Maddie Walked to her classroom all by herself

This Thursday morning, May 9, 2019, as I pulled the car into St Mary's parking lot to drop Maddie off at school, she said she wanted to walk in by herself. I said "Really??" and asked her why. She said that her friend Aaliyah does it sometimes! And it's true because we have seen it.  I told her that I at least had to walk with her through the parking lot as it's dangerous, and that I would walk her to the front door of the school. I asked if she knew where she was going as she has to walk up the stairs, then through the hall, then another few steps and all the way to her room. She said she did!

So I walked her through the front door and tried to follow behind her a few steps but she turned around, put out her arm and said "No, don't walk with me." So I let her go and followed about 15 feet away so she wouldn't see me. She ended up walking to class with her friend Eva and Eva's mom. Eva's mom turned around and gave me a thumbs up sign.

The next day she wanted to walk in by herself again and I followed behind. She kept turning around to see if I was there and I would quickly run to the side so she wouldn't see me.

Since then, she's wanted to walk inside about half the time, and the other half she will let me walk her inside with her.

Our Maddie is getting SO big! 

James Putting 3 Words Together!

For a few months now James has been stringing 2 words together like:
Big ball
Cold Milk
Cold Water

His favorite seems to be when someone burps or farts, he loves to say:
Maddie fart!
Mama fart!
James fart!
and his absolute favorite is to say Dada fart!

But this Monday morning May 20, 2019, he put together 3 words!

After I took Maddie to school in the morning, Joseph was at the dining room table reading and James came up to him with his coat and said "Coat. School. Go" 

Guess he was ready to go to school!!

James Monthly Photo (12 Months / 1 Year)

James is 1 year old today!!  He's about 28 lbs (down about a pound from last month). Still not walking but likes to "walk" with assistance back and forth between Mom and Dad. He can come up to a full upright stand all on his own and can stand for quite a long time (about 30 seconds) before sitting or leaning down. He is starting to dislike pureed baby foods and spits out certain textures. This morning he at an entire whole peeled apple at breakfast all by himself!

Happy First Birthday James!!

James Monthly Photo (11 Month)

At the blink of an eye, James is 11 months old!! He's been pulling himself up to standing and cruises along furniture now too! He loves to pull things off of tables and chairs, and empty the bookshelves. He has a little blue plastic chair that he also loves to climb in and out of. He will be walking very soon! He still only has 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom) and still loves to eat pretty much everything!

James Monthly Photo (10 Month)

James is 10 months old!! He's still crawling like a champ and has been pulling himself up to nearly an upright standing position as well! He loves to stand but tends to complain after standing too long because he doesn't know how to get back down!  He has 4 teeth (2 top and 2 bottom) and absolutely loves to eat!

James - Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

Over the winter we received a few notices from Maddie's daycare that a few classmates had contracted Hand Foot and Mouth disease (HFM). It's highly contagious and we have been waiting for the day she brought it home.

On Thursday 3/29, while changing James for bedtime, Joseph noticed he had little red spots forming around his mouth and on his legs and tummy. I said "oh no, I bet it's HFM!"  And sure enough, in the morning he had even more red dots and a fever. We kept Maddie home from school that day. Luckily (or unluckily!) it was her last day of school for a while as spring break was the following week.  I called the doctor's office and they said if Maddie didn't show any symptoms within 3 days, then she likely would not get it.

His spots started to spread and eventually got hard and almost scab like. He did not seem to be in too much discomfort though we did give him tylenol and advil for any pain/fever. Finally the rash stopped spreading a few days later, and he no longer had a fever - this meant he was no longer contagious!  The virus was making its way through!

Luckily the rest of us did not get it either!  Well, there is a chance we did since HFM has lots of different symptoms (some people just get a fever) but luckily none of us got the rash.  By the time Maddie went back to school the following week, he was no longer contagious, but still had rough skin from the rash.

Here are some pictures of James in good spirits, but covered in little red rough spots.

James Monthly Photo (9 Month)

James is 9 months old!!  Time sure does fly quickly!  He's about 26.5 pounds. We have a doctor's appointment on Friday so will get his official grown stats then.  He started to crawl about 3 weeks ago just before we went on vacation and he is crawling around so quickly now!!  He gets around so fast and will sit himself up once he gets to his intended target.