1st Bowling Trip

Today Jamie and I embarked on a little adventure with the boys -- their first bowling trip!!! AMF Bowling lanes offer 2 free games/day in the summer (awesome), you just have to rent shoes -- score! James did great following rules and only almost double-bounced the ball off his toe when trying to put it away (we didn't even ask him to clean up). He started with trying to push the ball down the alley himself but then gladly took the ramp when the pro brought it over for him to use. Logan even got a couple of turns in (which were his brother's idea)! James got a 67 for his first game -- pretty awesome -- and decided it was time to go home for lunch after the 7th frame in game 2. Such a great way to beat the 103 degree heat today!

Blizzard 2011

SNOW-MG!!! SNOW-MAGGEON 2011!!! and my favorite :: SNOW-PRAH (YOU get a blizzard AND YOU get a blizzard)!!! We got hit hard with a blizzard that started on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011 in the afternoon. It definitely made our drives home interesting -- took me just under 2 hours (normally 50 minutes) and that was only because we get out of school at 2pm and the "blizzard" part didn't start until 3pm. Took Jim's 10 minute drive to 25. Needless to say, there was no school for James or myself on Wed, Feb. 2 - Happy Groundhog's Day to us! Luckily Jimmy can work from home, so it was our first family snow day! When it was all said and done, we ended up with at least 22 inches of snow by us -- with drifts up +4ft high!!! CRAZY -- I'VE NEVER SEEN SO MUCH SNOW AT ONCE!!! James took advantage of his snow day and slept in until after 10am...Jimmy started the attempt to get our garage accessible just after that...took him +1.5 hours for the driveway and then Ben and I 45 minutes for the walkway to the front door (that was where the 4 ft drifts were and I guess we need mail in the week or two, eh). I got James all layered up and he and I headed outside for some fresh air. He tried to help shovel for a bit but got fed up dropping it constantly (mittens = no grip), we would have lost him in the snow piles, so he went next door and took their bubble lawn mower to try and help "mow snow." He screamed when we made him go inside, but I think it was for the best of his health :-) At dinner time James surprised both Jim and I and counted to 5 all by himself!!! And not even 23 months yet! Gotta be a genius if you ask us :-)LOL -- and I know he knows 6 comes after 5...so smart he is! They had to call school off for me again on Thursday because there are just too many schools to try and clear up -- they are literally hauling away snow in dump trucks around here. James wasn't up yet when it was time for Jimmy to leave for work, so James stayed home with me today. We've watched a lot of Sesame Street as he's really not too interested in playing with his mother today...down for a nap now (thus, the blogging) but coughing through it the whole time, so it's not going to last long, unfortunately for him because he was soooo tired, poor Bug.
Sorry, the blogs will now be out of order (I skipped a lot of things between Christmas and today) but I just had to get these snow pictures up asap! Hope you all are safe and warm (it's a brutal 9 out there now with crazy wind gusts still)!!!

Jim's Christmas 2010 Pics

Jim and I went through his pictures from Christmas and these were our favorites! Enjoy!

Christmas 2010

We celebrated Christmas at least 6 different times that I can think of, so we were super busy! It started off with celebrating with Uncle John and Aunt Bailey, then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day both at home and with the Montalbano's, then a pleasant drive to Indy for Christmas with the Gross'. We rounded off our Christmas by celebrating with Aunt Jen and Uncle Dominic :-) We had such a lovely time hanging out with family, and, of course, James got spoiled rotten! He got so much loot, we decided to merge our dining room and living room and made the dining room a play room -- MUCH better for some space to the family room now :-) Here are some pictures from the holiday season...just the ones from my camera though, I still haven't seen Jimmy's :-)

