James William Draper

Little James... He loves his fingers

Before James

The Boys meet for the 1st time

Mom & James snuggling

Dad & James Hanging Out watching Bond, James Bond

He is finally here! James William was born Nov 4, 2010. He was 8lbs 9oz & 20in long. It was a little scary for me since he was breech & they decided it was in the best interest of everyone to do a C-section at my Wednesday appointment. So then we set up a C-section for the next day. Good bye chipotle burritos, A1, sauce & fondue cravings. Hello he is finally going to be here. It happened all so quickly. I'm still not sure what to think of it all & I'm still recovering. I think the worst part of the whole C-section thing is not being able to function for so long because you are recovering from surgery. Holding your baby is even hard sometimes.

My thoughts on my C-section... I really loved the anesthesiologist. He had a nice soothing voice (reminded me of a loving bishop voice) He helped calm me down and talk me through everything. There was also a nurse in training there. she was cool. When they were giving me my epidural, I was leaning into the nurse so they could poke me. I was so nervous on verge of tears and she took my hand. At first I thought it was Jason until I realized it was the nurse in training (they let Jason in after the epidural). That was really nice of her & I really needed it. Poor girl though, she had to leave because she was getting nausua during the procedure. So overall the C-section was ok. It was great to see & hear my baby cry, but I really couldn't hold him for awhile. When we got back to the room, my spinal had worn off & they didn't have my pain killers to run through the epidural line yet. I was in pain so until that died down, I really didn't have a desire to hold him.

Recovery - The worst part was the day after the c-section (Jason went home to sleep & be with Josh), I had a totally sucky nurse and guess what I got her again the next day. She just wasn't very punctual ...15-30 min after I push the freaking button. I was in tears. Good thing I wasn't dying, but she was starving my baby since I couldn't get up to feed him...don't get me started on her. She tried making it up the next day. Still her bedside manner sucked. So after being all emotionally ticked about being neglected then we go through a roller coaster about our son's kidney's heart & at one point his liver & all of this after a sono was done & after my doctor said everything was fine. I guess the doctor on call from my pediatrian's office didn't know there was a sono of Jamse & only saw the sono of him when he was inside of me which showed water around his kidneys. She ordered x-ray and thought the heart looked big and so did the liver so they took another one and had a specialist come in. The specialist seemed very competent that everything was ok & now I know which pediatrician in the practice I will never go to. I don't tell it very well, but it was almost like this pediatrician was on a witch hunt to find something wrong.

On the flip side. I loved my night shift nurses. They are the best. I had one 2 nights in a row. That was cool. She took really cute picture of James. So far, it has been super nice to have my mom, sister in law, & mother in law close by. They have been a big help with Josh & help around my house as I recover. I'm also greatful for all the meals church friends brought by. Recovery after a c-section is a lot harder because you can't funtion like normal...you can't walk very well, lift anything, or drive. You hurt & you are tired all the time on top of it all. Next time I hear someone is having a C-section, I'm going to help them out as much as possible. Especially if they don't have family near by.

Josh Funnies

• If he sees adults out of context. He gives them weird looks and runs away or total ignores them...Example: my friend from church (who Josh has seen at our house several times) is a substitute teacher and she was his sub for gym. The gym teacher also is the crossing guard at the start of the day. She waves and says good morning he turns and runs the other way and I have to talk him into going into the school building. During gym, he just ignored her. Another example we were at the grocery store. He sees one of the paras from his classroom. Gives her a shy smile and runs down the isle in the opposite direction
• Cooking time in preschool, they brought in an old fashion popcorn cooker. They were trying to get the kids to say what we do 1st, 2nd last. Josh blurts out put it in the microwave. We don't even eat very much microwave popcorn :)

Super Saturday Crafts

Overview of Crafts

Overview of Crafts

Placemat Bag

You buy 1 placemat that will suit you for a bag and 48 in of ribbon or webby for handles

no cost

Paper baskets

Necklace or bracelet

(with contrasting beads) pink, black, white, tan

Kids Temple Board

(pink, purple, blue or green)

