Safety First

Playing the drums can be dangerous -- practice safe drumming!  Although, my favorite is the megaphone stuffed into his waistband and the stickers :-)
Yesterday on the way home he said :: "Look at the full moon, Mommy! It's a circle.  Can we play hockey with it?"  Love him and his imagination! He must miss hockey as much as I do this season.

Mommy's Sunshine

James is getting really good at finishing sentences from his books and songs that we sing. I finally got him on video singing "You Are My Sunshine" with me (we sing it every night before bed along with our own "You Are My JamesE" version). I don't know where he got "apple" from in the 2nd line but it's funny :-) And I love how he raises his voice to sing "dear" and "I love you." My favorite though is when he throws in the "whoosh" hand motion from his Dump Truck book at the end instead of saying "away." We love our Bug and love to watch him learn and show off his new skills!!!

An Original Composition by James

James played the organ for the first time on Saturday...I finally got down there and plugged it in and let him pound away on the ivories. He didn't know what to do at first, but was having a blast by the end and he did a great job sitting on the stool the whole time! The video I picked was the best short-duration one I captured, some of the longer ones were a bit better but would take forever to upload on here. Enjoy!

James doing his best Beyonce

Uncle John wanted to know where James' dance moves were compared to this little boy's moves to "Single Ladies" by Beyonce. James is pretty good at the bounce move but I couldn't get it on video -- he's way more interested in smacking the keyboard. He may have a future as a lead singer though -- singing along and doesn't have to do all the dance moves :-)

Music Man

James Top Songs at 7 weeks

The following songs have all shown amazing results as far as calming down a crying James -- usually it's me singing/humming (very badly at that) into his ear w/ some walking or bouncing involved, but they work. Some other moms have joined in the experiment and found that the country music definitely speaks to the little ones -- that, or we have a lot of country bumpkins on our hands!!!

4. "Halo" -- Beyonce; thatta boy, gotta get a little R&B groove in there ;-) and I figured I heard "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" enough during my pregnancy to make Beyonce a fav of his -- one question: is every video of hers from this CD going to have her wearing a leotard? hmm, we'll have to wait and see I guess! This song reminds me of the SNL skit w/ Justin Timberlake in which they do a parody of the song (is parody the right word there?)...hilarious! It makes me miss work a little bit to hear Single Ladies as we would dance to it and have the girls show us their moves before they left the locker room on their way to class -- gotta keep it livened up! PUT YOUR HANDS UP! Even Al Roker (go to the 7:30 mark of the clip) from The Today Show knows the dance -- he busted it out today when he filled in for Kathie Lee on the 4th hour of the show w/ Hoda (love both Hoda and Al)! ***see below for more about stories I've seen on The Today Show recently which have sparked my fancy***

3. Classical Mix CD -- it's a success if he's calmed down by "Ava Maria", which is track five :-) I truly believe it works because I played the CD and had the headphones tucked under my seat belt towards my belly as I drove to/from work while I was pregnant (35 miles = lots of time for music)

2. "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" - Kenny Chesney -- a new addition that I randomly tried because he started screaming when Jamie Fox was singing "Blame" on American Idol and I remembered that he would always kick me in utero when I put country music on -- I guess he really was dancing :=)

1. "Chelsea Dagger" -- The Fratelli's; the steadfast go-to since he's been born! I am really sad for hockey season to end as this is the song they play when the Blackhawks score a goal -- but it is also the music for an Amstel Light commercial (the one w/ the guy hanging from the light post doing soccer tricks - so cool), so we will most likely still hear "his" song after they hopefully win the Stanley Cup :-)

***there was a story that ran today regarding organ donations -- as you may/may not know, my father is here and will be able to go swimming with his grandson (one of his dreams he couldn't reach if he were on dialysis) because of the amazing gift of a kidney from a living donor, one of our neighbors from when we lived in Michigan...he'll be 6 years post-transplant in June (his life expectancy actually increased when he reached 5 years, COOL)! -- anyway...they featured a program, http://www.matchingdonors.com/ in which living donors are matched with people who need an organ transplant and have been unable to find another means of donation... I find it very heart-warming that people are willing to do this and hope the story will encourage more people to sign up as donors through their state.

Story #2 related back to babies is the Tummy Tub -- bath buckets that have been used in Europe for awhile and mimic the womb and can help babies learn to stand earlier (water buoyancy helps)! I'm quite happy with our tub (and Jim gives them anyway) but I thought this was innovative, especially with a small bathroom :-)

Gma Chele caught this smile on camera Saturday -- he was happy after a long, car-ride induced nap :-D