What does the horse say?

We had a good week in the Neighborhood.  I feel like James gets sick so often and then, of course, takes forever to get right back to himself.  He was definitely back to his goofy, but inquisitive self.  He is sleeping close to normal again (did I just jinx it?) and trying his hardest to feed himself with utensils.  He's not that messy...guess he takes after his mom!  I taught him the sign for 'water' today and he picked it up without help by this afternoon.  He also will sign for 'milk' and 'music', since he pronounces them so much alike ('muh').  He's starting to add family member's names to his repertoire, like Maxie ('mae'), Molly ('momah'), Pops ('ba'), and Grandpa ('kah-kah').  Grandpa isn't too keen on his name yet, but is hoping that his name will morph into something else than 'poop'.  James enjoys the "What does the ___ say?" game and will tell us the sounds for cow, horse (with a real whinny!!), train, bird, and sheep (that I remember).  

Little Memories:

• James is loving daycare!  The past few weeks when I have dropped James off at school, he will linger around me for a minute and then run off to show me a toy that is in the classroom.  He points and 'tells' me about the things in the room and all the people in the room too!
• During prayers several nights this week, after naming all those that we ask to bless, James will start naming off what sounds like the other kids in his classroom (we tell him alot about his friends).  Too sweet!
• Saying 'night-night' and laying on the floor to copy the puggies lounging in the sun.
• Whenever we praise James for a good job and give him a Hi 5, he wants the doggies to give him a Hi 5 too.  Maxie and Molly have no clue why we keep picking up their paws.  This also carried over to giving each of the dogs a turn talking on the pretend phone.
• James pointed to a man in a magazine today and said "ba"!  After I looked at the picture of the man that looked similar to Dad, I realized that he thought the man was Pops!
• My son can yodel.  Seriously.  I was singing a song about Woody from Toy Story to James that has a small yodeling part.  He loved the song and finally after the yodeling part, he copied it!  Now almost every time I sing it, he tries to yodel too!  I need to get a video of it this week to post.

What I learned this week:

• Make sure that if you are melting butter in the microwave, that you wipe out the dish prior to adding the butter to ensure that all water is wiped away.  I heated up a half stick of butter that literally exploded EVERYWHERE in the microwave.  There was barely any butter left in the dish.  Must be Paula Dean's dream to see butter raining from the sky like it was in my microwave.
• When playing chase with James (which he loves), make sure to not randomly pop out from behind somewhere when it is semi-dark.  We have been playing 'boo' and chase all week.  Apparently, James wasn't ready to play the other night, as after Chris jumped out with "BOO", James came running to me, terrified of the 'boo'!

On a different note, please pray for some friends of ours who have twins that were born over a week ago at 24 weeks.

I challenge all of you to share your appreciation for those you love this week.  May it be a blessed one!

Block Party

We had a birthday in the Neighborhood this past week.  Chris hopefully had a thirtyonederful birthday week!  We celebrated with Chris' family on Saturday, I attempted a celebration on Wednesday, and then again this weekend with my parents.  I am such a family person and I enjoyed every minute spending time with both sides of the family on these two past weekends.  I think there is no better weekend than spending it with those that I love. 

I am failing at my blogging attempts to capture memories about James, because I honestly do not remember the beginning of the week.  I do remember Wednesday, AKA the Birthday, and AKA the Block Party date.  I planned on fixing one of Chris' favorite meals for his birthday dinner, but failed to take into account the fact that he always has to work until 8:00pm that night.  I actually had all the ingredients this time (learned that last week...see blog below).  In order to have James' taco dinner ready by 6:00, I was prepared to start getting ready around 5:00 just in case.  I though that taking James to a local park would be a good way for him to burn off some energy and give him some good Mommy and Me time.  We drove to the park, looked at the map, and headed for the playground.  Either I can't read maps, or the playground looked an awful lot like a batting cage.  We decided to just walk around the track and try to find the "playground".  Instead, we found a nice open grassy area that James liked to run around in.  Not quite as fun, but he seemed to enjoy it.  He got his first grass stain!  I am so proud!  We got home just in time for me to start dinner, but James wasn't so excited about Mom paying attention to the countertop.  He threw a very large fit until I distracted him temporarily with blocks.  Here is what happened next.  James threw his first Block Party!   

