to the fullest...: James: 8 months

So remember how I promised you and myself that I would get all of James' updates done before his first birthday and so I could be all caught up? I failed to recognize one thing would make that particularly challenging: since we moved into our place 3 weeks ago we haven't had internet at home. And finding the time to go to a coffee shop to use wifi when you have an 11 month old in between baby naps and unpacking and housework and cooking and running errands to buy toilet paper and other necessary items was a bit more of a challenge than I originally thought it would be. I believe it happened only once this whole month. And I spent the entire time pretty much answering emails and not blogging. Whoops.

We decided (since it was forced upon us) to call it a monthly challenge to not use the internet during the last 3 weeks (as well as during the first couple weeks of us being here when we were staying with the Mogards who also didn't have their internet set up yet at the time). Separate post to come on that subject.

But JOY OF JOYS they set up our internet on Friday! We were actually fully expecting it to take at least another two weeks so this is certainly a blessing from God and a very welcome surprise that I am sitting on my couch in my own living room writing this blogpost right now.

Sooooooo back to Jamesy boy's update: His birthday is on the 28th. Today is the 24th. I'm posting his 8 month update today. That means if I do one post every day this week I can have his one year update up on his birthday. Can I do it?!? I will try!

James turned 8 months old back on July 28th, just a few days before his Auntie Ashley and Uncle Taylor got married! The week before the wedding Justin went on a camping/hiking trip with his dad, brother, uncles, and cousins, so James and I got to go to my parents' house to visit and help get ready for the wedding. It was a super fun and special time to hang out with Ashley and my other 'sister', Annika (our foreign exchange sister during high school), who came all the way from Germany to visit and be there for the wedding. Isn't she adorable?

All photo credit for the this post goes to Annika and her camera that is much nicer than mine. She snapped the cuties of James below during that week.

Happenings during Jamesy's 8th month:

Had a case of Roseola (self diagnosis). He had a pretty high fever for two days (102-103.7) but not quite high enough to warrant going to the doctor without other symptoms according to the info packet I had from the doctor's office. Other than the fever he was acting very normal and on the third day his fever broke and he had a rash that lasted a few hours on his face and trunk. I wouldn't have known what it was, but I heard another mom talking at church about her 1 year old son who had a case of Roseola and when I googled it the symptoms matched James'. Very strange thing...I have no idea how he caught it!
Went to watch fireworks on the 4th of July but he slept right through them, of course. It was also probably the longest firework show I've ever seen in my entire life. I kid you not, it was 45 minutes long. Which seems like it would be awesome, but at about the 20 minute mark it became pretty un-awesome and then got progressively funnier and funnier the longer it went on.
First trip to Grandma and Grandpa Olson's cabin at Lake Thunderhead and first time swimming fully submersed in the lake with a life jacket. I thought it was awesome and cute. He wasn't a huge fan.
Top two teeth came in bringing the grand total to four. Great for moving toward eating more solid foods! Not so great for nursing because he started to become a little biter.
More traveling: another trip up to Minneapolis for a wedding, and a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Payne's in Kansas City, then to Grandma and Grandpa Olson's in Mount Pleasant.
Bled for the first time ever when Justin was sitting on the couch holding his arms and letting him jump on the floor and he lurched forward and slammed his gums into a coffee table. Poor thing. :(
And finally, he discovered his male anatomy in the bathtub.