A Candid Shot

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture (all I had on me was my phone), but it is too cute not to share. James held Claire's hand in the car the whole ride to our visiting teaching appointment today. :) He's a smooth operator!

I love the looks on their faces. Claudia was right when she said it looks like they're thinking, "Oh no! They can see us!"

So, so cute! :)

Gotta Love that Laugh!

Like most families, we have a bedtime routine with James each night. Paul takes him to his room to change his diaper and get his pajamas on. I fill his sippy cup and bring it in to him. We have family prayer. One of us reads a bedtime story, and one or both of us sing a song while James lays down. When we finish the song, James gives us his sippy cup and we say our "goodnights".

That's the ideal anyway.

Some nights we get a little bit distracted, and something like this happens:

Silly parents, getting him all riled up right before bed! :) I just love those laughs, though. I have no idea how Paul kept himself from laughing while he was filming!

It's starting...

Just 14 1/2 weeks, and I'm already showing!

What's up with that? ;)

The Tale of Paul's Facial Hair

So...

Many of you have noticed something a little peculiar about pictures of Paul lately. ;)

For the first time in his adult life, Paul made an attempt to grow some facial hair. I didn't think it was possible, but it turns out it is. Why did he decide to give it a try? Well, Paul's a good sport, right? He's pretty much always up for fun and/or silly endeavors. It's part of why I love him so much. (Aww!) So, of course, when Paul heard that his department at work likes to have a little facial hair growing party during the month of October every other year, he was totally game--a little unsure, but game.

It all started out a little dicey. Those of you that know Paul are aware that he is a little lacking in the facial hair department. It's the Asian in him. ;) It started to grow, but it was definitely sparse. A few weeks in, though, it started to fill in ever so slightly. Suddenly, Paul had an honest to goodness goatee! And yes, he was proud of his little goatee. :)

Here's the team on the last day of the challenge:

And here are some closeups:

Before the shaving begins, Paul is confident that he is hot stuff.

Shaving has commenced. No more 'stache!

Yes, you have a cute smile, Paul. But now it's time for the rest to go!

Paul mourns the loss of his beloved goatee.

All is well, though! He may have lost a goatee, but he has gained a happy wife! I'm so glad I have my husband's face back!

Halloween!

Check out our little baseball player!

Thanks for the wonderful costume, Grandma Hansen! :)

James loved Halloween. He loved showing off his costume at Paul's work and around the neighborhood. He loved knocking on doors and having people give him candy. And he loved being the center of attention. :)

He did not love the skeletons hanging on people's doors. ;) If a house had a skeleton on the door, James refused to knock on it. He'd turn to us and say, "Did it scare you?" with a worried expression on his face.

So, I got my H1N1 shot...

Normally, I'm not one to rush out and get flu shots. In fact, I've never gotten one before today. Why did I go for this one, you ask? Well, I happen to be in a "high risk" group these days. You know, the first category the CDC lists when they talk about who should get the vaccine.

Yep! I'm PREGNANT! :)

I'm almost 11 weeks along, and due on May 24, 2010. We're very excited to be adding to our family!

Pumpkin Patch!

Today a couple friends braved the cold with me and James and went to the pumpkin patch! I was kind of excited to see how James would like it, since he liked it so much when we went a year ago. Well, he LOVED it. He loved it so much that I couldn't get him to stop running around for more than a minute at a time. (Note to self: James is NOT ready for outings without strollers.)

Here's James with his friends Julia and Claire. We never did get a picture of all three kids together. I blame James for wandering off whenever we tried.

James was fascinated by the animals. They had some pigs, a bunny, and some goats, but his favorite was the pony. :) He kept pointing at it saying "horse! horse!"

He also loved the water. They had a little pond with a boat that took us from the main area of the farm out to the pumpkin patch. James had a very hard time waiting for the boat to come back and pick us up. A couple of times I'm pretty sure he would have just run right into the water if I hadn't stopped him! Once we got on the boat, though, he was so thrilled that he sat on my lap staring around us for the whole ride over to the pumpkins. :)

So, our next task was to pick out a pumpkin...

The task proved too hard for us as James was more interested in the train tracks, empty wheelbarrows, and mud to give the pumpkins a second look. As for me, I was too busy chasing after James!

Lucky for us, Abby was very kind and sought out the perfect pumpkin for us. We really wouldn't have been able to get one if she hadn't looked for us. Thanks, Abby!