Month 20

Month 20 brought a WORD EXPLOSION!!! James is now repeating a lot of words we say (and still laughing when they are ones that he doesn't think he can spit out, which cracks me up)...every day it seems I say something and he just busts it out (i.e. I asked him if he was going to walk up the stairs to go to bed...his response :: "walk"...didn't know he knew that word)! He knows a ton of body parts :: head, mouth, teeth, eyeballs, nose, ears, belly button, forearm, foot and toes. He can't really say "I love you" yet, but he definitely has his own sign-version of it -- sticks both hands out at us (video attached below) -- we just can't get enough of it :-) He is enjoying some independent reading time when he's not trying to beat me up (don't know why I'm the lucky one). He attended Lincoln Park Zoo lights for the first time -- he enjoyed the art project with Aunt MJ and Uncle Ed. He can help count -- almost always gets "one, two" and sometimes throws "three" in there and "five" if I say four...I've also heard "A,B,C". He loves to do art projects at school -- but freaks out if any of the glue gets on his hands, so he has to go wash them in between each part (I think it's just to play in the water more, hehe). James got all dressed up (took about 10 minutes) to go play in the snow (about 10 minutes) until he got upset about there being snow on his new boots -- I showed him how to "stomp" it off and he was relieved, but still ready to go back inside (it was also pretty darn chilly). He has added to some moves to his dance repertoire :: a wiggle and his version of the running man :-) If we put on the "Puddle Jumping Elmo" Sesame Street episode, we have to watch the puddle song at least 15 times before we can turn it off without tears! He's a dancing maniac!

The crew at Zoo lights

James was so bundled up that I couldn't get his stroller straps attached at first!















Dani and Jamie














Uncle Ed pretty much stole James for the night, which is cool because they get along so great :-)













Art project with Aunt MJ and Uncle Ed













Laura and James smiling pretty













James was OK w/ the gorillas until one yawned and showed all his big teeth















Pretty Lights












Family photo ops




























Slide show of Month 20





Signing "I love you"

Showing off his new "running man" move and the "spin-bounce" to a song from Glee -- we did "more" of the song for about 10 minutes before bed

Thanksgiving 2010

We did Thanksgiving a week early with Jim's family (didn't have my camera out, so I didn't get any pics, sorry -- they would have been of dogs knocking wine onto Bailey and Jimmy spilling almost a whole gallon of milk on the floor and himself, if that helps picture it). Then we headed down to Indy (eventually, only took 6 hours to get there w/ crazy traffic, NOT a good day for us). We had a lot to celebrate that day -- Thanksgiving, GG's birthday and Jim and my 4th Anniversary! Busy Busy Day! GG and Pops watched James and Ainsley on Friday so we could go on a double date to see the new Harry Potter movie -- first movie we'd been to in well over 2 years! Then on Saturday, Jen, Patrick and Kennedy all came over for a visit before we left to come back home and get some things done around the house! It was great to see them, Kennedy is getting so big and super smart and LOVED having a real-life baby around with our niecers, Ains :-)

Month 19

James started his 19th month in Michigan. We went up to Grand Rapids to help celebrate CJ and Jen Starr's wedding. CJ is a very long time friend for me -- since I was 1 year old! It was great to celebrate with the Starr Family!

A. Cass worked hard for that pic! Handsome toddler! Happy Couple! James playing "spoons" as instruments w/ GG

U. Larry &

A. Kiki

A. Cass showing Ainsley how it's done :-)
GG & Pops

Pops and his grandkiddos! Ainsley is a little easier to handle these days :-)

Gross girls with CJ, the groom!

Pops and JamesE

I had to disconnect the phone in our hotel room....so James could play with it in the bathroom (I don't know, but he insisted and it kept him out of trouble)

Other Month 19 happenings (some pics included in slide show below) :: 1st trip to a bookstore; Mommy and Daddy get kisses on the mouth now, with James' mouth (usually) closed; says "home" when we leave school, "geese" when we drive past them; got sick at a store for the 1st time (and Mommy didn't feel too badly she didn't have to clean it up, sorry Hancock Fabrics); visited John & Lynn before their baby is born and saw a bunch of friends; raked up leaves and then jumped in them!!! Imitates Mommy snapping her fingers; makes noises like a fire truck when we pass them on the way home; made trip #2 of the season to the pumpkin farm to get better pics and some more apple cider donuts (yummy); Illinois beat IU for football homecoming (sorry Uncle Brian, but we've got braggin' rights for this year); tooth #12 finally came through -- all the molars are in! got another hair cut (it grows so quickly); were THE CUTEST lion EVER for Halloween (we had to bribe James w/ being able to play outside with "Ab-bee" if he put on the pants and jacket :-) whatever works, right)! James is getting pretty good at talking on the phone, even though most answers are "yeah", "Daddy" and "Hi, Hi, Jo Jo;" also using a lot more sentence-structure in his jibbering; he was soooo excited to go visit the 2's playground and climb around like a monkey like a big kid!

