Past couple of weeks update

I have a bunch of things I want to jot down from the past couple of weeks that I want to remember, so I thought it'd be easiest to make a list!


* Last week, I said, "Okay, James..." to try to get him to stop playing with the blinds and sit down and eat, and he walked over to his meal that had cheese in it and said, "Okay, cheese..." with the exact same intonation. 2-year-olds are so funny!

* Twice today he made me laugh with his great dislike of anything dirty. He found a baseball in the mud and shouted over and over, "Yucky ball! Yucky ball!", until I cleaned it off. Then, he got dirt in his crocs, stopped, took of his shoe, and said, "Dirty beetsies! Dirty beetsies!" until I wiped them off. (I will be sad when he stops calling his feet his beetsies!)

* He's starting to get the hang of his tricycle this week! He gets frustrated with it after a while, though, when we go up or down hills and he can't keep up. We need a perfectly level street for him.

* James' intensity has gotten even more intense lately. It is one of the cutest things to me to watch his little eyes in everything he does, because there is so much passion and intensity in there! I would have to say he doesn't have nearly as much of a laid-back personality as I thought he would have at the beginning. Almost all day long, he has ideas in his head and is so determined to make them happen! He also is asking a million times a day now, "Whas this?" and "Whas dat?" over and over until I answer him.

* In the past few days, James has finally started sleeping until 7am, and he's taking a nap every day now (that started back up again a few weeks ago). He is so happy when he gets good sleep in!

* He has been having a growth spurt lately. 2-3 good meals a day, including healthy meats (a lot of times a struggle for him), lots of fruits, and even some new veggies! Broccoli ("brocki") is his tried and true veggie of choice, but now he's trying and liking a few others, which makes me so so happy, since this is not always the case!

* At his 2 year check up, he was in the 72% for height and 76% for weight. He didn't have to get any shots this time, and loved getting checked out! He gets kind of lulled, almost drooling, when the doctor checks his ears, eyes, throat, etc. He didn't used to be this way, but has just gotten better the past couple of checkups.

* The doctor commented on how he was very social. He also asked all of the autism screening questions, and James past with flying colors. Dr. H also gave me some great tips on

- potty training (wait until ready...average age is 3-3 1/2...told me of a great song/book that helps),

-getting rid of paci (around 2-2 1/2, take all pacis, put in a bag with James next to me, take out to dumpster on trash day together, make it sort of ceremonial and say bye-bye to pacis for good, talking him through it)

-tantrums (says they're going to become more intense in the next half a year possibly, walk away when they're throwing a fit over something, leave the grocery store if they throw a tantrum at the store, etc)

* James asks to go to "Bibi house" (Elizabeth/Mary Beth are Bibi) EVERY DAY.

* James has always been a climber, but he has been on a climbing spree lately, and won't stop climbing! I can't tell you how many times this week he's climbed on top of the bathroom counter, and he climbed out of his crib for the first time the week while in time out! He also mastered climbing over the missing step to get into his fort, and also decided he wasn't afraid of the biggest obstacle coarse/big slide at the park and did it over and over again one day. It's so interesting to me how all of these things just happened in this past week! He is trying his best to completely exhaust me every day lately!

* I turned 28 this past Thursday and had such a nice birthday! I wasn't really thinking about it in advance (I used to anticipate it all of April until I had James), but Thursday seemed to come as a very pleasant surprise, and I felt showered with love that day (as cheesy as that sounds) from friends and family. Josh stretched the presents out throughout the day, brought me lunch, made me breakfast when I woke up, and we had a nice dinner with my parents, who always make me feel so special on my birthday. My dad talked about holding me for hours right after I was born and talking to me the entire time while my mom was getting worked on (she almost died from having me). Then, anytime I would get fussy as a baby and my dad would start talking to me, I would immediately calm down. I love hearing that story!

That's all for now! I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Here are some pictures taken James' birthday weekend when my brother was in town. James is such a "gookie" monster!

2 Random videos of James

I have a new computer now that will let me easily upload videos from our camcorder and edit them. Before, I've always taken short videos from our old camera to put on the web, so I'm excited that I'm able to have all of our better quality home videos on here now! I have been really enjoying playing around with the videos, and I thought I'd throw one in here for y'all of James on Day 2 of his life (short video). I always thought he looked different in person than in his pictures, and this video looks just like I remember him. This makes me ache looking at this, because I remember this moment like it was yesterday. I was absolutely on cloud 9 laying in my hospital bed, looking over at my sweet newborn, and enjoying feeling so great!



