Random Update

Since I stopped doing montly updates for James when he turned one, and I hadn't done a big milestone post since he was 18 months, I thought I would do one now for my own benefit.  He changes so quickly and I like having these posts to look back on to remember what he was like at each age!

I feel as though any hint of baby that was left in James is totally gone now. He is such a little boy and is constantly impressing me with what he can do, say, and understand.  He is talking more and more each day and repeating pretty much everything we say, which may or may not be a good thing.  He also has developed a total "boy" sense of humor.  He laughs at anything related to bodily functions and the other day out of the blue he came up to us and said, "Dog poop!" and cracked up.  Now when we tell him to say something funny he says, "Dog poop!" Crazy kid.

**TMI alert**James is showing signs of potty training which I am impressed with and hope that it continues.  If we are at home he will ask to go on the potty and when we take him in there he goes! I am not expecting him to be 100% potty trained for quite sometime and we are not pushing it, but I am encouraged by his own motivation and success so far.

James is still quite the Mama's boy and loves to give kisses, hugs, and snuggles to everyone. Lately he has started to call me Mommy instead of Mama which makes me a little sad-it makes him seem like even more of a big kid!  Although he is often still shy and serious, especially around new people, we are seeing that start to fade and he is becoming more outgoing and goofy. Finally starting to act more like his Daddy!

James loves to sing and listen to music, and will ask for certain songs which he attempts to sing along to.  His favorites to sing along to are; The ABC's, Take me Out to the Ballgame, Twinkle Twinkle, and Baby Bumble Bee.  He mainly mumbles to the tune and throws in a correct word here and there.  I have tried so hard to get it on video, but anytime I get out the camera he gets too distracted.  The other skill that he has mastered recently is correctly identifying all of his colors.  James also loves to pretend to count, although he can only successfully count to two :-)

James favorite toys continue to be his "Beep Beep" and his baseball things.  He still loves Jax and will tell you that Jax is his best friend.  He is also madly in love with Tay Tay, Baby Chloe, and Riley Nelson.  He loves all of his friends and loves to sit on my lap at the computer and look at all of our friend's blogs with me.  He points to the screen and can recognize pictures of Zephyr, Taylor, Chloe, Riley, Audrina, Addi, Alec, George, and all of his grandparents and aunts and uncles and call them by name. I feel so lucky to be at home with him at this age as he become more and more fun to be around and turns into such a little person!

3 under 3!

Tonight we got to watch Taylor and Chloe together for the first time.  We had a lot of fun with all 3 kiddos, but are happy that although it would be possible to have 3 under 3 that only one of them is ours!  We ventured out to the park with Chloe snug in the Moby and Taylor and James sharing Amb's double stroller. 

Taylor and James chasing each other around the house after bath time-laughing hysterically the whole time.

Some pre-bed snuggles on the couch.

All 3 kids were fast asleep by 9, so I would say the night was a success!

Pretty!

James always plays with my make-up brushes while I get ready in the morning.  This morning I left the bathroom for a minute and came back to see that James had helped himself to some eye shadow.  He said, "Pretty!" and was pretty happy with himself, especially when I showed him in the mirror what he looked like.

Goodnight!

After Tim got James ready for bed tonight, James cleared out his cabinet and crawled inside and said, "Goodnight!"  He thought that opening and closing the door while he was sitting inside saying, "Goodnight! Good Morning!" was just about the best thing ever. 

And yes, I know those pajamas are completely ridiculous, but finding cute boy summer pajamas that are on sale has not been easy this season!

Beep Beep!

James's car that he got from his Ama and Grandpa for his first birthday has become his absolute number one favorite toy this summer.  He loves his beep beep and runs to get it out every time we go outside to play.

Tonight he enjoyed taking the zucchinis that he picked from the garden for a ride on his beep beep. 

My Sweet Boy is Back!

After a very trying week last week of James shrieking, "No Mama," at pretty much every.single.thing. that I did, I am very happy to report that my sweet and happy Mama's boy is back.  And even though I have tried and failed to get this on video (see video post below) I need to share this adorable new thing that James can do.  When we sing the ABC'c (the EFG's to James) he sings along with us and actually says about 80% of the letters correctly.  My favorite is instead of saying L,M,N,O,P James says, "Elmo Pee!"  Hilarious.  

