The Final Four

This weekend I competed in a regional competition in Austin to be on VH1’s “The World Series of Pop Culture.” We had watched the first season last summer, so when Mark saw they were having auditions in Austin (the other cities were Chicago, New York City, LA and Orlando), we knew we had to go for it.

Shauna, our cousin Kristin and I made up a team. We were called “The Anthony Michael Hall Monitors.” Shauna thought of the great team name, and it was a big hit. We made matching t-shirts with a picture of Anthony Michael Hall on the front and we each had a different quote on the back. The first step was to take a 50 question written test (individually) on Saturday afternoon at the Marriott in downtown Austin. If your team passed the test you went on to be interviewed by the producers. Our team passed!!! We were so excited. Only 3 teams passed from our session of about 35 teams. We went on to the interview and the producers said they were picking only 8 teams (out of about 200 teams) to compete in a mock competition the next day. So, we didn’t know how good our chances were of being picked as one of the eight teams--but they called on Saturday night and told us we had been chosen!!!

Then we went to the mock competition on Sunday. It was set up like the real show with cameras, lights and all that. We won the first round--beating a team made up two people from LA and one person from New York City. I did horribly, but Kristin won it for us. It was down to the final four teams, and sadly we were eliminated in the round of four. But we are proud we made it to the final four! There is still a small chance we may be chosen to compete in the real competition in New York City in March. They pick 9 “wild card” teams out of the 35 teams that made it to the finals in all of the cities where they did auditions. So we’ll see. At least we can say we were one of the top four teams in Austin.

David posted some photos from the audition on his blog. Click here to see them.

In other news...Luke had a bad cold for about a week. It was pretty

terrible. Then I caught the cold. We are both still dealing with a runny nose but we are on the mend. Thankfully, Sharon (Grammy) was able to come and take care of Luke so I could rest and get over the cold quicker. I wanted to be sharp for the pop culture competition! Luke is really close to sitting up on his own. He is growing so fast! We got him a Baby Einstein exersaucer and he loves being in it. It took him a few days, but

he figured out how to turn all the way around in it and play with all the toys. We started feeding him rice cereal. He seemed to like it okay but we haven’t starting pushing solid food yet. I think this week or next week we will start feeding him rice cereal every day and then move on to a vegetable. That should be fun.

We find out on February 19 if we will have a new little niece or nephew in July. We can’t wait!

Another Day at Home

The news finally came down around 7:30 p.m. Monday night that UT would be closed on Tuesday, so I got to spend Tuesday at home with Suz and Luke. (Yea!) It has snowed, sleeted and rained off and on since I woke up this morning around 5:30 a.m. to feed Luke. By the sound of things, I may be at home one more day. As I write this at 4:50 p.m., I can hear the sleet hitting the windows.

Here are some photos from today.

Luke was to have his fourth-month check up on Wednesday, but the pediatrician called around noon to reschedule for Friday since they were going to go ahead and close on Wednesday. I’m sure Luke doesn’t mind putting off his shots for two days.

In our last post, Suz talked about Luke’s sleep training. After a week, I think it’s safe to say the new routine has been a success. After three nights, Luke began sleeping from 8:45 p.m. until about 4:30 a.m (sometimes 5 a.m.) before waking up for a small bottle. He takes the bottle and then goes back down until 8:30 a.m.

I think he’d sleep even longer if he wasn’t such a squirmer. The last few mornings, we’ve found him in some interesting positions...such as this. He never seems to be in any pain or discomfort; in fact, he’s usually smiling ear to ear when we find him.


Stay warm!

Sleep Training

We are finally updating our blog! After a month and a half of no updates, it’s finally here! My main excuse for not updating the blog more frequently is because I don’t understand how this iWeb (it’s a Mac thing) works. Mark, who is obsessed with all things Apple, made us switch to this Apple-based blog rather than use Blogger, so it’s not as easy for me to update the blog. But Mark swears it’s easier and so much better than blogger. I guess I’ll just do my best and learn how it works.