He enjoyed his blocks for a few minutes, actually cleaned them up (this is part of his fun...see below), then repeated the tantrum from before.  Chris ate by himself in the basement while working, James ate a few bites of food between screams, and I inhaled my food as fast as I could so I could get "o wailing one" out of his highchair.  Must be teething.  That's our go-to when he's cranky (like PMS often is for girls). 

Little memories:

• James is taking on my personality.  Not sure if it's good or not because these traits often drive my dear Hubby nuts.  He likes to "wipe" the floor any time he finds a tissue or obtains toilet paper.  He enjoys throwing things away (I found a dog bone in the garbage tonight).  To him (and me) everything has a place and should maintain its business in said place unless he says so otherwise (i.e.: Daddy put the shampoo in the wrong place and James let him know it).  He also enjoys getting into containers.  This was always a trick of mine.  Anyone who knew me in college knew that I studied in my dorm room closet in my laundry basket.   

• James knows War Eagle!  We have been (like good Tiger Fans) trying to teach him our battle cry and it has paid off.  I thought I heard him this weekend point to Mom's AU keychain and say "Wwwwuh", but I knew for sure when pointed to the AU on Pop's shirt and said it again!  Can't wait for him to point one out in public and have a warm War Eagle Moment with another Auburn Fan!
• Not sure if this should be public knowledge, but James said "poopoo" when he tooted.  At least he didn't laugh!

What I learned this week:

• Wednesday night family dinners do not work at this time.  Please try again later.
• I will always run into somebody if I go out in public when I'm back home.  Glad I showered and put on make-up. 
• Kohl's has good sales.  I love it when my receipt says that I saved more than I spent. 
• Cake, in any shape or form, is very good.  There should always be enough cake for seconds because cake is good.
  

Hugs,

Leigh

Dose numero dos (H1N1)

So I'm obviously not going to be that great with this whole blog deal.  Does the thought count with blogging as well?

 

Busy week.  I took James to the doctor Wednesday morning to get his second H1N1 booster.  He pointed and talked about all the wild animal artwork in the 'well' waiting room and I actually let him play with one of those twirly bead tables.  I held the sanitizing wipe in my hand the whole time waiting to clean those hands the instant that the nurse called us back.  We were the only two in the waiting room for a bit until two boys (must have been 3 and 5) came in.  James watched them for forever while they watched the movie that was above his head.  I watched a precious little smile break across James' face and then he started to wave 'hi' to them.  My heart just melted!!  He was trying to make some big boy friends!!  He was very good when getting the shot.  Since the weather has finally been nicer, I decided to take James' tailgating machine (AKA the red wagon with more cup holders than my first car) and the pugs to the lake in our neighborhood.  It's not that easy pulling the wagon up some of the hills in our neighborhood, but I can handle it.  It is tough to walk two pugs in our neighborhood without little Molly barking at everything moving that is not an automobile.  Put the two together and you have the pugs attached to the handle of the wagon (leashes entagled) and held by paranoid me with at least two pooper-scooper baggies in tow.  Add the bread for the geese/ducks, water for the dogs, water for James, gloves for humans, hat for James and a blanket.  The waterfowl typically start swimming toward anyone on the dam because they like to get fed.  The lake was mostly frozen except for some small patches in the middle where the ducks were sleeping on the ice (umm, not too smart, birds), or swimming.  They didn't even try to make it near us.  James loves seeing the ducks and didn't like it that they didn't come see him.  Good exercise, I guess.  Poor birds.

