Sentences

James speaks in sentences now. Subjects. Verbs. Conjunctions.

His use of pronouns is still developing. We get funny things like, "He put that book on the rocking chair," or "You all done!" when he's talking about himself. Then there's things like "Sit in my lap in that rocking chair," when he wants to sit on Mommy's lap. But sometimes he gets it right. It's a work in progress.

Tonight the cutest thing came out of his mouth: "Get out my way and dance!" He wanted Dan to stop cooking and resume dancing with him in the kitchen. A.dor.a.ble.

I know I need to put more pictures up. In fact, I need to take some! :-)

Football Sunday

For the last few Sundays, we've been watching the playoffs with Grandpa and Grandma. James has "learned" the Jets cheer, so I'm bummed they didn't make it to the Superbowl. He says, "A-B-C! Jets! Jets! Jets!"

For those of you who don't know, it really goes, "J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!"

James did his cheer in the middle of the night last night and as he was going to sleep tonight. Bless him.

Just a Note

I just want to say that it's crazy how much I love James. And that I cannot believe how big he's getting. He's getting thicker (in a healthy way) and more grown up looking.

That is all.

Hard Headed

Luckily it seems James has a tough skull because the boy's been having some tough times. Of course there are the everyday glances from doors, walls, doorjambs, tables, and chairs as he races through the house.

But then there are the big hits-- yesterday at church he decided it was good fun to lean back when Daddy was holding him. He'd do these "hanging crunches" over and over. Then on one trip down he whacked his head against the pew in front of us. Everyone around us looked over wincing. James, oddly, was unfazed.

Then last night at dinner he decided, as he often does, that he wasn't very interested in actually eating. Ok, fine. Our new thing is that if he doesn't want to eat he doesn't have to, but he does need to sit nicely while we eat. Sometimes he then pushes his feet against the table, and we grab his chair and say, "No." Well, last night Grandpa and Grandma were here, and we were at the dining room table. Anyway, when he pushed off he succeeded in completely tipping backwards. Frightening! He was scared, but had no bumps or bruises, and recovered quickly. Crazy.

Interestingly, not long after the tip, Dan noticed something dark in the corner of James's eye. He was quite fearful that it was blood (from the fall), but no, thankfully it was not. So, what was it? It appeared to be a large bit of spice. Like oregano. From pasta sauce. No wonder he was screaming in pain! (As Dan said, forget the two pricey prescriptions-- he just needed a good whack to the head. Kidding, of course.)

In other news, James and I attended his buddy Isabella's birthday party on Saturday morning. Like James's party, it was a lovely playdate affair at her house. James remembered right where the playroom was with all the toys. And had a great time using the doll house as a parking garage. I heard such gems as, "The tractor is going up the stairs," and "The blue car is stuck by the window."

Of course, the kids were very cute sitting at the table in big chairs to

eat. Not surprisingly, James would not stay in his seat, so

Isabella's parents graciously leant Isabella's booster chair so that James would be strapped in. Then he didn't want the pizza. Cake, however, was another story. He went after his cupcake and sat quite nicely in the seat with no straps needed!

Two Year Stats

We went back to the doctor's office today for James's two year "well" visit even though he's still on the mend with the eye. In fact, today we got a new prescription for eye drops because she didn't think his eye looked good enough after two days of ointment (good thing I've got Cadillac insurance!).

So... here are the measurements:

He's supposedly 34.5 inches (I still don't put much stock in the way they measure this) long which puts him in the 63rd percentile! Woo-hoo.

James now weighs 26 pounds which puts him in the 30th percentile! I think that's an all time high for him.

His BMI is 15 which she said is good for his age.

They didn't do a head circumference measurement.

Now we can switch to 2% milk, so I think we can all drink from the same bottle now. And he can start eating nuts and shellfish, although in small portions to begin with, just to be safe.

It is worth mentioning that James was none too happy to actually be there today. The first strike was that he had to be woken from a great nap in order for me to get him to the appointment in time, so he was cranky. Then I pulled into the doctor's office lot, and he got so upset. I think Tuesday's eye exam was still a fresh memory, because he was very anxious especially when the nurses and doctor came in. The nurse asked him if he wanted to go outside in order to get him to walk down to the scale. He was so happy! "Yeah!" he said running down the hall to the door. He got pretty angry when he wasn't allowed out the door and was instead asked to step onto the scale. I had to hold him and step on, then get weighed by myself, so his weight was determined mathematically.

Anyway, he calmed down a bit after that, but got riled up again when the doctor came in. However, as soon as his shot was finished (Hep B), he was soooo happy-- all smiles, Chatty McChatterson. Come on.

So, there you have it.

We did the eye drops tonight. (A big thanks to James's teacher, who is also the nurse at his daycare, who taught us a good technique for restraining him for the application.)

I spy with my little eye, something that is....

...pink and swollen.

No, it is not conjunctivitis (a.k.a. pink eye). It is a dreaded case of pasta sauce in the eye. Last night at dinner, James was going after his penne. Fork in one hand, pasta in the other (he was using both the fork and the hand to eat). The non-fork side of his face was VERY saucy. I tried to clean it off. So did he. With his saucy hand.

Suddenly, he started screaming. Cried in agony (it was awful) for 45 minutes. Wouldn't open his eye. We were flushing it with water and saline. It was heartbreaking to hear him cry like that and just wince in his little eye.

He finally fell asleep, and we thought it was all over.

This morning it was puffy. We weren't sure if it was just from the crying (as my eye would be if I'd cried that much) or not.

