Where'd the TIME go!?!?!

... as James would say! Where'd THAT go? Where's JAMES go? Yes, it's been a while since I checked in, that boy is BUSY! He's running, climbing, HIDING! He LOVEs hide 'n' seek! We take turns hiding.. I'll say, "James, go hide!" and he runs out of the room (with his determined little steps!) and hides behind the bed or crib in ours or his room. My favorite, though, is when he hides behind the coffee table in the FROG (Finished Room Over Garage.. orange / family room). The problem is that he drops to the floor in front of it so that he's there the min you walk into the room. So, I have to walk past him so that I'm on the other side and THEN pretend that I can't find him! Heehee. Also, if he wants to play, he'll cover his eyes and say "where'd James go?!?!" Silly bug.
New words 'n' stuff: "all gone", "moo-ehn" (moon), "moo" (what does the cow say?), "neow" (what does the cat say?), "muuuh-siiih" (music, accompanied by the sign for it), he actually SAYS "more" in additional to signing it, "huunhh" (hungry, accompanied by the sign for eating), "nigh nigh", "digh digh" (bye bye.. hey, it beats "see ya!"), "icceseeam" (guess what that one is!)
Stuff: climbs on EVERYTHING, kisses, shakes his head no and says "mm,mm" (James, want to get up? mm-mm.), knows what DVDs are for (will bring one to you, point the TV, and sign "Help"), hits the TV and says "on", asked me for music yesterday in the car... pointed to the CD player, signed, and said "muuh-ssiiih?".
Oh yeah, he also stayed with Grams and Grandaddy W. again this past weekend, which ROCKED because Mommy FINALLY got our bedroom drapes done, but he came back RUINED! The boy won't sleep, and he won't let go of Mommy for 5 mins.. guess he had some separation anxiety that he didn't realize until he got home.. sheesh. Pics posted to the album.

Pumpkin Pickin'

Who knew that the humble pumpkin, serenly beautiful in it's gourdly nature, could be SO FREAKIN' COOL?!?! Apparently, if you are 19 months old, it is the hottest thing since Balls Everywhere! We went to the Pumpkin Patch, which is between here and Miss Valarie's. They have one of those giant inflatable pumpkins that cracks James up every time we drive past, so I figured, how much would he LOVE if that's where we got our pumpkins? The answer is: a TON. First he just ran up and down each row, giggling like a sociopath and stopping every now and then to pat a pumpkin or try to pick one up. He moved around all of the gourds, and said hi to the other little ones who were doing the same thing, and whose parents also apparently thought that buying pumpkins here was the price you pay for some cool photo ops.
Other pics will be on Shutterfly if today's technical issues get resolved (tried to post 2x earlier), but here's the money shot:
P.S.: Can you believe how BIG he's getting! Yeeks!

Someday my prince will come...

Yesterday morning I felt like a princess! James always snuggles with us and sometimes lets us catch a few more winks in the morning before we really wake up. Yesterday he and mommy slept in a little after daddy went to make coffee, and I felt him stirring. I like to pretend I'm still sleeping even when he wakes up just to see what he does. He sat up, leaned over, and KISSED me good morning! How awesome is that?

This morning I was awakened by the usual slap in the face (literally.. a smack on the cheek). I guess he's back to being a frog.

Also, FIRST SENTENCE!! This morning I said, James, can you say hi to dadda? He looked right at Sterling and said "Hi Dadda!". Sure, he says "alldone", and "see that?" and "where did that go?", but really thinks those are all one word. This was two individual words that he normally uses separately! Yay! Also, while at the lake he said "Hi, ducks", and "hi, doggie".. and also said "turtle" (tuhduh).

Sorry for the backlog of info, but it's really been a developmentally busy week! He LOVES SpongeBob Squarepants, and was looking at the cover of the DVD, imitating his open-mouthed grin.. very funny. He then opened the DVD, brought it over to me, pointed to the DVD itself and signed help/open and looked at the TV. The little stinker knows that DVDs play movies, and that this one played SpongeBob. Wow. For the record, he cracked up while we watched about the first 30mins... for those of you who haven't seen it (the movie), well worth your time. It's freakin' hilarious!

