Climbing Stairs

James has been climbing the stairs since before Christmas and I finally got around to getting it on video. This clip doesn't do his speed justice as he was at the top already and was distracted by the camera -- Jim timed him and James can get all the way up in 20 seconds! I was reading somewhere that the average age for climbing stairs is 18 months...CHECK that off at 7.5 months! I'm guessing it's talking about standing and walking up them, but he's been doing that at daycare now for a couple of weeks -- the stairs there are a little more kid friendly w/ the height, but he'll stand and walk up the stairs on the climber. He also used the banister to help himself step up Jen & Dominic's stairs last weekend -- what a little stinker!

Weekend Pictures

Above :: James was not happy that I went outside to try and take his picture in the morning...he was being so cute playing on the door and watching Easton while basking in the warm sun, I had to try
Below :: Aunt Kristen came for a long President's Weekend visit -- it was great to see her and Callie and Dutch (Easton was so happy to see them after his 2 week hiatus from playing post-stomach surgery)

James climbed up into Jimmy's lap to watch some of the Olympics -- I think it was the intense Snowboarding Cross

I love James' hair! It has curled up so nicely and it's super cute -- I think it drives Daddy crazy though. I just can't get myself to get it cut it yet -- I think I'm gonna go with Sheryl's approach and wait until someone (not family) asks me if I have a boy or girl (she just cut Ollie's hair and he's 5 months older than JamesE) -- unless it just gets out of control, of course.

Yes, Walking BEFORE Teeth

James has been working on his walking skillzzz while holding on to furniture (he's gotten extremely quick) and would walk 2-3 steps when we stood him in the middle of the room but yesterday he decided to get really brave. For his school report on Monday 2.15.2010 they wrote "James took a few steps without holding on to any furniture." He then got home and unexpectedly showed us his stuff -- he was holding on to his pack 'n play and then walked straight over to me by the couch -- it took him about 40 steps to cover the 7 feet but he stayed up the whole time with a huge smile on his face as he took his baby toddle steps :-D Both Jim and I got to see it -- IT WAS FANTASTIC! We are both so proud of him! We just kept watching him, amazed and then wondered "why aren't we getting this on video?" so we got it on tape before he stopped for the night! Tuesday 2.16.2010 Ms. E came back from her day off and wrote "James did a lot of walking today. He walked from his crib to the science shelf (about 7 feet again)" -- she was very proud of him, too (and just as caught off guard as us that he just busted out the walk).

Random back track to what James did at school last week:

Monday 2.09.2010 :: "James had a busy day. He was playing with all the baby dolls and on the wavy mat a lot today."

Tuesday 2.10.2010 :: James made a game out of crawling across the room to his friend's crib, trying to play with him, and then his teacher would move James away so he didn't wake his friends up -- she'd turn around and James would use his super speed demon crawl to go try to wake his friend up again -- all with a smile on his face -- what a stinker!

Thursday 2.11.2010 :: Ms. D came to see James today -- he crawled over to her and then psyched her out by turning his back to her instead of hugging her like usual. Then when she shook/pointed her finger at him and said "James, are you being a stinker?" he pointed and shook his finger back at her with a big smile on his face :-) HA, sooo funny -- the teachers said they all about lost it laughing so hard at our little goof ball.

TOUCHDOWN!!!

James will also randomly do "Touchdown!" or "How big's James?!?" He just started it one day, he must have picked it up at school because we haven't really been pushing it too much. He put his hands up for "Touchdown Colts" and put them back down for "Touchdown Bears" (thatta boy)!

Funny Noises

James likes to stick his tongue out and make this silly noise. You can find him doing it randomly throughout the day :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

I put James in his "I heart The Ladies" shirt in honor of Valentine's Day weekend and asked his teachers to try and get some pictures of James with his teachers and friends.
Above :: Ms. D and Ms. C (they call him "their boyfriend"), Ms. E (his main teacher) and his friend, M. -- they tried for a pic w/ him and all the girls in his classroom but they kept scattering once they put everyone together -- and then by the time I got there at the end of the day, he had spit up and had a wardrobe change
Below :: playing with his friend, B. B gives me the BEST smiles when I come in the room and say Hi to him...he's so cuddly! He is about 2 months younger then James, but a solid 6lbs more -- it's awesome.
I was sitting on the floor trying to put James' socks on to go home (he takes them off at school, too, to carry around with him) and all of his friends came to visit. B has just started to pull himself up and was all cuddly and M was trying to get us all to laugh with her dancing. The day before, M kept spinning herself around and around in circles and then would fall over because she was so dizzy -- Ms. E and I were laughing so hard, it was hilarious! M is sooo smart, she's just over a year but has so many words and says "Hi, James" when he comes in to class.

James went over to the bookshelf to play with E (she has the prettiest blue eyes) and I just missed catching them holding (more like touching) hands...I guess they like company while teething on the toys :-)

James' friend, P, really likes to go play with James' car seat while I get his things ready to go home. She was playing there and James crawled over and was pulling down on his bib...she walked over (she just started walking recently) behind him and un-did the Velcro for him so he could take it off -- what a good buddy! It was one of the cutest things I've seen in a long time and made my heart happy that they are such good friends!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S 2010, Love Bug!!!

James vs. Teddy 11.0

Yes, James, that is Teddy's nose :-)

James had a great Month 10! He had a lot of fun playing with his friends at school, went to Indianapolis for a weekend, watched the Colts play in the Super Bowl (he was very sad they lost), went to Indy to see GG & Pops and go to the Indy Christmas party. He can walk 5-6 feet by himself (when he wants to, he much prefers his speed demon crawling techniques), enjoys pointing his finger at people (very E.T.ish), is very good at making all sorts of new noises w/ his mouth/tongue manipulation (his newest: sticking his tongue out and moving it from side-to-side while making noise), has gotten much better at drinking from a sippy cup (although he still only drinks a little bit) and can walk up the stairs on his feet on the climber at day care (he can get all the way up our stairs at home in about 1:30 but has to use his knees to push up, stand, push up). He weighs just over 19lbs now (at least according to the puppy scale we used to weigh him at the emergency vet when Easton had his surgery). He loves to take his socks off (usually the right one) and carry it around like a security blanket -- he cruises along the furniture, carrying the sock and shaking it like crazy. He has started to make it extremely difficult to change his diaper as he tries to roll over and crawl off the changer (thus, I try to give him a bottle to drink as we go through the process). He has gotten really good at going down for a nap and to bed (usually) for me -- we've got the process down pat and are pretty successful most nights. He is still dancing every time he hears music and now claps along with the music too (also another tactic used to get a diaper changed while keeping him from flipping over). He loves to open and close doors and pull his toys and books out of his toy chest. He has become a lot more gentle while playing with Easton (although just last night he was trying to poke his eyes). He has added "ta" to his sounds but dropped the "Hi Mom" and everything is "da da da" (or some variation, there is a difference of his sounds when he is talking about Jim versus talking about Easton). He's grown and learned so much this month, we can't wait to see what he comes up with this last month of his first year! Can't imagine life without him anymore, he's one pretty awesome kiddo if we must say so ourselves! :-)