Adventures in a Big Boy Bed

James loves sleeping in his crib and he has always been a great sleeper. But now that he's two and he is going to have a little brother in three weeks or less we decided to make the switch over to a big boy bed. We knew we were going to have our hands full, since he never sleeps anywhere but his crib, no matter how hard we have tried. So we took everything out of his room that he could play with, shut the closet door, got his mattress ready on the floor (he's a pretty wild sleeper) and decided to see what happens. So here's how the past two nights have gone:
Wednesday:
8:00-change diaper, put on pajamas, say prayers on our new bed
9:30-He's been quiet for a while so we go to check if he needs to be moved to his bed. He is standing in the middle of the floor, there are diapers and wipes everywhere and he looks tired. We put him back in bed and he makes the saddest face, but he is brave and doesn't cry.
10:30-We haven't heard anything for a long time so we know he's asleep. We go in, move him from the floor to his bed and go to sleep.
On Thursday I go and buy a night light and a lock for the changing table door.
Thursday night:
8:00-change diaper, put on pajamas, say prayers on our new bed
9:00-He's been playing for the past hour so I go to check on him. He's playing with the night light and has a poopie diaper. So we change the diaper (again), say our prayers (again) and get in bed (again).
10:00-We are exhausted, James is still playing. We go to check on him. He is sitting in his rocking chair talking to the night light. We take the rocking chair out of the room and unplug the night light. Turn on the closet light and close the closet door. Put him back in bed and get ready for bed ourselves.
10:30- I hear knocking on the wall or a door or something followed by "come in". After a few minutes we hear the sounds of a recorder being played. He has gotten the closet door open and found some toys to play with. We put the toys out of reach, close the door, put a baby gate up and put him back in bed.
10:40-He has been quiet for a while when we hear a loud thud, but no crying. So I go to check to see what happened. James is laying in bed almost asleep. A toy had fallen off the closet shelf. So I quietly leave.
11:00- James is finally asleep, in his bed! Too bad he woke up at 6:30 this morning, he is a grumpy boy! How long does it usually take for a kid to get used to sleeping in a big boy bed? I guess we should have started earlier when I had more energy to do this.

James's Birthday

James had such a fun birthday. He still sings "Happy Birthday to you" then asks for cake. After he woke up in the morning he got to go have breakfast at McDonald's with Dad, because Mom had a doctor's appointment. We also went to the library for story time, but pretty much got kicked out because James wouldn't sit still! When Dad got home from work we had dinner with Uncle Tim, Cousin Mari and Uncle Blake then played outside for a while then we opened presents and had cake. I think cake was his favorite part.

We got him this golf set just so he would have something to open, it ended up being his favorite toy!

Opening a present from Grammy

It was a cowboy hat like Woody's!

Birthday cake

It was really yummy!

On Saturday my Dad was in town and came to visit with Chad and his family. Granddad brought more presents for James to open, and because it was Chad's birthday we got to have more cake!

Opening his Woody doll, he gets a little scared when it talks!
The next morning we had to watch Toy Story 2 with Woody and our hat!

James is 2!

It is so hard to believe that my little man is already 2! He seems to have grown up so much lately and does so many new things all the time. I thought I would write a little about what James is like right now so that we can remember. Yesterday at gymnastics the manager asked when he was going to turn 3 because she thought he was coordinated enough to be in the 3 year old class and was surprised when I told her he was just turning 2.

• James loves to read stories, his favorite right now is "Purple" which is "My Very First Book of Colors" by Eric Carle
• James loves to play outside with his toys, and tries to write his name with chalk on the sidewalk
• His favorite color is purple, and brown. At least those are the most fun to say
• He still sleeps in his crib and has NEVER tried to climb out
• He loves to jump
• His best friends are Daniel and Zac
• He says "Let's go play", "Oh, Natalie!" and "Hi, Go!" all the time
• His favorite movie is Toy Story 2
• His favorite song is "Ring around the rosie"
• He loves to take showers, baths, and go swimming whenever he can
• His favorite toy right now is anything he can set up like bowling pins and knock down with a ball
• His favorite food is Waffles with Peanut Butter and Syrup
• He loves to say prayers at night then run to bed
• He hates having his diaper changed and lies about whether or not he is "poopie"
• He loves going to playgroup, gymnastics and Nursery
• He loves to "spell" things

I am sure there are so many more things I should list but this is all I can think of right now. Happy Birthday James! We love you!

