Monkey Boy

Yeah, so James likes to climb.

On the table.

Or anywhere, really.

A few times as of late he's made it almost all the way over the gate that we put in the doorway. And Monday night at Grandpa & Grandma's house, he climbed into the tub while wearing his fleecy footed pajamas (and then started crying loudly because he got wet).

Today when we got home from school, we had our usual "game" in the car. It goes like this: I unstrap him from his carseat and he climbs over to the opposite side of the seat from me. I close the door and walk around the back of the car to the other door. While I do that he climbs back over his seat to the first door. And then we just keep doing this over and over. And over. And over. Lately he's also climbed up by the rear window and down to the floorboard.

When he finally stopped playing the game (because I grabbed him and dragged him out of the car), we made it to the deck. Then he was running all over the place. Then HE CLIMBED UP THE DECK RAILING. He was about to stand on the banister thingy!

Excellent.

Zoo Boo!

So, last fall we joined our county zoo. It is quaint and small, near our house and has a train that James LOVES to ride. (Having grown up by one of the nation's top zoos, I'm a bit spoiled.) There's also a pretty fantastic playground in the same park. Anyway, we've enjoyed our membership and renewed it this year. In our membership packet we got information about Zoo Boo, and understood that tickets sell out fast. We weren't entirely sure what the festivities would include, but we figured all those ticket buyers couldn't be wrong, so we used our membership pre-sale advantage and got tix for the non-scary Saturday afternoon slot.

Note: the choices were Fri. or Sat. night from 6-9 (bath & bedtime) or Sat. from noon-3 (lunch & naptime).

Well, Saturday was rainy and yucky, so they postponed it until today. Yea! We got James fed and all dressed up (putting his mustache on was much easier today than it was for his school's party Thursday night-- having Daddy here to hold him down was key) and headed over. The tickets said, "Be prepared for long lines" and they weren't kidding.

Basically it is just one long line.

The line starts outside the zoo as you're waiting to get in, then you stay in line as you go past the various displays and treat stations (it is all roped off, so there's no real way to wander along; you have to follow the path). We bypassed the magician and storytelling because both were already underway when we got to the locations, and by the time we'd made it through the path once, we didn't want to go back. We're pretty sure that James was much happier to take a train ride (another line) than to go watch a magician or hear stories.

He was thrilled to ride the train, of course. Not sure what he thought about all the displays and costumes. When we were near a giant inflatable jack-o-lantern & cat, all he kept saying was, "Triangle! Triangle!"

He conked out in the short time it took to get home. He was so out of it that he stayed asleep as we brought him inside and took off the outer layers of clothes. He then slept until about 5 and woke up for dinner with a mustache.

A tired boy & his daddy.

Long Time, No Post

OK, ok, ok.
I know.
I'm waaayyyy overdue. The funny/lame thing is I get so annoyed when the blogs I follow don't get updated, and here it's been almost a month! Aack.

So here are some of our favorite Jamesisms:
1. "chi-chi" (cookie, but now he's saying cookie. boo.)
2. "happy pop" (popsicle)
3. "chos" (Cheerios. and that's a long o in chos)
4. "snowMAN" (the boy loves listening to "Frosty the Snowman." Yes, it is just October. He has a book that plays the melody, so we thought he'd enjoy hearing the CD. Boy, did he ever.)

5. the second syllable of every word gets emphasized-- snowMAN, playGROUND, digGER, brocCOLI, ice CREAM

6. "Shea. Benny. Benicio." (Shea & Benny/Benicio are two of his classmates; he says their names almost every morning when he wakes up. Oh, and today when I picked him up, he shouted, "Cali! More, more, Cali!")

7. Nodding cutely and emphatically to say yes.

8. Putting his arms up to his chest (in a sort of huggy way) when anyone says/sings "love." For instance, when he hears, "...and how the reindeer loved him..."

9. Picking up a phone or remote, holding it to his ear and saying, "Hello, Nana."

10. Reading books to us.