All Smiles

We finally did it. We captured the elusive smile while listening to Esquivel this weekend. He loves music with a good beat, and Esquivel's saucy Latin rhythms really did the trick.

Hi it's me but I'm not Hi-Me.

Just so we are clear and I don't want to name names, but a few of our friends and relatives have been mistakenly mispelling Jamie Jaime. It's Jamie, not Jaime, or Hi-Meh as it is pronounce en Espanol.

Jaime:

(From http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Jaime)

The boy's and girl's name Jaime \ja(i)-me\ is of Spanish origin. Variant of James (Hebrew) "he who supplants". "J'aime" is the French expression for "I love". Also used in modern times as a respelling of Jamie,

Jaime has 6 variant forms: Jamee, James, Jamey, Jamie, Jayme and Jaymee.


Baby names that sound like Jaime are Jaimy, Jaimie, Jaimi, Jaimey, Jaimee and Jaima.

Jaime is a very popular female first name and a very popular surname (source: 1990 U.S. Census). Displayed below is the baby name popularity trend for the girl's name Jaime. Click here to compare Jaime with related baby names.

Jamie is:

(from http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Jamie)

The boy's and girl's name Jamie \j(a)-mie\. Diminutive of James, used as an independent name.

Jamie has 5 variant forms: Jaime, Jaimie, Jamee, Jamey and Jayme.

For more information, see also the related name Jacob.

Baby names that sound like Jamie are Jaymie, Jimmie, Jemmie and Jimi.

Jamie is a very popular male first name and a common surname (source: 1990 U.S. Census). Displayed below is the baby name popularity trend for the boy's name Jamie. Click here to compare Jamie with related baby names.

Grandma and Grandpa visit

This weekend Grandma and Grandpa finally made it up for a visit. They had to call off at least one trip due to bad weather. This time, apparently they just squeaked out ahead of a snow storm in Tennessee. We were glad to have them Jamie seemed very content to sleep on Grandma and play with Grandpa.

Here's a few pictures.




Apparently Grandpas taste good to babies.

Eying the Prize:

and Slurp:

A smile on my face...

Yesterday morning was the first time on my bike since Jamie was born almost six weeks ago. On top of the snow and ice, it just seems that things have been too hectic to ride. The ride was just a simple, short commute. Down the hill, over the bridge, turn left at the light, show my badge at the gate, and ride up behind the office and lock up the bike. Roughly 2 miles, may be 10 minutes tops but the weather was great and the sun was shining. It was about 45° outside, just warm enough to need only a t-shirt once I was warmed up. After all, last week the highs were only in the 20's. It seemed like a tropical heat wave.

Did that put a smile on my face? Well, yes, but, what really topped it off was that in the afternoon, I turned around and headed back home, took Jamie from Christine and helped her get her bike ready and sent her off on her first ride in over 6 months.

She was a little nervous, having not ridden in that long, that she would have forgotten how to balance, shift, etc. I'm not sure how far she ended up riding but she was gone over an hour. She definitely was smiling when she got back. Now that really puts a smile on my face!

Just a few more pictures

Jamie is starting to smile a bit more now. He's got a huge gaping grin but it's really hard to catch with a camera. I'm sure they will last longer and longer and I'll be able to get a better picture. Here's the best I could do so far:




He's growing but he's still dwarfed by his big brother Rico.

Ice Storm '07

Tuesday night we had an ice storm which coated us in around 1/2" of ice. We lost power for a few hours on Wednesday. It wasn't too bad, just long enough for us to get nervous and reserve a hotel room for the night. Fortunately it came back on and we were able to cancel our reservation.

Iced storms are a conjure up mixed feelings. Obviously you worry about losing power and all the damage from falling trees but they are also really beautiful, turning the world into a crystal palace. I tried to get out and take some pictures, but unfortunately it was already melting and I had to head back inside because the camera and Jamie, who was with me in his sling, were getting pelted with water drops and falling ice.

Cute Game!

Well, another week, another week older. Jamie is starting to go from relatively inanimate lump, to interactive play machine. Among his more interesting milestones achieved thus far. (I'll spare you from the details regarding frequency, quantity, and consistency of his bowel movements. Let's just say often, plentiful, and nasty should about cover it.)

* He has, at two weeks, figured out how to roll over from his belly to his back, something most babies don't figure out until around 12 to 15 weeks. We could be in trouble with this one.

* Christine managed to coax a big smile out of him by smiling at him.

* I got him to laugh or chuckle, it's hard to say which, by pretending that my fingers were a bird's beak and saying cheep, cheep, cheep while pecking at his nose.

* He thinks that the baby on the other side of the mirror is pretty interesting and will stare at him for an hour straight.

* And just yesterday he discovered a new game. Christine noticed, that he would stare at her and then look away and pretend to sleep. If you looked away, he would look back and then fuss until you looked back at him and then he would look away again. Christine was calling it "playing possum."

I came home from work and Christine excitedly told me about his new game. We both agreed that it was, indeed, very cute. That was until last night at about 3 am, after eating for a hour, instead of going right to sleep like he usually does after a 2 am feeding, he wanted to perfect his new game. I'm usually in charge of changing him and putting him back to bed after he eats. I got him cleaned up and put him back in his cradle. As soon as I laid him down he started fussing and was wide awake. Usually what I do in situations such as this is put him on my chest and hum to him. The vibrations usually send him right off to slumber land. Not last night. It was eyes wide open, staring straight at me. When I stared back he'd turn his head and shut his eyes, faining sleep. Every time I'd think he was asleep, I'd start to drift off as well. Unfortunately if he saw me sleeping, he'd start crying until I opened my eyes again, at which point he'd pretend to sleep again. This went on for at least an hour. It was exhausting to say the least. I have determined that cuteness is time-of-day dependent.

Start 'em young!

A credit card application from the credit card company CITIbank arrived in the mail addressed to none other than a James the III, whom I presume is our son. (Grandfather, father and son share first names but not middle names so technically he isn't a III).

He will be a grand total of 3 weeks old tomorrow. How the hell did they get his name already? He doesn't even have an SS# yet!

Evil I tell ya.