Rules of Milk

For those of you who don't know, Doug is a avid milk drinker. I have never met anyone who loves milk more then Doug. What I didn't realize when I married Doug is that he comes with a whole set of "Milk Rules" I am not kidding. We have rules about our milk. If the rules are not followed then the milk becomes, "rotten, festering milk" and we cannot drink it.

Rules of Milk
1. No matter how inconvenient it may be, milk is the last item in the shopping cart.
2. Once the milk is in the shopping cart we are not allowed to stop and get anything else. Even if it is right on the way to the checkout line.
3. Depending on how long the line is we may have to go and switch for "new" milk.
4. Once the milk is in the car there are no stops on the way home, no matter how fast they may be.
5. Once we are home milk is the first thing out of the car. (Yes, even before James)
6. We do not buy milk at Smith's. It doesn't taste the same.
7. Milk goes directly in the fridge. It does not get set on the counter.
8. When using milk you take it out, pour what you need, and put it directly back in the fridge. Milk should never touch the counter.
9. If you take longer then 10 minutes to drink your milk you are scolded for wasting the milk and if you then finish the milk you are asked, "How can you drink that rotten, festering milk?"
10. If you are going to have multiple bowls of cereal you pour some milk over your cereal and some in a cup to use on your future bowls of cereal. No need to take the milk out of the fridge twice!
11. The last glass of milk from the carton is disgusting. But not as disgusting as it would be had we not followed the milk rules.

It has taken me some time to learn and follow all the rules correctly. Doug often finds me rolling my eyes at some of his rules. He then reminds me of rule #11. So I had to laugh when I went to the fridge one day and found these labels cut out from the box that the milk comes in and stuck in front of the milk in the fridge.

Little Stinker!

James got the rest of his birthday presents this week. Grandma and Grandpa sent a cute turtle sand box with some trucks from Uncle Scott. At first I think he was just so excited to get outside that he didn't really pay attention to it. But after a while he was having so much fun playing in it and dumping the sand out. He even laid down and pretended he was in the bathtub. James also got to pick out a couple of toys at Toys R Us with some money he got from Great Granny and Grandpa. He picked a hammer toy that you hammer the pegs in. It is really cute watching him try to hammer. He grabs the end and hits with the top of the hammer. He also got the tow truck attachment for his ride on Tonka truck. It only has two wheels for when he walks around so it doesn't support him at all. But that didn't stop him from walking around with it. This proved to us our theory that he can walk he just chooses not to.

Today we saw that James can walk, on his own holding onto nothing. He was wearing his cute overalls he got for his birthday and wanted Dad to walk with him. Doug decided to just hold him by his overalls then let go. When he let go, James walked. Not just a few steps either. He walked into the kitchen turned around and walked back. So the little stinker has been able to walk for who knows how long and just wouldn't. Now that we know he has been walking a lot more on his own.

Look Who's 1!

James had his first birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday James! He loved when mom would sing "Happy Birthday" to him all day! James had a pretty fun day. He got to play with mom all morning, then in the afternoon we went to the toy store with his friend Jake. Jake wanted to pick out a toy for James and got him some stacking cups. James loves them!

James also got a new car seat for his birthday. He looks like such a big boy sitting in his big boy seat. He loves to be able to watch mom and dad while we are in the car.

When dad got home from work we ate dinner and then James got to have his cake! He didn't really know what to do at first and just looked at it. Then he started picking little pieces off and eating them. He never really dug in like we thought he would but he still got pretty messy. I have a really cute video of when he first started eating the cake but I guess it is too long to upload. So if you want to see it you have to come visit! After cake he had a bath which is his favorite thing in the world. We can't keep him out of the tub once he hears the water turn on. He plays until well after the water turns cold.

Today we went to the doctor. He weighs 20 lbs 13 oz. Still in the 25th percentile but big enough for his big boy car seat so that's ok. He is 30 in tall which is still in the 75th percentile. He is now allowed to eat whatever he wants, including peanut butter, and honey. So for dinner he had a PBJ sandwhich. He didn't eat much, just sucked on the bread and then fed the rest to the dog. She also suggested putting a little chocolate in his milk to get him to drink more. It has been so hard to get him to drink anything. She says that he probably needs about 20 oz of liquid a day and we are struggling to get him to dring 12-15.

Some facts about James:

• James has 7 teeth, we keep waiting for the other bottom one to come in but it just wont
• James loves to take baths
• His favorite food is Chocolate Chip cookies and he hates dairy
• We still don't know what color his eyes are
• His favorite toy is probably his Tonka Truck
• James loves to be outside
• His favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• James loves dogs
• His favorite book is "Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See?"
• He loves wrestling with dad
• Loves his bear blanket
• Still sucks on his two fingers

No More Crawling???

Well I guess James is no longer crawling. Instead of walking he has started doing this half walk, half crawl scoot. We get a lot of comments on it. I think he likes to have a hand free to carry things, because it is not faster.

Hide 'n Seek

James loves to climb into things whenever he can. In this video I left the room for a few seconds and when I came back I couldn't see him.

