Faster! Higher! Stronger!

Can't believe I failed to mention this in my last (Olympic) post--

On the first full day of the Olympics, when Dan made awesome Olympic pancakes for breakfast, he had the Salt Lake 2002 CD playing on the stereo. When I came in from my run, "Citius, Altius, Fortius" was playing, and Dan was asking James, "Are you the fastest? Are you the highest? Are you the strongest?"

Well, in these two weeks, James has been saying, "You are the strongest. You are the fastest," or other combinations every so often. He'll often make up new ones. At dinner tonight he said, "You are the eatingest." I just heard him say, "You are the bravest," from his crib.

Olympic Feats

James has gotten a lot more television time in the last two weeks, mostly of the Olympic variety. I have yet to get his luging on "film" or video, but many morning when he wakes up, I hear him saying, "James goes fast on the sled." I can just picture him laying on his back in luge position.

Ski jumping is his real go-to favorite. He'll just throw his arms behind him and say, "You are a ski jumper, James." He did go through this inexplicable phase during which he'd go into ski jumping pose, and either Dan or I would say, "Are you a ski jumper?" and he'd come running to us, arms raised, saying "Hug." Maybe he had a fear of crashing? Not sure. He has, over the weekend, snapped out of this huggy phase, it seems. Here's some video footage from last week.

I was watching some figure skating yesterday, and James tried to imitate the spiral position of Marai Nagasu. It was really cute seeing him sticking that lil' toddler leg out behind himself, grunting with effort.

Yesterday was James's first swim lesson of the year. Wow, what a difference a year makes-- he was SO into jumping off the pool deck into the water. He was keeping his Daddy on his toes; Dan was worried James would jump in before he was ready to catch him or that he'd catch himself on the side of the pool. Luckily he seemed to do alright. He really loves jumping lately-- it is his new favorite way to go down stairs-- jumping instead of walking/stepping. We're trying to tell him that he needs to step not jump...

Good Times

Well, we're already mid-way through this week. Boo!

For reasons as yet unknown, James decided to have a "party" from about 12:30 AM (which was just as I was nodding off after watching the Olympics) until almost 4:00 this morning when he and I finally fell asleep on the couch. And then he woke up at 10 'til 7. Nice. I tried to keep sleeping while he got down and started playing with his train. However, he put his teachers' antics to work-- removing my blankets. This is what they do to him and his classmates if they are still sleeping at 4:15 when the lights have been turned back on in the classroom (and their awake classmates are back in the classroom playing around their sleeping bodies). I finally got the hint and got up.

Once I had breakfast I felt remarkably good. Dan headed off for a day of poker in AC, and James and I enjoyed a lovely playdate with his buddies. We even got to meet the first younger sibling of the group, Baby Joseph! It is the first time, I think, that James has been around a tiny baby (Joseph is a month old)-- he was so sweet and in awe. Fun :-) It was great to relax with the moms and watch the kids play together. After the little ones had lunch, we all headed home for naps.

I was really proud, by the bye, of how well James behaved at today's playdate. Especially given the wild night last night. He sat down nicely to take off his boots, played nicely, shared toys, ate at the table in a big chair (didn't have to be strapped in! yea!), helped clean up (a little bit), and then sat down nicely to put his boots and jacket on. Of course the best part was when he and his friends all hugged goodbye at the end. THEY ARE SO SWEET YOU COULD JUST EAT THEM UP!

Sadly, the nap at home wasn't very long. Just about an hour and 15 minutes or so. I slept as well and was so sad to have to wake up so soon.

After a little bit of playing train (of course), we headed downtown to drop off dry cleaning and pick up some groceries at the market. James was so good! He held my hand and walked along the sidewalk and through the store. I was very, very happy! Then it was home for a bit of playtime, dinner and bath.

Not a super exciting day, I know. But it was lovely.

No More Nuk?!?

So, this afternoon James definitely started saying "milk" instead of "nuk." He did it a few times while we were in line at Whole Foods. Then on our way home Dan and I got really sad because James was sitting in the back saying, "mee-lll-k" over and over. Like he was practicing. Like he was thinking to himself, "I'm too old to say 'nuk,' I need to get this right."

Dan looked over at me, and I really did break into tears. Our little guy is growing up.

In somewhat related news, James's verbal skills have advanced enough that we can ask him what happened, and he'll tell us. He does pretty well answering questions. He told Grandma what he'd had for lunch and he told Daddy why he was crying.

Mr. Memory

So, last week James broke out in a spirited rendition of "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" complete with his classmates' names. We had fun singing it during our snowday, and I mentioned it to his teachers when I dropped him off Thursday morning. Well, they were stunned because they've only sung it once!

This morning at breakfast James was suddenly reciting, word for word, excerpts from Auntie Claus, which we haven't read in a while (though it was in heavy rotation during the holiday season).

Some of his other recent favorite songs to sing are "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

In other news, Dan gave James a haircut yesterday. We decided that in several months, when he needs his next trim, we'll go to the professionals.