Luke will be 4 months old in a week. He is so much fun and really is a good baby. Right now we are working on sleep training. I have read approximately 5 books about babies and sleep. I know most people just go with the flow and assume their baby will learn to sleep through the night on their own. But most people that know me, know that I have a slight control issue. So naturally, I want to “help” Luke learn to sleep through the night. The general consensus from the books I’ve read is that around 4 months babies are neurologically and physically capable of soothing themselves and sleeping 8-10 hours straight. Luke goes to bed around 8:30 and then wakes up around 2:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. for a feeding. I am trying to eliminate the 2:30 a.m. feeding. The first night he cried for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It was excruciating. But he did go back to sleep and woke up at 5:45 for a feeding. He didn’t act like he was starving or anything when I fed him and he went back to sleep until 8:00 and woke up happy. Last night (the second night of the training), he only cried for 15 minutes and then woke up around 5:30. He only took 3 ounces and went right back to sleep and woke up happy and full of energy at 7:30. So, the training seems to be working. The books say it takes about 3 days for babies to adapt to the new sleep pattern, so hopefully tonight he will cry even less.

Click here for our most recent pictures of Luke and pictures from the holidays. Luke’s first Christmas was wonderful. He got a lot of fun new toys, books, and clothes. We’ll post some of those photos next. Now he is starting to enjoy his toys. Also, he really loves when we read to him. He has a really good attention span. I think Dr. Seuss books are his favorite so far.

Luke's Tour of Texas: Part One

Memo to Luke: Hold on to your pacifier; it’s going to be a wild week.

Sunday of this week began a long week that will eventually take the James family from Round Rock to Houston and back home, north to the Metroplex, then back to God’s country (Central Texas) and then out west to the Hill Country before returning home to Williamson County.

On Sunday, we packed up the Honda and headed to Magnolia, Texas, near The Woodlands (sort of) to attend the wedding that evening of one of Suzanne’s good friends from Kingwood High School. It was our first big road trip with Luke. He’s a great traveler, but he certainly reminded us when he was due for his next feeding--whether we had reached our destination or not. Judging by the events of this weekend, I think Luke’s going to be a big Blue Bell Ice Cream eater because oddly enough he started crying out of hunger when we were in Brenham--both on the way to Houston and heading back home.

It was also quite a test for this new dad to improvise without all the conveniences of home and the baby nursery. (I’d like to take this time to thank the fine employees of the Brenham Whataburger for providing a styrofoam cup for me to use some warm bathroom tap water to heat Luke’s Sunday lunch bottle. If that’s not a white trash moment, I don’t know what is.)

The wedding on Sunday evening was a lot of fun. We got to introduce Luke to a lot of Suzanne’s friends. He was a big hit! I think he was held and kissed as much in the span of two hours as he was in his first two months of life. We all crashed on Sunday night at the hotel.

We loaded up on Monday morning and headed back to Austin after stopping at a cool new(?) shopping/entertainment center called Market Street in The Woodlands to eat lunch.

It was a fun overnight outing for all of us. Luke was a real trooper and couldn’t have been any better.

The tour heads north on Thursday; we’ll see many of you then.

- Mark

Growing Like a Weed

Mark and I have been parents now for 2 weeks and 3 days. Luke is growing so fast. At his 2 week doctor appointment he was up to 9 lbs. 6 ozs. and had grown 3/4 of an inch. He’s just the cutest thing ever. We put him on his tummy and he has rolled over to his back 3 times! We were really impressed. The pediatrician put him on his tummy and commented about how strong he is.

My very favorite thing is when he falls asleep on me and snuggles really

close under my neck. I also LOVE all the faces he makes. He raises his eyebrows and purses his lips. It’s really cute. He definitely loves Mark. He really tunes into Mark’s voice whenever he is talking. Mark is an excellent father. He has changed many more diapers than I have so far, but I think it will all even out when he goes back to work.

Parenthood is really challenging. People always tell you that and talk about how sleep deprived you will be. But until you actually experience it, you really have no idea how tough it is. It’s just so.....constant. Don’t

get me wrong--I love my little Luke. But I must admit the sleep deprivation has been a tough adjustment for me. Also, breast feeding has been very challenging. I am trying to stick with it but there are times when I do want to give up. I know he will be healthy no matter what we feed him. Thank God my mom and Sharon were able to stay with us for the first two weeks. We really needed them. They took good care of me and Mark (and Luke) while we tried to learn how to take care of a newborn.

Luke really seems to like going for walks in the stroller and riding in the car. We are waiting to venture out into the public until he is 6 weeks old as was recommended by our pediatrician. So, for now we just stick to walks around the neighborhood and riding around in the car.