In this last picture I could hear James crying and I looked all over the room until I found him stuck under his bike trailer. I don't even know how he crawled under there because there is not much room

James the Non-Walker

That's right, James refuses to walk. He does really well holding onto our fingers and walking but refuses to do it on his own. I have caught him a couple of times walking short distances on his own but if Doug or I are available then he is all about the finger walking. If we try to make him walk on his own his immediately sits down. James has been talking a lot more this week and he growls all the time. I think he learned the growling from Myra. I keep trying to get him growling on a video but once he sees the camera he stops. We were all sitting on the couches the other night, (Blake has been visiting) and James started "clapping". Doug told him it is the worst clapping he has ever seen but it is still pretty cute.

Since the weather has been getting warmer we have been looking everywhere for a park with swings. We finally found one next to the Dog park. The problem was they only have 2 swings so we had to wait a long time for the baby swing to be free but we finally got it. James loved it. I think he likes going down the slides more but his face was pretty happy during this.

James has also been eating a lot of new things. However they are not really what I want him to be eating. We were having chocolate chip cookies the other night and James just had to have some. He had a pretty messy face after. Also we had a fun barbecue the other night. For dessert we had S'mores. They were pretty good but I dropped a marshmallow on the ground. I thought Loa got it but when we went inside James was sitting in the living room with his back to us. I went over and saw that he had actually gotten the marshmallow and was eating it is fast as he could without Loa or Mom taking it away. It was pretty cute.

Tagged by Olivia

A-Attached or Single? Attached
B-Best Friend? Doug and James
C-Cake or Pie? Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving
D-Day of Choice? Saturday, it is so nice to have a break from James, and to have someone to talk to .
E-Essential Item? Stroller, otherwise we would never get out of the house.
F-Favorite Color? Red
G-Gummy bears or worms? Worms -but only if they are a little hard.
I-Favorite Indulgence? Cold stone chocolate ice cream with brownie and fudge.
J-January or July? July, I am so sick of the winter and James loves to get outside
K-Kids? 1
L-Life isn't complete without? Loa, we love to sit on the couch together and read while James is taking a nap.
M-Marriage date? August 20, 2005
N-Number of brothers and sisters? 3 brothers, 1 sister (Doug says in-laws don't count. But if they did 7 brother, 4 sisters.)
O-Oranges or apples? Depends on the time of year, I love apples in the summer but oranges in the winter
P-Phobias or fears? Spiders and calling people on the phone.
Q-Quote? "Your killing me Smalls" or "I'm a busy woman!" Myra Jane Keyser
R-Reason to smile? Anything James does. I can't really get mad at him
S-Season of choice? Early Autumn
T-tag 3 people:
U-Unknown facts about me? I get really angry when playing games. I have been know to get so mad that I have thrown the game off the table.
V-Vegetable? Asparagus
W-Worst habit? Leaving my Toys out
X-xray or ultrasound? I don't really know what this means. I have had 1 x-ray and 1 ultra sound and I enjoyed the ultra sound a lot more.
Y-Your favorite food? Cafe Rio, known in our house as Gooey Burritos.
Z-Zodiac sign? Aries

Raising a Fish

I am sure you are all wondering why I titled this "raising a fish". Let me explain. As I sit to write this I am exhausted, a similar feeling to running a mile. I just had to change James' diaper which may not sound hard if you've never had to do it. Here is how it goes. Lay him down on the changing table, while I am picking up a toy from the floor he rolls over. Turn him back over and give him the toy, which he throws on the floor and turns back over. Take his pants off, grab a different toy and turn him back over. Once I find the right toy that will occupy him long enough I can take the diaper off. As soon as the diaper is off he rolls right over again, before I can clean him off. So now I not only have to wipe him but also the changing table, and occasionally his legs and my hands. I decide it might be easier to wipe him before I turn him back over. So after everything is clean I grab the new diaper, several toys from the floor and take a deep breath. Open the new diaper and put it down then grab James and lay him on the diaper pinning him down with my arm. As I reach to pull the diaper up around him he rolls over undoing all my work. He now stands up and wraps his arms around my neck and jumps off the changing table. I put the diaper back down hold him down again and start over. After several attempts I finally get the diaper somewhat on him. By this time one or both of us is crying. I have to button his shirt while he is standing up, I look at his pants and decided he doesn't really need them and set him on the floor where he immediately starts playing with all of the toys he has thrown there.

A lot has happened this past week, but I don't have a lot of pictures of it so I have had a hard time deciding what to post this week. James got hives on Monday and Tuesday. It seemed like he was allergic to something but we couldn't really figure it out. We hadn't fed him anything new and I washed all his clothes and bedding even though we hadn't changed detergent or anything. Wednesday they went away except for when he fell off the fire place and got really upset then they came back next to his eyes.

We got my bike on Saturday and went for our first family bike ride. James hated it. I think he enjoyed being pulled in his trailer but he hated the helmet. Finally we had to take it off and just go home. Doug was pretty sad that he hated it so much. Hopefully he will learn to enjoy it more.

I asked Doug to put some safety locks on the cupboard under the sink so James wouldn't get into all the cleaners. James decided that he had to help.