Some Good Progress

Like I mentioned in my last post, James has finally been figuring out his colors! He has been working on this for the last six months or so. Since he seems to pick up other concepts so quickly, we were actually beginning to wonder if he could be color blind!

Turns out it's just a hard thing to figure out. :)

Here's a pretty typical video of James and I talking about colors. He gets most of them right, but then, out of the blue (heh heh, blue...get it? colors? oh dear), he'll get one absolutely wrong. And it's not always the same color that he messes up on. One day it'll be yellow (like it was in this video), and other days it will be green or red or blue or whatever. Anyway, I think it's cute that he's figuring it out. Take a look:

Almost Two!

I can't believe my little James will be two years old in less than two weeks! I've been making a sincere effort to stop calling him baby lately (in an attempt to help him be more prepared when the new baby comes), and it's so hard! He's my baby!

Whether I like it or not, though, my baby is starting to grow up already! He amazes me every day with the things he understands and the things he is capable of. For example, today he took a bag of cheerios from the diaper bag and deliberately dumped them out on the kitchen floor. This, of course, earned him a time out. The problem is he has recently figured out that the way to end a time out is to apologize. So today he almost immediately started saying "I'm sorry, Mommy!" once the time out started. I wasn't convinced he understood why he was being punished, so I said, "Why are you sorry, James?" He thought about it for a little bit and eventually said, "I dumped it out." I was so impressed!

These days he is speaking in sentences more and more and stringing together related ideas. He's finally starting to figure out his colors. He recognizes his friends at church and calls them by name. He loves going outside, playing with cars, blocks, and balls, and he's pretty darn good at wooden puzzles. He loves movies, except for the "scary" parts. Like I've mentioned before, he loves singing songs, and picks up new ones at nursery all the time. It's just incredible to watch him learn and grow!

Here's a video of James today attempting to count. He has counted from 1 to 10 for a long time now (always skipping six, for whatever reason), but I can never get a good video of it. This one is no exception. The camera just distracts him very easily. You can get the idea, though. He sure makes me smile!

Popcorn! Popcorn!

James loves to sing. When he's playing by himself he's always keeping up an ongoing conversation, and more often than not he sings to himself. ABC's, Jingle Bells, I Love You a Bushel and a Peck, and sometimes even songs that I have yet to identify which I'm sure he's learned from nursery.

He also picks up songs very quickly these days! I taught this one to him in one sitting a week ago. He especially loves the hand signs that go with it. His only problem is that if I don't help him along with the song he gets stuck in a perpetual loop that sounds something like this: "I looked out the window and what did I see? POPCORN! POPCORN! I looked out the window and what did I see? POPCORN! POPCORN!" And on and on like that. ;)

I helped him along for this video, so he didn't do as much singing as he usually does. Also, toward the end of the song he decided he was done and put up a little fight. I decided to post it anyway because it shows his personality a little bit, and his little disgruntled face is so cute!

Drumroll, please...

Yep! It's a GIRL! :) We are very excited, and I can't wait to start buying little girl clothes.

Here's a picture of me at 20 weeks:

And here are some adorable (well, they are if you ask me anyway ;) ) ultrasound pictures:

First, we have a classic profile shot:

Then, she tried to suck her thumb:

Here's her closeup:

Here's her cute little leg and foot:

And her nice long fingers (they must take after Paul's):


Everything is looking good and healthy! She's measuring right on schedule, and her little heart is beating away! She's an active little one...we got to see her moving all around on the screen. :)

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? ;)