Elizabeth's Birthday Party and Yard Pics

I'm so excited about how much our front yard has come along in the past year!

































































Sunday was Elizabeth's 32nd birthday, and we celebrated at my parents' house. Here are a couple of pictures from the day.









This adorable outfit he is wearing (at the bottom) is from his sweet Auntie Kim!


Forgot to mention that at his 15 month check-up, he was in the 57th% for height and 79th for weight! That cracked me up! Last time he was 67th for height and weight! Looks like all he's done is put on weight! :) His head circ. was 77th%. He is officially in size 24 month clothes. He is still wearing 12-18 month clothes fine, but I got a few of 18 month outfits on sale and traded some of them for 24 months because they were borderline. So hard to believe!





One more thing...

Call me a proud aunt, but I had to put links to the tributes Elizabeth did about her 3 children. I told her to do them, since she's been a bit of a blog slacker lately! :)

Matthew
Thomas
Mary Beth

I love the way James...

 

-eats food. His little lips pucker up and he makes an adorable smacking noise.

-looks when I open his door to get him out of the car in the garage and the garage door is going down. It intrigues him every time, so he freezes and his eyes light up with a soft smile.

-takes new toys, books, or objects to discover to the tile in front of the fireplace and sits down to figure them out, like it's his little place.

-gets extremely cuddly at night when it's time for bed.

-hugs when we ask him for a hug. It's the best hug in the world.

-kisses when you ask him for a kiss. I can't imagine a sweeter kiss.

-notices and has to touch everything. He is Mr. Curious.

-knows when one of us is about to leave and won't let us put him down when we are.

-gets over it within 10 seconds when we leave him somewhere, so I never have to worry about him.

-loves kids. When there's a kid around, I don't have to try to keep him entertained.

-runs. It is the cutest little run. He has an idea of where he wants to go and can't get there fast enough!

-has a great attention span for a boy. The doctor was amazed that he sat and read a book as long as he did at his office. He will usually sit through 1-2 books.

-does his George Jefferson/taking off on a ski slope walk. He bends over and puts him arms backwards with his hands in sometimes like he is about to take off. It is hilarious!

-loves to be cuddled and sung to before naps.

-laughs mischievously when he wants something and gets the first inclination that he's going to get it. (a hearty "ha-ha-ha")

-is very coordinated. He definitely got that from his daddy!

-brings Josh or me books and backs up to our laps for us to read them to him.

-sings. When I turn in his book to the page about singing, he starts singing, and it kind of reminds me of the cavemen Christmas Carol skit from SNL.

-plays with a toy and then throws it down when he's finished, like he doesn't want to waste a second of his time before moving on to the next thing.

-climbs stairs (as many stairs as there are...he'll climb them all) like he's going on turbo-speed. He loves this!


I love his...

-smile that lights up his face. It's a mixture of Josh's (one of my favorite features on Josh) and mine. He has Josh's mouth and my apple cheeks. That was my nickname growing up (apple cheeks), so maybe that'll be his!

-puppy dog eyes. They melt my heart to mush. I love them in the morning when they're a little puffy, outside when they sparkle, when we're driving and I look at them in the rear view mirror, when we're snuggling and he looks up at me, and when they have that curious/determined look in them.

-wispy soft golden curls on the back of his head and by his ears.

-his adorable nose that crinkles when he laughs. I could just eat it off sometimes! I especially love it from the side.

-his bear cub hands and feet. They are as thick as they are wide! He's in a size 7 shoe now!

-voice. Loud, raspy when it's lower, perfectly clear (and hard on the ears) when he's yelling!

-his personality. He's sweet, determined, reserved, friendly, curious, funny, somewhat aggressive, and cuddly.

James says Hannah (his cousin)'s name!!!!

This was James' first time to say someone's name other than Mommy and Daddy's. We had a picture of all his cousins on Josh's side and were trying to get him to say their names. He pointed to that picture when he said her name. He said "Ha-NNAH" every time he saw that picture afterwards! I know this made Hannah VERY happy! :)

Testing Mommy

"I've tried this about a hundred times, and Mommy always says no, but maybe this time she'll let me!"
 

 

Friends visit and My climber

This weekend, our friends Cody and Lauren from Nashville came to visit us! Cody is one of Josh's best friends from college, and Lauren, his wife, I feel like I've known since college. We enjoyed their visit so much! On Friday, my mom came over to watch James around lunchtime, and the four of us headed to Austin. We made a few stops on our way to dinner. We drove around UT (I had never seen it either) and then went into the Texas Capitol building. After that, we headed over to Lake Travis to eat dinner at the Hula Hut. If you ever go to Austin, you need to eat there! Everything I get there is incredible. The rest of the time, we just hung out, went shopping, drove around, played with James, talked, and played games. James loved Cody and Lauren! He let Cody hold him a lot, and although he wouldn't go to Lauren as much (this is typical of him to go to guys over girls), he flirted with her from the minute he first saw her! He stared at her, made eyes at her, and got really keyed up around her. We are so thankful for their friendship and that we got to spend a weekend with them!



















































































I also had to add these pictures of James getting into everything! I know I am posting these a lot lately, but he is giving me so many picture-taking opportunities that I have to take! :) I was trying to cook the other day while Josh was out of town, and James wouldn't stay in his highchair. He is really into handing me a bunch of things right now, so he would go get one thing at a time and hand it to me. Then, he pulled out everything he could get his hands on (everything that wasn't locked up...I don't want to ban him from every drawer) and climbed on everything he could.