It didn't seem to be getting better as the day progressed, so Dan picked him up early and took him to the dr. I met them there (when the appointment was actually over).

They examined his eye and didn't see any scratches (yea!), but gave him an antibiotic ointment. This is his FIRST medication other than Tylenol for fevers (go breastmilk!). It should come as no surprise that the application was not welcomed with opened arms. More like pinned down arms. But then he didn't even try to rub it off/out. He just settled in for stories and bed.

I really, really hope it clears up quickly and there's nothing really wrong.

What a Great Break!

Well, the past week and a half have been wonderful. Like old times. James and I taking on the world together. But tomorrow it's back to school for us both. Hopefully all will go well. I think it will be really tough for both of us. (Plus it's a gym day for Dan, so that means I'm dropping James off in the morning.... I'm tearing up just thinking about it, darnit.)

So, sigh, let me wipe away the tears and recount our fun times:

Wed., Dec. 23rd-- Vacation begins after school. We hit the mall for shopping and Santa spotting.

Thurs., Dec. 24th-- Shopping, Maywood Santa, Church, Dinner, Visiting our neighbors, cookie fiasco.

Fri., Dec. 25th-- Christmas!

Sat., Dec. 26th-- Skype with Ali, P & Peg, Shopping, Party at the Whitakers' where James had SO much fun playing with all the toys in the basement and following the bigger kids up and down the stairs

Sun., Dec. 27th-- church (James noted the lambs and Mary & Joseph in the stained glass)

Mon., Dec. 28th-- a big day in the city with Mommy's friend Anna-- we saw the tree (in the days following he'd mention the "really big famous Christmas tree") and the windows at Saks, went to a fancy baby store, had lunch, walked through Central Park, went into a cute little knitting shop, got drinks at Starbucks, walked through Times Square, and went to Bryant Park. James was a champ all day! He rode in the stroller without much complaint (thankfully I had the Maclaren and could use the weather tent to keep him a bit warmer), enjoyed running around the baby store, walked down the sidewalk holding Mommy's hand on the way to lunch, and really enjoyed Anna's company! He talked about her the next few days. What a sweetie! I wish we'd taken more trips to the city...

Tues., Dec. 29th-- Our playdate got cancelled, so we did a little shopping in the morning then visited Daddy at work. Everyone in his office was so impressed at how big James had gotten. James loved running all around the maze of cubicles. Loved. It. We had a nice lunch together, then James took a decent nap at home (though it took him quite a while to wind down). That night Grandpa and Grandma came over and Dan & I went to see Sherlock Holmes. Fun!

Wed., Dec. 30th-- James had his official two year old picture appointment. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the picture studio right by the carousel in the mall was foolish. Foolish. I let James take a ride before his appointment. He was sad when it ended, but recovered. He seemed excited for his photo session until it actually began. Then he kept running out saying "No Way!" And by running out, I mean running out of the room AND of the photo place into the mall itself. I was stripped down to a short-sleeved shirt and still sweating. Amazingly, there were some fabulous portraits taken! I rewarded James (I mean myself) with lunch in the food court where James proceeded to pour milk all over himself. Oh well. Back home for naptime (I think I may have treated myself to a quick nap that afternoon as well!) in jammies while the milky clothes went to the laundry.

Thurs., Dec. 31st-- New Year's Eve

Fri., Jan. 1st-- New Year's Day

Sat., Jan. 2nd-- James helped Mommy make pancakes while Daddy slept in. Then we ran some errands and went to lunch at Kinchley's (where James refused to eat anything but raisins).

Sun. Jan. 3rd-- James helped Daddy make waffles for breakfast. Daddy used the new hand mixer he got from Santa. After breakfast, he took the motor and cord out of the old one, so it is now James's. James announced, "A! Little! Tiny! Mixer! for! James!" We spent the day playing with toys and getting ready for the week.

Happy New Year!

Yesterday morning James and I headed over to Cora's for her second annual New Year's Eve playdate and countdown to noon. Only four kiddos were able to be there, but they lived it up! Pretty snow had fallen that morning, but not enough to re-create our snow romp from the year prior. However, James did repeat his photo dodging antics from 2008. Alas. We did manage to get him in a few shots. Yea! A great way to kick off the new year with good friends-- friends of James and friends of mine :-)

That afternoon Dan came home and baked a lovely apple pie (whose top was pricked with 2010), then we headed off to Nick's for a lil' fun. James had a MARVELOUS time running around with Jolie and Sophie as well as testing out the Rock Band drum kit. In fact, he fell asleep saying "play drums.... play drums...." We adults enjoyed doing just that, rocking out to Beatles tunes (Dan & Jenn on vocals, Nick on guitar, Matt on drums, me on bass) for the last hour of the decade. Then up from the basement to watch the ball drop on tv. Around 1:30 we transferred James from the pack-n-play to the car and made the short drive to Grandpa & Grandma's house for what turned out to be a short sleep.

James was, apparently, eager to begin 2010, and woke up at 5:00. Dan was a dear, and took James out at 6:30 to give me an extra hour of sleep. Hooray! And thank you! After some delicious coffee, I headed out for a lovely run among the fresh snow in town.

After cleaning up, we headed home briefly to pick up the aforementioned pie, then off to Matt & Nancy's for their annual New Year's Day gathering. James was thrilled to see Jolie & Sophia again. He had a great time with Jack & Ava as well who were such gracious hosts. Jack even let James wear his Thomas costume! The highlight of the day, I think, was when Daddy played pirates with the children. James loved yelling "Argh!" and running around the house.

It was so wonderful to ring in the new year with so many great friends. Here's to a wonderful 2010!