Merry Christmas!

We'll get some pictures up later (we still haven't opened presents, after church James took a nap then we ate our Christmas dinner). We are back in our place, which was de-leaded last week. It was quite a process, and we are so thankful to be home! Last night after James went to bed we put up our Christmas decorations and brought out the presents from family and St. Nicholas (we are keeping presents from Santa/us limited to 3, in honor of the Magi. It makes us think harder about what to get, and will hopefully keep the spirit of the season where it should be) James exclaimed "WOW" when he saw everything this morning! He was really excited! In other news, he is taking the odd step here and there now. He doesn't really see the advantage to walking yet, but I'm happy he is at least making an attempt!

Belated Thanksgiving Post

Thanksgiving was over a week ago but we are just now getting around to posting a few pictures. My mom came up for Thanksgiving weekend, and we had a very nice time visiting with her. James hadn't seen her in a year but seemed to warm up to her pretty quickly.

Here are a few photographs. The first is a Thanksgiving craft project James created with the nanny during the week. She said he had a lot of fun. The second picture is a shot of James wearing his sunglasses during our Thanksgiving dinner. We had a very nice meal at a local restaurant and James was very cooperative (during most of the meal), even though his nap schedule was thrown way off by all the excitement of the weekend. The last picture is James and my mother playing a very fun game of "horsey".

(Sorry the quality on these shots isn't as good as normal. We didn't want to lug the camera around all weekend, so we just took the much smaller video recorder and grabbed a few still frames for these pictures.)

joe has been dethroned

I noticed that all of the pictures I have taken this week have been of James sitting (or getting onto) Joe's chair. I think it is safe to say it isn't Joe's chair anymore! I love his face in the first picture. Could his expression be any blanker? The last is of him today in his gorgeous new Kiwipie diaper cover. Maria does such a beautiful job with every new thing she makes for James. What a treasure! If you can't tell, it's a koi fish embroidered on the front. James made fish faces (which are really just kisses in reference to fish) and pointed to the fish the entire time it was on. I guess he approves!

I bearly got these pictures

He was being a bit rambunctious! The sweatshirt is a super cute gift from James' buddy Owen (thanks Cheryl!), he was pretty excited about how big the hood is (playing peek-a-boo in the last picture). If you couldn't tell, he is singing opera (falsetto) in the second picture :p

stop growing already!

James has been having some serious growth spurts recently! He looks like such a little boy now instead of a baby. He outgrew all of his summer clothes just in time for fall! His 7th tooth finally broke through the gums yesterday, so he slept quite well last night. It's great to feel like a human instead of a zombie today. the shadow on the right of the pictures is me lol.

Halloween!

Today for Halloween James dressed up as a dinosaur. He was adorable. He wore his costume all day long because he went to a Halloween event at the Children's museum with Sandy today. Here are a few pictures from our day. In the first, he is showing off the pumpkin that he painted for Halloween. The second is a good shot of the back of his costume, taken while he was romping around. In the third picture, he is telling us how much he hates his costume (he wanted to be a dragon instead). But later in the day he decided his costume was okay after all. The last two pictures are from when we went out trick-or-treating this evening. We didn't get any candy, but just went for a walk around the neighborhood. There were tons of kids out. James had a good time and enjoyed seeing all the costumes.

gorgeous autumn day

Though the trees haven't changed color yet, which is strange. James loves the weather, and as usual had a fun romp in the grass. He is officially a toddler now, though not technically 'toddling' yet. He did stand up on his own from sitting this past weekend, it kind of took Joe and I by surprise. I bet he'll be walking by Christmas. He has started the infamous tantruming, which I probably shouldn't find so adorable, but I do. They likely won't be so funny in a few years, but hey, what can I say.

love and a hippo

here are 3 from this afternoon. A head, James in his tunnel (which is like baby crack...he zips back and forth in this thing laughing like a maniac), and James playing with his hippo puppet. He's been working through quite a bit of separation anxiety recently, as well as continuing to work on a few teeth, and a cold, so he has not been the happiest camper recently.

misc pics

here are a few pictures from the past week, when James went to the aquarium with his nanny and her daughter. They had a great time! His favorite part was the statue of an emperor penguin. Go figure! The last picture is one Emily took of James and I at Keeneland the day before her wedding. She had a great time on her honeymoon!

Today we went to Ikea for the sole purpose of getting James a tunnel to crawl through. We ended up with a crane (for Joe I think...) and a tent. He loves them, and quickly realized that Joe doesn't fit through the tunnel. haha. I should have gotten a picture of Joe floundering halfway through.

awesome

check out these toys!

http://www.coolmompicks.com/safertoy07/

Video from Keeneland

Here is a short video clip of James enjoying one of the races at Keeneland:

He seemed a little confused about which way to look to see the excitement. But he could tell something was definitely very exciting!

the wedding!

