take a turn but he wouldn't swing without my help. I only snapped this picture of him waiting for me. Oh well :)

Here's the birthday boy, Gavin, in his Spiderman costume. Oh, and "Russell Bustle" (gray sweatshirt) in the background. He's the overactive kid that is EVERYWHERE. They call him Russell Bustle because he's always on the move, always up to something!

CAKE!! Finally. And Russell has a front seat.

As we were leaving James wanted to take cake home. He had his piece and mine, so I just refused to ask for more. You can't ALWAYS have cake. Well, except when you back to our house. We had some plain chocolate cupcakes that didn't make it to ChaCha's. We had one after dinner :)

James was gone from his school for quite a while. He has a folder that we empty out every day with the day's announcements and artwork to go home. I hadn't cleaned it for a while and so we had quite a pile of papers and artwork accumulated and here are some of the Christmas/winter crafts from the daycare displays and walls, I think.

Tissue paper mitten.

James' stocking. It hung at the "fireplace" in his classroom. Sorry, I can't figure out how to turn this picture. ARGH. But at least we made James' Christmas dreams come true :)

Cotton ball snowman.

Handprints. I believe that the bottom set are this year's handprints. All of the kids' handprints were assembled into a "Christmas tree" on the classroom wall. I think the smaller set of prints are from last year? They are noticeably smaller.

That's it for today! Here's hoping to a good week. Jim is going out of town later in the week and I think we're all pretty much recovered. We just need to get James back on track and then it will be a great week :) Oh and we need to get him sleeping through the night. Those three, four, FIVE wake-ups at all hours are not good for our beauty sleep!

Thanksgiving in January

My family had Thanksgiving in January because the November thing just didn't work out for the Koldens. An excuse to have turkey again? Yes please!

The original plan was for all of us (me, Jim, James) to go over to ChaCha's house. I ended up going solo after James melted down one too many times. He's been whiny, cranky, and just not himself. We're thinking some tough love and follow-through is in order to get him back to his old self.

But first, James helped me make cupcakes on Friday night for Grandma Rose's birthday. He didn't believe me that this was chocolate.

On Saturday I found this at ChaCha's. It's the earliest she's ever put up the tree- at Thanksgiving!

Ted Turkey.

Mmmmm. Some of the best grub ever.

I missed Jim and James, the Hullett and Kolden families did too.

What's James Doing NOW?

We're home again.


No fever or real sickness but he did wake up FOUR times in the night? The real problem? He's probably hungry and his lips hurt. They are cracked and just raw looking still. At least he does let us put on Chapstick.

We all have a cough still, so I'm sure every time James coughs his lips crack open a bit. Pobrecito.

I finally got him to eat a waffle this morning. He refused every offer and just "can't decide what to eat... I don't know!!!!". I finally just put the waffle in front of him and waited it out. Without thinking he just started munching. Huge relief!

Kinda NOW

James has been fine. Technically we stayed home because daycare has this rule that kids need to be fever-free for at least 24 hours before they can return. Both times today that I've checked James has been normal.

The issue? James isn't eating much and then his lips are so chapped that they are cracked and a little bloody. Eating is difficult. Even the little bit of acid in his applesauce is painful- see the picture below.




I'm going a little bit crazy from being home so much. And my back is whacky. I'm in some pain too, moving around like an old lady. Jim goes out of town soon so I'm hoping to get back to normal before then.

Just lots of ups and downs. James is a little like Jekyll and Hyde, poor thing.

Now? He's happy as can be. Just bounced into the room (after his last fit because I didn't let him go outside) and asked to watch his "favorite show"- Fireman Sam. Silly!

Diagnosis

Simple ear infections! We are on the way to get ice cream (: and the Rx. James was perfect at the doctor's office!

What's James doing NOW?

My poor baby is sick. He fell asleep on the floor though he refused an immediate nap.




At 11ish the daycare called me to say that James has a temperature and needs to be picked up. I got Jim to pick up and wrapped up my work to be home for the afternoon. It was my first day back! Oh well. James was obviously miserable. This was weird because he's been fairly normal the last few days. We've all had colds/coughs and he's been a little off but nothing alarming.

He woke up normally this morning and we each headed to work/school. Well, now we're all at home and we have a doctor's appointment scheduled for 2:20. It's not with our normal doctor and we need to put a MASK on James when we arrive. Yeah, that's going to happen... I'm glad Jim is able to go with me because I think it's going to take the two of us to manage the paperwork (as of January 1st our health insurance has changed) and then to settle James down. Just going to the doctor is going to traumatize him, and then wearing a mask? He's just not going to understand.

Wish us luck. We are all fine. I think it's important for us to go the doctor today to rule out an ear infection, or to get antibiotics if necessary. Jim and I are both functioning well enough, coughing every once in a while, but functioning. We don't need for anything and we'll pick up medicine/supplies on the way home.

I'll update later.

Boob Man

James told me today, "Mom, you're pretty."

I asked, "What's pretty about Mommy?"

James thought about it and then started spitting out a list:

"Your hair. Your eyes. Your red shirt. Your black shirt (tank top). Your boobs!"

Jim could not stop laughing. He told me that I needed to blog about this.

This was James' second boobs comment in just as many days. I hope he's not going through some hormonal thing already!

December 30

We made paper gingerbread boys on a paper plate. James made all the boys sad- they are sad "because they miss their family". My guess is that we ate them?!

December 29

James was so excited about this toy! It seemed like a daunting task (lots of pieces, Japanese instructions) but his Daddy came through! Thanks Tia Kiki for the the Gundam anime robot!

Christmas Day with Gma Rose, Gpa Larry, Tia ChaCha, Uncle Rich

A HUGE thank you to my sister Ana for taking the first few pictures. I think she is right in saying that the first few minutes of a holiday/event should be spent taking some posed pictures. I am grateful and thrilled to have a great picture of the three of us for the holiday. I am so thrilled that a few of you will be seeing this picture again soon :) So often I am behind the camera and later I feel sad that I am in so few pictures. Just one great picture will make me happy, so happy I could cry!

James starts to tackle the great mound of presents...

Jim models his new Darth Vader slippers! Herrera!

Oh my. Rich received this from my sister Kiki. The Japanese have quite the sense of humor... :)

The fam. Happy to watch James with his impatience. "Do I have another present?"

Grandma Rose and Grandpa Larry recorded another book for James. I love that these Grandparents of his really put themselves out there... (Grandma Laura too!)

Tia Kiki and Tio Gilberto sent some really great presents. We thought about them lots. Love to them!

WOW! They are like Japanese Legos! We can't wait to put them together.

Wow! The pillow pet that he REALLY wanted!

Thank you Grandma Rose!

Thank you Grandpa Larry (Bucko)!

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the entire holiday. Tia ChaCha's face is lovely and you can tell that she loves her Nugget!

I'm not really sure what Grandpa Larry is doing in this picture. I just thought it was funny that he was looking at the Christmas tree with a Bloody Mary, with Linus on his lap.

Later, Grandma Rose helps James with his puzzle. He loves puzzles :)

The boys went downstairs at one point. Jim and Uncle Rich played pool, James played with his AT-AT, and Grandpa watched football in the Man Cave.

I used the camera's timer to capture this last group photo of us watching Charlie Brown Christmas. (x2151)

After James went to bed Grandma Rose got comfortable with James' chair, pillow pet, and SW blanket! Haha.

Thank you familia! As James kept saying, "This is the best Christmas ever!!!"