Busy Baby!

James is 6 months old! It really doesn't seem like it has been that long. James has grown so much in the past 6 months and is so busy. He went to the doctors yesterday. He weighs 16 pounds 3 ounces. And I don't remember how "tall" he was. (Doug things calling a baby "long" is weird) He is still in the 25th percentile for his weight but he jumped up to the 75th percentile for his height. Hopefully he takes after his dad and will have some height. James loves to play in his Johnny Jump Up, but we don't have a good door for it and hates when he isn't part of the group. We gave him some peas last week. At first he didn't really know what to think. But after a few bites he was really going after them. After the jar was gone he sat in his highchair for 20 minutes and sucked on his bib. We usually let him clean himself up and he does a pretty good job. I guess he hates to waste food.

We got him a new coat for the winter and it is huge on him! We wanted it to last him through the winter so we bought it really big. He looks so cute in it. He also loves to play in his dump truck (thanks Tim) and as you can probably imagine Doug loves to drive him around in it. Loa loves to get in on the action too. And James would laugh so hard when she came nearby. He really loves his Dog. He always gets a big smile on his face when she comes around.

It surprises me how much James learns from us. When he wakes up from a nap I take him to look at "the baby" in the mirror. He usually smiles and tries to grab the baby. Sometimes he tries to hide from the baby. Usually we play "bonk" with the baby and I lean James toward the mirror so he can bonk foreheads with the baby. I didn't realize that James knew what we were doing until today. We were looking at the baby in the mirror when suddenly James pushed himself forward to "bonk" the baby in the mirror. I think he was a little surprised that he hit so hard and I was pretty surprised myself, but that didn't stop him from playing his favorite game with the baby.

Home Again

Well we made it home! After two weeks in the warm weather of Florida we came back to the cold rain in Utah. I am glad to be home but I wish that it was warmer. The last few days of our trip were busy. We went to church on Sunday and James screamed the whole time. I had several people offer to help me and had to have others run to get me paper towels after numerous spit-ups and a kicked over bottle. James is really busy now and is a lot of work to keep up with him. On Monday Dad and Jordyn skipped work and school to spend time with us. It is really the first time we had gotten to do stuff with them. In the morning we went to some gift shops to find some things for our husbands (I didn't find anything). In the afternoon we went to Singer Island to play on the beach. On the way we stopped for lunch. James hates to be left out of anything so we took turns holding him. He has been really interested in food and cups lately and kept trying to drink from Granddad's cup. So this video is James drinking from Granddad's cup.

The beach was fun but the water was hard to play in. The waves were so strong we could feel them pushing us as we tried to walk out into the ocean so I was so tired after a short time. James had fun putting his feet in the water and he didn't even cry after a big wave came and washed over him and Grammy.

The flight home was long but we were lucky enough to get an empty seat next to us on every flight. I say that we were lucky but really it was because James was screaming. The flight attendant tried to have one lady sit but us but she refused saying "I am not sitting next to a screaming infant." That was fine with us. James was so busy the whole flight it made things difficult. He loves to drink out of cups now, which you have seen on the video, and so when he saw my drink on the tray table he grabbed it, spilling soda all over. Luckily it didn't get on the woman's computer which she had on the same tray table. Needless to say I am so glad to be home. Doug is happy to have us home also and even though he didn't get the laundry room done he did switch the mattress so that I would be able to sleep better. That was a very nice thing for him to do since I didn't even ask him.

James and I have been hanging out at home and trying to get back on our regular schedule. James is growing up so fast and has been so much fun. He loves to take baths in the big bathtub and spending time with his Dad. Loa is happy to have us home too. She was so excited to see James and hasn't really left him alone. James also has been sitting up very well. This video is James sitting up all by himself. He loves to be able to sit up and play on the floor but he still tips over and gets knocked over by Loa.

Well it would be nice to be home for a while but we are headed to park city this weekend for a training. It should be fun and Doug will finally get to swim in the pool with James.