James Vacations in Indy with Pops and GG

After the 4th of July, James was busy cracking us up as I packed up for him to join GG and Pops in Indy for a week while Jimmy and I vacationed in Las Vegas, NV. July 6 -- James was in a fit of laughter as he started trying to "jump" -- a very exaggerated bend at the waist, then full body extension with arms raised above his head and an "ahh" screech (didn't get video on this camera yet). July 7 -- James points to his chest when Mommy asks him "where is your heart?" July 8 -- Laura S. joined us for the trip down to Indy to drop James and Easton off for their vacation (only had one melt down at the end, overall, not too bad).
Above :: turning 16 months old (thanks GG and Pops for getting this pic for me)
Below :: laying down with Pops

Telling Pops he needs to put his new fire pit outside and make him a S'more
Hamming it up with Charlie
James is obsessed with shoes -- he goes and gets people their shoes (even without a request for said service), loves to place his shoes on his "shoe shelf" and gets very excited now and says "shoes" even when he just sees a pair of socks -- I guess that is much improved from the 10 minute screaming fit he had when we first tried to put real shoes on him :-) Below, trying on Mommy's shoes.
Being silly and putting his shorts on his head -- must have gotten Aunt Cassie's genetic matter there as we have lots of pictures of her with things on her head :-)
Slide show of my pictures from Las Vegas -- not too many as we've been a few times now, but some new things we saw (City Center, Encore, Vegas at night from the top of the Eiffel Tower) and you can never have enough pictures of the Bellagio fountains :-) We stayed at the Monte Carlo -- not a fan of the room at first, but it grew on us -- good location kind of in the middle of the MGM properties and close to the trams to help get you places with ease...only went to the pool once, but had a lazy river and wave pool (which made me rock for about 2 weeks, not sure if it's the flying or the water, but last 3 vacations I've been a dizzy mess by the end, not cool).

We missed our Bug dearly, but it was nice to have a vacation by ourselves. And from the sounds of it, Pops and GG are missing the little troublemaker :-)

4th of July Weekend

We had a busy busy 4th of July weekend here at the Montalbano household! The week started with James finally getting a new tooth :-D #5 came through the bottom left while he was napping at the Wehrle's because we still didn't have any air conditioning in our house (I believe the final tally was +18 hours for two people to do the install, 3 overall days). They got our siding finished on Friday, so we didn't have to worry about it raining over the weekend (whew). Friday we went to Gma Chele's for a 2nd of July pool party and fireworks. James loved both! He had so much fun playing with Vince, Tom and Dominic -- they were troopers to entertain him. On Saturday, James attended his very first parade! It was an hour and a half long but he had fun watching the floats and playing with Abby and Bella. His favorite things were the marching bands and the truck and "choo-choo" floats. Sunday brought another first for James -- a trip to Arlington Race Track to see the "shoes" (as James called them). That night we saw some more fireworks with the Wehrle Family. I guess the fireworks got his blood pumping, because James decided to wake up at 4:15am on Monday (so not cool) but I still heard some fireworks going off then -- crazy people, GO TO SLEEP! We met up with family again for some yummy Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza -- YUMMY! What a fun, family-and-friend-filled holiday weekend -- wish they were all 3 days long :-)

Cassie and Brian's Wedding

We had a great weekend in Indy for Aunt Cassie and Uncle Brian's wedding festivities! It was nails and rehearsal dinner Thursday; getting hair and make up done and wedding ceremony and reception on Friday as well as getting to see lots of family and friends; Saturday I helped Kristen get started on a baby registry so we can throw her and Larry a shower (Gma Annie helped too) and then Sunday we had a pretty good drive home and I finished one of my books from Christmas by Jennifer Weiner (love her writing). It was great to see everyone and we had a wonderful time! James was so happy to show off all his new dance moves to everyone (he and Maddie were the first ones on the dance floor). It was a beautiful day! Congratulations and Welcome to this crazy ass family, Brian! We love you both!!!