Olympic Dreamer

So James's television intake will increase substantially this week. We're home from school (thank you Presidents Lincoln and Washington) and the Olympics are on, so....

Today there was (thankfully accident-free) luge on, and James loved it! "He goes fast on the sled." And then, "Watch the people go down fast on the sled."

He would then lie down flat on his back on the floor, tipping his head up to see the tv, the same way the lugers tip their head up to see the track.

My apologies that I didn't get a photo.

He really loved this, and wanted to do it all afternoon.

Snowy Playdate

After Wednesday's big snow, James and I both had delayed openings at school on Thursday which afforded us more quality time at home in the morning. Fun. That afternoon we headed over to Cora's for a fun time in the snow with James's buddies Cora, Isabella and Chase.

We had a stomp a path up the hill for the kiddos because the snow was so deep. James, of course, loved climbing up and down "the mountain" and didn't care about the sleds too much. He had a few fast, fun rides, but was just as content being an arctic explorer. Which was fine because that allowed the others to get more turns :-)

Blizzard of 2010

Last weekend our trip to visit Auntie Ali and Uncle Preston was cancelled due to the fact that DC got buried in snow. Today they got even more snow, and this time so did we. Dan just came in from a 3-hour shoveling marathon. And it was the third time he's shoveled today! The snow fell steadily and heavily all day long.

James and I were both home from school (Snow Day!) and as Dan was finishing his first shoveling tour this morning, we headed out to the winter wonderland. James kept quoting The Snowy Day, "The snow plopped on Peter's head." He stomped all over the yard and kept jumping up and plopping himself in the snow. He tried to make a snow angel a few times. I tried to make a snowman a few times (but James kept destroying them).

When Dan finished shoveling, we got the sled out and went for a walk. James loved riding along then rolling off into the snow. It was like watching someone jump out of a moving car. Funny.

He did not want to come inside. We talked up the hot chocolate which finally got him headed home. However, even though he'd been chanting, "Hot chocolate!" he wasn't actually a fan when he drank it. Oh well... maybe next time.

Photo note: these pictures were early in our adventure which was around 10 AM. It has been snowing pretty much most of the 13 hours since, so the snow is much, much deeper now.

Hobbies

Recently Dan & I heard a proclamation of a toddler's "hobbies." We looked at each other and said, "What would James's hobbies be?" Our first instincts were playing with trains, cooking pancakes and dancing to Lady Gaga. I'd actually put reading way ahead of Gaga.

Snow Day with Daddy

This morning we got an early morning phone call from James's school-- their district was on a two-hour delay. Sadly, Mommy was off to school on time. Daddy decided to stay home instead of taking James in late, so they had quite a fun day together.

While Mommy was getting breakfast ready, Daddy went out to shovel. James suddenly started talking about going sledding. Then he was putting on his boots! "Put on James's snowboots." Then he was looking in his bag-- "Get your mittens. Get your hat. Get your snowpants. Go play in the snow."

It was really cute. He just had his hands full of his snow wear, standing by the door saying, "You go outside! You play in the snow!"

I convinced him to eat breakfast first (TWO bowls of oatmeal! After helping himself to two slices of bread while I packed lunches). While wearing his snowboots.

After I went off to work/school, Dan & James went out to play in the snow. They built two little snowmen (a Daddy and James), but James knocked them down before Dan could snap a photo.

Among other fun snow day activities, Daddy made an amazing Thomas the Tank Engine for James in the living room!

Here is Sir Topham Hat. James put him there to say, "Hello, Thomas. Welcome to the island of Sodor."

Here is a photo of James being Thomas's driver.

Thanks for a great day, Daddy.

Oh, Happy Birthday, Auntie Peg! While I didn't sing you the birthday song on your voicemail, I was singing it while Mommy called you. And I was REALLY happy about the phone call. I was grinning in a goofy way looking at the phone like I do for Nana. xox James

Fun Times Around the House

Just a few little activities recently caught on film (and by film, I mean digital memory).

First, you should know that the novelty has NOT worn off of the train set. (Thanks, Nana & Pops!) James still plays with it every day. Usually it is the very first thing he does when he walks out of his room in the morning. And the first thing he does when he walks in the door in the afternoon. Last night he fell asleep with Thomas in one hand and the caboose in the other! Here is a track Daddy and James built a couple of weeks ago:

One day last week, James declared that he did not want to put a diaper on. He sat on his potty and read Pat the Bunny to his baby. (We ended up aborting our potty training plans before we even began last summer after we found out the toddler room at his school doesn't have a potty.) James didn't actually use the facilities, but he did a marvelous job reading-- he likes to make the baby wave bye-bye to Paul and Judy at the end.

Yesterday Dan and I went on a major cleaning rampage in our house. James chose to spend a quite a while relaxing in his jammies in our bed. This was actually great for us because he was happy and out of the way. Here he is reading one of Daddy's latest books on interpreting body language.