A message from the webmaster

Nothing big, just FYI.. I reorganized the photo albums so that they are most current first. Also, posted the BEACH pics!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

Just a quick post to show you how cute the little bug looks in his bike helmet. We went for a family bike ride around the lake this morning! When we first tried on the helmet a few weeks ago, he HATED it. Now he realizes that helmet = bike ride, which he LOVES. So, if you hand him the helmet, he'll try to put it on himself, or will bring it to you!

BTW, he does not actually ride his own bike... yes, he's brilliant, but not THAT advanced! We have a Wee Rider bike seat, powered by Mommy. We get tons of looks as we ride around with it.. it sits in front of me on the crossbars so that he can see where we're going. Also, you can't really tell in the pic, but his helmet lights up and he thinks it is the coolest thing!

Beach Week continued...

Monday, Sept 5:
Whole lotta hanging out doing a bunch of nothing! The boys, at one point, did decide that they simply MUST check out the Brew Thru after Jim noticed a Hooteresque Brew Thru chick in the tourist guide. So, they all piled into the Town and Country VAN (aka "ChickMagnet") to cruise the scene.
What did they find? Logo merchandise and, uh.. BEER. Oh yeah, and some lovely orthodonture work for Jim (yep, that's the man she's going to marry)!

Tuesday, Sept 6:
Tuesday was slightly more active! James, Mommy, and Daddy headed off to Roanoke Island to take James to see the fishies at the aquarium (which ROCKED, although was somewhat pricey). There are several pics in the photo album. Basically, you start out in this cool atrium-type of dealio with lots of tanks, and it feels kinda rainforesty. Then you get into the indoorsy stuff, touchtank, and then the big guns like the sharks. For those of you who've never touched a ray, "ew". They're all soft and feel like they should be slimey *because* they're so soft but they really aren't. What's cool is that they are very friendly, and they LIKE to be petted! They will come up to you and FLAP THEIR WINGS to try to get your attention! Kinda neat. The guide guy at the tank told us they'll sit there and let him pet them for 15-20 mins at a time! Once you're done w/ indoor stuff, they have a fossil pit outside full of, well, a bunch of rocks and mess that they've dredged up off of the ocean or sound floor. It's also got some coral, shells, shark's teeth, and kids (and adults) can pick through this and find cool stuff. We found some coral and shark's teeth, and very dirty feet!
After this, we headed to Kill Devil's for frozen custard! James LOO-OO-OOOVEd it. The stinker kept grabbing Sterling's spoon (I had a shake) to help himself when Sterling took too long! Once they finished theirs, James was not content, so I gave him some of my shake and he wouldn't give it back! At that point, we grabbed a little kiddy cup and I doled out some of mine, and that's what he's holding (with a big ol' custard-eatin' grin) in one of the photo album pics.

High as a Kite (day 2 beach trip)

So Sunday we recovered from the long drive, started to unpack and settle in. After a leisurely morning (as leisurely as it can be when your son wakes you up at 6am), we and the parents headed over to Kitty Hawk Kites, which is located in a neat little shopping center across from Jockey's Ridge. Actually, we first went to Ben Franklin crafts, aka "the Crap Store", which is basically a bunch of souveniers and.. well, crap. We were in search of a kite, so when Sterling saw that the Crap Store only had the $5 kites made out of Saran Wrap, we moved on to Kitty Hawk Kites (henceforth referred to as "KHK", because I don't want to keep typing it). We opted for a Parafoil 5, which has no sticks or anything complicated, and flies like a champ! If you refer to the photo album, you can see Sterling figuring it out, with James' supervision.
We then walked across the street to Jockey's Ridge to give 'er a go. Pics of this will be posted when we've ironed out some technical issues.

That made for a busy yet relaxing afternoon. Oh yeah, we also bought Jim some chocolate-covered coffee beans because a) he'd never heard of them, and b) he did not believe that anyone other than Jaws from the James Bond movies could actually EAT a coffee bean... too hard! Anyhoo, proven wrong, Jim consumes his coffee beans.

And so Day 1 comes to a close. Ahhh.. beach life. Oh yeah, we went to the beach, too.. that's where the pics of James and Grandaddy came from.

