Long time no type

.. so I have alot of catching up to do! What's new.. what's new?

James: I cannot BELIEVE what a little man he is becoming. Still so little and cute and snuggly, but also so engaging and social! His vocab is HUGE and he's got great little manners. He was trying to lug his box of Legos between the couch and coffee table the other day, and Becky was in his way, and he said "excuse me, Becky! excuse me, Becky! EXCUSE ME BECKY!!!!".. because he knows it's not polite to say "move!". Even in total frustration, the manners remained intact! He has also started saying, "no thanks". I asked him if he wanted to carry his bag to the car this morning and he told me, "no thanks". Cracks me up! He says "please" about 95% of the time, ditto for "thank you" and "you're welcome!". He's our little man!

He's also back in the crib. We did the big boy bed thing for about a month, but decided we were tired of not sleeping (lots of late-night visits!), so we dumped his little tush back in the crib. Ahhh...slumber! There was also the sick thing, and we decided we needed to go back to square 1 for a bit to regroup before we tried the BBB again.

Midnight wanderings: James stayed w/ Honey and Grandaddy a few weeks ago and naturally, he never disturbs them in the middle of the night. That's not to say, however, that he stayed asleep OR in bed all night! At our house, if he wakes up, he tries to climb into bed with us and has a fit if he can't. At GD and H's house, he apparently peruses the house, entertains himself, and then quietely goes back to bed when he's done. The Woodruffs awoke to find that the Implements of Death drawer had been explored, someone had helped himself to a snack from the cat's bowl (thank goodness it was the BOWL and not the BOX!), and had taken a little trinket box off of the back of the toilet and brought it back to bed with him. So, a drawer lock went on the IoD drawer, and we were annoyed all over again that he can't just let US sleep when he's at home!

James has also turned into a little dictator. He will command you "let go!" or "stop!" if you're bugging him. So funny.

Take me out to the ballgame...

He's better! (and so is mommy)

Young Master James is on the mend. His fever finally broke last night. Poor little bug, he woke up crying, and when I went in to calm him down, the first thing that caught my eye was soaking wet hair and an equally wet pillow. I immediately thought, "oh man, he's thrown up in bed". The poor little man was just sobbing the pitiful and semi-quiet sob of the half-asleep toddler who's not feeling well (if you have one, you know how heart-wrenching this is.. if you don't, you'll have to trust me...it's pathetic). The way the shadows hit, he also looked like he needed a diaper change, which I figured was probably a given anyway if he'd tossed his cookies. So, mommy went to work stripping down the sleepy little sweetie, at which point I realized there wasn't a drop of yuck on him, nor was he messy... he was SWEATY. His hair was wet with sweat, the spot on his pillow was actually a basketball-sized drool spot, and he was COOL! ... as a cucumber, as my mom used to say when we got over a fever (talk about flashbacks!). He must have sweated it out and just woken up and gotten lonely. Poor little man! I dressed him back up, snuggled (flipped the pilow), and put him back in bed where he slept like a.... baby.
He was in a great mood, which boded well for Daddy... who watched him while Liz took me to the SPAAAAAAH for a little pampering (sorry, daddy!). So now we're ALL doing better...except for Daddy. Hopefully a good night's (month's) sleep will cure that. Mommy out.

Grossest moment EVAH!!!

Oh mah God, ya'll! (hehe.. does it sound like I've been here too long? tee hee!) Ok, Jamye and I have played whose kids do grosser stuff before, and I'm pretty sure that vomit and poop were prominent factors in that conversation, but ya know what? This one just beats everything!
Poor little man is not well. He woke up this morning kinda ok, but I thought nothing of it because he's been waking up ALOT for the past month (2-yr molars.. and holy crap... we are sooooo tired!) so I just figured he hadn't slept well. We go downstairs and start our daily routine when BLEEAAAACCCKKKK! Right on the kitchen floor. So, we mop that up, plunk the little bugger down on the sofa to watch cartoons while mommy gets to work. It wasn't but a few hours later when he introduced our sofa to his stomach contents, and mommy's day just got better!
Well, daddy was home and up early today, so we tagged teamed late morning so that I could work. James seemed to have a pretty good day, ate a little, and we thought he was on the mend.

