James at 15 months...

Every day brings at least one new word or skill for James. It is amazing to see how quickly he is grasping the English language.

He says a LOT of words now. Some that I think are unusual for a 15 month-old: gentle, glasses, bear, starfish and Elmo. My favorite words he says are: shoe (Mom says he sounds like a French baby), thank you (he does the "dee dou" thing a lot of babies do), I love you (what Mommy's heart doesn't melt when she hears those words?) and Jeremy (he says "meremy"). It's also pretty neat that he says "diaper" when he wants to be changed. This could make potty training a little easier!

Physically, he is much more stable on his feet and starting to climb things (yikes!). He also finally learned how to stand up without pulling up on something this month. He used to fall down in the back yard and stay in one place grunting and whining until someone would help him up.

James loves music and he knows one phrase from 5 different songs. I ask him to sing at least 10 times a day because it is so cute!

He also knows quite a few animal sounds. The unusual ones are: lizard, donkey and owl.

This summer he is staying home with daddy. Some of his favorite activities include throwing things down the basement stairs, going on bike rides, reading books, watching "baby" videos, going to the park, watching Sid the Science Kid, torturing the cats, playing in the backyard (pool or sprinkler) and stealing Daddy's glasses off his face!

I will leave you with a cellphone picture since Rod is rebuilding our other computer that has the real camera pics on it. Rod always sits on this step to put his shoes on. Whenever James wants to go outside he grabs his shoes and sits on this step.

James at 14 months

This adorable little face is starting to develop quite a personality! He is so much fun and has such a great sense of humor.

Some things I want to remember about him at this age:

* Just moved into size 4 diapers. I'm hopeful that he will potty train before he reaches size 5. :)

* His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. Some new words are: "maamaw" (grandma), "soosh" (shoes), "asai" (outside).

* He still loves to be outside any chance he gets. His favorite things to do are talk to the neighbor kids, talk to the neighbor dogs, swing and go for walks in his stroller.

* While inside he enjoys watching videos on my iPhone. He tells us this is what he wants by yelling "baby" at the top of his lungs. He has also discovered how much fun it is to run on the couch. Yesterday he fell off and landed on his head pretty hard, but the minute he was done crying he got right back up there.

* James has started dancing at just about anything that resembles a song! His jerky dance makes me laugh every time.

* He notices noises that I don't even hear and he often tries to mimic them. Motorcycles, airplanes and school buses are some of his favorites.

* In the past few weeks, James has discovered temper tantrums. He turns bright red, clenches his fists, throws himself backwards and screams. It's pretty funny and so hard not to laugh at him. The good thing is that he is still really distractable so he can be in the middle of a tantrum and suddenly stop and smile if you know the right thing to say.

* James is just starting to sing a little bit. Sometimes he makes up his own songs. At his cousin Traiden's birthday last week, he started singing Happy Birthday To You. It's more like, "haaa you".

* He is so affectionate. He always greets me with a hug and "awww...mama". In fact, even when I'm home with him he will often stop and give me random hugs during the day. He started blowing kisses to people when they leave which is super cute, too.

Blogging from my phone!

This is a test. A goofy little boy with an orange piece of plastic over his face should be appearing on your screen. :)

Update: the blogwriter app says I need to login to picasa in order to upload photos but it doesn't give me the option to do that. Do you know if I need to pay for a picasa app? If anyone has a good blogging app, please let me know!

random updates

It's been a while since I blogged so I drew up this new post for all my faithful fans!

James' vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds. The average person off the street could not decipher most of his words, but those of us who see him daily can recognize that he is trying to say lots of new things. As soon as we approach the driveway he starts saying, "Buuuuck" (the neighbor's dog or "swing swing" indicating that he wants to go adventuring in the back yard. He is in the "no" phase. When asked a question he always responds with "no" but you can tell how he really feels by whether he waves his hands or flails his arms. It's pretty comical to watch how passionate he gets about certain things. Other things he started saying recently are: "fish, shoes, glasses, bath". He calls the cats "dog" except Beasley whom he calls "Beebee".

