Look Who's Two!

Yep! We officially have a two year old in the house!

James' birthday was tons of fun. :) He could tell it was a special day because people kept calling him throughout the day and singing to him. His face would just light up every time! Thanks to everyone that called to say Happy Birthday!

So, here's how it all went down...

As the preparations for his little party (just us and a couple friends) got underway, James showed us that maybe we didn't need to get him so many presents after all. The box they came in was plenty of fun!

When we brought the stack of presents out, though, James quickly left the box behind. He was SO excited to open them! Opening presents is one of James' favorite things to do.

We made him wait until after cake and ice cream. We're so mean. ;)

This year, we decided to do cupcakes! Baseball cupcakes, to be exact. :) I should have been a little more patient with the red frosting, because they turned out a little wonky, but hey, he's only two right? He thought they were awesome.

We sang to him, he blew out his candle (all by himself!), and before we could even get a bib on him, James was chowing down on his cupcake.

And Paul thought he wouldn't make a big mess...ha ha.

After the cake and ice cream, we finally let James attack his stack of presents. Boy, did he have a blast!

*Disclaimer: I'm sorry the videos are so dark! Apparently we need more light in our living room!

After each present he wanted to stop and play with it, so we had to keep coaxing him to pick another one.

He got the hang of it after a while...

We did let him get in a few swings on his new tee in the middle of the festivities, though:

Overall, he loved pretty much every single thing he got...right down to the potty seat and Lightning McQueen bathroom stool. Thank you so much for all the gifts Grandma and Grandpa Peterson and Grandma and Grandpa Hansen! :) And thank you Diana and Jeff and Adam and Claudia! We feel very spoiled and loved.

The very last thing James opened was a birthday card from his Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Larson. And as all of us grandkids know, these cards usually come with a special treat...five dollars! We laid them out for James to count. He made a good effort (at least he's not skipping six anymore). ;) Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Larson!

Here's James with his giant haul of presents. He was so distracted by them that we couldn't even get a good smile.

We did convince him to tell/show us how old he is, though:

Happy birthday to our little James! I can't believe you are already two!

There are more fun pictures and videos in our photo album! Here's a link to the album: James' 2nd Birthday.

Another song??

Yes, it's another song! This one is special, though, because it's the first time James sang through a whole song on video without having me prompt him at all! Granted, it's a short and repetitive song, but still. I was pretty proud of him. :)

For a second I thought he was going to get caught in a loop, but he eventually got unstuck and finished the song.

I'm pretty sure they sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in nursery because James has been singing it for a while now, but he got much more enthusiastic about it (and the hand motions) after he started nursery.

He sure loves nursery!

Further proof...

...that James is his mother's son.

This morning for breakfast, James had a whole bowl of oatmeal and a whole piece of toast, but he was still asking for more to eat. I knew there was no way he'd really eat much more, so I cut up two strawberries for him.

Sure enough, I looked over at him in his high chair a few minutes later, and he was not eating his strawberries. Instead, this is what he had done:

He was pretty proud of himself, too. :)

Ha ha...what a cheesy grin!

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. :)