A boy and his toys

 John and I are just hanging out, enjoying the gorgeous day before we have to go pick up James from school. 

John insisted we go out to "play!"

He gathered these three items from the garage before heading out: a bouncy ball, and empty giant bubble wand, and a play pitcher (from my childhood).  

He has run around the yard/driveway/street, gone up and down the slide, and chilled at the firepit (no midday fire, in case you're wondering).  All with his items. 

Train Bully?

Today we were at the playground, as we have so often been this summer.  (Let me just take this moment to whine about the fact that it has been so rainy and otherwise cool in August that we haven't been to the pool much at all this month!  Boo!)  One of James's favorite activities there  --no wait, it IS his favorite activity there-- is to play on the train.

There is this three-piece playground equipment that has an engine (with steps up the coal tender portion and a slide down the cow catcher part; it also has a ladder on the side for the "engineer"), a passenger car (a tunnel with windows), and a caboose (a.k.a the Dining Car as it has a small table and benches built in).

Well, when we got there this morning, James bee-lined for the train.  (Not sure if that's really a verb, but anyway...)  Some little girls were there as well.  James got on board the engine and promptly told the little girl that he was the conductor.  Impressively, she held tight to the "steering wheel" and didn't budge out of his way.  He kept insisting, and I told him he needed to take turns.  He started to push her out of the way, and I removed him from the train.  I told him he had three choices: 1) take turns, 2) play somewhere else and come back when the girls were done, or 3) go home.

He told me he was going to be the whistle and toot until her turn was done.

Well.

He got on that engine and tooted with all his might.  He didn't touch the little girl or the steering wheel.  He just tooted.  And tooted.  Loudly.

"TOOOOOOOOT!!!!    TOOOOOOOT!!!!"

She started crying and left the train.

Bad Blogger

Oops. Another month passed with nary a blog post. My bad. Sorry.

I know it's no excuse, but we moved!

In these first four weeks in the new house, we've had a lot of fun getting settled in with little trouble adjusting. Hoorah!

James has quickly befriended our next-door-neighbor who is a mere six months older than he. The two of them call out to one another as soon as they hear the other come outdoors. It's very funny. This past weekend, each boy was bedecked in his bicycle helmet for most of the daylight hours. Safety first!

It began when neighbor was on his trike (and various other outdoor transport) a few weeks ago. Then Grandpa and Grandma told James to take the trike they've had at their house for him to our new house. So he's been cycling quite a bit.

Then he busted out Daddy's razor scooter (with the handlebars pushed all the way down). I tell you, by Sunday afternoon, he was balancing quite well! We're pretty impressed.

The funny thing is when the boys carry on wearing their helmets even when their feet are firmly on the ground, and they're just pushing around dump trucks and the like.

Of course, it does come in handy when Daddy offers a ride on the wheelbarrow!

Thanks for the deposit, Blitzen.

James LOVES his new back yard. Lately, every time we head to the new house, that's where he wants to go (even today, with a high of 30 degrees).

Last weekend, I spent lots of time out there with him playing funny games like stand-atop-a-boulder-then-run-to-another-one. Well, at some point James says to me, "Look at these things I found, Mommy." I look down, and he's moving some little objects from one spot to another....

"James, put that down! Don't play with that! Yuck! That's poop!" Yep, folks, deer scat. (Understandably, it looked like little marbles to Jamesy.)

James said, "Who pooped in our yard?"

"Some deer."

"Why did the reindeer poop in our yard?"

"I don't know, James. They don't have a potty. Now, let's go inside and wash your hands."

And, every so often this week, James will ask again, "Why did the reindeer poop in our new backyard, Mommy?"

Thank you, Super Why.

This weekend James caught an episode of "Super Why" in which the super readers enter the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

The lesson that they learned was that you need to be polite. (The troll let the goats over the bridge when they used nice manners.)

Well, this episode certainly made an impression on our dear James!

First off, he was indeed frightened by the troll. However, he's been talking about and re-enacting the story ever since. Dan is the troll. I'm a goat, and James is a goat. A polite goat. "I'm polite," he says. "Troll, can I go over the bridge please? I'm polite."

Then there are the random remarks like,

"Troll, what are you doing?"

"I'll help you with the laundry, Goat."

"I'm polite, Mommy."

Trick or Treat!

After nap today, it was time to suit up again and hit the streets. We headed up to Ramsey where Grandma & Grandpa's door was James's first stop.
He had a blast running from house to house, and was like a pro at each door.


I was always delighted when he was recognized as Super Why. He did get lots of complements even from those who didn't recognize his actual character, so that was nice too.

We drove around a bit to see some of Grandma's friends (and trick or treat on their streets), and every time we'd stop the car to get out, James clapped and cheered for more trick or treating.