Chad Hawkins Picture of Temple 11x13-list of temples with order form

Table Overview

Left: Board with Silver Temple "Where Families become forever"

Temples available: all UT temples, SanDiego, Spokane, & Idaho Falls)

Right: Family Proclamation Board

Tile Necklace (mixed papers or bring your own) - no chain included

Left: Tshirt with flower embellishment

Right: Baked Potato Bag (various material to choose from on SS)

Tshirt with flower embellishment, sizes Child or Adult in small, medium, & Large)

(Colors-red, white, black, pink, purple, green, blue)

You may bring your own tshirt

2short sleeve of 1 long sleeve ( we will cut them up)

Left: Christmas Stocking

Right: O Holy Night Brick & color choices

Christmas Stocking

O Holy Night Brick with or without light

Color options for O Holy Night Craft (sorry not very picture)

Clothespins with buttons (Christmas, child, baby, birthday) (hang cards, banners, etc, or use as a decoration) 7 per kit

Vacation 2010

We took a vacation this summer and travelled by car through the openness of KS, the mountains of CO to the oh more mountains of UT. When people ask what did family's do before we had DVD players in cars...Josh's answer would be stickers. That kept him busy for most of the drive. Our first stop on our adventure was Salina. Time to eat. We ate at this little diner not one to write home about but we did meet Floyd. This very friendly guy talking to people at the restaurant. He gave Josh (his parents) a couple of dollars for ice cream. He was quite the character. We went and spent it at Braums. Yummy ice cream.

The next Stop was Denver, CO. We had fun just hanging out and relaxing at the hotel. One day we went to the aquarium, a park, and shopping. The next day we went to the children's museum and the park.

Then we moved on to Vail, CO where we just enjoyed the mountain air at a park. Do you see a trend starting. Josh loves outside.

The next day we arrived in UT and made camp at my brother's house where we did numerous and exciting things such as:

• Hung out at the Guernsey's House
• Eat breadsticks and Pizza Factory (twice, yummy)
• Played the Wii every morning (good thing Calvin knows how to turn it on for Josh)
• I read a book, Jason got hooked on watching Burn Notice and playing plants vs Zombies, and Josh loved the Wii-both Uncle Quentin and Uncle Brandon have one
• Went to a park
• Visited GM & GP Draper
• Visited Uncle Brandon
• Aunt Heather came & visited us
• Ate at my favorite Brazilian restaurant Taconos
• Went to Salt Lake City: Saw the LDS conference center (It has the best waterfall ever if you ask Josh), Listened to a tabernacle organ concert (I was impressed that Josh sat still for 30 minutes and for the most part listened. He did have to tell me when the lights changed color), and Looked at the Salt Lake Temple
• Entered IKEA for the first time. I wish we had one close by & wish that Josh didn't have a melt down about sharing the elevator with people.

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Adjusting to School

Well Josh is liking school. I hear he plays well with the other kids and he is getting adjusted to the school setting and participation more. He looks like such a small guy compared to those in his class. I guess it is because most of them are 4 and Josh isn't even 3 yet. After school he used to bolt for the exits and ask for the park ten times so it was hard to talk to his teacher. I guess his attention span was all used up. Now after school, he wants to go to the music room or the gym. He points to them and says, this way. I told him we couldn't and we needed to go home and he told me no. He gave up and said it was ok to go to the store though so we went to the store instead.

I Wasn't Going To Be That Mom

I was so excited for Josh to start school today. We packed his backpack last night, we got up early this morning, and we were ready to go. You would think it was my first day of school I was so excited. So after we got there, we walked to his new classroom with his teacher and hung up his bag and picked out a toy. I told him goodbye and he said bye bye and was going to leave with me so of course there was that "separation upset." No big deal right...he does it a Jazzercise and church nursery and he is fine in less then 2 minutes, but then it hit me he is going to school and getting so big. Yes I got a little teary eyed. This is the first time I'm leaving him with someone unrelated to him where I won't be in the same building. Big steps for mom. I didn't think I was "that type of mom" that gets all emotional about things like this. Maybe I will blame it on hormones. Anyway I'm fine now. After dropping him off, I went to babysit Jazzercise today and it really felt like I forgot him at home... Although today was definitely the day where, he was better off at school than in that Jazzercise room. There was a newer kid/baby that cried half the time. After Jazzercise babysitting, I came home to a nice message from Josh's teacher, that he was doing great and he was fine a few minutes after I left. Well I better go get something done before it is time to pick him up.