Journey to the Sea

Saturday, Sept 3... ARRIVAL:
So, Saturday was the day of the big trip. We exited Raleigh around eleven-ish, just in time for James' nap. Now, while I miss my family up north dearly and really want to see them soon, I thank my stars that we opted out of the trip we'd initially planned in the summer. Four hours in the car with a wired toddler was rough... I think that after TEN we'd have just driven ourselves off a cliff!
So, it started with roughly a two hour nap, which pretty much rocked. He woke up a little after Rocky Mount, and we figured we'd see how far we could get before he got crotchety.. turns out that's about Plymouth, home of the awesomest Bojangles enroute to the beach (aka "the Boj"). So, we stopped there for lunch, where James enjoyed an egg and cheese biscuit. Fortunately, he's started to each sandwiches and biscuits as they were intended (eating from the edge vs. trying to eat straight from the center by smashing it into his face). While we finished up, James walked up to a couple in a booth and said, "hiiii!". The lady looked at him and said, "darling, you just made my day!". Our little ray of sunshine!

So on we trekked. He lasted about another half hour or so before the antsies kicked in. Sadly, this was about the point at which we entered the Alligator Refuge thingy, which is a stretch of nothing for about 20 mins or so... nothing worth looking at for a toddler who already has the attention span of a gnat! So, we read books, played soccer (don't ask), and eventually he occupied himself with his leapfrog learning pad for about 15 mins or so ("Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?"). FINALLY, we came to the bridge over the Alligator River, and the Roanoke Sound, and there was water and were birds to look at. We crossed the causeway into Kitty Hawk somewhat uneventfully, and settled down in our home for the week!

The digs were in Kill Devil Hills, about 1 block from the ocean, and within sight of the Wright Brothers Memorial.

Green Eggs and Spam

So we're scrambling to get our mess together for the beach trip which starts tomorrow. I am working like a crazy woman (I think it now stands for I've Been Manipulated... into thinking that it's OK to work 70 hrs a week!) to get all of my crap done so that I can leave work with clean conscience. Yet I digress...
So, we've both eaten like we live in a dorm tonight, and Sterling says, "I ate 2 burritos and a granola bar... I feel like James eating CRAP". Naturally, the Hackles of Motherhood arise and I staunchly defend my son's eating habits.. "James does NOT eat like crap, he eats very healthy!". Turns out he didn't mean crap = nutritionally deficient.. more like random. As in Orange Juice and hot dogs, or Chocolate Milk with hummus on pita. Ya know..just weird / ew. Hahaha. I've had two beers and am so tired, that comment made me laugh so hard I had trouble walking back upstairs to type this. L8r.

Just a few updates

On the whole, a pretty uneventful weekend, and week thus far. James is just about all recovered and back to tearing around the house a hyper-speed. Daddy has caught the cold (as did Karey), but with the help of some bourbon (for medicinal purposes and special occassions!) is now on the mend. We're gearing up for the beach next week for some much needed R&R.

New site stuff: I've added the "Daddy quote of the day", which in all actuality, will probably be more like the Daddy quote of the week or so. Let's face it, I don't update this thing every day! I decided that my darling husband is just so freakin' funny (seriously, he really is just that funny... remember when I laughed out two staples after my c-section?!), that I needed to start writing some of this stuff down! Here were the two other runners-up:
"Let's see what else we can chunk down there... " (turned into "My Punkin's Chunkin'" entry)
"Let's go run around the planet... I'll drive " (suggested on day when James had BOUNDLESS energy and was wearing Daddy down, which, is pretty much ANY day, isn't it?).
So, look for updated witticisms there!

Also, James is pretty much working himself off of the paci and lion during the day. When we pick him up out of the crib in the morning, we tell him to put both of those down. He chunks them back into the crib, waves bye bye to them (couldn't you just eat him up?!) and goes on with his day. We'll probably be able to get rid of the pacis altogether very soon... especially now that the teeth are all through!