Here's James, reluctantly posing with our pumpkin:

Somehow I had to get James and the pumpkin to the little train station for our ride back to the cars. Since trying to herd James is like trying to herd a group of scared ducks, this was no easy task. This was our solution:

Overall, it was a successful trip to the pumpkin patch! We only had one minor accident. James tripped while he was trying to step over the train tracks and got dirt all over his face and a couple of red welts that have all but faded now. You can see his battle wound in this last picture:

Fun times! Next time I won't forget to bring the stroller... ;)

Finally!

James has been singing this song for almost two months now, but I have not been able to get him to sing it for the camera. Finally, today, he kept singing it over and over, so I asked if he could sing it for the camera. And he did!

So, now that I've told many of you about this for weeks and weeks, here it is! James sings "Kami no ko desu" (or, "I am a Child of God" in Japanese):

Clothes are No Fun, Mom!

It all started yesterday morning when I went to get James from his crib. I opened the door, and he had completely taken off his shirt! I laughed and put it back on.

Then, later that afternoon, James was happily watching Aladdin in the living room. I turned to check on him, and he had stripped down to his diaper! No more shirt OR pants for him! Once again, I laughed and said, "James, where are your clothes?" He thought it was the funniest thing, but he brought me his clothes and let me put them back on. A few minutes later I glanced over at him, and once again, he was running around in just a diaper (thank goodness he left the diaper on!). I let him run around like that for a little while, but then got him dressed to run some errands. Luckily, that was the end of our clothing dramas for the day.

Then, last night we put James in a footed sleeper. Since there weren't two separate pieces, I hoped this would mean he would keep it on. Well...this is what greeted me when I went to get him this morning:

He managed to unzip his sleeper (but leave the snap at the top fastened) and get one leg out.

Yeah...who knows what's in store for us and our little nudist child. :)

Oh, and by the way, we've entered a new phase in picture taking with James. I say, "Smile!" and he says, "Cheeeeese!" with this fake smile plastered on his face. Yep. The Fake Smile phase. I was hoping he would be at least 3 years old before he started doing the Fake Smile. Oh well, maybe this way we'll be able to break the habit before he starts school and gets stuck with some embarrassing school portraits! ;)

Baseball Player in Training

Almost every day, when Paul gets home from work, James runs to the door and says, "Hi Daddy! Baseball game?" It's pretty cute, and Paul just loves it.

Paul enjoys training his little future baseball player every night in the basics.

First, we have hitting:

And of course you have to play catch:

He's got a short attention span (what 20 month old boy doesn't?), but he really does love to play baseball with his daddy. :)

Funny Story

Here's a funny James story for you. :)

So, James has really gotten into coloring lately. Just now, he found a little pink paper heart in the crayon box that has been there since Valentine's Day. He took it out and held it on his forehead and proclaimed, "Sticker! Sticker!" I said, "Nope, that's not a sticker." And James--not to be deterred--moved the heart up onto his head and said, "Hat! Hat!" :)

This little dude cracks me up.

ABC Redux

So, I tried to get James to sing "I am a Child of God" in Japanese for the camera, but he just won't! For some reason, he just doesn't want to sing it for the camera. He just whines and squirms and runs away from me. On the other hand, he'll sing the ABC's anytime these days. He's gotten a lot better at it since the last time I posted an ABC's video. Check it out:

(OK, OK, I know I need to get my act together and start writing some big posts about our summer adventures. I have no excuse. I just need to sit down and do it!)

James Gets his Groove on

I finally caught a bit of James dancing on video! He's been dancing for a long time now, but he likes to stop as soon as I bring out the camera.

Dancing in your PJs...it doesn't get much better than that! :)

He actually has quite the groove sometimes. It's hilarious.

I'm in the process of collecting pictures from the Peterson Family Oregon Reunion. We had such a fun time, and I'm excited to post pictures of our adventures. Stay tuned!

You are my Sunshine!

James has been surprising us daily with the words and phrases that he knows. Just yesterday, I took a piece of string away from him, and he held his hand out to me and said, clear as day, "Have it, please?" It was so cute! I hope he understood that even though he said please, I couldn't let him play with the string. Instead, I wadded it up into a ball, asked him if he could throw it away in the trash can, and gave it back to him. He walked straight over to the trash can and threw it away! He's getting to be such a big boy.

Today, as I was about to put James down for his nap, I decided to test him and see if he knows the words to the songs that we sing to him regularly. And he does! He started singing along with me right away. :)

After he woke up, I tried to catch it on video. He didn't do quite as well, but he still filled in some blanks.

He chose to put on that baseball hat himself. Funny boy! As you can tell from the video, he's really into stories right now. He asks for stories multiple times during the day, but mostly just after his nap and just before bed.

This is such a fun age!

