James and the Giant...Pumpkin

James picked this pumpkin out from Goebbert's when we went last weekend...just Peanut size like him :-)

Babbling in Gerber

James has started on the babbling with lots of "da da da" and "ba ba ba" directed at us both :-) He just started at it one day in full force out of nowhere!

7 Months Old!!!

James vs. Teddy 7.0 months

Too busy trying to destroy the exer-saucer and playing with the paper sign to smile...intense focus.

Being silly with Mommy

Finally, Mom got smart and held the note card so James would take a timeout and look at the camera.

James is 7 months old -- HOLY COW!!! He's really refining his own distinct personality now -- he's a goof ball and a ladies man (a few of the teachers at school call him their "boyfriend") and is too smart for his own good (if I must say so myself). He is starting to babble and talk more -- getting that "da" and "ba" sound down pretty good (where's the "ma ma ma" I've been working so hard to get him to say, sheesh). He's also "dancing" when I sing to him -- a nice head bob in the "no" action with a smile on his face (see the last post for a video).

He will "give me five" when I put my hand out for a target.

He likes to give me *kisses* on my cheek -- I use "kiss" lightly as he opens his mouth as big as he can and then pulls me closer to him to probably try and use me as a teether, hehe.

We've been woken up the past few weekend mornings with a certain someone kicking his feet on his crib, which happens to be against our wall -- Hey, I'll take it over a crying baby any day and it's pretty cute w/ his babbling added on to it.

James loves his vegetables -- he's had sweet potatoes, carrots, squash (we made some homemade for him too, yum), peas, green beans and mixed veggies (potatoes, carrots and peas all together). He hasn't been a big fan of bananas, which I find odd but think it may have to do with the texture. He still loves bath time with Daddy -- usually there is a huge mess to clean up and James stays in happily kicking and splashing until Jim makes him get out of the cold water. He has become fascinated with all of his body parts (and I mean all of them), which makes changing his diaper an interesting task sometimes and means his hands get washed a ton :-) Some things he doesn't enjoy are getting his face wiped after a meal or having his nose wiped -- HE FREAKS OUT! He LOVES LOVES LOVES Easton and will whip his head around and around from side to side to watch him (which makes meal time a more difficult and messier task). Poor guy got his first head cold 2 weeks ago, which sadly resulted in him losing his voice (still not all the way back over a week later). They have the educated theory that it is a sinus infection since a viral cold should be gone w/in two weeks and his cough has actually gotten worse with the occasional fever at night time and he's on the pink stuff to hopefully knock it out. James is really fast at his scoot/push/kick/crawl now -- he can track me down around the island in the kitchen like a pro. He has been getting up on all 4's and rocking but prefers his own method of movement for now - and I wouldn't be surprised if he keeps doing it his way the whole time until he starts walking. At daycare they keep telling me how much he loves to" kick, kick, kick" the ball and to play with the ladybug on the sensory mat...maybe we have a future soccer start on our hands :-)

James isn't quite pulling himself up just yet but when I'm sitting on the floor, he uses my leg to push himself up to standing while balancing on me...pretty cool stuff here at the Montalbano Hizzouse!

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

I am doing some research for school as we are about to begin the dance portion of our Cardio/Dance class -- gonna be a lot longer than the 3 week units I'm used to, that's for sure! Anyway, I found a cool site if you ever need any information on how to shake your groove thang like the cool kids today shake what their momma's gave them...it's dancejam.com and they have a good variety of styles of dance from Latin to Hip Hop (all my students want to do is those two) to Honky Tonk Line Dance (more my style). My main purpose was to share this version of an oldie but goodie song by Whitney Houston. The girl dancing to it is pretty good too!



James has just recently started "dancing" while I sing to him -- a quick head bob in the "no, no no" action -- but I have to think it's dancing because he doesn't do it while I'm just talking to him, just when I'm singing or humming (maybe he's trying to get me to stop because I'm so bad, who knows :-)). I think I got a decent enough video of it yesterday, so Enjoy:-)

With the weather getting colder, day care asked that we bring a hat for James to use to go outside. We had to try them on to find one that fit his melon and the green one w/ the froggy won :-)

Monday was waaaay too windy and cold for a walk -- there were +40mph winds and tornado warnings (yuckies). So I bundled James E up on Tuesday and we took Easton on a nice long walk to burn off some energy.

James tried out his high chair for the first time on Friday night. It leans back, so it made it easy to feed him since he's still not so steady while sitting up (they have a "respect" policy at day care where they don't put children in positions for them, which is great but I think it also doesn't let them develop the muscular strength to do certain things). He tried peas for the first time -- which I thought would be bad, but he was a big fan :-) He got some homemade squash, too - yummy yummy.