Words that he now says:
"Out" and "Back", mainly when pointing to the dogs!
"Oooohn" means Open, he does his little sign for "help" while pointing to the door.
"Ooowwn" means Down, and he'll do this while pointing to the ground or down the stairs
"Uuuh" when pointing up means just that
"Hi"
"Whereisit?" or "whereditgo?" Says this in conjunction with "dada" or something else he's looking for, and does the little shoulder shrug / open arms
"Sheese" Cheese
"Dog"
"Ahh duh".. All done!
"Haht" for Hot
"See dat?" which means either a) do you see that? or b) I want that

Sounds and imitating:
Makes fishy noises (bup bup)
Makes panting for "dog"
Flaps his arms and goes dadadada for "birdy"
Sticks out his tongue for "frog"

Signs:
Eat, More, paci, help, up, down, cheese, byebye/nightnight

Sorry, this one's not about James...

Hehe.. ok, so this is a totally mommy-centric entry! I held my first Silpada party last night (thank you, ladies who attended!) and I consider it a success! Also, ENORMOUS thanks to Karey Berry for her help!

My new website is listed below under "links" (down on the left).. check it Ooowt!

Also, my friend from high school, Cyndi, has started her own business, catering to a slightly smaller crowd.. the toddler set. Please check out her website, Cyndi's Kay's bracelets and binky bling! ADORABLE stuff that she makes herself.

Well, that concludes my sales pitches for the day... this entry was brought to you by the letter $.

It's always friggin' SOMETHING!

Man! TOTALLY not our week! So, as you all know, James spent the weekend yakking, and seemed to be on the mend on Sunday. A little lingering fusspottiness, but generally happy, no fever, no spewing. He gets up on Monday, seems to be happy.. all is well again. Off he goes to daycare... for about an hour. Valarie calls, he's got a fever AGAIN, and is MISERABLE. So, mommy picks him up. We figure, ok, he's got a little lingering virus and just needs another day home to finish getting over it (and avoid passing it on to the other poor little unsuspecting kiddies). OH NOOOO! Either the virus has mutated, he's caught another one, or during one of his vomitous episodes it migrated upwards. Now he's coughing and his nose is running like a faucet. Poor little thing is running a mild fever again, and is generally ok, but clearly still hasn't shaken the bug. And as we're such a close-knit family who encourages sharing,... that's right! Mommy and Daddy are sick too. I guess we should just be happy that we missed the barf boat.

Oh yeah, poor daddy has been on sick duty this week, and due to a complete lack of sleep all around, we're all a little crotchety. Now that's quality family time.

Bugs bite...

We thought James was teething, but it seems that's he's teething and sick all at the same time. Last night he had a pretty bad fever and spent the night tossing and turning in our bed. Today he was kindof off and an. He'd be in a decent mood (gnawing furiously on his paci, mind you), but the second his meds wore off, he'd turn right back into Mr. Hyde. He's napped a little more than normal, and went down for one a little while ago. Unfortunately, he'd thrown up on lion a few mins prior, and lion was taking a tumble in the dryer. Mommy tried to put him down without the King of the Jungle... "here's Eyore, here's giraffe, ok, night night". He started to look around, so I grabbed a diaper cloth, thinking I could fake him out. I slipped it into his arms before he could see it, and said "oookaay, here's lion!". He said "uh oh", pulled out the cloth and looked at it like 'what the ...?' and said "whereditgo?" Stinker. So, I rocked him a little while longer and I think he was eventually just too poopered out and fell asleep anyway.

On a funnier note, we were at the grocery store a little earlier, and Sterling was carrying James around on his shoulders. He was having a blast, and started pointing our parts, as is his wont. He pointed to Daddy's ear and said "eeeyeee", and Sterling said, "no, James, that's not an eye". James just pointed again and *shrieked" "EEEEEYYYEEEIIII!" right into the side of Daddy's head. "No, James yelling doesn't make it an eye, but since it no longer hears, I guess it's not an ear, either!".

Signs, signs, everywhere signs!

James has made up two of his own signs, and we're very proud! He points his two fingertips together (kind of like "more" but with just pointer fingers) for "help me". If he wants something opened, or he can't reach something, he'll point to it or hand it to you, then do his little "help" sign. He has also made up his own sign for "paci". He was using "eat" to mean "food", "drink" or "paci" (in other words, put *something* in my mouth!), but now he's given paci its own sign. He sticks his tongue out and rakes his fingers down it like he's tickling his tongue or trying to wipe something off of it. It's pretty funny, because it's kinda random, but that's what he means when he does it!
What a smart boy! He's also *saying* "Mama" (Finally!!), "down", "Becca", and "aaaalll duuh" for All Done. What a puddin' pop!
OH YEAH: He also walks around with his hands behind his back, as if he's inpsecting everything! AND, he can't STAND it if you forget to let him brush his teeth in the morning and at night. He'll walk into the bathroom, point to his toothbrush, and hand you his paci and sit down (we make him sit while he brushes). He also likes to watch himself in the mirror while he's doing this (I would too, if I were that good-looking!).