The first picture is of James and Joe at keenland. James loved to see the horses! His favorite part was when Joe took him down to the stables. The wedding was the most beautiful ever. It was a pretty small outdoor ceremony at a vineyard, and Emily did such a nice job planning everything. James adores both Emily and David, which is really cute. Emily was such a gorgeous bride! James did better than we expected during the wedding and reception. He rode up the aisle in a wagon, and loved to watch the musicians and throw rose pedals with Joe during the ceremony. He had a ton of fun dancing with Joe and I, and finally fell asleep in his Beco (third picture, I'm with Emily's sister Lauren, it was nice to catch up with her...she is about to start a ND program in a few months). The next is of James and I so you get a sense of how adorable his outfit was (and how pretty the dresses were--excuse the weird camera angle). James' sweater vest was knitted by Milli, and it matched the dress perfectly. She did such a nice job! The last picture is of Justin and James. James really likes his Aunt Lisa and Uncle Justin, and had so much fun staying with them. We appreciated their hospitality! Overall, it was an exhausting week, but we were so privileged to be a part of such an extraordinary time in my very best friend's life.

ok whiney friends

here are a few pictures! the kid and his new train, getting into mischief, getting a ride in his wagon, with his pumpkin hat on today (the game was mama puts on the hat, james promptly removes it before a proper picture can be taken), and demonstrating his drumming technique. This kid is going to be a rock star. After banging and singing wildly he dramatically drops (or throws) the mallets. He is such a kook.

14 months

today! I'll add some pictures in later. He is beginning to speak a bit more, though mostly babbles in a conversational tone. He is also becoming a bit of a daredevil. 14 months old and he busted his lip for the first time this morning while trying to give himself a ride in his wagon. It bled a bit, and Joe and I debated over bringing him to the ER, but his teeth all looked intact, he didn't slice the upper frenulum, and he calmed down pretty quickly. He'll live, poor guy! We did go to the mall today to find a few things, which was fun. James loves the playspace they have there, so he had a great time until it was taken hostage by rambunctious 10 year olds whipping around marti gras beads. Then it got scary. For the life of me I couldn't understand how the parents of those kids remained so calm as they leapt in the air from one play structure to another, whipping each other with the beads. I guess I'll learn. I cannot believe how big James looked compared to the newborn babies at the mall today. It's funny, because he still seems so babyish to me, especially since he isn't walking yet. But he really isn't so small anymore! He is still not a sleeper, he wakes somewhere between 4 and 10 times a night. Good thing I've gotten used to it! He's bound to sleep eventually. He has been working on a few new teeth, he's well on his way to a mouthful at this point. He is enjoying many solids at this point too. There are still a bunch of foods he hasn't been exposed to, and we continue to be careful after he had an allergic reaction to strawberries. I'm sure there is a ton I'm leaving out, let me know wha else I haven't mentioned.

abstract expressionism

Sorry I've been a bit scarce and sporatic, things are pretty hectic. Here is a picture of James painting. And yes, that is a disposable (shocker!). He really gets into his work, and we have learned that washable paints aren't quite as washable as they say ;)

Reading

We're sorry we haven't had more time to post any updates or pictures recently. Anne has been busy with her internship, I've been busy with work, and James has been busy doing some extremely important reading:



We'll try to post more updates soon.

12 month appointment

his stats:
head: 44.5 cm
height: 29.5 in
weight: 20 lbs 4 oz

Weekend Update

James and Anne and I went to the beach for a few hours today. We took the camera with us, but unfortunately we left the camera's battery at home on the charger, so we don't have any photographs of the event. James spent most of the time trying to eat mouthfuls of sand, and we spent most of the time trying to stop him. He did seem very interested in a few seagulls that wandered nearby. And he also got in the water a little bit (just feet and hands) and actually enjoyed it -- which is a step forward because usually the ocean water scares him.

Anyway, since we have no new photographs I thought we'd share a few pieces of James' artwork with everyone. This first piece is entitled "Worms":
















This next picture is my favorite. It is an abstract work called "Untitled in Blue and Red":
















Lastly we have a picture that James did for Anne's office. It is another more abstract picture with a strong "handprint" theme:

he SPEAKS!

I get home today and am greeted with a "hay-oo" followed by a reach for his "dut-tie". Yes ladies and gents, we should have guessed one of this kids first words would be duck ;)

the wedding

Here are a few pictures from the rehersal and the wedding. James adores my dad, as you can tell. The wedding was very nice, and the weather was perfect. James tried to escape a few times during the ceremony, and got into other mischief (see toilet paper in hotel pic), but was an outstanding traveler. The other picture is of my grandparents. It was really nice to see nearly my entire family, many of whom I haven't seen in years. Justin should get married more often ;) (just kidding for those who sarcasm escapes notice).

ok whiny people

Here are some pictures. They will have to hold you over for a while though! The first several are of James and Joe playing around. The last was during a walk we took this past weekend with Erin, Stephen, and Olivia around the pond. We drug out the stroller after not using it nearly as much as we thought we would before we were parents ;o). We figured we should probably get at least some use out of it. We ended up popping him into the Ergo, though I must say, the stroller is a handy way to carry the diaper bag.

sorry no update

I'll try to load some pictures later this week. I am slammed at work, and we will be out of town this weekend. Sorry I worried a few people!

More Photos

No real news here. Our basement is drying with the help of a dehumidifier that is sucking about 6 gallons of water per day from the air. Here are some photos of James being cute and getting into trouble. The tie-died outfit was a birthday present from Sandy (his nanny).