Shedd Aquarium

We were downtown so we decided to go to the Shedd Aquarium for the day. Jim and I have been talking about going for at least 3 years now and he really wanted to use his new camera to get some cool shots. Laura stayed over the night before as MJ and Ed were up celebrating their anniversary, so she joined us, too! James loves her and it gave Jim and I a chance to see some stuff a bit more up-close with a 3rd set of hands to watch our crazy active toddler :-) Hopefully Jim will upload his pics soon and I can add his slide show to this post -- he got some really good ones! James was entranced by the turtles (just like Mommy) and really liked going to the underwater observatory of the dolphins and beluga whale. He also saw his first movie -- a 4D show from Happy Feet (he did his dance and got a pic with some penguins too, so cute) he did fairly well, just kept rotating who he sat with during the show -- it was pretty cute, although my back was sore from the things in the seat poking me (OK, yes, I screamed when it happened the first time, caught me off guard)! James got to see some ducks too, which just made his day :-) We had a great family outing!

1st Birthday Party

James had some family and friends over for dinner over the weekend to celebrate his 1st Birthday. Daddy did a great job getting the house ready and preparing the food! He has enjoyed playing with his toys (he really made out) and can't wait to play with some of them with Mommy this summer (well, she may be just as excited) -- and he'll hopefully fit in his new clothes this summer (shortie) :-) Thanks to all who helped make his 1st Birthday one to remember!!!

I'm One!!!

James had a great 1st Birthday! He celebrated at school with his friends and teachers -- he brought some Puffs to share and they all wore party hats and sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Then at home we made him some dinner and Uncle John came over to visit the Birthday boy. He enjoyed a mashed potato mound "cake" and we put a candle in it to sing Happy Birthday to him -- no still pictures of singing to him but we got it on video. The slide show ends with pictures of James vs. Teddy 12.0 (they were super tough to get)!

Finishing Up His 1st Year!

James had a very eventful 11th month! (WARNING: LOOOONG RUN-ON SENTENCE) It started with an earthquake waking us up in the middle of the night (although James slept right through it), enjoyed being a "Ladies Man" at daycare for his 1st Valentine's Day, he enjoyed watching the Vancouver Winter Olympics, got to visit with Aunt Kristen and her doggies, started officially walking (!), went on a Nebulizer for a couple weeks to get rid of some wheezing (check) and congestion (unfortunately, still there), stood up from sitting without holding on to anything and then walked, helped celebrate the Liszka's 30th Birthdays, met his Great Uncle Tom, started to say "ma ma" again :-), loves to make silly noises to get Mommy & Daddy to laugh, stayed home with Uncle John & Bailey while Mom & Dad went out to dinner, met Great Aunt Cindy Shaw, enjoyed singing and dancing while playing musical instruments at school, have learned how to blow kisses (MWAH), learned how to wave "bye-bye" and to signal "Homerun" (we're still working on consistency with this trick), helped Daddy fix Gma Chele's computer, went to Pump It Up to celebrate Abby & Bella's birthdays (so much fun), met the newest Grimaudo family addition, Jack, a 3-yr old German Sheperd rescue that Aunt Jen & Uncle Dom adopted, learned how to bang on the back of the bookshelf at school to wake up all the babies sleeping (trouble maker) and painted at school with bubble wrap and fly swatters!!!! (Again, sorry for the run-on, I just wrote everything from his calendar since my last post).
Busy busy busy but oh so much fun!!! We haven't been for his official 1-year doctor appointment just yet, but at a check-up last week from the congestion, he finally hit the 20lb mark (with clothes on)! He's staying right on his growth line for weight (height is too hard to measure by yourself in the dr. office).
We have had such an amazing first year watching James grow and learn and explore the world around him -- we cannot wait to see what Year 2 brings us!!! We love you, Bug!!!

