Thursday, March 25, 2010

Happy Birthday James

I guess technically it's not his birthday until later tonight, but we were in the hospital waiting for him at this point. I still can't believe that it has been a year. I'll post pictures of the festivities later, but for now I'll tell you about his new things he's been up too.

He's been saying more words consistently these days. He still won't way a word when we ask him to, but if he's feeling up to it he'll use a word here and there. Just this morning he handed me a bag of marshmallows and said "pease." I was so impressed he got to eat marshmallows before his breakfast. We've been working on please for the last little while and he's always refused to say it. That is pretty typical for him. We'll go over a word for a while, but he won't use it for a while until one day he just decides he wants to use it. Some of his other words are...
  • dada - He typically uses dada when he first see's Todd and wants to say hello.
  • mama - He says mama only when he is tired and hungry.
  • hi -  He says hi when he wants to be especially cute.
  • more - He'll come up to you while you're eating and say more if he wants what you are eating
  • baby-baby  -  He talks about himself as 'the baby-baby'. He'll use it when he is happy but more often than not it's when he is sad and tired. If I leave him in a room when he is tired and cranky he'll say "a baby-baby mama, a baby-baby." 
  • yeah - This one is always paired with clapping. If you do something he likes or if he is proud of himself he always cheers.
  • please - He's used it twice this morning so I'm counting it as a word he knows. It's so sweet, I don't mind giving him marshmallows before breakfast.
A few of the bad things he's learned are hair pulling and biting. He's always been a little bit of a biter, but with teeth on top and bottom it's more of a problem. So far he hasn't really bitten anyone because he was mad, it's been more of a game. The hair pulling he's doing to get mine and Hailee's attention. If Hailee takes something away he just goes and pulls her hair. He is a little too good at it. The only other little problem we've had is his tantrums, when I take something away he'll throw a little fit. They have never lasted long and before I know it he's back into some other kind of trouble.

He also got a new tooth this month, he now has three on top and two on the bottom. The fourth one on the top is just about to break through as well. He has been chewing on just about everything, but has been pretty happy getting these last two in. His top two teeth still have the biggest gap in them. The third tooth that game in is right next to the front tooth, so he's going to look a little like Michael Strahan. It gives him a mischievous look.

He has really been enjoying using his top two teeth for eating. Some of his favorite foods are bean burritos and rice, chicken, green beans, pizza, and pasta, but he isn't too picky and will try just about anything. Every day he is getting better at feeding himself and getting full.

He even is starting to grow a little hair. The back is starting to come in a little longer (pretty soon we'll have to cut it so he won't have a mullet). It's still so funny to me that most people automatically assume he has blond hair because you can't see it, but I assure you his hair is as dark as the rest of ours. Todd is secretly hoping it doesn't come in until after Halloween. He thinks James would make the best little Charlie Brown with his bald head and his ears that poke out.

He is still as busy as ever and it's been quite an adjustment getting used to him. I really had no idea how blessed we were with Hailee. I never understood when Hailee was little and we had places to go people would always offer to babysit. All our trips to doctors and other appointments people would ask if they could babysit for me. I never took them up on it because Hailee was really good and would just sit quietly with us. Now that James has come I finally understand. The thought of driving an hour to Todd's doctor and then having to sit for up to two hours waiting and talking to the doctor only to turn around and drive an hour home with James makes me break out in hives. He just can't stand the thought of sitting still for 5 minutes. The other day we went to dinner and it was a wrestling match the entire time. I only ate about half my food and the rest of the time it was trying to contain James. He wasn't bad, he was just curious. He wanted to talk to all the people around us, he wanted to see what was under the table, find out what sound the ketchup made if you dropped it on the floor, and on and on.

We all have absolutely loved the last year with this little guy. He has us all wrapped around his little finger. He loves playing with his sister when he is not driving her crazy they actually get along and play quite well together. Most of the time they are quite sweet with each other.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

New discovery


So we discovered something today. This morning while James was running about he happened to scratch his nose. It was bleeding a little bit so I wanted to get a little anti-bacterial cream on it so it wouldn't get infected. Being his birthday week I didn't want a gross infected wound on his face. The only problem is he didn't want to leave the cream on so I needed to put a band-aid on. I sent Hailee off to get me a band-aid and she came back with a lovely assortment of princess band-aids. I asked if she could just get a plain band-aid for me, but the problem was we didn't have any plain band-aids. Poor James had to have a princess band aid on his nose until he woke up from his nap. Once he got up he quickly removed the princess band-aid and so far it doesn't look to horrible. Maybe his birthday pictures will look okay afterall. We discovered that I might need to start picking out band-aids for James.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Fever


Spring Break has come to our house. After spending the morning yesterday relaxing Hailee announced, "Mom, it's lunch time and we're still in our pajamas, that's not right." I know, I know, but it was sure nice not running around for a while. After a lazy morning we were all ready to get out and enjoy the spring like weather. We decided to walk through the park to the library. I needed to pick up my cell phone and the kids always enjoy the library and the walk there. After picking up my cell phone and some new books to read we decided to watch the ducks in the park. The park has several ponds that are always filled with ducks and geese.

