Where's James

Today James was playing in his room with a friend. He was getting a little grumpy so I threw his blanket over his head to distract him and he started walking around. I didn't think he could see but he was walking really well so I thought he had to be able to see, then he ran into a wall, turned and ran into another wall. So of course I ran to get my camera and when I got back he had already taken the blanket off. Lucky for me he thought it was really fun and asked me to put the blanket on again, he does this by handing me the blanket then backing up into me. So I put the blanket on again and got a great video of James walking around with a blanket on his head.

And for more viewing pleasure here is a picture of James reading to Loa. note: this picture was not set up in any way. James asked to sit on the couch, then he got a book, and Loa being the jealous dog she is couldn't let James have all the couch, or any of it.

And for those of you who haven't seen, we got James' pictures taken a few weeks ago. They turned out really cute!

Petting Zoo

Today we decided to take James to the petting zoo. I thought James would love it because he loves to chase the animals around the complex and "neeeee" at the horses across the street. The problem was the petting zoo didn't open until 11 which is really close to nap time. But he slept in this morning so I thought it would be great. Well we got there, and waited, and waited and waited. We could see the guy moving the animals around but they didn't open. So we went to some of the shops around then came back, it still wasn't open. So we had lunch and went back after 1:00 and it was finally open. By then James was already grumpy so he didn't really care too much about the animals.

James was watching the geese while we were waiting, one "yelled" at him and he got scared.

Waiting for the ponies to get ready, he was so excited.

Still waiting.

Finally we got to go in and all he wanted to do was walk across this bridge.

The goat got in his way!

We were so disappointed because they had a lot of fun friendly animals here that James would love, so I think we will try again next week, in the afternoon after nap time, so hopefully we wont have to wait for them to open but you never know!

Reading to Monkey

Reading has been James' favorite thing lately. I was making lunch today and heard some jabbering in the other room so I went to investigate. James was reading a book to his monkey. You have to listen very carefully to hear him, I didn't want him to see me.

Also, thanks Blake for taking us to lunch. James loves the hat more then the toy that came with his lunch.

Cute or a Bad Addiction?

I think our little monster is finally calming down, a little. He is, believe it or not, actually sitting still for minutes at a time! He loves to be read to and will bring us books to read to him, and no matter what book he brings originally he always winds up looking for Brown Bear. Today while Doug was reading to him, which is rare because it is always mom he wants, he slipped off his lap and came over to get me. He then dragged me over to the couch, dropped my hand, grabbed dads hand and pulled him off the couch. Then he got me and tried to pull me onto the couch to read to him. I think dad was a little hurt.

This brings us to the big question. Today while I was sorting some laundry James went and got his Dad. He pulled him downstairs (he is really good at this nonverbal communication) and over to the TV. Then he got the Wii remotes and put Doug in my chair and tried to get on Doug's chair. The message was loud and clear to Doug, "I want to play Mario Kart". So James has been "playing" Wii with Dad for the last 15 minutes. So is this cute or are we going to have to worry about video game addictions? Right now we are just so happy to see him sit still for any amount of time!

Talking

It has been awhile since we have posted. James is doing so many cute new things but it is impossible to get it on camera. As soon as he sees the camera he goes to grab it. James has had a "language" explosion. He has really been into the nonverbal language for a long time, but recently he has started jabbering constantly as well as saying a few words. He says:

"rock rock" when he wants to get on his rocking horse, or if he is rocking on the couch or in his high chair

"roll it" while rolling his arms for pat-a-cake

"no" all the time

"yea!" mostly when he turns the light on or off, followed by clapping

"Loa" that one is obvious

James also does three animal sounds, although getting him to do them on cue is difficult, and he usually gets stuck on one a day. He has been "barking" like a dog for a long time, but more recently he has also been doing a monkey and a horse. While I was going through the videos trying to find the best ones every time the video would say "what does the monkey/horse/dog say" he would do it! I guess he just doesn't like preforming on camera!

If you notice in this last video James is wearing his Monkey backpack. It is so funny because he will walk over to where it is hanging up and pull on the tail, or sometimes bring Doug or I over to it to get it down, once it is down he turns around so we can put it on his back. Once Doug tried to take the tail off so he would trip on it and he threw a big fit! Of course once the monkey is on he thinks it is time to go outside and goes and stands by the door.

Back to Normal?

Well we have figured that it has been about 2 months since we haven't had someone at our house or we have been gone visiting family. It has been nice to be able to just relax a little, but I really can't think what James and I used to do in the mornings to keep us entertained.

We have all been enjoying the Olympics. My favorite is the Gymnastics, and I think it would be safe to say that it is James' favorite too. We were watching the floor routines for the women and I looked over and James was standing next to me with his arms up above his head, just like the girls on TV were doing! He was so fascinated by what they were doing, he walked right up to the TV and watched for a long time, then once the music started again he started moving his shoulders and dancing. And of course when it was all over he clapped for everyone.

Loa has been enjoying spending some time in the sun! I guess the sand is warmer.

And James has also enjoyed playing with his friend Zac. It is fun to see him interact more now that he is getting older. They were both yelling out the window for a long time at a bird that was sitting just outside. But of course as soon as we got the camera it was over!

We had James' 15 month appointment last night. He now weighs 23lbs 6 oz and is 32 inches tall. He's in the 30th percentile for his weight and the 70th for his height.

Children's Museum

We have had so much fun this past few weeks with Grammy and cousins visiting. We did lots of activities but our favorite was going to the children's museum. We had so much fun we had to take Doug back that night.

Playing in the helicopter

Climbing the wall
Riding a horse
Building with Grammy
Recording studio
Copying the big kids!
Playing the Xylophone

Cooking dinner
James pushed this car around backwards for the first 30 minutes we were there!
In the Helicopter
Picking onions