Christmas Time

Sorry it has taken me so long to get these pictures and videos on here, but we have been having fun. My family has been visiting from Florida for Christmas and we have all been having so much fun. On Christmas morning everyone was awake except for James. We had a big breakfast then cleaned up and tried to start opening presents. It seemed like every present we looked at was for James so we had to wait for him. By the time he was up he had a huge pile of presents to open. this video is the first he opened and he was so excited when he saw what it was. Sorry we tried to edit the videos so they weren't so long but then we can't put them on the blog so you just have to sit through the long versions.

James gave his dad matching t-shirts for him and dad. Doug always calls him little man so they got shirts that said Little man and Big man. Don't they looks so cute!

James loved opening presents, OK not really. But he did enjoy playing with the toys after. We bought him this piano with some money that he got from Great Grandpa and Granny Westover. He loved playing with it in the store and he loves playing with it in the car. We just set it on his seat and he just hits the keys. And surprisingly it is not very annoying.

James loves the Lightening McQueen car he got from his Grandma and Grandpa. He likes to sit on it and hit the buttons. When the music starts playing the he rocks back and forth. Sometimes he can make it move then he gets a little scared of it.

After opening all his presents James decided that his favorite was still crawling around on the kitchen floor and playing with whatever he found there.

For dinner we had Prime Rib. The dogs got to eat the bones after. James found one and decided to join Loa in a snack.

After Christmas we went to Bear Lake to go Skiing and play in the pool. James started getting sick and was pretty grumpy the whole time. One night he was so tired and wouldn't eat his bottle or anything. So we took him in the bedroom and took his clothes off to change him. As soon as Doug took his diaper off he was gone. He was crawling all over the bed and laughing. It was so funny.

Last night Doug and I were talking about how great it is to have James. I think every night before we go to bed we think about how much fun he adds to our lives. Yesterday James learned a lot of new "tricks". He crawled up on the fire place and was playing with the doors. He took is Loa ornament off of the Christmas Tree and most amazingly, he climbed the stairs. Doug and I were just talking in the basement about some home improvement projects we wanted to do and James was just crawling around. We were not even paying attention to what he was doing and when Doug walked over to the stairs to look at something there was James one stair up and working on the second. In the video he only gets one stair but after he made it up three before we helped him down. I guess it's time to get some gates at the bottom of the stairs now.

This is just a picture of me and James and Loa hanging out. James and Loa are so excited for Christmas. They keep playing under the Christmas tree with all the presents. I think Loa is the most excited of anyone because when I was changing James this morning she opened two presents. I think Doug would like to just give her a lump of coal in her stocking.

Curious Boy

Now that James can crawl he is into everything. I don't really mind because I love to watch him learning. His biggest goal right now is to try and get under the coffee table. He tries and tries but cannot understand why he keeps hitting his head. It is hard to let him just figure things out for himself and not just do everything for him. Yesterday he made a few great discoveries. First he found the dog food. Loa was eating breakfast and James crawled in there and started playing with her food. She got pretty annoyed and left. And being the great mother that I am I ran to grab the camera so we could get a picture of James playing in the dog food. Later we went upstairs to clean the kitchen and when I turned around there was James playing in the dogs water bowl. He loves water so he was having a blast splashing in her water. When he tried to leave his hands were all wet and it made it pretty hard to crawl so he just kept going back to play. I think the best part was when he got it tipped over and could really splash in it.

Later the same day James' friend Jake came over to play. Jake isn't crawling yet so he was just laying on the floor and James was crawling around. We were making sugar cookies and looked over and James had crawled on top of Jake. He was playing with his pacifier. Jake didn't seem to care at all they were both very content to play together. It was really fun to see James interact with another baby.

We have discovered that James loves to crawl over or through things not around even if the easier path is around. I always catch him crawling through his high chair legs or under the desk. Last night he decided to crawl through the TV tray stand, which was pretty much impossible but he was determined to do it anyway. He always crawls over shoes or anything on the floor. Also last night he was crawling to his dad and when he got there he stopped and started crying. I suggested that maybe James was trying to crawl through his legs. So Doug make a tunnel with his legs and sure enough James got back up and crawled through the tunnel.

