James is 5!

James turned 5 on the 8th. I can't believe I have a 5 year old. Kids grow up way too fast.

This year for his birthday we had a low key day with just the 3 of us. I was lame and didn't get a party planned because of both of us getting sick with in the few weeks prior.  He had just gotten over pneumonia and I a cold. My mind was on getting everyone well and not on entertaining. He had a good birthday regardless.

He woke up to our tradition of a balloon filled room.

It being a Sunday we went to church and he got sung to in Primary. He loved it. That evening we opened presents and had cake. We Skyped with Tracy's parents while he opened presents so they got to see him open the ones they got him. It sure was hard to keep him occupied the majority of the day from his presents. He REALLY wanted to open them, but we made him wait till we could skype with grandma and grandpa.

For his gifts he received more wooden train tracks, a train bridge, Toby from Thomas and Friends and Rocky from Thomas and Friends. He opened them all so fast we didn't get a chance for pictures.

Then we enjoyed his cake. James originally wanted a Dinosaur Train cake, but after several failed attempts of finding one and I was unsure of how to create one from scratch, he decided on a Thomas the Tank Engine ice cream cake. It worked out perfect considering his presents were train and Thomas the Tank Engine characters.

I love how his cake turned out.
And that I didn't have to do any work, except order it from Baskin Robins.

 Tracy and James putting the new tracks to good use.

The green suspension bridge was one of the gifts.

The Tuesday after his birthday we took a train ride on the California State Railroad Museum's Excursion Railroad. Of course James loved it. 

He had his physical yesterday. It was a bit of a bummer they hadn't received his records from previous doctors yet, so the pediatrician didn't have anything to go off of. I did my best to fill her in but I couldn't remember any of his stats. James measured in at 42 inches tall and weighs 35 lbs. My skinny guy! He did well on his physical, but hated getting his hemoglobin test and immunizations. I hated having to sit holding him scared and crying while he waited for the shots and receiving them. So, I may have taken him to Target afterwards and he got a new toy...

Today he hasn't been feeling well from the side affects.

Hopefully tomorrow he will feel better.

January!

I can't believe January is almost over. Where did the month go? This month hasn't been the best. The month/ year for us started out with a funeral for Tracy's brother. More about that later on a different post.

The week following the funeral we spent with family in St. George. It was nice to spend the extra time with family to grieve and close to Tracy's parents in case they needed us. While in St. George James played a lot with his 2nd cousin. They are way cute together. On the last day there we went to the Children's museum. James loved it and was very sad when it was time to go.

They are just two cute together.

He liked the grocery store area.
Kept filling up his cart with food and making me ring him up.

However this was his favorite thing to play with.

Put the foam cylinders in a bucket.
Turn the wheel the buckets go around to the other side of the room
where the cylinders get dumped down a ramp into a bin.

During the week we also took Tracy's parents out for their anniversary which happened to be the week before on the 30th. We ate at a restaurant called Cliffside that overlooks St. George. The food was delicious. The chef even made me a special dish because of my weird pregnancy intolerance to garlic. Definitely will be going back again someday.

We traveled home from Utah by Train, like we did after Christmas. Only this time we got a sleeper car room. So much nicer to sleep on a bed instead of a reclining seat. Our meals were also included, so we got a nice breakfast and lunch in the dinning car. We've kind of have fallen in love with train travel. 

Back home we've taken advantage of the nice weather and have played at the park.

And lots of train playing.

*A side note:
Mostly I just need to get it off my chest. I learned recently about a rumor being spread among some that are close to us. Just to clarify, James does not have any type of disability and if he did that wouldn't change anything about who he is. All he's ever had/has was/is a gross motor skill delay and no I'm not afraid to have him tested for things. So please quite talking bad about my son. If you have a question about him just ask me. We've been dealing with a lot lately and I don't need this drama added. End of side note*

My belly keeps growing. Only about a month an a half left till my due date. We've been slowly getting things ready. We got a crib from craigslist over the weekend. Next on my nesting urge list is getting James' closet organized better and getting the other baby items ready that are in his closet.

30 weeks along.

It's a mini crib. A perfect size for our small apartment.

We visited the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento on the 17th. Tracy couldn't get very many pictures of us because James just kept running from one train to the next. He never stopped till we got to the play area where there was wooden train sets to play with.