James v. Teddy 10.0

Month 10 Teddy vs. James was even harder to get caught on camera than last month! We had to get creative and use the car to stage the picture:-)

Lookin' good in that Blackhawks outfit, Bug!

I got this pic of James v. Easton (size-up) in case I couldn't get one with Teddy :-)

Month 9 was very exciting as James got to celebrate his first Christmas and New Years! He got really good at cruising along the furniture and causing all the trouble he could :-)

Christmas 2009.05 and 2009.06

We headed down to Indy for the long holiday weekend. On Wednesday, Uncle Larry, Aunt Kristen and Maddie came over to see James, they just couldn't wait to see our cute Bug! Maddie was so excited to see her cousin and how he's grown and Uncle Larry had to stop and get him some biting biscuits and yummy wagon wheels to enjoy. Christmas Eve led us to Sharon's house (Brian's mom or Cassie's future mother-in-law) for some food and football. James was very thankful for the "touchdown" football pillow that Sharon got him -- so cute and very "boy!"
Christmas day we hung out waiting for everyone to make their way over to GG & Pops' house (one of the few times we couldn't be late somewhere recently since we were staying there, hehe). We ate dinner and made Maddie sweat it until we got to opening presents (she had all the presents sorted by the time we finished eating dinner). Story of the holiday: James was spoiled rotten by GG, Pops, Great Grammy, Uncle Larry, Aunt Kristen, Maddie, Aunt Cassie and Uncle Brian...he loved seeing everyone and all the attention he got (especially from Maddie, he loves her so much). Some fun milestone memories from the week that weren't related to Christmas per se :: James climbing all the way up the stairs for the first time -- all by himself, too -- James finding Charlie's doggie crate and exploring it (he doesn't have access to Easton's usually) -- James' first bath while not being in the toddler tub (quite an interesting experience as GG got in the tub with her bathing suit on to accomplish this major feat -- he's a squirm worm)!

Above :: the Gross Family Christmas picture
Below :: Montalbano's 1st Christmas as a family of three :-)

James with his favorite cousin, Maddie.

A slide show of our time in Indy :-)

Christmas 2009.04

Wednesday morning we had our own first family Christmas celebration at home. Santa brought James some clothes, socks and a couple small toys. Mommy got James some awesome Cubbies gear and Daddy got James some ucky White Sox gear (can you tell who writes these blogs :-) the one outfit is actually really cute though, I'll give him that). James also made out like a bandit with a brand new wagon from Daddy & Mommy! He loves it and keeps going back to it to pull up on it and try to lift the seats up and/or teethe on it :-) I've taken him on a few trips around the house, it keeps him happy for awhile! James got Easton a new bone too, what a happy puppy!

Christmas 2009.03

On Tuesday, we travelled back to Gma Chele's house to celebrate Christmas with her, John and Bailey. We got to bring Easton along so he could meet Duncan and Nanuq (John and Bailey's dogs). It was a very nice night, which, of course, resulted in James being nothing but spoiled by everyone!

Christmas 2009.01 and 2009.02

James is fortunate enough to have lots of family and friends to celebrate Christmas with this season. The first celebration was with the Montalbano-Schillinger-Moffat clan at Gma Chele's house. Of course, James was the center of attention and very much spoiled by everyone! Below :: James was very excited for the Christmas season to begin! Also included in the slideshow are pictures from James exchanging gifts with our neighbors - we found a cool looking game (possible sister-throw-down motive though) and they got him a really cute toy tool box...perfect for a little boy.

Meeting Santa

James went over to his friend Katie's house to meet Santa! It was the first meeting for both of them...they did OK but neither of them were overly smiley that morning (usually that's James' best time of day). We had a great time sharing this experience with Katie's family and meeting her Papa too ;-)