Latest Fave Sport

James quite enjoyed watching mountain biking yesterday.

He was SO excited to see it again today!

He built his own course out of blocks with a rocky, bumpy hill at the finish line.

Catchphrase Update

So, as an update to the Olympic motto post--

The other day James was finishing his meal sitting in his blue chair. He basically did a press-up with his hands on the arms of the booster seat. He said, "You are the tallest." Then, as I got him out of the seat, "You are the getting-down-est."

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...

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.