1 Month Old

James turned one month old yesterday and today he had his 1-month check-up. He is doing very well! Here are his stats:

Weight-- 9 lbs. 13 oz.-- 49th %

Height-- 21 1/4 inches-- 38th %

Head-- 37.5 cm-- 37th %

The nurse commented on how alert James was and how his eyes were really good at tracking things.

Dr. Shiue thought he looked great and that his yellow is almost completely gone. He has a cold right now, so she listened to his chest and all of that, but he is fine. Just congested and kinda miserable. Poor little guy. He didn't sleep well at all last night and has been struggling today with a raspy throat and stuffy nose. Avery has it too.

Volcano

Avery has a fascination with volcanoes. I'm not sure how it started, but we talk about them almost every day. She is also interested in dinosaurs, but not quite as much as volcanoes. She and Al found a volcano toy thing at a toy store a month or two ago and she has not stopped talking about it ever since. She even told her nursery leaders at church about it. Al told her that she should ask Santa for it (AL!!!) and so even though Christmas is months away, she is already bringing it up...

Anyway, yesterday, besides practicing her letters with the chalk she also drew a volcano. I think she did a pretty good job! She even switched to the red chalk to make the lava explosion.

Sprinkler Weather

Yesterday it was warm enough for Avery to put on her bathing suit and run through the sprinklers. She LOVED it. She and I spent a fair amount of time outside doing the sprinkler, the sidewalk chalk, and watering all of the shrubs. She even helped our neighbors out and watered a couple of their shrubs for them :)

I love these pictures of Avery. I think they turned out so cute and she looks so happy in the water and sun. She told me that she loves being hot. Maybe Houston won't be too much of an adjustment for her...Al and James came out for just a few minutes. I don't think they like the heat as much as Avery does ;)

Grumpy

For Uncle Jubes, since you love this kind of stuff, I took these pictures. Sometimes Avery isn't such a morning person...

More James Pics

Here are some pictures of James from this past week. He is starting to be awake a lot more now...usually for 2 hour blocks in the middle of the night...but sometimes I can swing it so he's awake in the evening and we can avoid those middle of the night visits that he and I have. Avery really likes it when he's awake and becomes really excited and tries to interact with him. She gets so tickled that he is looking at her. For some reason she is very concerned that James doesn't have any eyebrows yet. She has fixated on this detail and likes to point out that my friend's (you, Laura) baby (who is 10 months old) has his eyebrows, but James does not. I have assured her that his eyebrows are on their way. He is just so darling and so much fun to have around. James has starting making cooing sounds here and there and I think we almost got a smile the other day. In the picture that he's wearing the light blue outfit it almost looks like a little smile on his sweet face. I love it when he smiles in his sleep though. So cute. I can't believe he'll be a month old next week!

Allen Hershel Tanner II M.D. !!!

Al graduated!!! As our friend Pete nicely put it on facebook: after a quarter of a million dollars and 4 years of blood, sweat and tears Al finally earned those two letters after his name. And then somebody else responded that it is actually a half a million dollars that it cost us, after interest, but it's worth it...right ;)

Al's parents flew in the day before graduation. This was a huge trip because they were meeting James for the first time and also there for Al's giant day!

We had a lazy morning getting ready. I could tell Al was starting to get distracted with the big day though when he accidentally brushed Avery's teeth with adult toothpaste. Poor little thing told him her mouth was hot and he brushed it off. I could hear the conversation from the other room and went into the bathroom and sure enough she had a mouthful of teeth-whitening Colgate foaming out of her mouth.

James and Avery were fabulous at graduation. About as good as they could be. James slept through the full 2 hours and Avery was uncharacteristically quiet...thanks in large part to Grandma Louona who was feeding her M&Ms and pulling toys out of her bag.

Avery was really excited to see Al graduate. When the band started playing Pomp and Circumstance and the graduates paraded in, Avery exclaimed, "There are too many graduates!" She repeated this a few times, until she was able to spot Al, then she grinned.

The school did a really nice job with the program. A couple of the speeches were a little lengthy, but overall really good. As each graduate's name was announced they walked across the stage to get 'hooded' with their green hood (green represents medicine, and FYI the velvet stripes on the sleeves are medieval symbols of being a doctor) the Dr. doing the announcing also stated what field they were going in to and where they would be going for residency. It was interesting to hear about everybody else.