Go

It's a little past Easter, and we didn't do much but I thought I would still post a few pictures. We let James color Easter eggs, which he loved. He colored on them with the crayon but his favorite part was throwing them in the cup. I didn't get any pictures but here he is with his eggs.

After he colored the eggs he decided to set up an Easter egg hunt and hide them all in the fridge. He broke most of them in the process!

James also named his chicken...Go. It is a very fitting name. I showed him a picture of a baby chick and asked "who's this?" He responded "It's Go." So now our chicken's name is go. It's the one without the blue hair, Tim decided to mark his.

Several times a day James has to go and visit Go. He walks into the bathroom where Go lives and says "Hi Go" then talks to him for a while before leaving, most of the time he says "Come on" which means "Mom can you bring Go out to play?" His favorite is when we put Go on his shoulder. He loves it. And don't worry James is very gentle with Go, the only time he was really rough was when we got that video of him trying to help him fly.

It's interesting how attached my family has gotten to this little bird in less then a week, even Doug loves little Go, and Go is definitely a pet, when he gets to come out he follows us around the house and cries really loud if we leave his sight.

Baby Chicks

The grocery store was selling Easter Bunnies and baby chickens for Easter and we decided that James would love having a baby chick. So we bought one and Doug's brother Tim bought one so it would have a friend. I wasn't really sure how James would react to them. At first he kept his distance but once we got the food out he started trying to feed it and even let me put it on his leg. When he couldn't get it to eat he waved his and around, made airplane noises then tried to get it to eat again. It was pretty cute. He even got some food, told the chick to sit then said "good boy" and gave it the food.

After it was done eating I guess it was time for it to run. He was very excited about the chickens. Now we just have to think of a good name for it, any suggestions?

34 Weeks Pregnant

I was going to do an entire blog post without mentioning James, but then he had to go do something so cute tonight that it is impossible. We are finally getting our bed time routine down, we change his diaper, put on his PJs (which takes a lot longer then you would think) then go to our room for family prayer, and he actually runs excitedly to his bed after we have prayer. Tonight I mentioned the word prayer and he ran screaming (excited) into our room and got ready. Usually either Doug or I say it but tonight after Doug asked me to pray James started right in. He started "Heavenly Father" then a bunch of mumbled sentences, I think I heard him say "Jesus" before he excitedly said, "Men" and ran off to bed. And because I am his mother I think it was the cutest prayer I have ever heard.

And now finally the much requested belly shot...




It has been really frustrating lately when people ask when I am due it is usually followed by, "Wow, you're not very big!" Which is nice, but really I feel "that" big. What you can't see in the picture is my belly button. Instead of popping out like most pregnant women, I have a flat some what indented area. This is because of the surgery I had last summer. I think this makes my belly look much smaller. I find it hard to remember how it was when I was pregnant with James so I thought I would write a few things about this baby.

• He moves like crazy, I think I could feel him moving at anytime during the day, and not just little movements, hard, painful kicks
• He loves the sound of his dad's voice
• He hates when James is screaming
• He likes when I lay on my side
• He likes cheese, but I always have to take a tums after I eat it
• I haven't been able to talk for two weeks, my best guess is because I can't get enough air in my lungs, but I will find out on Thursday at the Doctors
• He is very heavy, I love to take baths because this is the only time where I don't feel his full weight pulling on my back
• I am much more hungry than I was with James, if I don't eat right before bed I usually wake up in the middle of the night needing to eat

So Many New Things

James is doing so many new things everyday I don't know what to post about! Sunday was my birthday which was really fun. After church we had Doug's brother Tim, my brother Blake, and my cousin Chris over for dinner and games. James really liked helping with the cake. He found a candle on the ground today and said "Happy Birthday!"

Every time I open the fridge James loves to help me get out all the things we need. He gets really mad when we try to put them away. At least he can't reach the milk!

He found this little bunny in his closet the other day and he has been doing so well taking care of it. He puts it down for a nap, "night, night", he helps it jump on the bed, he plays with it in the balls, and he reads it stories. My favorite was when he had to lift his bunny up to his James sign and read, "J, A, M, E, S with the bunny! We had to make this little bed for it so I didn't have to keep lifting him and the bunny into the crib. The other day after James had a bath. When I got him out he immediately ran into the other room. After a while he came back and had this marker all over him.

Doug has been trying to train James. I have to say he is much more obedient than Loa! He learned this trick after only a few minutes.

Next we are going to learn lay down, roll over and "reach for the sky".