James Richard Anderson: 2015

Hello! I haven't had a chance to update as my computer has been at the computer shop getting worked on. James has been very, very busy! He has been practicing crawling for the last three weeks, but had only mastered moving in reverse. As of last night, however, he has finally figured out "drive"! He still gets a little too excited much of the time and tries to move faster than his brain has mastered moving his arms and legs, but we have had a whole day without him backing his way under the couch so we're happy with that!

James had his six month appointment on Monday, November 23rd and he's growing well, of course! Sixteen pounds, eleven ounces! He's almost exactly double his birth weight.

Here are some of his accomplishments in his first half year of life:

sleeps through the night (at 3 months...WOW!!!), unless he's sick
sits up (at 4.5 months)
crawling, as I mentioned earlier
starting to pull himself up onto his knees
he's holding his own bottle
eating fruits, vegetables, and starting to suck on puffs, thought he hasn't quite figured out how to put them into his mouth on his own
starting to use a sippy
will give sweet, slobbery kisses
let's out horrific screeches when he's mad
sticks his bottom lip out when told "no"
likes going for walks in the stroller
loves books
loves the dogs
loves taking a bath
tries really hard to keep up with his big brother

Below are some pictures of Jacob and our Christmas tree! He was excited to get to cut it this year! Lots of fun on an out of the ordinary, beautiful December day!

Coming soon...Thanks-Christmas pictures at Wisconsin Dells!

Thanks for checking in! God bless!
Scott, Kim, Jacob, and James

I did not intend on starting a blog for Mr. James Richard when he was born. Many friends and family members asked if I would and my response was, "Absolutely not! It's a lot of work!". As these six months have passed and James has reached milestone after milestone, Scott and I try to recollect at what age Jacob reached these same milestones when he was a baby. Our reference is, of course, Jacob's blog. Looking back now, I realize it was his baby book of sorts; a digital collection of his first few years. So, with the "Jacob Arthur Anderson" tab on my browser staring at me daily, always there for a quick trip down memory lane, I am going to attempt to do the same for Master James! I have some posts to catch up on, obviously, so I'm hoping that I can keep up with the present and past!

We will start this post with my last appointment before James was born. This appointment landed on my due date, May 18th and I hadn't made any progress closer to going into labor, so the doctor gave the okay and Scott said it fit into his cattle breeding and planting schedule that if nothing happened by the end of the week we would induce. He gave us a slot on that Thursday and, of course, nothing happened so Scott and I checked in for an induction at 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 21st.

Much to my surprise, at 4:26 that evening Dr. Armstrong announced, "It's a boy!". I didn't believe him. I was 99% sure that we were having a girl. In fact, most of our family and friends were positive that we were having a girl, as well. We didn't even have a boy name picked out; that's how sure I was that it was a girl. Hazel Margaret did not arrive, so there we had a little redheaded boy without a name. After much discussion back and forth, mostly between myself and myself (Scott knew what name he wanted), we settled on James Richard. James after the Chris James family (my sister and brother-in-law) and Richard after Scott's Uncle Dick. Jacob gave his input, as well. One of his best friend's name is James, so he was pleased with the choice.

Here are some pictures from that awesome day! It all amazes me! The birthing process, the emotions, and this new life ready for whatever lies ahead! God's most amazing work!

This was the look James gave us right after he was born - a scowl.
We wondered if this was a sign of his personality to come.
So far, it's completely opposite. He is an extremely smiley baby! Thank goodness!