It is kind of crazy to think that Al is officially 'Dr. Tanner' now. We've already had a few inquiries about Al being able to write out prescriptions. Hold your horses people ;) He has to wait until he gets his medical license in Texas.

I am SO proud of Al (and myself!) for getting through these 4 years. I know the next 5 will be very challenging as well...my OB has given me a few pep-talks and as my uncle Lee (who is a surgeon) said, "The easy part is over. Now comes the hard part. Work, work, work. But you will LOVE it."

2 weeks post-op and more pics

Today I had my 2 week post-op doctor visit. Everything went great! Dr. McBride looked at my incision and declared it to be 'beautiful.' Then she told me that I needed to have Al take a good look at it and tell him she said, "This is what they are supposed to look like." I smiled to myself because it sounded like something Al would say too. Those surgeons are all the same... ;) We chatted for a while and she gave me the pep talk about Al's residency hours again. Sigh. I'm starting to get nervous...

I am off of the pain meds now and so I am officially allowed to drive again. I think it will be a while before I am ready for too much though. Last week I went to Costco with my mom, but was only good for about half an hour before it became too much for me. I ended up waiting in the car with James while she and Avery went into the next store. But every day is better.

The liver labs from the day James was born came back high. My cholestasis meds had stopped working about a week and a half before he was born and they had to up my dosage, so I am not surprised that the labs came back high. They will do more labs at my next visit just to make sure my numbers are back to normal.

These are a few pics of James from the last week. He is just such a good and sweet baby. Never cries, except for when he wakes up to eat. Not fussy at all. He is starting to be awake a little more now, but still not much. I love the one picture where he is looking up at me. He is such a cuddly, little guy :) The one picture where he is looking off to the side is just to show off his chubby cheeks. Love the chub :)

Coming Around...?

We've had some rough patches with Avery these past couple of weeks, but I think things are starting to get better.

The other day I was folding the laundry. I got up to go and do something and when I came back to the laundry Avery had unfolded all of the washclothes and laid them on top of James. She said that he was cold and he needed to warm up.

On another day Avery had asked me to get down her rock collection for her. She studied her rocks for awhile and I spent some time discussing them with her. Then she took all of her rocks over to baby James (who was asleep) so that he could see the rocks too. She even was trying to tell him about some of them.

Maybe she's coming around...?

First Family Picture

Grandma 'Nette' and James

Grandma 'Nette' has been a huge help!! She is taking really good care of us and feeding us well. Avery has been enjoying the extra attention and Grandma 'Nette' taking her on shopping trips. We love having her here visiting us.

Sweet Avery

James gave Avery a new baby doll stroller for her baby Laura!! She was just thrilled and couldn't wait to take Laura (named after our good friend Laura Clark :) on a walk to the park. Al said that baby Laura made a few trips down the slide. Avery said Laura really liked it. It makes me smile to imagine watching that.

Avery is doing fairly well being a big sister. There have been a few hard/emotional moments and she's still learning how to be gentle, but she is adjusting. Here are a couple of pictures of her giving attitude. Grandma 'Nette' thought they needed to be posted so Uncle Jubes could have a look :)

The First Few Days Home

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the first few days home. James is such a little snuggler. He just loves to cuddle, and we love to oblige him. He likes to touch my hair when he is upset and he likes to have his legs and feet bare when you feed him. Then he kind of rubs them on you. Pretty cute. The first few days after he was born he made this high pitched trilling sound. It was adorable, but I never got it on camera :( He still has the sweetest little newborn cry. As you can tell I am just loving him like crazy.

He is starting to be a little more awake, but not much. We gave him his first bath at home and he was not happy!! And I just love the picture of James all bundled up and asleep on our bed. That could be baby announcement material. He is such a doll.

Home From the Hospital

We got to come home from the hospital one day early!! Dr. McBride had them take my staples out and told me to have Al keep an eye on my incision, since he knows what to look for. Yeah!! Already getting perks from having a doctor in the family :)

I love how tiny James looks in the carseat. I look a little scary (tired, pale, and puffy from all of the IV fluids...), but decided to document the day anyway.