We also discovered a food that James will react to. He has pretty much tried all the fruits and Veggies with no sign of liking or disliking them. Everything we fed him pretty much got the same reaction. So I decided that it would be much cheaper to buy bananas and mash them up myself instead of buying the jar. Well after a few bites I could tell he didn't like it too much but he was still eating it. After a few minutes he started making the funniest face and spiting it out. A little longer and he refused to eat it at all. At least we know that he can react to food.

Eating Tootsie Rolls

James loves to sit in the sink. He can play with the facet, look in the mirror and kick the counter.

James loves Tootsie roll wrappers more than anything. We have to be really careful not to leave one on the floor or he will put it in his mouth. This video was when James was sitting on the couch with Dad and Doug was eating Tootsie rolls.

Something new

Two videos in one day! Well this just happened to day and it is the first time that James has stood up on his own. I was so glad to have the camera nearby. I guess we moved the crib down just at the right time.

James is Crawling

Well our big news for the week is that James can officially crawl. This video is from Friday night when he first started doing it. Now he can pretty much go wherever he wants to. Usually he crawls over to me and camps out at my feet. Loa pretty much follows him around because he spits up much more now because he is always on his stomach. So what usually happens is James crawls somewhere, spits up, then Loa gets her head down in his way so he turns, dragging his hand through the spit up until he finally gets away from Loa and crawls somewhere else and it starts all over again. Loa also makes it difficult because she likes to put things on the floor, mainly chewed up paper and wrappers. Which just happens to be James favorite toys. So we spend a lot of time picking up after Loa and taking things away from James. He also likes to crawl into the kitchen and laundry room. I guess he likes how the tile feels but he always likes to lay down on the tile and take a little break which seems really odd to us.

We also moved his crib down so that when he learns to pull himself up he won't fall out. He seemed to really like that. We put him in there standing up holding on to the side and he smiles and talks so much. It is really cute. James also found his voice this week. While he has always likes to talk it seems like now he knows how to be heard. On Saturday we went out to dinner and he was just yelling the whole time. People kept looking over at him and smiling. When we got home we tried to watch a movie but James wanted to talk to us instead and was so loud that we couldn't even hear the T.V. Then on Sunday he yell all through sacrament meeting, especially during the song. We like how much he likes to express himself.

Oh and Loa didn't want to be left out so here are some funny things that she has done recently.

James and the Christmas Tree

Well Thanksgiving was fun but I didn't get any pictures of James with his Grandparents or Uncles. We had Doug's family over for Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun. James enjoyed all the attention and loved showing off all of his "tricks". He had some sweet potatoes during Thanksgiving dinner and for the first time didn't put it directly into his mouth, he just played with it for a while then when he discovered that his fingers were sweet he tried a little. He also tried some pumpkin pie. The thing about James though is that he shows no reaction to different foods. It's not even exciting to feed him new things because peaches and applesauce gets the same reaction as peas or carrots. He just likes to eat.

After Thanksgiving we set up the Christmas Tree. We discovered that somebody, (Loa) had gotten to it after we put it away last year and chewed some of the lights off so the bottom of the tree didn't light. But Doug was able to fix it and now everything lights except for the branch that she chewed up. James loves the Christmas Tree. Luckily he can't really get to it yet but when he gets grumpy I just take him to look at the tree and he just stares at it.



I also have a video of James trying to unwrap the presents. He can't wait until Christmas.

James is so close to crawling. He can move himself around pretty good but hasn't quite got the forward motion down yet. He loves to try but he gets pretty frustrated that he can't do it yet. He also loves to laugh. He is so ticklish and laughs so hard. He also things it's hilarious when Dad is taking him up the stairs and I am below them on the stairs. He laughs so hard so we start laughing because really there is nothing to laugh about.