Final words

Death is inevitable yet so many are unprepared when it comes. There are some who worry about insignificant details like life insurance and wills and so forth. This if fine and dandy for your loved ones but what about the unknown masses that will pass by your grave. What will you say to them? If you leave this up to your grieving wife or children your grave stone may say something as meaningless as “Doug Allen, beloved husband and father”. No one will stop and read this. Considering the importance of this statement I urge everyone to take time now to decide what you want your final immortalizes words to be. Currently I have chosen the following, however it is continually being revised.

Here lies the festering body of Doug Allen, Super joker of Doom irregardless of what anyone says ish. While he died after being captured by a pack of ravenous Martians who where jealous of his incredibly comfortable rocker recliner and box set of the Godfather Trilogy, who then tied him up in the walking path of a hippo* he lived with no regret and killed with no remorse. May we all never forget his fateful words “A hippo can’t run, but he never needs too”.

*Actual cause of death to be added once it is known, although this was the most likely one I could think of.

Florida Again!

We finally made it to the beach! It was a lot of work with three adults and three babies to get everything we needed from the car to the beach and back again but it was still fun. James loved to listen to the waves and feel the wind. He fell asleep on the beach. The waves were so strong that we really couldn't swim but I would stand in the ocean right where the waves were breaking to collect sea shells and the waves would come and knock me down. It was pretty fun. When James woke up he came and sat with me in the water. He loved it! On Saturday we went to Miami. James did really well for not having a real nap all day, but he slept really well Saturday night! We went to Seaquarium which is similar to Sea World, only a lot smaller. I think James enjoyed watching the Dolphins and Sea Lions, but because he can't talk I don't really know. The Sea Lion show was by far the best, and we got to have our pictures taken with Salty the Sea Lion. They took a much better picture, but then wanted $20 for it so we decided that this would be the best.James also got an alligator to replace Tom his turtle, but I really don't like it as much as Tom so I am still really sad that we lost Tom. James and his cousin Lexi were so tired after that they fell right asleep and slept most of the way home. I think James will be happy to get back to Utah and have things slow down again.

More Florida Trip

We have been having a ton of fun in Florida this past week. James has been swimming a few times and loves it. He likes to lay on his back and kick and splash in the water. The water does not feel that warm compared to the air temperature but after being in the pool for a little while you don't notice anymore.

On Tuesday we went to a Safari park. It was really neat to drive through and see all of the animals like Rhinos, Lions, Water Buffalos, and Elephants. After you drive through the Safari there is a park where we got to feed some Giraffes. They have really long tongue and they are really slimy. They let us pet them and they have really soft heads. We also got to feed the goats and ride on some rides. James really didn't know what was going on. He mostly slept.

Here is a picture of James and his Granddad. The only two boys in the house. James loves to sit with Granddad and work on his computer. He also loves to pull his glasses off, just like he does with dad. Yesterday we rode a boat down the river and went to Trapper Nelson's place. It was an old trappers house that he used as a tourist stop. We saw some alligators and several birds. Today James stayed home with his Grammy and I went snorkeling with Shannon. There we some really big crabs and one of them pinched Shannon. We didn't get to see very much because the water was so murky. There we some neat fish and sea shells. We haven't really been to the ocean yet so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to go for a little while.

Florida

James and I have been in Florida for this past week and we are having so much fun. We got here on Tuesday evening after flying all day. James was much fussier on the plane ride but we were fortunate enough to get an empty seat next to us for him to lay on. On Wednesday we just relaxed and tried to let James relax for a little while. Thursday we went to the Sea Turtle rescue place. We got to see lots of baby sea turtles and some older turtles that have been injured in the wild. Friday we had a long day of driving. We drove down to the Keys. We left really early in the morning and drove for about 2 1/2 hours before we got the the first key, Key Largo. We went to a park there saw some fish then back in the car to drive to the next key. In Islamorada we went to an aquarium. There was a neat Dolphin show and I got a hug from Seth the Sea Lion. It took a few more hours to drive to Key West where we walked around to look at things. After being there only a short time a storm came in and within minutes we were soaked. We got home very late at night and I don't think James enjoyed the trip very much. James has had fun seeing his cousins and grandparents. He loves the swimming pool and taking baths. My parents don't have a bathtub for the sink so I have been putting him in the real bathtub and he loves to just lay in the tub and kick forever.