 

James had to come home early from daycare on Thursday because he was running a fever.  This happened the last time we got his flu shot as well.  He ran a temp around 103 for 3-4 days after the first booster and so far has been running one for 2 days now.  Chris took him back to the doctor today, but of course it was not strep or anything positive that they could diagnose.  He is just pitiful when he is sick.  Mom came up to help us (love my Mom) since today was going to be too busy of a day for Chris or I to call in.  Thank goodness for Grammy.  He perked up tonight after pumping him with some Motrin.  Crossing our fingers that he feels better tomorrow.  Hope this isn't a trend for all future shots...

Little memories:

• Daycare is on top of teaching James body parts.  I had been working on the parts of his face, but apparently he knows some that I have not taught him.  He found his knees for me and his tummy!  He likes to find Dada's tummy too! 
• Chris has taught James his first song, "Baa Baa Black Sheep".  Check out James singing and 'headbanging' under the videos.
• James enjoys the dogs.  Actually James adores them except when Molly follows him around the house.  He likes to help me feed them, loves giving them bones and likes to try to play tug-of-war with them.  He tells them "No-no" when they play and likes to give them hugs.  The other night he told them 'night-night' and actually leaned over to give both of them a kiss when I suggested it.  Maybe I shouldn't be encouraging that behavior, but James doesn't mind the fur.
• Speaking of the dogs, James discovered how the doggies drink.  He was very intrigued watching Maxie drink water out of her bowl.  We leave their food bowls next to the water bowl.  He watched her for a while (while I sat close watching him to try to prevent him from sticking his head in the water bowl) and stared at the bowls.  I didn't expect him to lean down and lick the outside rim of Molly's food bowl!  Disgusting!  Makes my stomach churn now!  Will likely not be the first time that happens.

What I learned this week:

• Dog bowls are icky.
• Make sure you have all ingredients to a dinner recipe before assembling the recipe (i.e.: Don't plan on making enchiladas when you only have an opened pack with 3 tortillas left in the pantry).
• Dogs and awesome tailgating wagons don't mix.
• As much as I dislike James getting sick, I enjoy my cuddle time with him.
• I heart family (Duh!  I already knew that!)

Enjoy the long weekend! 

In the beginning...

Here it goes.  I have been wanting to keep track of James' life.  I am horrible about writing things down, except for the first year of James' life when the Hallmark calendar with stickers helped me keep track of every little special event.  I've been thinking about a blog to help me remember his precious, silly, and amazing personality.  My memory is so poor regarding when something happened or what something felt like that I even have trouble remembering very special events.  I kick myself all the time because I don't remember all of the day that James was born.  Maybe I wasn't supposed to or maybe that was the epidural that made my memory hazy.  Anyway, here is Day 1 of my blog.   Let's see how long I can keep this up....

Today James slept in!!  We put him to bed 15 minutes early last night and he wound up sleeping until almost 8:00.  Usually he wakes around 6:30ish.  I even woke up without my normal alarm clock (i.e.: "whhhaaaaahhh" over the monitor), got semi-ready, checked up on him, and he still stayed asleep!  Once he was awake, James-man had a very good day.

Little memories:

• Taught James "tweet-tweet" while watching birds outside.  He enjoyed seeing and hearing them.  He spontaneously (SLP talk for "I didn't have to say it first") said "tweet-tweet" once when we went over to the back window!
• At nap time, James pointed and said "bu" at a book, then pointed upstairs (as if to tell me "Let's go get this nap on!").
• Looked through a book today that had drawings of skunks.  Each time we saw that page, I repeated "Skunk stinky.  Pee-U!," as I used my hand to waft the imaginary smell away from my nose.  Chris said that he caught James tootin' and waving his hand near his nose as well.

What I learned today:

• Even very little boys think bodily functions are silly and have to laugh at them.
• When James wakes early from his nap and screams like he's trying to wake the neighborhood, he doesn't want to be held closely.  He just wants to veg!
• Don't make a dentist appointment while Hubby works from home and watches James-man.

Hope this blog brings a smile to your face.