Zoo and Doctor Maisy

James and I went to the zoo recently and got to see something really neat. We walked over to the elephants, and the zookeeper was there making one of the elephants do tricks! She says she does this with them periodically, and we just happened to be there at the right time! I was probably more amazed than James was, but we got to see it put its ears out and in on command, dance, and a few other things. These are some pictures of us at the zoo.


I also got a video of James saying a couple of things. Today he was asking for the book Doctor Maisy, and I thought it was so cute the way he said it. I was amazed that I actually got him to perform for the video camera, since he hates doing anything for the camera!  Excuse his very dirty face, too!

Happy Easter!

James' third Easter has come and gone! James was born on Easter Sunday, 2006, so I always feel like this is his "other" birthday. All of those feelings of being in the hospital with my little newborn come flooding back to me!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful day. Besides James being sick, we had a very nice day, from the wonderful church service, to the delicious meal that Elizabeth made, to the mini-Easter egg hunt we did with James.

Here are some pictures from the day... (James hunting for "ayggs")

N'awlins!

James and I got back yesterday from spending a few days with our best friends from college in New Orleans! It was Amanda's Spring Break, so Amanda, Harry, James, and I all flew to stay at Kim and Adam's house. We had a wonderful time, doing many fun things throughout the week. Here's a rundown of the trip.

Day 1: Saturday
Josh, James, and I went up to Dallas a little early, hung out with Michael and Jilinda, went shopping with them and ate at a great Mexican restaurant. We went to the airport around 5 to fly out at 7pm, but found out the flight was 2 hours delayed. Josh got permission to come back with me. While at the gate, they asked if anyone would be willing to go the next day and get a travel voucher. We accepted (since James would have been going to bed around midnight if we'd flown that night), and drove back to Waco to spend the night. Funny thing that happened: James got attached to a girl waiting at the gate who was really sweet to him (15 years old and going on a mission trip with her mom). He threw a tantrum when we were leaving her and was clinging to her for dear life. Everyone around us laughed so hard.

Day 2: Sunday
Got up early, drove to Dallas, flew out with no problems. Active toddler who never stopped on the plane, but thankful that we made it with no major hiccups. Thoroughly enjoyed hugging the necks of two of my best friends, seeing them enjoy James, getting to see their kids as they woke up from naps and completely melting at how adorable they were. So neat to see the offspring of friends you've had since young college days!













St. Patrick's Day Parade. This was so cool, and we all got really into catching as much stuff being thrown off of the floats as possible! Very neat experience!
































































Stayed up late (1am) talking at the kitchen table with Kim and Amanda like the good ol' days!

Day 3: Monday
Adam made breakfast, hung out with the kids, went to the Park.



















Loved the uniqueness of New Orleans...cool trees, neat/different people, etc. The two young ones took naps while James and I laid in bed talking (still no naps). Went out to the Kupcake Factory for the best cupcake I've ever had. Kim made delicious shrimp for dinner. Enjoyed watching American Idol with them and sharing all of our comments! Earlier to bed this day since we were tired from the night before!


























Day 4: Tuesday
New Orleans Aquarium. We enjoyed seeing the kids soak in all of the neat things. Harry and James were really funny to watch (Adalie was sleeping) at the playpart of the Aquarium. They are 150% boys!! Went back for naps, woke up and got some awesome gelato and canoli. Drove around and looked at pretty New Orleans houses. Got more good cajun food, watched more American Idol and just enjoyed hanging out.
































Days 5: Wednesday
Craziness!:) Amanda and I running trying to get showered and repacked with our toddlers running around, James in a terrible two mood...it was almost comical! I'll tell ya what was really comical was at the airport. Amanda and I were on the same flight home, which was really nice. Amanda said she'd watch James and Harry while I got food. I came back and she was running trying to chase James and had me run and get Harry. She died laughing and said they (not in her words, but took advantage) and kept making a run for it (I'm laughing out loud as I type this). EVERYONE was staring at us. It was nuts...but fun! :)

The flight was an hour and a half delayed and James was even more active during that time. The wonderful thing is that he fell asleep immediately as we took off and slept the entire flight. Amanda missed her connecting flight, but got the next one. Josh picked me up (yea for Daddies!!!!) and the whole way home, James would only stop crying when we'd sing songs that he liked. I was slightly horse last night because of it, but that was better than crying! He had just had it from traveling! These are the funny toddler memories that we'll laugh at later, I'm sure!

That's it! Thanks again to Kim and Adam for keeping us! It was a blessing getting to be with these wonderful women I get to call friends, see them as mothers, love on their precious babies, and just have fun girl time! I hope we get to do this again soon!

Bad Sleeper/James Stories

I have been a very bad blogger lately, mostly because my almost two-year-old requires 100% of my attention almost all day long, and he has not been going to bed as early and is trying to give up his naps, so the last thing I want to do at night is sit down at the computer and try to think! I snatch 5 minutes here and there on the computer to check a blog or two, and then James will come right over and get me up! This is probably going to continue, too, because I don't see an end in sight!

James has gone from being the best sleeper to a pretty bad sleeper over the past few weeks. Everything is all out of whack with his sleeping patterns. We used to rock him for 5 minutes, read a book, etc, and put him in bed around 7. He'd go right to sleep. It's now taking him about an hour of crying (as I'm writing this, he did a little better tonight!) while we go in and reassure him in ever increasing intervals before he settles down. He's also getting up an hour or two earlier every morning, and not going down for a nap AT ALL. The past couple of days I have driven until he's asleep at naptime (it feels so strange to leave my house at 1:00!), just so he won't be so sleep deprived. The poor thing has circles under his eyes and is throwing one big, HUGE tantrum every day now.

Besides that, though, this is my favorite age so far with James. He seems to get more fun every single day, and is the sweetest, most loving and adorable little buddy I could ever ask for. He is hilarious and his little personality just melts me. I am crazy about this age, and he's just so enjoyable to us. He is learning new things all of the time and seems to shock us almost every day! A few weeks ago, I thought I'd try to get him to learn some of his numbers. I had never worked on them before, so I thought it would be fun. I started with 1, and he said "Two". With me alternating numbers, he counted up to 9 (skipping 8)! We did it over and over, and he did it perfectly every time. I couldn't believe my ears! I guess he picked that up in a book or on Sesame Street!

James is also getting really into praying. This one makes us so proud. James will wait till we all three are sitting down at the table and will say, "Pray?" He will reach for our hands, bow his head, and then say, "AMEN!" A couple of times now, he has gone over to the table at random times, bowed his head, and started saying a jibberish prayer. I'm sure that makes God so happy!

One funny quirk about James is that he usually knows exactly where we are around town. He is very spatially aware, and will talk about the places we go when we are near them, no matter which direction I've come from. Even places that we've only been a couple of times.

James made me laugh today when I put an outfit on him that he hadn't worn since the Fall. He used to wear this outfit with his cowboy boots that are too small for him now and hasn't worn in months. When I put the outfit on, he ran away from me, went into his closet, and came back with the cowboy boots on! Either he has a great memory or a great fashion sense! I'm hoping it's the first one!

James' favorite books right now are Maisy books. If you have a small child and don't have them, go get one, because they seem to have a spell over them. James says "Night-night, Maisy" before bed, and during the day, we have to hunt for the books sometimes, because he's so insistent on reading them.

One of James' favorite games to play is hide and seek. He runs fast and will hide really well and wait. When I find him, he does his growly laugh. He is also very into soccer right now, and I would say it's what he does best. He loves to dribble down the street and pass it back and forth to us.

I have no pictures right now, but I will work on that soon! Hope everyone is doing well!