A Big Boy

We had James' 9 month check up last week. Nothings really changed. He is between 18 and 19 pounds, we don't really know how much exactly because he wouldn't hold still on the scale. He kept kicking his legs. So that is still the 25th percentile for his weight. He is 29 inches tall which is the 75th percentile for his height. He had his flu shot and the nurse gave him a sucker. He loved it!

We finally sold the truck. Someone from Doug's work bought it for $400 which we spent on tires and a tune up for the Honda. We think that he got a pretty good deal on the truck but we don't really want to put out the effort to sell it or fix it so we're just happy that we don't have to worry about it anymore.

James decided that he is a big boy and wants to do everything by himself. Mostly we don't really mind but when it comes to his favorite, oatmeal, it gets a little messy.

James loves playing with Loa. I often find them together doing mostly whatever Loa finds interesting. He gets really mad though when we give him a cracker and Loa takes it from him. So Doug gave him a cracker and had him sit on the couch with him while Loa sat on the floor begging. James kept leaning forward and showing Loa his cracker then putting it in his mouth. We thought it was so funny that James would tease Loa but then Loa won in the end.

Tunnels and Talking

Well James got his tunnel and he loves it. Loa is very jealous of the attention he gets so when James is crawling through his tunnel and we are playing with him she has to show off and run through the tunnel also. It is really funny because when we went to obedience school she would not go through the tunnel and she hates the tunnels at the dog park. I guess she just needs the right reason.

Doug went "camping" last weekend with the Priests. They went to Heber Valley Campground that the church owns and stayed in unheated cabins for a night. He had a lot of fun snowshoeing, snowboarding, and cooking steaks for everyone. James and I were stuck at home. I was really glad when he got home.

James has been so busy lately. He crawls all over and I have fun taking him off the stairs getting him out of the bathroom, and basically keeping him safe, but happy. James' friend came over on Friday and James spent the whole time playing by himself. He could really couldn't care less if anyone else was in the room. We always try to get him to play with us but he really just likes to explore everything and just hopes we don't get in the way too much.

James loves to play under the computer desk. I think it is like a little cave for him. He is always under it. Also he has been "talking" a lot more. I was beginning to wonder if the only thing he would ever say was "mama" but the last few days he has been making a lot more noises. It is nice to hear something besides yelling and crying.

Painting the Basement

Well finally we are going to have a post that is not about James. Well I guess it is not only about James. I don't have any new videos to post but James has been busy. He got his first tooth about a week and a half ago and just kind of stopped. I was hoping that he would get two teeth at once like all the other babies we know, but no he just got one. He is really into climbing and standing on things. He has mastered the stairs and we have to be really careful or he's at the top before we know it. Just after the holidays we started painting our basement. James didn't really care for that but he loved sitting on Dad's chair.

I never see James sit this still on his own. After only a few days of work we finished most of the basement. Doug put up the squares on the wall but just has to finish caulking and touch up painting. We put up a new ceiling fan so there would be more light and we're working on getting some more movie posters, but we are having a hard time deciding which ones.

Well hopefully next time I will have some good videos to put on. James is getting a tunnel to play in so that should be fun. James only likes to crawl under or over things. He never takes the easiest way only the way that looks the most fun.

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.