He is all about independence when it comes to eating. We discovered that he really enjoys some fruits when he can take bites himself versus us giving him little pieces.

James' daddy turned the big 3-0 last week. James enjoyed all the celebrations!

I finally lost my "baby house"! That's the term my little cousin uses for the weight a person gains when carrying a baby. :) I gained a total of 50 lbs with James. The first 20 lbs came off in about 6 weeks. After that I tried to exercise and eat right, but the weight just stuck around. I started a new diet on March 22 and as of today I have lost 32 pounds! (This picture doesn't show off the weight loss as well as it could because of the way my shirt was hanging).

Baby's first stomach virus :(

Poor James was so pitiful last evening. He had a fever which made him want to do nothing but

lay on my (or Rod's) lap. He vomited all over himself, me, the chair, his clothes, his special blanket, the floor and his night stand as I was putting him to bed. It was such a mess to clean up but my wonderful husband came to the rescue (even though he was very tired and still hadn't eaten dinner at 9:00 at night). Thankfully James' fever was gone when he woke up but he was still pretty lethargic. He and I sat in the recliner together for almost 2 hours reading books, watching TV and looking at videos on my iPhone. The picture was taken this morning when he was watching Clifford. I don't like to see my baby sick but it makes me so grateful that he is a typically healthy child!

James at 13 months

Wow...it's been a long time since I have submitted a new post. Sorry to keep all my faithful fans waiting. :)

James is so mobile and busy these days that it is hard to leave him alone for the length of time it takes to write a blog entry. Rod has been away a lot due to work which means I am the only one responsible for making sure this little toddler doesn't tear our house to shreds! Anyway, I will try to write more often.

At 13 months James:

* is walking really well. He still can't get up without holding onto something, but he is pretty steady once he gets up.

* is becoming opinionated about everything. He whines, pulls on your clothes, hits things out of your hands, etc. to try to communicate his requests. We are all looking forward to the time when he can use words!

*is learning more words every day. Some of his new ones include: dog, nod (from a song) and bath.

* is able to respond occasionally when asked a question. For instance, if I say "are you hungry?" he will either ignore me (meaning no) or say "mmmmmm" (meaning yes). It is really neat watching him learn.

* has 3 favorite things: dogs, books and the outdoors. He LIVES to be outside where he runs around in the back yard, pets the neighbor dogs through the fence, swings and plays with bubbles.

* typically sleeps from 8PM-7AM. I am loving the full nights of sleep!

* spends at least 20 minutes/day watching videos of himself on my iPhone. His favorite videos are those that show him playing with Daddy, Grandma Jo or Tyce.

* is a wonderful little boy who is showered with love every day!

What I want to remember about James at 12 months...

* He can walk (when he wants to!). In most cases, he will start off walking then when he falls down he finishes out the journey by crawling. He can crawl much faster than he can walk.

* James absolutely loves being outside. He can be super tired and whiny inside and then turn into the happiest little guy as soon as you step outdoors.

* He can say quite a few words now. I'll see if I can remember all of them: mama, dada, byebye (buhbuh), baby, up, down, Beasley (Bee), bottle (baba), no no (nah nah), uh oh. Rod and I just went through his animal sounds tonight and these are the ones he knows without prompting: elephant, cow, sheep, bird, dog, cat, duck, snake (just learned this one today!), monkey, lion.

* When we start to sing "I have hands that clap clap clap" he claps his hands. If we sing "with James in the family" he says "hah" (his version of "happy happy home").

* One of his favorite activities is watching videos of himself on my iPhone. He probably spends at least 15-20 minutes every day watching his videos.

* He is still in love with books. The Pout Pout Fish remains at the top of his list. His attention span has extended and he will usually sit through about 4-5 books at one time. We usually save "Blub Blub" (as he calls The Pout Pout Fish) for last.

James makes us laugh constantly with his goofy faces and noises. He brings lots of joy (and entertainment) into our family.