The inspector...

My punkin's chunkin'

Ok, this was so funny that I had to immediately blog it. There are things you expect a father to teach his son.. bonding moments. Things like how to fish, how to wash a car, mow the yard, pitch a tent. You dont' really think about...how to throw things down the stairs. That's right, daddy is teaching our son a skill that will potentially cause damage to our material goods.
As I sat here working, I overheard "that's all ya got? what else can we throw?". .. and there they stood at the top of the stairs, staring down. The next thing overheard was "go on, chunk it!". It was just too funny not to share...

Happy, sad, happy, sad

Poor little James... what a roller coaster he's on this week! The last of my little bug's toofies are coming in and he's been absolutely miserable... unless he's distracted (see "shopping and showering"). Naps are hit or miss (mostly miss), he won't eat, and you can tell he's just not himself. He seems to be on the mend today, though. No fever last night (the night before he was burning up), and he ate *some* breakfast. Keep your fingers crossed!

Shopping and showering

Ok, so the new mall in Raleigh has an "interactive water feature"... which means it's a fancy sprinkler for kiddies! Check out James and Keaton playing!

More pictures are posted in Summer 2005... they start on page 2 (there are now FOUR pages of summer pics!). Very funny stuff!

Rainy Weekend

Just a coincidence that this has a similar title to the last posting. It was a rainy weekend, but we still found stuff to do... like splash in puddles!

WOW! When it rains, it pours!

I don't mean real rain.. that would be AWESOME (it's been in the high 90s and has topped 100 over the last few weeks!). James and mommy have been enjoying the pool nearly *every* day (I'm now a nice shade of beige vs. my usual pasty white!), and he loo-ooo-oooves it. When he sees where we are, he starts flailing and giggling like a madman. Initially it was great, because I could plunk him down in his floaty and push him back and forth to do some laps and actually get some tiny measure of a workout. NO MORE. Now, the dictator insists on playing and doing anything other than sitting still. Thus, the post-preggy body remains and seems to be making a stand for itself .. status quo.
Anyhoo, the whole "rains it pours" thing. James has picked up about half a dozen or more new tricks in the past week... we are STUNNED by this big ol' developmental leap! Here's the rundown:

• "See that?".. he'll point at whatever catches his eye and insist that you look at it, too, by asking you, "see that?". You *must* answer, "yes, I see that" or he'll keep asking.
• Climbing.. the little monkey has scaled the gates that contains the critters at daycare. Valarie said she'd left him in the play area while she went to put one of the other kids down, turned around, and he was right behind her. Yikes! Also, he's figured out how to climb onto the downstairs ottoman and sofas.. more opportunity to fall and get to more stuff. Time for another round of James-proofing.
• More canine antics: Yesterday he bent down on all fours and picked up one of his toys with his teeth, then stood back up like that, grinned, and kept going.
• Brushing his teeth.. he is FASCINATED with us brushing our teeth, and likes to brush his at the same time. He carefully studies what we're doing and tries to brush his own the same way.
• He imitates EVERYTHING. He "helps" us clean (I think we're going to have to find him a toy broom!), imitates our mannerisms, everything!
• "Uh oh!"... he LOVES to say this, thinks he's the funniest thing since the rubber chicken. He's just learned, in the last few days, that it's funny to drop things and say "uh oh". It's even funnier when the "uh oh" precedes the drop (slick, James, real slick).
• More signs: he sticks out his tongue for "frog". There's a little frog tchotcke on the shelf in our bathroom, and when he wants to play with it, he points and sticks out his tongue. He does the same thing when he sees a picture, or you say "frog". He also does "birdie".. he flaps one arm and kindof makes a chirping noise!

Our little sweetie the sponge is soaking it all up! He'll be in college before we know it!