Talking

I love how much James is learning to talk. His newest thing is probably my favorite so far. When he doesn't want me or Doug around, like when we are trying to change his diaper or take him somewhere in the car, he can be pretty diplomatic. Instead of saying "no" or "go away" like I would expect from an almost two year old, he says "bye, see ya soon!". I am pretty sure I will never be able to get a video of this so you will just have to imagine.

Feeling Better

James and I have been sick this past week so we haven't been doing much. Mostly watching Toy Story over and over again. It's his favorite movie. Although I hate feeling so yucky, it is nice to be able to just sit with James in my lap for an extended period of time. I think he even sat with Doug for a while. James is feeling much better now, and eating well, I however am still very weak and don't really have the energy to do all the things he wants to do, and of course he doesn't understand. So these pictures and videos are from a while ago, I just haven't posted them.

This is James in his new "big boy" seat. We decided to get him this because he kept pushing his high chair away from the table, and only wanted to eat in front of the TV. Now he likes sitting in his chair and copying everything Dad does at the dinner table. It is pretty cute.


I was trying to get James dressed the other morning, but as soon as those pajamas come off, he's gone. He loves being naked. So here I found him hiding in the closet on one of the shelves.

I think this video is a perfect example of why we can't get any video's of all the cute things James does. He sees the camera and gets shy. He did finally sing the song, but only once. Without the camera he does this all the time.

Finally a video of James playing Wii Fit. Doug was trying the Hula Hoop and James just had to join it. I finally just put the camera on mute so he couldn't hear it when I turn it on, it seemed to work, if we are taking videos from behind!

Playgroup

I have been having a hard time trying to decide what to post this week. James has been doing so many cute things, but as soon as I get the camera out, he stops. For example, this morning I was in the kitchen and could hear James in the Family room making the "d" sound. When I looked in he was sitting very close to the TV copying what they were doing. They were spelling Dress and saying and making the sounds of each letter in the word, he was copying them. So I went to get the camera and he just sat there and looked at me. I guess I will have to be sneakier. So I was very excited for yesterday because we had playgroup at our house and I thought for sure James would do something with the other kids that I could take a picture of. But here is how playgroup ended up:

The other kids came, I got out his trains and blocks to play with they all sat down and started playing, James sat on my lap, he wouldn't interact with the other kids at all. The other kids went to throw balls at the "puppy" (Loa) James threw a fit because they were playing with his balls. They all wanted drinks of water, James laid on his blanket in the other room sucking on his fingers (this is is comfort mode). He kept grabbing my hand and trying to take me back to his room away from the other kids, and got really mad when I wouldn't go. The best part was when one of the other kids touched his blanket and he flipped out. I guess this is why we do playgroup, to get him used to being around other kids. So here are the pictures I got.

The other kids playing in the tunnel.

James running down the hall.

When their parents came nobody wanted to go home, but James couldn't wait to get them out the door. When everyone was gone he had to go around and play with all his toys, I guess to make sure they were still the same. Hopefully he does better next week when I take him to someone elses house. I also hope that he learns to be a little better by the time his brother is born.

Here is the ultrasound picture labeled. Doug wanted me to add that if you look right between his legs you can see his little boy parts. Again this baby was not shy! Oh and it is OK to have this naked picture because it is not really a picture.

It's a Boy!

We had our ultrasound today and found out we are having another boy! James' reaction when she told us it was a boy, "yea!". I don't think he really knew what he was talking about. Everything looked healthy and we are right on schedule for our May 20th due date.

Who Needs a Flatscreen TV!

Doug's Toy

We have had a somewhat interesting week. When we got home from Utah last Sunday we again couldn't find our driveway. It was even worse then the last time, which was less than a week prior to this. It looked like all the snow that had been plowed off had blown back on in addition to the new snow. It was extremely cold and windy and we had a car full of luggage and Christmas Presents, not to mention James. So again we parked at the neighbors and walked home. We tried calling the guy who plowed our driveway before but got no answer as was the case with all the other plow services we called, nothing is open in Rexburg on Sunday. After a lot of frustration, crying (pregnant women do that) and prayer, we decided that it would be more cost effective to buy a snow blower.

On Monday Doug called the plow guy and asked him to come do our driveway. He came, was here for about 5 minutes then left. He did about 15 ft at the front of the driveway and called Doug to say it was too heavy to push. If we had called him yesterday he could have done it, (more frustration!) Doug took off work early to look for a snow blower, he couldn't find one in Rexburg. When James woke up from his nap we drove to Idaho Falls to look, no snow blowers anywhere! I looked on the Internet and couldn't find anything. On Tuesday morning I had this thought, "Maybe Utah has snow blowers and my parents are still there and can pick it up." So I looked online and called Lowe's, they had 1 that was just returned. So I bought it (using the money we had saved for food storage), and it sat in Utah until Saturday night when my brother brought it up. Doug was so excited he couldn't wait to get started, even though it was dark.
Sunday Doug went out early to get the driveway clear, 4 1/2 hours later he came in to get ready for church and we walked out to the car to go to church. After Church he spent another 1 1/2 hours, with the help from a neighbor. So after a week of walking down the driveway to go anywhere, and 6 hours of work we were finally able to drive in our driveway! And he accomplished all this just in time for it to start snowing today!

I try to remember what a blessing it is for us to be here, and for Doug to have t his job, but at times like this it is hard. I would not mind if his next job were in a much warmer climate!