Oh, and incidentally, I decided that I would also put together a post on last weekend's trip to Utah...and then I discovered that I took a grand total of two (very random) pictures the whole weekend. Oops! I'm just going to have to get some pictures from Paul's family. (Grace and Kristina, could you email me some pictures? :) )

Chatting with James

Here's a video of a typical lunch time for James. He's definitely improving with the spoon, though!

The video is on the long side, but at the end he actually said "I love you" (minus the consonants ;) ) instead of his usual monster growling "buh bye". How could I not share it? :)

ABCD...

Here is James as he tries to sing the ABCs. It is a valiant effort for an 18 month old! ;)

My favorite part is when he goes "dubadubaduba" instead of "LMNO". Such a funny boy! :)

Thank you, craigslist!

Last week, we were able to say goodbye to our teeny tiny little round dining table thanks to some wonderful finds on craigslist!

Here is our new table and chairs:


It's nice and big, and it even has a built-in leaf so that it can expand out to a square and seat eight people! It makes us feel all grown up. :)

Then, we also bought these stools for our little bar:


Now, we're all ready to host Paul's family at the end of the month! I wasn't looking forward to having to do every meal buffet-style when they are here. Now, everyone will have a seat! :)

What should we have for dinner, James?

Last Friday, I didn't have a dinner planned, and I really didn't have the ingredients to throw something together. I asked James what we should have, and he sure told me! He also showed me how to bless the food. :)

Anyway, I thought his idea was perfect! So we ordered some right away. :)

Eighteen Wonderful Months

James has reached a milestone. He is 18 months old. As members of the LDS church, this means one especially important thing: he's old enough for nursery. Woo hoo! In the last few months, the three hours of church was getting rather difficult for James. He wanted to play! Now, we just have to keep him subdued for the first hour of church. Then, we drop him off at nursery for two gloriously free hours where he plays happily with the other children (and has a snack, singing time, and lesson time!), and Paul and I can BOTH listen to Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society! Yep, it is a truly glorious thing. (It was especially glorious yesterday, since both Paul and I were teaching lessons during the third hour.)

Yesterday, when it came time for us to drop him off for the first time, Paul and I (in true first-time-parent form) both took him to the nursery. We tried to make a big deal out of it (say good-bye, give him hugs, show him around), but he would have none of it! As soon as we set him down he was off, without so much as a glance back at us. He had a wonderful time! James was made to be in nursery, and nursery was made for James.


We had his 18 month check up this morning, and the doctor (who just loves James :) ) was pleased with his development.

Here are his latest measurements:

Height: 31 3/4 inches (33rd percentile)
Weight: 23 pounds (13th percentile)
Head size: 48 1/3 centimeters (70th percentile)

Still short and small with a big head, but I think maybe the numbers are starting to even out. His height and weight percentiles are higher this time, and his head size percentile is lower.


At this appointment, I had to fill out a developmental worksheet for James so they can track his progress and make sure nothing stands out as problematic. I had to laugh to myself when I got to the language section of the worksheet and it said, "Child knows 8 or more words and uses them in context regularly." (The possible responses were yes, sometimes, and not yet.) I've certainly got a talker on my hands!

As promised, I've made a list for this post of all the words James knows so far. I limited the list to words that he consistently uses in the correct context without prompting from me or Paul. It's a good thing I did this now, because I think he is very close to having an explosion in word development and soon we will not be able to keep track of all the words he knows. As it is, I have probably accidentally left a few out of this list.

THE LIST:

Foods: milk, juice, water, cracker, cookie, apple, applesauce, yogurt, peas, raisins, Kix, banana ("nana"), strawberry (comes out more like "bah-bey"), french fries ("feh fie"), pizza, spoon ("poon")

Toys: toys, ball, baseball, bat, hat, car, truck, Elmo

Miscellaneous nouns: door, button, prayer, book, fan, tree, sun

People: Mommy, Daddy, baby, Becca, Michael, Jesus

Animals: cat, doggie ("goggie"), horse, pig

Body: head, eyes, ears, nose, toes, belly button (sounds like "bey bun"), shoes, socks, shirt, pants, diaper ("bopper")

Action words/Phrases/Other: hi, hello ("heh-oh!"), bye bye, night night, yes, yeah, no, nope, uh oh, eww, oww, yucky, up, down, open, closed, walk, all done, all gone, what's that, alright!, more, go, mine, please, thank you ("dit-doo"), you're welcome ("mah melcome!"), Amen, nice nice, yabadabadoo! (a la Fred Flinstone...comes out "dub dub dooowwwww!"), where go? (while hiding his face...translation: Where did I go?), there is! (translation: There he is!), two, three ("tree"), four, five (he still doesn't say one, though :) )*

*Clarification on the numbers: James doesn't yet actually understand how to count things, but he pretends to count things. I say "one" and he touches things (toys, blocks, pictures in a book, etc) and says "two, three, four, five!" as he points to them.

