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.