Lazy Weekend

We have been so busy on the weekends lately, and this weekend we had nothing to do.  It has been so nice hanging out with just the 3 of us, enjoying time together as a family.  Yesterday we took James to the construction exhibit at Longmont's museum and then the library and then spent all afternoon playing in the backyard.  This morning it was nice and cool so we took advantage of the weather and headed up to Boulder for a hike.  It was perfect hiking weather, and I enjoyed hiking without James on my back.  Although that feeling was short lived, because for whatever reason, James decided that riding on Daddy's back was no fun and he wanted me to wear him the rest of the hike. Lucky me.  After our hike, we ate at Salvaggio's-yum! What a great weekend so far.

Enjoying the view with Daddy.

Self-family portrait.  Doesn't James look thrilled? He was much happier when he got on my back.

When I went to get him out of the car for lunch, I saw he had been sharing his snack with Elmo. He thought that was pretty hilarious.

My Week Summarized in a 2 Second Video Clip

James' tantrums have reached a whole new level this week.  Take this video, add in some "No Mama!" and you have a taste of what Grumpy James is like.  Thank goodness he is so darn cute. Lucky me has gotten about 4-5 hours of this per day this week.

And in case you are wondering, I was trying to video tape James singing the "EFG's," which he had just been singing and is actually getting really good at and that was his reaction.  I showed it to him to show him how silly he looked and he laughed and said, "More please!"  We watched the video about 17 more times.  Toddlers.

Hiking with Riley

Today Holland and Riley joined us for our Friday hike.  We went to NCAR in Boulder and hiked (almost all the way) to Mallory Cave.  I swear James has been packing on the lbs-he definitely felt heavier today than he did 2 weeks ago the last time we hiked!  We had an early start so we could beat the heat, but we still managed to get pretty hot and sweaty.  Carrying a 22lb toddler on your back will do that to you I guess.

Incase you thought it couldn't get any cuter than this-I present Prom Preview 2025 starring James and Riley:

And none of those were staged.  The two of them really are just that cute and lovey with each other.  Seriously, could they be any cuter?

Morning on the Farm

Yesterday, we spent the morning at Sunflower Farm in Longmont for James' friend Winston's 2nd birthday.  It was so much fun, and definitely someplace we will go back to again. James loved seeing the animals but would not feed them.  He loved it when Tim fed them though.

Driving an old tractor-definitely less scary than feeding goats.

By the cows with his cow shirt.

Test driving another tractor-definitely James' favorite part of the farm.  As we were leaving he kept saying, "Bye-bye tractor!"

Climbing down from the tree house.

Feeding a llama-his favorite animal.  He said bye-bye to the llama when we left too.

Trying out the horse tire swing.

Hanging with Friends

On Friday James and I spent the morning hanging out with Anne and Michelle who I used to teach 4th grade with and their babies George and Belle.  James had his first experience in a baby pool and surprisingly loved it.

Sharing a toy with Belle.

Giving George a hug.

James kept putting his hat on George and then holding up George's hand and high fiving him. It was pretty cute.

James and George loved watching us play Wii baseball.  James also loved playing it as well. 

Actually a cute picture of all 3 babies!

Random Summer Fun

I have taken a ton of random pictures in the last week or so that have not made it into their own post, so enjoy some random James cuteness.

Enjoying a Rockies Game.

Tarzan Baby with Kenzie on Taylor's swing.

Finding yet another random object to turn into a hat.

Hanging out with Daddy and Kenzie at Rhythm on the River in the Mont.

I love this picture because this is the face James makes when he squeals with delight at something, and I can literally hear him when I look at this picture.

Balls, Bats, Hats and Hugs

James can classify everything he sees (literally EVERYTHING) that he does have a word for into 3 categories: a ball, a baseball bat, or a hat.  If it can even remotely fit on his head-a hat.  If he can throw it-a ball.  If he can swing it-a basball bat.  Here is James' favorite hat of the week.

Last night we went out to dinner with friends and after dinner as we walked down the street, James started saying hi to every inanimate object he passed and giving it a hug.  He was a big hit with everyone who saw him, it was quite possibly the cutest thing  I have ever seen him do.

"Hi basket!"

"Hi baseball bat!"

"Hi light!"