When we finally got back to Grandma & Grandpa's house, James took stock of his loot and enjoyed his Tootsie Pop. He then asked us to open another "popsicle" for dinner. Ha!

It was so fun, and I am already looking forward to next year!

Oh-- this was funny: "James, today is Halloween!"

"Whose Halloween is it today?" he asked.

Seems as though he is equating Halloween to birthdays: Thursday was school's Halloween; Friday was Isabella's Halloween. Whose was today's?

Our answer-- "Everybody's!"

Our First Jack-o-Lantern

First off, don't you like our Halloween centerpiece for the kitchen table?
Yesterday after "nap"time (yes, I meant to use those quotation marks; James didn't sleep), we carved our pumpkin. Hooray!

Fall Family Fun

Well, it has only taken three years, but we finally took James to get a pumpkin! We headed out to Demarest Farms this morning. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. James loved that we were being pulled by a tractor which was driven by a farmer. We got out to the pumpkin patch which is in the midst of the apple orchards. James loved exploring the entire area. We easily found a lovely pumpkin and headed back to the farm.

James was happy to ride behind the tractor again, but immediately started lobbying to ride the little carnival type rides he had seen set up back at the farm. After checking to be sure he met the height requirements, we bought some tickets and crossed our fingers that he wouldn't freak out once he was really on the ride... We need not have worried. James eagerly climbed aboard the Dragon Wagon (a.k.a. the dragon train on the funny track), and was nothing but smiles, "Whoa!"s, and giggles until the ride ended. He rode a motorcycle and firetruck ride as well before returning to the dragon.

We got some lunch there and DELICIOUS farm made doughnuts for dessert. So fun!

After that we headed home for nap time. Ahhh. (Of course, James fell asleep in the car, woke up when we got home, and never went back to sleep. I, on the other hand, enjoyed a lovely two hour nap on the couch.)

Then we went to the pet shop to get fish! Last weekend Dan and James had set up the aquarium, and so now we were ready to get some inhabitants for it. Very exciting!

Quite the exciting day.

Bedtime Update plus a Little Pretending

So, James hasn't particularly asked to go to bed since Sunday night. However, he's not crying and carrying on at bedtime as he has at times. So that is good. Of course, on Monday night he didn't actually go to sleep until after 10:00! Mind you, he was in bed around 7....

In other news, James and Dan watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse one day recently. Since then James has taken to calling me Daisy Duck. Dan is Goofy, and James is Donald Duck. He walks into the kitchen and says, "What are you doing, Daisy?"

"Making you breakfast."

"You're making Donald breakfast?"

"Yes, Donald Duck, I'm making you breakfast."

One night this week in the middle of the night James called out, "Goofy! Where are you? Come back, Goofy!"

I walked in (Goofy remained asleep in bed), and James whispered, "I need duck milk." Really.

Tonight James wore his Woody jammies to bed. He walked into the living room and said, "You want to read me stories, Jessie?" When I told him that Daddy was going to do story time tonight, he said, "Come on Buzz Lightyear."

To which Dan replied, "Okay, let's go. To infinity!"

"And Beyond!"

Mark this date on the calendar...

For the first time in his little life (at least in our recollection), James asked to go to bed tonight. Yep. "Mommy, I took a sip of milk. And now I can go to bed." And it wasn't even 6:00.

So we went back, put on jammies (he took off all his clothes all by himself!), read stories, and he nestled into bed and was sound asleep by 7:00 without any fuss!!!

Granted, he had no nap this afternoon.

And he ran around outside all day.

Maybe he is happy to be sharing his room with an aquarium. He and Daddy set it up (they even found rocks in the yard and cleaned them for decoration) this weekend. The fish won't move in for a week or so (as recommended by the pet store worker), but there are some pretty (real, not plastic) plants, the aforementioned rocks, and a shipwreck (from Daddy's childhood fish tank).

But seriously. He asked to go to bed!

Mommy's Running Partner

On Saturday, Mommy had a race with her teammates in Central Park. There was a kids' run as well, so we decided to make a family outing of it and sign James up for his first race.

James carbo-loaded at dinner on Friday night.

He and Daddy cheered for Mommy in her race.

Then we waited for his race to begin.

Can you spot James on the starting line?

Sorry we don't have any photos of the actual race. It was pretty funny-- James, who usually runs everywhere, all of the time, just stood there when they said, "On your mark, get set, go!" The rest of the kids took off, and there stood James. I ran with him, and he just wanted me to carry him. What?! He still had a great time and was so happy with his t-shirt and ribbon.