Hailee and James enjoyed watching them, and James was not ready to get back in the stroller when it was time. Then Hailee spent the rest of the time chasing after the ducks to see if she could get a picture of them.


With Spring comes another favorite time of the year... March Madness. It was very fun to see BYU win yesterday and we're looking forward to cheering on Utah State today. We always love watching the tournament and thanks to DVR Todd can enjoy it after work. The only problem for him is trying to avoid any news before he has a chance to watch it.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Our St. Patricks Day


I had big plans for St. Patrick's Day, but the morning came and the alarm clock didn't. For some reason it just didn't go off. So our green breakfast was put on hold and we scrambled to get Hailee to school on time. Todd worked from home in the morning and then after I got home he took the car and went into work.

The morning went by normally enough, we had a friend over to look at some paint colors and then it was time to get Hailee from the bus. James took a short nap so he was a little crabby, to get him in the car seat I had to let him hold my phone. We picked up a very excited Hailee. She was full of stories of a mischievous little leprechaun that caused all kinds of trouble at school, but left them chocolate gold. Little did I know at the time that the mischievous leprechaun would follow her home. We walked home to get lunch.

After lunch we decided to walk to Costco to pick up a few things and see if "The Princess and the Frog" was at redbox. Before leaving I tried to find my phone and I couldn't find it. I searched everywhere and then remembered I had given it to James to hold. Never a great idea, especially because I had just taken off the rain cover off my stroller, so now I was left wondering if he had thrown it out. We decided to run quickly to Costco and after a successful trip came home and put James down for his nap.

 (I just put a little green food coloring in the water and the noodles came out a bright green shade. Hailee loved it.)



Since I had not gotten together a fun breakfast I decided we needed to have a fun dinner. I decided on green Portuguese Pasta with green noodles and Pistachio pudding salad. Since Todd drove to work today we didn't have to go pick him up and the kids loved being surprised by dad. Hailee heard the garage and ran to the stairs. James followed her to see what the excitement was and as soon as he saw Todd he started to clap. It was quite the welcome home.  After a long and stressful few days it was just the welcome Todd needed.


After the greeting from the children Todd told me the library had called him and told them they had my cell phone. Somehow my cell phone ended up 3 or 4 blocks away from our house in the park by the library. I have no idea how it ended up there since we had been no where near the park or the library today. I guess it could have been that mischievous little leprechaun causing trouble again.

Overall it was a fun St. Patrick's Day. The kids loved the green dinner and our own personal little troublemakers had a great day.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Happy St. Patrick's Day


What is there to do on St. Patrick's Day? Well if you're James you raid your big sister's Valentine candy stash. (Yes she still has LOTS of Valentine candy left.) While making lunch I heard James sucking on something. At first glance it looked like one of Hailee's toys, but on closer inspection I realized it was a chocolate bar. He was in heaven. Hailee loves holidays, but I don't think she has ever eaten all of her candy. I will constantly find old candy in her closet or under he bed. It's not that she forgets about it, she just doesn't eat it. I don't think we'll have the same problem with James....




...he likes candy.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Sunday Afternoon

We went from 8:30am church to 1:00pm and it's been a little bit of an adjustment. I like having extra time in the morning to prepare my lesson, but that is usually the time James has his afternoon nap and he has a hard time sleeping at church.  By the time 4:00 rolls around we are all starving and ready to be home.


Yesterday we had a pretty good afternoon even with the time change the kids were doing pretty good. James slept for a little while and everyone was relatively happy. While making dinner Hailee and James just played happily together and left me alone to get dinner done. It feels like we might have actually adjusted to the new time schedule and it just took us 3 months. I love how well Hailee and James play together. Hailee is pretty patient with him and for his part James adores his big sister.

One of James' new favorite tricks is climbing on chairs. Hailee has a little rocking chair that he likes to get on and rock while standing up. It gave me a heart attack the first time I saw it, but he's actually pretty good at keeping his balance. I did however get a little worried when he climbed up on this little white chair. This chair isn't suppose to rock and he was doing his best to make it. I took him off it and turned it over so he couldn't play on it that way. He quickly put it the right way and climbed back on. Todd just laugh when I get worried, he keeps trying to convince me to just let him have fun. I guess I shouldn't worry he takes his fair share of bonks, but he never lets that slow him down and I guess I should just let him have 'fun.'






Friday, March 12, 2010

All Wet


James LOVES to shower. We've always just had him shower with Todd when he was a baby. I couldn't find a baby bath I liked and it was just as easy to hand him to Todd in the mornings. Well now that he is bigger and can sit in the bath he's decided that he just doesn't like taking a bath he'd rather run around the shower. He loves it so much that now even if he's not invited in, he is insistent that he get in. It doesn't matter who is showering, he has to join in the fun. This morning he slept in so he didn't get a shower with Todd so I decided to just put him in the shower by himself. I turned on the water and left to grab his clothes, diaper, and towel. When I got back this is what I found. He was so pleased to be showering, he didn't care if he had clothes on or not. I don't think I'll leave water going with him in the bathroom anymore.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

New Food

I was so excited to give James baby food at 5 months or so. I just knew he was going to LOVE eating food, he had been so excited about the food we were eating. I was sure surprised to find out that he didn't like baby food. We tried all kinds. He would eat some, but still was relying on nursing for most of his nutrition. At 9 months the doctor gave us the go ahead to get a little more adventurous with food. James has loved the new freedom. He is eating much better now and loves being a big boy. I don't think there is going back to baby food at all.