I didn't take a picture of this because I didn't have my camera by me and wasn't about to leave him, but yesterday, while I was making my breakfast, James was playing with a toy that makes animal noises in the kitchen. I went into the living room to eat and just listened to make sure he was still playing with that toy. After a minute or so, it got semi-quiet. I could hear his diaper swooshing, so I called him to me. He didn't come, so I called again (He usually will come to me). It got very quiet, so I got up and looked in the kitchen. Guess where he was (he got here in I would say 30 seconds)....sitting on top of the kitchen table with his legs crossed, looking at me like, "Wow...I really got up here!" I said a quick prayer of thanksgiving to God that he didn't fall, with my heart pounding, and took him in the living room with me. It's amazing/scary how fast that happened!! Here's a picture of him on the end table by our couch, that he got on by climbing on the magazine basket.





Another story from today, James woke up saying something over and over this morning. I had to listen closely, but all I could come up with was "boppy" or "poppy" or something along those lines. I even wrote it down so I wouldn't forget, but it was so cute how he was saying it over and over. After MDO today, his teacher said to me, "James kept saying something over and over again today. Something like poppy or puppy?" He has said it all night, too! I think he may just be practicing language, but he must have said it 100 times! I forgot to mention that he is also saying "Uh-oh" a lot. He puts a lot into both syllables and says it every time something falls.

This blog really didn't flow at all, but there were a lot of things I've been wanting to add to here.

Hope y'all have a great week!

Josh's 28th Birthday and Rough Week for James

Tomorrow is my baby's 28th birthday! Since we're having company come in tonight, I'm blogging about it today. Last night, we had the family over for cake after church. We will do more celebrating tomorrow with our friends from college! Last year, Josh was writhing in pain from his back injuries, so it's nice for him to be able to enjoy be spoiled and celebrated on his birthday this year! 28 is starting to sound old, but we always feel kind of young because a lot of our friends are a year or two (or more) older than us, and we're both the babies in our families, youngest of three.

This has not been the best week for little Jamesy, though. Two nights ago, we were on a walk with James in his wagon. About halfway through our walk, I handed the handle over to Josh for him to pull. James lost his balance and busted his lip and tounge on the wagon. There was blood (and tears) everywhere! His lip was swollen (as you might can tell in this picture taken right after), but the worst part was his tongue. Yesterday, it looked really bad, to where even the doctor commented on how bad it looked.

The reason we went to the doctor was not for his mouth, but for another thing! He has had diarrhea all week and yesterday woke up with a mild fever. I took him in, and his fever was gone, so the doctor just said to feed him bran, bananas, etc. Last night, while my family was on their way over, James threw up...a lot! He has never in his life thrown up this much. We gave him a bath and hoped that was the end of it (and I was thankful my mom was over there so she could help!). Well, he threw up about everything else in his stomach all over me, soaking through my shirt! Now that I've been thrown up on, I feel that I've been fully indoctrinated into the world of parenthood! It didn't stop there. He threw up every 15-30 minutes until about midnight. About 10:00, we got some good advice from the on call doctor and one of our friends who's a doctor, to help prevent dehydration. I thought I'd list them in case someone ever needs it, or if I need it again!



They said to give him a teaspoon at a time of liquid (preferably pedialite, but a lot of kids hate it, so you can do Gatorade, very watered down juice, or water)...no milk! Give it every 15 minutes or so, and if he keeps it down 3 times, up it a teaspoon, until you get him to drink an ounce. James didn't want any of that near his mouth, so our friend said to give him benadryl. That did the trick for him! I gave him that about midnight, so it coated his stomach, stopping the throwing up, and knocked him out! He also said to hold him upright, and that would help stop the process. I did that until about 12:30, but James wanted to stretch out, so I put him in bed. He woke up at 7:45 without any throw up on him! He has been happy as can be, drinking juice, and even kept down a banana! I'm so thankful to God he's over it (for now and hopefully for good) and that it didn't turn into anything worse. My nurse mama said to watch for signs of dehydration, which is sunken in eyes, dry lips, skin not going right back down when you pinch it, but he wasn't anywhere close. Also, early on we were calling friends to see if anyone had fenergin, but thankfully no one did, because both docs said that they don't like to give it to anyone under 2, since their brains aren't fully fortified until age 2. Wanted to throw that in there, hopefully to help someone going through the same thing!

My favorite pictures from this week

In the third one down, he actually got in there by himself. I still don't have a clue how. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it would be a tricky thing to do!

