What We've Been Up To

My incredibly fun, funny, and wonderful Aunt Barbara (the one holding my mom's hand) came to visit us from Long Island, New York, this weekend! This is a rarity and a huge treat! She and my mom are really close, but they hardly get to see each other, so it was the biggest treat for my mom. My mom thought it would be fun for the girls to take a trip to Dallas to see the musical Wicked, so she bought us tickets for Sunday! We had a blast, chatting non-stop the entire day, had two of my favorite meals in Dallas, and really enjoyed Wicked! It was incredible, and I think it is a must see for everyone! Thank you, Mom, for this special treat, and thank you Bryon and Josh for watching the kids for us to go have a girls' day!

Speaking of Aunt Barbara, her youngest daughter, Deirdre, and I are really close cousins. You may remember me talking about her wedding 2 years ago this summer or our trip to NYC last December that she and her husband met us on. Well, her husband is from Finland, and her husband's sister is a pop star there (The story is that she won something like American Idol over there, them became a pop star with a group (Gimmel), and this is her first album on her own). She just came out with a video from her first single, and Deirdre sent it to me on youtube. She's singing in Finish, but I still think it's really neat to see! She speaks very good English and serenaded everyone at Deirdre's wedding, which was awesome. Here is the video link...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S0gQVzXX8A



I have to add a few things that James is doing that is either new since his birthday, or that I forgot to mention and don't want to forget.

~~ Last week, we were sitting at Taco Bueno with my mom, dad, and Thomas. I asked James, "Where's Nana?" and he looked at my mom. Then I continued with my dad, Josh, and Thomas, and each time he looked right at them! It was so exciting to me that he knew every one's names!

~~ A day or two after his birthday, James learned how to get up on his own, from sitting to standing!

~~ He is picking up stuffed animals and hugging them, which is the sweetest thing! He'll keep them by his face for a couple of minutes and squeeze them tightly.

~~ He's VERY into sharing and does it ALL day long! He even tries to share with his reflection in the mirror and people on tv!

~~ He's getting some muscle behind his throwing. He threw a ball to me yesterday, and it hurt! I have to really be on my toes now!