Saturday James crawled into the kitchen from the family room while I was doing the dishes. Jim got his camera out and started shooting because, as you can see, James (aka Trouble) definitely has Easton's bowls in his sight.Maybe Mommy won't notice if I just slip this ceramic bowl away from her feet to play with it?
Ah, I've got it! Now what?

Now I will stick my hand in to feel the sliminess of Easton's bowl (they are disgusting, even after washing them numerous times - dog slobber is gross). Good thing Easton demolishes his food in less then a minute from when we put it down or James would be feasting on dog food himself!

This thing is too heavy to hold up while I sit, so I think I'll play while laying down -- it makes cool noises when I let it fall back on the ground :-D

Easton and James found something interesting to watch in the kitchen -- when will one of them start doing the dishes? I can't wait for that day (I think it was me they were looking at -- they are more than welcome to join in the dish washing fun anytime)!

Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch

I've been wanting to take James to a pumpkin patch to get some pictures and today was the day! He woke up with a cough, runny nose and has been sneezing lots but that didn't stop us. He hasn't run a fever, so hopefully this is just all going along w/ teething and there will be some teeth popping up soon (cross your fingers). We were going to go to his friend Becca's house for the Bears game, but I would have felt sooo guilty had she gotten James' cold, so we decided to stay around home. The Bears and the Colts won today -- another good football day (and the Brownies are still 0-for the season, boo).

James and I outside the entrance to Goebbert's.

What a cute little boy! He was so cute just chillin' in the middle of the pumpkin patch...it's was like Where's Waldo :-) I brought a blanket with us so we just had to find a good spot and then propped him up. He seemed to like the the cool touch of the pumpkins.

I guess pumpkins are good teethers, too. Gross! I hope they don't have a high risk of botulism...nothing like a little dirt to help take away a cold :-)
The Montalbano's in front of the Great Big Pumpkin!

Between Jim and I, we took a ton of pictures so I just picked my favorites to start with at the beginning of the post and then put all the rest in a slide show w/ captions to show the rest of the fun things we found to do there. With the exception of James' cold, we had a great family Sunday! I can't wait to take him back when he's a bit more mobile -- there was lots to do and you only had to pay for what extras you wanted to do (wagon ride, pony or camel ride, farm, haunted house, yummy food, etc). We enjoyed some apple cider and apple donuts too before we left -- yummy!

9.25.09 Weekend Activities

We had a busy week this week w/ a meeting for Mommy and Parent/Teacher Conferences, so I got behind on blogging.

The two pics below are from the weekend before when Katie and James hung out in their strollers together. Katie loves to teethe on her stroller but James isn't quite sure about it (the look of questioning from James cracks me up as he will gladly eat his toes or try to "kiss" our noses by putting them all the way in his mouth).

They obviously thought something was funny in Babyland :-D just not sure what was so hilarious.

Friday after school James and I braved an at-home art project. We decided to finally use the leftover modeling clay from Mother's Day and imprint James' 6-month foot and hand prints. The first shot is the 6-month prints and the bottom pic is from when he was 2-months old -- what a difference!

Saturday morning was pretty lazy -- I don't remember why James isn't dressed but I think this was the transition from PJs to clothes. Daddy was practicing taking some shots with his new camera -- he is getting some really good ones (it just takes a bit more work to get them uploaded, I'll get around to it some day when he shows me how to do it).

Um, why wouldn't I want to play in a desk drawer, Mommy?

We went to Lowe's to help Gma Chele get a new rug home on Saturday afternoon. James kept himself entertained with Mommy's sunglasses :-D What a goofball!

James' first bite of squash -- yummy! We tried the jar food first to make sure he didn't have a reaction to it then made him some homemade squash later this week (interesting but it worked out).

The car keys have become a favored toy to play with here lately. James really likes the noises that the main part makes -- beep beep, a car trying to start, a home alarm -- and the LED is fun too; however, his favorite part is teething on the keys! Thanks Jamie C.!

HOCKEY IS BACK IN SEASON!!! WOO HOO!!! I'm very excited about the Blackhawks being on TV again! They opened the season 10/2 in Helsinki, Finland with a loss in a shoot-out (although Yahoo! Sports had them winning already -- jerkolas) but came away w/ 3 points as they played awesome on Saturday and beat Florida. Kane, Sharp and Byflugien are starting strong, each "on pace to get 82 goals this season" (LOL) as they have all scored in both games so far :-) Thanks for the cool socks Gina G.!

Sunday = Football!!! We ventured over to Dom & Jen's house to watch the Bears game -- they pulled out a "W" by the hair of their chinny chin chins. Thanks for inviting us over and for all the yummy food! James and I were dressed and ready to support the Colts later for the Sunday Night game - they won.