More Funny Pics

I had to pull the camera out for this moment today, too! We have been working on James using a fork and spoon the right way. He was doing pretty well (for a beginner at least) and I really had to go to the bathroom, so I thought, " I'll just clean it up if he makes a mess!". Well, I came back and he was trying to drink his food out of the bowl. Since he was already making quite a mess, and I was starving, I thought I'd let him just have at it and sit down and enjoy my yummy left-overs. He was cracking me up trying to eat with his fork. He'd get a big bite, put it up to his mouth, and turn it just a little too soon to where it'd fall in his lap. They say that you have to let them learn sometime! I went to get the camera, and he started playing peek-a-boo with food all in his hands, getting it all in his hair! He's a funny kid! We went straight to the bath after this!







My little Jamesy is getting to be such a big boy! He's changing by the week! There are so many things that he's doing right now where I think, "I need to blog this", but then I forget. He's losing a lot of his babyness, which every once in a while gets to me, but it's being replaced by his adorable little personality that I am in love with! Some things I want to remember about him right now...

-He's so loud!! Anywhere we go, you can hear his hilarious, raspy, loud voice from pretty far away.

-He's very talkative and "asks lots of questions" in his own language. He looks at me like I know what he's saying and wants an answer!

-His real words are getting so clear and he's using them more and more every day!

-His favorite things to talk about are doggies (a lot of animals are doggies), shoes (anytime he sees one he yells "SHOOOE!"), and balls (anything that's round, even grapes, which he tries to throw like a ball). It seems like he comes up with a new word a week!

-He loves sticks, which includes rakes, brooms, bats, etc.

-He growls every time he sees an animal, but yesterday and today, he's been mooing when he sees a cow!

-He's super independent. Forget me holding him when we go out. He wiggles his way down as FAST as he can and yells (ok, sometimes screams) when I try to pick him back up and he doesn't want me to. This is what makes it SO hard to go out and about right now.

-He's very curious. One of my favorite faces of his is his concentrating face. He makes this a lot when something's really interesting or new to see. Yesterday, we went to the dentist together and while I was getting work done, he was straddling my lap facing me. He was completely still for about 30 minutes (never happens) and intently watching my dentist work in my mouth. I sat there and just enjoyed staring at him, since I never get to do that anymore. It was so cute how fascinated he was!

-He loves books! This is another of my favorite things to do with him, but he'll bring over a book, back up, and sit in my lap. Some books he wants to read over and over, like Goodnight Moon, one of his farm animal books, and his Baby Talk book, that his Aunt Jo Anna gave him. He points to the right thing when I ask him where the spoon, cookie, etc. is. There's one page where it asks you to sing, and he "sing" which is one of the funniest noises.

-He shakes his head no now when you ask him a question and he doesn't want to. I asked him for a kiss the other day and he looked at me with a little attitude and shook his head!

-In the midst of all of his busyness, he'll still stop and give me big hugs and kisses. Every once in a while, he'll want to just snuggle for about 10 minutes or so, and then that's it! He's off! But I totally eat it up when he does!

-He's all boy, but he's the sweetest, happiest, funniest little thing, trying all day long to make me laugh or smile! He plays peek-a-boo like it's going out of style! I've never seen anyone play it so much! He thinks he's a comedian!

-He blows kisses a lot now, anytime Daddy or someone close leaves. He very passionately puts his hand to his mouth, puts it out, and says "Muuu!"

-I almost forgot, but how could I forget..He loves to climb!! He scares me half to death sometimes, but he climbs on everything he can now!

I know there's more I've been wanting to add, but I'll have to just make a new list another day. I'm going to go try to get some more things done during his nap!

Pictures

This morning, James was playing with his kitchen (that I got for $5 at my church's garage sale!). I heard him start crying, so I went in there and saw this! He got so mad when I ran to get the camera! Ha! It was worth it though! He was pretty stuck in there!
 
James loves to put things on his head and our heads. He makes us laugh by putting a hat on and looking at us like, "Aren't I cute?!" Here he's putting using a bucket as a hat. We were taking advantage and stealing some kisses!
 
 
 

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day! This morning, we went to a parade in my sister's neighborhood. The weather was great for Texas in July, and we really enjoyed it!



















James ran around and had fun watching his older cousies going down the waterslide and jump in the jumphouse. In this picture, he is doing what he does a lot now-running and making noise so that his voice bounces as he runs. His cheeks also jiggle up and down, but you can't tell that in the picture!









When his Nana and Deedah came, he started running to them and took a pretty bad fall to the ground. Luckily, he landed on his hands first, so his head was not the first thing to hit the pavement! Poor thing looks so pitiful now! The first picture was right after, and then last one was about an hour later. I wonder how many more boo-boos like this he will get before it's all said and done!

My little hunk!

Life is hard as a kissable, squeezable, photographable little toddler!
 

















"Please, Mom...enough for tonight."
 













"This is the LAST one!"