One of his favorites is bean burritos.



Pasta is always a good choice.

And below he just couldn't wait until dinner, he had to eat spanish rice before we sat down to dinner.

Sharing


The other day we were making Pinkalicious cupcakes. Hailee got to choose what we were having for dessert and she wanted pink cupcakes with strawberries. James, of course had to be right in the middle of everything. Hailee has loved helping in the kitchen. She is really getting to be a great helper and an even better big sister. After we were done mixing up the frosting she shared the beaters with her brother without me even asking her to share. I just love how sweet she is with him.

Normalcy


For the first time in years I feel like life is getting some kind of normalcy. Since we've gotten married, we've either been in school, pregnant or having a new baby, sick, or working crazy hours. Now with Todd's work settling down and is working a more normal schedule we're getting into a very nice routine. We have actually sat down together as a family for dinner and had time to just talk. I am in heaven. I love the family time we've been enjoying lately.

Stories

Hailee definitely keeps us entertained at our house. She is quite the girl and is always fun to have around. She has been growing up so quickly and I sometimes miss my baby girl, but at the same time I am so proud of the little girl she is becoming. Here are just a few of our recent stories.

Since moving in we have been trying to decide how we wanted to set up the computers in our house. My old mac in particular has been hard to decided what to do with it. We originally thought of putting the desk in the kitchen, which once it was all set up we didn't really like. So we moved the desk, but the internet was already connected there so the computer was moved to the table, then the floor, then back to the table and after a while the chords were a mess and it was driving me crazy. One morning I finally went and got a smaller table from the garage and set it back up in the kitchen. I was feeling quite pleased with myself because it was so nice to have the chords cleaned up and out of the way. When Hailee got home she saw what I had done and exclaimed "I didn't know a mom could do that all by herself." She was quite proud of me too.

One day we were walking home from the bus stop and there were a few puddles. Hailee loves to jump in the puddles, but today she had a few questions for me. At school they have a rule that they can't jump in puddles. Hailee wanted to know why the rules were different. I let her jump in the puddles but at school they don't let her. She continued...

Hailee: I just have a bad habbit of jumping in puddles and I don't want to get in trouble.
Nicole: Hailee do you get in trouble for jumping in puddles at school?
Hailee: (quickly responded) Oh no mom, they don't catch me.

Sometimes I just don't know what to do with her.

Every night we go through the same thing with Todd and Hailee, it seems their turn for family prayers just seem to come around too often. It was during one of their conversations about whose turn it was to pray I got a little fed up and said, "I'll say it, I swear I'm the only one that is going to heaven in this family." To which Hailee quickly said "You?" Which led to all of us laughing so hard. After a good laugh we then had to decided who was going to pray. Hailee is looking forward to James being able to talk so he can join the rotation.

Yesterday I had the the Subway $5 footlong song in my head all day and it was driving me crazy. Hailee even got after me because it was driving her crazy. Later as we were driving to pick up Todd from work I caught Hailee singing the $5 footlong song. I teased her about it and told her we better stop singing it before we got dad because it drives him really crazy. The while waiting at the front of the building I accidentally started singing it again...Hailee said, "Mom, quiet dad is right there he might hear you." I just started laughing so hard to which Hailee quickly said "Oh no, don't blog about it." Which just made me laugh even harder. Hailee is growing up in a very different world than I did. A world of computers, internet and blogs.

 Every day we try to do a little homework at our house. The night before last Hailee got to bed pretty late and she was tired and the next day she wasn't really into doing work. After doing a little math where she kept getting her numbers 2, 5, and 6 backwards. I decided to have her practice while I started dinner. A few minutes later Hailee handed me this page back and said, "There IIIIII'MMMMM done!" It cracked me up how she got around doing it all. She did great on the numbers 2 and 5, but the last of her fours she had a problem. Then I just realized today as I was scanning it in that she completely skipped the number #6. I can see we need to get her to bed on time.

Monday, March 8, 2010

My Little Artist

So I realized something this past weekend. I have absolutely failed in my child’s education. I just realized that by the time Hailee was this age she had tried coloring with a variety of mediums; markers, crayons, and even paints. Up to this point I haven’t let James draw at all. In fact he had to take the crayon out of his sister’s hand and start drawing himself for me to realize what he had been missing in his education.

james1
james2

He had such a good time coloring. The only problem is now he thinks he can “help” Hailee when she is working on her homework. We’re still working on teaching what is okay to draw on.


DSCN3796

11 months

Hailee-1 mo
 DSCN3728
I had a lady tell me how much Hailee and James looked alike. I was surprised because although they have a few similarities I don’t think they look that much a like. The top is a picture of Hailee and 11 months and the bottom is a picture of James at 11 months. What do you think?