Then last Wednesday James got sick with the flu. After not showing signs of improvement, we took him to the hospital on Saturday. They found that he had Pneumonia. Luckily we took him in early enough that it wasn't too sever. He's doing tons better now. Thanks goodness. Also, glad today will be the last day of taking antibiotics. He refuses to take his medicine, so we have to force it in which is not very fun.

Sunday, day one on antibiotics.
He actually started sitting up and eating a bit.

I came down with a cold yesterday, so now James and I are both sickies quarantined at home. Hopefully Tracy stays healthy and we start February out free of illness.

Christmas

It's not too late to post about our Christmas, right? Our Christmas was pretty good. It started off with a train ride to Utah to spend time with family. Actually it started out with Tracy's dad coming to visit us for a few days, December 11th - 15th, before we headed to Utah. I don't remember everything thing we did and we didn't get many pictures. The day Tracy 1 arrived there was a huge rain storm. It took us a little longer than it normally would have to get to Oakland to pick him up because of flooding on the freeway. We took him to San Francisco for lunch at Boudin. The city was pretty much shut down. Lots of businesses weren't even open and several sections of the city were without electricity. It was weird seeing SF so lifeless. It took us I want to say 3 hours to get home because of flooded roads.
We also spent one of the days with Tracy's step grandma, Rosalee, who lives about an hour away from us. We took her to Bodega Bay for some beach time. She's in her 90's and doesn't get out much so she really loved her time at the beach with us. It was also fun for James to get to know one of his few great-grandparents still alive. As well as spend time with his grandpa.

James sleeping after a fun day at the beach.

On December 17th we started our journey to Utah.

At the station waiting for the train to arrive.

James did most of this during the trip.

Looking out the window some more.

We packed a lunch and ate it in the lounge car.
Then had dinner in the dinning car.

The train ride was nice and James did great. He even fell asleep and slept till we arrived in Salt Lake. The only downside of the train is your at the mercy of their schedule which means it arrives in Salt Lake at 3 a.m. James was pretty much the only one who got a full nights sleep that night.

The next day after some sleep. Tracy had a meeting with the State Paleontologist to discuss the project he wants to do for his dissertation and to see the bones, though we didn't actually see them since they are still wrapped in plaster waiting to get prepped out.

We spent a lot of time with Tracy's family. We watched a couple of college football bowl games. James discovered Micro-machines and he and I spent a lot of time playing with them. He also enjoyed the many other toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Playing with the Micro-machines.

A couple of nights we spent up in Salt Lake. We didn't actually spend a ton of time in Salt Lake though. The first night we had dinner at Blue Lemon.

Blurry picture of Tracy at Blue Lemon

 The 23rd I met up with some childhood friends for lunch and a play date. It was fun to get together again and that the 3 of us happened to be in the same state at the same time. Then we picked up some last minute gifts.
Tracy's mom had decided to start a tradition of taking Christmas cards with some cash and giving them to someone who looks like they may need a little extra help while we're out shopping. We each had a card to deliver and James had a present to give to a kid. Then on Christmas eve we share our experience of giving the card. So we had a mission to accomplish as well as our last minute gifts. It will be a great tradition to continue on.
After shopping we visited with Tracy's cousin and family for a bit before we went to my family party. Tracy's cousin had made smoked salmon. It was soooo good. At my family party we enjoyed some more good food and company. Just about everyone was there, so it was pretty chaotic.

Christmas Eve, we said good bye to Salt Lake and went back to Tracy's parents' house. James was very happy to be back to play with Grandpa, but he still wanted me to do a lot of the playing with cars.

Christmas Day! We opened gifts. James got some fun new toys.

He was also very, very excited that it had snowed. He had been talking about seeing snow at Christmas time for months, so it was nice that he actually got to see some and play in it. We didn't last long since we're wimps now and use to warm sunny days with a few rainy days year round.

James loved throwing snow balls at everyone.

The 26th we packed up to head back home. Had dinner at The Pie with Tracy's brother Sam before getting on the train. I had come down with the flu, so I didn't get to enjoy any Pizza or really any of our last day in Utah.

James' face after he told me he didn't want to go home
but that he wanted to stay at Grandma's and Grandpa's.
With that face I didn't take him too seriously.

The ride home went about the same as our first ride.
James watching out the window most of the time.

Over all we had a good Christmas. I love all the new connections James made with his extended family. I loved especially the one his made with his uncle Sam. It was cute seeing them sitting on the couch together as Sam worked on his animation and James watching. Wish I had snapped a picture and now I wish even more that I had taken a picture. Glad we have memories of a fun Christmas week with mostly Tracy's family.