Until we got to the grocery store.

It's our fault, we pushed it. We popped over to Tarjay for more baby motrin and tylenol, and thought, "he'd doing ok, let's pop over to the grocery store to grab something for dinner.. in and out!". Well, that should have been a reference to what James ate....mostly out. Onto mommy. Onto ALOT of mommy! So, we bolted from the store after the first wave, and he hit me with a second on the way out. Good Lord. My entire front was soaked to the skin. Poor little James was crying because he feels rotten and his fever was starting back up again so he was shivering (even though it's like 80 or 90 degrees outside). So, I pop open the back of the Jeep (which btw, has served me SOOO well since having a child. Seriously, it's the world's biggest more portable changing table, ahluvitluvitluvit!). At this point, I realize that if I want to keep down my own innards, I have to strip.. so I do. I grab the poncho I keep in the back (yes, I'm a big Girl Scout), drop it over my head, and pull off my shirt. I then strip poor James down and wrap him up in my trunk blanket. So there we stand, in the back of the Jeep in the grocery store parking long. Mommy in a poncho (in 90 degree sunny weather), and James naked in a blanket... don't WE look like a pair? After what seemed an eternity (probably about 3 mins) Sterling comes out and lets me know that, bless his little heart, he had to mop up after we skedaddled. So, puke all around! It's a family affair!
We doped up the little munchkin with drugs, and he is just as right as rain. Right before bed he WOLFED down some dinner and was running around like his usual nutty self. Updates as available, for now, send healthy vibes our way!

Time out for dog food

Mommy and James were on their own this weekend. The boys took their annual trip (aka "drunkfest") to Ocracoke and left us to fend for ourselves. We actually had an awesome weekend. It's an annual thing for the Beetle crowd (John Davis and cronies!) and they had a fantastic time, as always.
James is actually at that age where it's just like hanging out with a real person who carries on conversations with you and pals around, so we really did have a nice weekend together. It was also nice to actually be able to hang out around the house and not HAVE to get out so that Daddy could sleep (sorry, Daddy, but we all know how much that sucks, and it's not your fault!).
Well, Mommy took advantage of the freedom to stay home by cleaning and organizing some stuff which was long overdue. I guess I got a little into it, and didn't notice that James had snuck downstairs for a little snack. A snack of dog food. Now, you all know that his taste in dog food is not new, just endlessly frustrating. So, we spit out the dog food, and James had a time out where we reiterated "nonono" on the dog food.
Back upstairs we went, and back downstairs James went AGAIN when Mommy turned her back for a split second. I found him hunched over the dog bowls, where he'd taken the dry food in handfuls and dumped it into her water. I thought maybe if he had to help me clean up, he'd not be so keen to do it again, so we both grabbed handfuls of now-slimy wet dogfood and threw it away, but he just thought this was funny. Another timeout.
Back upstairs we went, and back downstairs James went for a THIRD time. It just got too quiet. I went downstairs and immediately looked at the dogbowls, he wasn't there.. but neither was one of the bowls. I caught him carrying the bowl through the living room snacking out of it like it was a tub of popcorn! Down went the bowl, and into timeout went James. We had another talk during timeout, and I asked, "James, why are you in time out?". He replied, "dogfood". So HE KNOWS why, and that it's bad... what gives?
Apparently, three times is not the charm, but four is. I should put him on a leash. The fourth time I caught him at the bowls again, he had started the migration of dry food into the water bowl, but as soon as he saw me, he started grabbing it back out and singing, "clean up! clean up! I love clean up!". Nice try, buddy, but too little, too late! A fourth time out seemed to hit home, although it may also be that I offered him a snack after that.
So, maybe he really was hungry, but DOG FOOD?? It CAN'T be that good!