This one is of James at 7 months and one of the other loves of his life, Jennifer (Josh's cousin on his mom's side). He has ALWAYS had a thing for Jennifer, and he's going to be disappointed when she gets married off this summer! This video is hilarious, because he didn't do this with many people, and every time we'd come, he'd light up with her, go to her, and kiss her.

James' Birthday Party

We had a wonderful time last night celebrating James' 2nd Birthday! From his two birthday parties in Atlanta, to his adorable class birthday party at MDO (pictures to come on that later), to sweet friends, to his birthday party last night, I am truly grateful to everyone who has shown love to our little boy! Here are some of my favorite pics from his party last night. To see all, go to our family photos (new) link.

Happy 2nd Birthday, James!

Today, my sweet boy is turning 2 years old. In some ways, it's so hard to believe that 2 years have gone by since our baby boy came into the world. He has brought us more joy that we could have ever asked for, and we could not feel more blessed. I adore the person he is and is becoming, and I love to watch him grow more into himself every day! Here are 10 things about our little guy at the age of 2!

1. He is a social butterfly. He thrives on interaction with others. He reminds me a lot of his daddy in this way! People walk a lot in our neighborhood, so he has to tell every person hi really loudly until they say hi back. He gets giddy and crazy when he's the center of attention, and I love to watch this side of him. It's very entertaining! He is absolutely crazy about all of his cousins, and would be around them 24/7 if he could.

2. He goes constantly. Everywhere he goes, he runs. He will be standing still, think of something he wants, and then take off at turbo-speed. He's always climbing over things, and doing anything he can think of that's physical.

3. He is a talking machine. I'm loving the new sentences, phrases, and thoughts his little head comes up with all of the time. He's very expressive, too. He'll say, "Oh Wow!", and "Oh MY!" a lot in front of the things he says.

4. He is a sweetie-pie and affectionate boy. He saves most of them for me, which I don't mind a bit! :) He hugs me and says, "Ooooaaahhhhh, Fweeeet! (sweet)". That gets me every time! We cuddle every morning and he just randomly hugs and kisses me throughout the day. We even play kissing games where we kiss and then yell over and over. (Hard to explain, but he cracks up.)

5. He is really into letters, numbers, and colors right now. He knows a few letters and loves to point them out every time he sees one when we're out and about. He also tells us when he sees grouping of things ("three books!", "two pacis!").

6. He still loves to read. He brings us book after book throughout the day and sits in our laps to read it to him. I love to see which one he picks out each time. He will search and search until he finds the right one. His favorite is still "The Little Red Caboose". I think we read that 3 times today!

7. He is into assigning ownership of things..."Daddy's chair, Mommy's cup, Manes shirt (he calls himself Manes)" Also...mine and yours ("thash yours"...in a cute raised-eyebrows, nodding-head way)

8. He went through a phase of throwing tantrums (I think from being sick and sleep deprived), but he's throwing them less now. (Should I even write that??? Knock on wood!

9. He's taking naps again in his crib! This started Friday afternoon. Hallelujah!!!

10. He's funny! He makes silly noises and says funny things in funny ways, like, "dirty biaper (diaper)" in a growly voice while I'm changing him. He gets down and swings his arms back and forth to dance. He whispers a lot, so quietly you can barely hear it, and looks at us for laughter.


Thursday, he is having a party at MDO, and Saturday, he will have his 2nd birthday party at our house with our family. I am looking forward to lots of celebrating! I will post pictures of it all after it's over. I also made a slideshow below of his two years of life.

James is 2 years old!

Turn up your music and watch James grow over the past two years! I realize it's a little long for some, but I was having too much fun going back and looking at pictures. ( In order to see the captions, just click the little x by the song title.)

Atlanta trip

I just got back from a Ladies' Retreat and am finally sitting down to blog about our trip to Atlanta!  We had a wonderful visit, and James was on cloud 9 the entire time we were there.  He ate up all of the attention he got from his cousins, aunties, uncles, grandparents, etc., but he was particularly attached to Josie and Hannah ("Joooo-sie and Nina") this trip.  They babied him and never let him out of his sight.  They are going to be the BEST babysitters one day!  It was so great to see our incredible nieces and nephews who we adore and are so proud of in so many ways.  We also enjoyed seeing a good amount of the extended family, too!  I'm so thankful for the time that we get to spend together, and it was hard to leave!  We had a little bit of travel drama.  The day we were to fly home (Wednesday), AA canceled 80% of their flights.  There was no shot of us flying on our buddy passes, so we rented a car and drove home!  We didn't get home until 2:45 am, but we were thankful that James slept from 7 pm on (with just one wake up).   Here are some pictures from our week!

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!