A Jewel of Thought

So I must not have too many Jewels of Thought since I haven't been writing. Life is pretty normal at the moment. As far as my job goes, I'm back on cruise mode of regular payroll stuff. Every now and again I get weird W2 questions or requests to resend it, but those are not hard to deal with and should stop by the 15th. In September I get an increase in work load since a coworker is going to be having a baby. I'm excited that I get to do some of my old jobs like bank reconciliation. Ok so I'm weird, I really enjoy doing that. There is just a joy I get when everything matches up or you solve the problem of why they don't match up. I will probably do some new things too that she will train me before she leaves. I will probably go into the office more just to get things done quicker so I will have to figure out what to do with Josh. Most of the time, I'm sure GM will take him, but depending on how often I need/want to go in I might have someone in either Gardner or Lawrence look after him. My boss said I could do most at home, but then I feel bad for Josh if I'm not giving him time.

In Josh news, he will be graduating infant toddlers when he turns 3. We will miss the weekly visits of Mrs. Nadene. He has made so much progress and I have learned a lot on techniques I can use to help him. He communicates his wants and needs very well now. We are working on expanding his vocab now. His articulation could be better, but that will come as he learns more words and I understand him and that is all the counts at the moment. In May, Josh will be going to Madison elementary 2 times a week to work on his speech and he may qualify later for more of a preschool environment. He is growing up so quickly. I am so proud of him.

In Jen news, I just had a Bday. Celebrated by eating Chipotle and making a cake with Josh. Both were yummy. I got an IPod case and I don't know the name of it, but a media center type hard drive device so that we can digitally put our movies on it and scroll to the one we want to watch. I'm excited. It will be so nice, especially with Josh's shows. They are getting so scratched up that some of them we can't watch any more. I had a nice relaxing Bday. Things I'm looking forward to...fence, vacation in Aug to UT, family reunion at my brother's new house, 4th of July, Josh going to school, Josh's 3rd Bday, 3rd book in Hunger Games Series

Josh Points of interest

• Josh went through mom's diaper bag, had fun with desitine, came upstairs to ask me to open some candy he found in my bag. He got in trouble and I kept asking him do we go through mom's bag? He kept answering yes. I then realized I was asking him the wrong question and he was just telling the truth...yes we went through mom's bag...so I changed my question into 2...Did you go through mom's bag? YES. Are you suppose to go through mom's bag? NO. What a smart kid.
• Loves Elmo now. He is starting to drag the elmo doll around
• Lives off of CoCo Milk, Gogurt, white cheese (string cheese), and bread (he won't eat PB&J, he just wants the bread)
• Helps himself to things in the fridge, but has to open the freezer first in order to open the fridge.
• Everytime he sees the pilsbury dough boy he makes the hehe sound.
• Loves to bake with mom
• Sees a public bathroom and grabs his diaper and says ew, pee popo in toliet. Sometimes he pees but most of the time he just wants to sit on it and flush.
• Prayer time- closes his eyes and says mama where are you?
• Prayer time- Daddy saying prayer, Josh starts playing with daddy's head, I tell Josh to fold his arms, he tells me to close my eyes.
• Plays world of warcraft...asks to play by saying more ooze (one of the things in the game). He has his own character. He is pretty good now at turning his guy around once he runs into a wall.
• Computer Genius: knows when the mouse is turned off & will flip it over & turn it on. Can exit programs by moving the mouse and clicking on the X in the corner
• Loves to take Orange baths
• Still pushes people if they are in his playing space. The other day, he tried pushing a bigger kid...didn't work so much.
• Goes to Jazzercise with mom and has to have his dance time afterwards. I have now trained him to dance one song and then we leave without a tantrum.