A day in the life

I kept James yesterday so that Claire could work in Dixie's shop.
He was in rare form.

Last week James found some plastic animals in the toy box.  I thought he was too young to play with them, but he has really enjoyed the giraffes and the baby lion.  I call the baby lion 'simba.'  He plays with it a lot but he doesn't call it anything.  I was hoping to teach him some Swahili words for animals at least.  Maybe it'll catch on.

He started taking pictures with my camera.  I HOPE you can tell the difference, but maybe he's a genius photographer and I'll just have to live with it.

Gigi and James, what a pair!

New stats

James' 18 month check up was about a month ago, but I forgot to update you guys.  So, here we go:

Weight: 21 lbs 1 oz (below 5th %)
Length: 29 in (below 5th %)
Head: 19 in (25th %)

Doc was a little worried about his not gaining weight, but what can you expect from a kid that doesn't like to eat?  We're supplementing with some Carnation instant breakfast in his milk to give him some extra calories and stuff. 

Dr. Amy sent us to the eye doctor because she thought he had a lazy eye.  My first thought was, "Dang it, another specialist!"  Gigi and I took him to Austin to the Pedi eye doc.  Everything is fine.  His eye is a little weird, but there's nothing wrong with it.  It looks slightly different (most people will never see it), but it won't affect his sight. 

Every day is a challenge getting him to eat, but we're still working on that. 

He is so smart and talks all the time.  He comes up with new words every day it seems.  His favorite words are Mommy, puppy, and of course Bapplejuice.  He woke me up this morning saying, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy..."  That's the best wake up call ever! 

Duck Duck Goose!

On Wednesday, James and I went to La Grange to keep the girls I babysit.  At the church they were having Wacky Wednesday which was 2 hours of running around playing games.  We played duck duck goose, some German games, did a craft and had a snack.  It was a lot of fun and good to get the kids out of the house for a little bit.  Mostly James just stood there and watched in amazement.  When it was our turn to run around the duck duck goose circle, he laughed his head off.  At the end, he decided he wanted to do it by himself.  He started patting people's heads saying quack...quack...quack... then he took off running until someone caught him.  The look on his face was one of sheer enjoyment.  We need opportunities like that more often. 

Current Words

Our boy is very talkative.  He's quiet when we first walk into a room, but when he gets comfortable he talks constantly.  Mostly things I don't understand or a string of Dadadadadadaddadaadadadadadada.  But I'm beginning to understand some of what he says.  Here is a list of words he uses often:

mama, dada, kitty, dog, car, gone (all gone), Hey!, get it (or for Grandpa, GETIT!), go, that, juice (has become apjuice lately), tickle (pronounced tika-tika-tika), quack, moo (yes, animal sounds count)

He learns new words every day.  He has made a cat, owl, and dog sound, but doesn't do them very regularly.  Today he said Heidi very clearly to the shear joy of Heidi (the children's minister at church).  He says Gigi for me, but hasn't said it to her yet.  There are other words he will say occasionally when prompted, but not enough to count them. 

He also signs sometimes.  His most common ones are milk, more, and all done/gone.  He's learning eat and diaper. 

All in all, communicating very well. 

That boy!

He is such a boy.

February is a month of many celebrations for the Wall family.
Valentine's Day; Matt's Birthday; Claire's Birthday.

So ....  Monday night was a sleep over (we slept part of the night) for James at Mimi & Papa/ Gigi & Grandpa's house.
That boy remembers when he comes to Mimi's house that she has blueberry muffins on the counter.  So, what does she do?  She makes sure when he is coming that she has some!
He does enjoy them!  [picture 2]

That boy also likes Mimi's cats.  Of course Mister is the only one that tolerates children.  But James was patient and waited for a few opportune moments when he could sit near him.  He doesn't even touch him every time.  He just wants to be next to the cat.

Grandpa was working in the carport on some Shabby Chic projects, so we would go out to check on him.  The first time we went out after Mom and Dad left, he wandered about and found Mimi's Goose family in the yard.  I told him they were ducks and they say, "Quack, quack, quack."  He thought this quite humorous.  So, we sat near the 'ducks' and talked about them and looked at them.  Later on he was laying on my bed and saw Grandpa's humongous rubber duck on the top of the chest.  I took it down for him and said, "This is Grandpa's Duck.  It says, 'quack, quack, quack.'"  He said, "Kack, Kack, Kack."  Well, everyone knows that ducks waddle.  When I get him to say 'kack, kack, kack' for his mother, he wobbles back and forth.  Um, I guess when I was teaching him that, I waddled like a duck?  Funny Gigi.

That boy is not in to trying new foods.  Mimi gave him a couple of blueberries.  He mashed one, then picked the other up and squeezed til he broke the skin and he tried it!  He eventually got it into his mouth and sucked all the juice out.  Not a bad trial!  [picture 1]

Poor Claire.  When it was time to go home, that boy would reach for Daddy from Gigi.  But he wouldn't have anything to do with his Mama.  Why do children punish their Moms for abandonment?  Ask Amy, Claire, when we took Lauren home after keeping her a few days for them, she went to her Dad.  Not her Mom.

But they get over it after Mom returns.

A night with Gigi and Grandpa

Rick and I babysat James last night.  We kept him at his house and he seemed to have a great time. 

Gigi brought dinner, which he loved.
Fish sticks and tater tots.

Of course, it was his house, so he was 'well versed' and kept us informed of how things should be. 
'There's a curtain rod in the big chair, and it shouldn't be there!'  (Grandpa removed it.)
'I like those DVD cases but I can't play with them (shaking his head 'no').'
'Do you see the picture of Mama, Daddy and Me up there?'
[If you haven't heard him talk, you really should see one of the videos on Picasa of James playing Wii or with his birthday cake.]

Let's play!

He brought out all of his balls and threw them and played 'hit the ball with the stick' with a paper towel roll.
We read Baby Kangaroo at least a dozen times.
He showed me how to put his books on the shelf with Mama's books.
He jumped on his lion and wrestled him several times.  James won every time!
We played peek-a-boo with his Cookie Monster towel.
He stood up in his green chair and drank his milk.
We played with his John Deere tractor, of course,
And the Playskool Busy Gears.  (Did you know that the gears from Playskool Push-Pull Activity Gears also fit?  So fun! and educational for Gigi.)
He finally sat down with me to read Daniel in the Lion's Den, to the end.

When I asked if he was ready for his Night-Night Lamb, he ran to his room and showed me it was in his bed.
We got his lamb, sat in the rocking chair with Is Your Mama a Llama?, which was the wrong book....
... so he showed me the Two-Minute Stories book; we read about a doll, who I think he knows!
We cuddled with his lamb and the blue blankie.
I turned on his music, put him in his bed and he talked to his lamb for about 20 minutes, then was OUT!

Looks like a success.  Hope the next one turns out as well.  It's a sleep over!

dangit

I missed another month of pictures.  oops.  I'm posting pictures from January and some more holiday pics as I type.  Also check the holidays 2010 folder for Texas snow!!  I know it's not really from the holidays, but I didn't have anywhere else to put it.  Matt and I also got a new camera for our birthdays, so if you pay attention to the camera information on each picture, you'll notice a difference. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/matt.claire.wall