Yep, I'd say he knows "8 or more" words!


In the last few weeks James has started putting together two word phrases from time to time (such as "more raisins", "daddy home?", and "go bye bye!"). It's truly incredible to watch James as he learns. I feel so blessed to have him in my life. He brings me and Paul so much joy! Sure, he also seems to be mastering The Tantrum lately as well, but the good and fun things far outweigh the bad.



We love you, James!


The end! Get it? Ha ha ha ha...ha ha...ha....I crack myself up. Oh dear.

Up and Down!

Are you all tired of seeing video clips of James, yet? Wait...don't answer that. ;) Here's yet another funny one from this morning. James seems to have figured out the concept of 'up' and 'down'. He did this on his own the first time, with no encouragement from me.

Also, he has finally started saying "I love you" from time to time, but as you can see from this video, he definitely wouldn't say it today! He had only one response for me...and it sure is a favorite for him. *sigh*

Katie's Blessing

When we were in Utah at the beginning of June to see little Michael, we were also able to spend some time with my family and go to Katie's blessing. It was so fun that the two events coincided! Katie has grown so much! And of course these pictures are already outdated. These days, she's laughing and rolling over and pretending to be a big girl!

Here are a few pictures from the blessing and time with my family:

James and Becca love their aunt Jamie!


She's lots of fun to play with. :)


In the midst of the fun, James and I found time to catch up on our correspondence. ;)


Ha ha, just kidding. I really couldn't pass up posting that picture.

And here's the star of the show and her beautiful family!



Oh, and James looked pretty snazzy in his Sunday clothes, too (even though Daddy let him get watermelon juice all over them ;) ).


Thanks for letting us stay with you guys, Paula and Brian! I'm sorry James ended up sharing that cold with Becca. :( We love to come visit you!

It's so hard to be far away from family sometimes. I don't like to think about all I'm missing of the beginning of little Katie and little Michael's lives! I wish I could just pop in and visit all the time. Thank goodness for technology that helps us feel connected.

Never too early to start!

I have a feeling those of you who know me well will get a kick out of this video. :)

(I apologize for the noise of the air conditioner in the background...that was a silly place to take a video. Sometimes I just have to get out the camera and film wherever James happens to be at the time.)

He's a boy after my own heart! He seems to especially like the leading tone. What a hoot!

Raisins!

I am working on a list of words that James knows in honor of him being 18 months old this Saturday. It is proving to be a difficult task! He learns new words practically every day, and sometimes he says them out of the blue with no prompting from me or Paul. I'll post the list along with the stats from his 18-month check up next week.

Here's a little video I just took while James was eating lunch. "Raisins" is one of my favorite words to hear him say. It's just so cute. :)

He babbles all the time now, even more than before. He's always singing and chatting away! And he answers questions, too! It's so fun. Most of the time his answers are unintelligible, but when I ask him simple questions (like "Do you want more milk?" or "What do you want to eat for lunch?") he answers me. It's very exciting.

Speaking of asking him what he wants to eat for lunch, his most common answer to that question is, "Raisins!" :)

Michael Sekijiro

One of my favorite trips of this summer so far has been our last minute surprise trip to Utah to see Kristina and Jonathan and their new baby, Michael. We weren't originally planning on going there when the baby was born. In an attempt to save some money, we were planning on visiting only for the baby blessing later on in the summer. It was a good and sensible plan...

But then, June 1 came along, and we got the much anticipated phone call that the baby was on it's way. All our finely laid out plans were tossed out the window. Paul and I were dying to jump on a plane that very minute. Paul felt very strongly that he wanted to be there for his sister. So our plans changed! :) We bought plane tickets for early (EARLY) Saturday morning. And the best part was, the only person in Paul's family that knew we were coming was Jonathan. It was awesome.

It was so much fun to surprise Paul's family. And the last minute trip was well worth it! See for yourself:


Awww! Isn't he adorable?!

Here we are meeting our new nephew (can you tell from Paul's face that we woke up at 3:30am that morning? ;) ) :



Grandma Grace and Grandpa John couldn't be more excited to have a new grandson. :)




And they were also thrilled to have some unexpected time with their first grandson, too!



James thought his new cousin was pretty dang cool. He even learned how to say his name already! Here are the two handsome boys (little Michael makes James look like a giant!):



And here's the whole family! :) Can you believe how tall Steven has gotten?


Even though we just got home from Utah again on Sunday, we sure miss you all. Most especially, we miss this little guy:


Can't wait to see you again in a few weeks!