Father's day without daddy :(

A week late, but last week we celebrated Father's Day in St. Louis. Unfortunately, we were without daddy who is coincidentally arriving today (can't wait!!!). Don't worry though we celebrated before we left and Jamie gave daddy a daddy+me frame and also an iron skillet for his bbq.
So in St Louis we celebrated with Big Daddy. It was a great day, with all my siblings in town for the first father's day together in 6 years.  Here are some highlights:

First we read the paper:

The we had a little fun:

The we took Jamie for his first ever swim (complete with all the correct gear). At first he wasn't too sure:

But he seemed to take it all in:

He'll enjoy it more eventually:

After swimming, Kyle joined us and we took Jamie to his first movie, Toy Story 3. He slept through the whole thing, but Nana made sure he wouldn't forget it and bought him a Buzz Lightyear from Sam's Club when she was shopping for dinner afterwards (sorry no photos of it yet). We had a really nice dinner afterwards and my dad shared some of his favorite memories of us. It was a really special day and we all enjoyed it. Now we're counting down the hours til J's daddy arrives!!

We're in St. Louis!!

We've made to hot and humid St Louis! Jamie did brilliantly on the flights. He slept most of the way on both, and he only cried when he was hungry and for a tiny bit on the descent into Chicago, but calmed down and fell asleep with his pacifier. It's been a little overwhelming for him with this completely new environment and all these new people, so he's been more fussy than usual, but he's also been full of smiles and cuddles for everyone he meets. Here are a shots from his first few days. Courtney has been on paparazzi patrol again and isn't failing in her duties, so it'll take a while to get up all the photos. I'll also put them all on Flickr when I have time to sort through the best ones.

Meeting his great grandma, Gammy, for the first time:

Four generations:

He's got some new tricks too including holding up his head and also trying to roll over (however this rolling over is more out of anger from being on his tummy than anything else):

Nana and Grandad visit

Before we head off to the States, Nana and Grandad came up for a quick visit to see all of Jamie's new tricks:

He's found his hands and likes to see how much he can fit in at once:

His facination with his toys:

His cheeky grin:

And best of all, his smile:

Sadly, we won't be able to see them (in person) for six weeks, but I'm sure he'll have a whole new bag of tricks to show off by then.

chattering away

Over the last week Jamie has become very chatty. He is cooing and gurgling away. We even got a couple of laughs over the weekend. I think he's gearing up for our visit to the States next week.  Here is a little video I took on my iPhone a couple of mornings ago:



We'll have plenty to share in the next few weeks as Jamie gets to meet many of hid Us family and friends.

jamie and his ladyfriends

Pink is the going colour around these parts. Jamie has his pick of the ladies, particularly at church. Check out this photo we snapped at a BBQ at ours yesterday:

From L to R: Izzy- 2 years old, Olivia-4 months, Jamie-2 months, Grace-3 weeks, Maisy-2 weeks.

We've recently found out that our friends Lizzy and Ben are also expecting a girl in late September. 

Our antenatal group has a further 3 girls and thankfully 2 boys! Not that playing with dolls isn't fun, but at least there'll be a couple of boys to make mud pies and play with trucks...