Afterwards, we had a great time exploring the park from an almost three-year-old's point of view. There was much "mountain" climbing, playground playing, and walking about. We topped of our trip to the big city with a delicious brunch (James devoured his french toast!) and a well-deserved nap.

James's First Day

Today was James's first day of school. This year he's in the 2s room; there are many familiar faces from the toddlers room and some new children as well.

This morning we got James ready to go, and I said, "James, let me take your picture for the first day of school."

"It's not the first day of school. It's the first day of building a tall tower," he replied and walked off with his bag of blocks.

He was pretty unhappy about the prospect of school until I reminded him about some of the great toys he had played with in his visits to the twos room this summer (trucks, flatbeds, Ernie,...). Then he popped up and ran to the door. "Let's go! Let's go to school!"

"Mommy is going to school, and James is going to school, and Daddy is going to work. We are all going to work."

He had a good day. While he was very happy to see me, he announced, "I want to go back to school!" as soon as we walked outside. Three cheers for happiness!

Farewell, Summer.

Well, tomorrow I go back to school. Daddy and James get one more day together tomorrow before James starts in his new classroom on Wednesday.

We had such a fun summer: Lots of long mornings in jammies. A few lunchdates with Daddy (both picnics and choo-choo burgers at the restaurant by the railroad tracks). Playdates. Our fabulous trip to SC. A day at the Bronx Zoo. A train trip to NYC to the Natural History Museum. Bubbles. Playing with trains. Trips to the library. Lots of reading together. Putting together puzzles. Running together (most often by way of the bagel store). Riding carousels. Music class. Singing. Baking (pancakes, cookies, waffles,...).

James is really growing up into a sweet, smart, "big-boy." "No, Mommy. Little boy," he says. Well, Little Boy, I love, love, love you! Thanks for a wonderful summer!

Sucess!

After the normal bit of chatting and singing, James went right to sleep without leaving his new bed. And when he woke up this morning, he called for us like usual. Yea!

It Happened

Today at naptime, James got out of his crib. I wasn't home, but Dan said he heard crying and "Ouch, I bumped my head," and found James walking down the hallway.

When I asked James about the episode later, our conversation went thusly:

Me: "James, did you bump your head today?"

James: "Yes."

Me: "When?"

James: "I popped right out of my crib. Then I ran out of my room."

So, this evening, Dan took the drop-side off James's crib and made it into a pseudo big-boy bed. I actually shed a tear-- so goofy. James is quite excited! We'll see how things go tonight.

Airing Things Out

So yesterday James put up his usual fight when it came to napping. I could hear him back there talking and playing. When I went to check on him, he'd finally fallen asleep... without any pants! He was sleeping peacefully in just a t-shirt; he'd removed even his underpants!

Last night, when Dan went to check on him at bedtime, he was half-nakey again! Dan asked him why he'd taken off his pajama pants and underwear. James responded, "Because I don't like Percy. I like Thomas." Oh. Of course. That makes complete sense. (The underpants had Percy on them; the jammies were Thomas.)

Well, this afternoon it seems he was too tired to be bothered with his wardrobe. He fell asleep rather quickly and kept his pants on.

Skills

Finally remembered to get this footage from last week off the camera and onto the blog.

First off, you can see that James is becoming more fond of his crib since he likes to climb INTO it (thankfully, he doesn't climb out...). I'm happy to report that this does not happen often. :

Secondly, James is very into tumbling nowadays (this sadly doesn't capture his best form):

Not Yet

So, buying a mattress is ridiculous. All the venders just seem so shady, and the mattress companies themselves don't help. They give their products different names in different stores to make it harder for you to comparison shop. Dan knows this, and refuses to just take what they're offering without being well-informed shoppers.

All of this is to say that no, we didn't buy a big boy mattress for James yet.

And he's readjusting to his crib. He hasn't been asking to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed very much anymore. So, we'll see what happens. (Meanwhile, Mommy and Daddy want a new mattress now too!)

In other news, James and I have been thoroughly enjoying our summer. This week we did some shopping and other errands and then spent some quality time with Grandpa and Grandma. James quite enjoyed "helping" Grandpa build a walkway in his backyard. We also had fun swimming with Grandma.

James has been singing for us a lot recently. His favorites are the theme song to Thomas the Tank Engine, "That's Amore" and "Home on the Range." He really belts it out! Adorable!

Big Times

We're off to go mattress shopping today for our Big Boy! We already have a twin bed headboard and footboard (which was Dan's when he was a kid) that matches James's dresser, so we just need the mattress.

Mr. Big Boy

James and I got all dressed up today (to go to a bris), and he just looked so handsome and grown up. It was the first time he'd worn sneakers in well over a month, and he exclaimed, "Mommy! I'm wearing my shoes!"