First Buggy Ride

James got to take his first ride in the buggy today at school :-) I walked in to pick him up just as they were starting...he looked at me, smiled big, kept biting his fingers and then wanted to keep on moving. One of the support teachers took them around the center and read them some books and they sang songs and played the drums. You can tell he's the smallest in the picture -- three of the other kids are actually in the toddler room above him -- both teachers needed to clean their rooms up and it was easier w/o the kids in the room -- especially crazy mobile James crawling around pounding on his younger, less mobile friend's faces (poor kids, I promise he really likes you, that's why he keeps attacking you, he's just exploring). His teacher also said he's pulling himself up on to his knees very often -- he really liked going over to the window to watch the big kids playing outside. She also said he's taking the books and "reading" them, actually flipping pages and everything. Another first today (not surprising since he started climbing yesterday), he went down the slide by himself -- head first on his belly -- don't worry, he was fine as his teacher caught him before he landed :-) Silly boys -- no fear!

Climbing Stairs

So today brought a new milestone with it (that's 2 in 2 days)! James climbed the 3 stairs on the climber at day care! He did it several times throughout the day and got up to the platform each time (thank goodness he didn't try to figure out the slide on his own) :-)

Here's his report for the day: "James has been on the climber several times today. He is moving around so quick. He made it up 3 stairs to the top of the climber."

Here's a picture of the climber:

Here's what happens when a little boy plays so hard all day...he took over an hour nap in the afternoon and was still asleep when I came to pick him up.

I'm guessing there may be a 3rd milestone this week too -- poor James has a very very red booty -- could have a tooth on the way (he woke up a couple nights this week and the teething ointment seemed to help get him back to sleep). Can't wait to see what the next few days have in store for James!

Pulling Himself Up

Here is James' Teacher Comments from his daycare report card today: "James had a great day today. He has been very mobile. James even pulled himself up onto the toy push car and half-stood :-) He was able to get down safely on his own." Miss Erika said she got a picture of him pulling himself up too for his milestones binder! She also got a picture of him pulling himself up on to the first stair of the climber (he REALLY wants to slide down that slide). Some other things he's been doing lately at daycare include: reading books (he really likes the tag books), playing with the different plastic foods and animals, kicking his crib when he's playing and when he's mad (may be a soothing thing like the kids who bang their heads on the mattress to soothe themselves) and beating up on his smaller friends (he's really quick and the first mover out of that group so sometimes gets to them before his teachers can catch him -- and he hasn't quite learned "gentle" yet and goes straight for their eyes I guess -- something to work on) :-)

When he got home we managed to catch it on video :-) Before I had the camera out he actually pulled himself up to full-on standing -- he's just like, yeah, I've soooo got this, ain't no thang, why wasn't I going this earlier? He also pulled himself up to his knees and was shaking what his momma gave him to the music in the commercials -- maybe we'll have a youtube hit sometime ourselves, hehe :-) Just shy of 8 months....he's gonna be trouble (but we're so proud of him)!

Halloween 2009

Aunt Kiki came up for the weekend to see her nephew's first Halloween and hang out with us. It's always great to see family -- I sure miss them! Kristen brought her two dogs, Callie (blonde) and Dutch (black lab) with her to play with Easton -- he thought he was in puppy Heaven, he had sooo much fun! Dutch was jealous of the attention Kris was giving James so he kept trying squeeze himself in between them.

Dutch was a bit wide still for James to take a puppy ride on him, but it worked for a few minutes :-)

James is not at all afraid of big dogs (which is good), he just kept right on playing as Dutch decided he wanted to get to Kristen on the couch and literally was standing over him.

Our 2nd lil' puppy dog! He was OK with being in the outfit for the first time but was NOT happy about being stuffed in there a 2nd-3rd and 4th time, hehe. He can still fit in 3-6 months clothes (he's 7.5) but this 0-9 month outfit was definitely on the small side! Another week and I'm not sure I could have crammed him in there! Maybe he went through a huge growth spurt? We can only hope for our peanut!

A self-picture of Mommy and her puppy dog :-)

We put another hat on James to keep his head warm because it was pretty chilly at only about 45 degrees (and to help keep his puppy ears up in place) and then we stuck him in the stroller to walk around the neighbors and show them our Bug all dressed up. He looked so bundled up and reminded us of Ralphie's little brother (Randy?) from "A Christmas Story" -- "I can't put my arms down!" -- all you saw were his big brown eyes :-)

Caleb was a skunk this year -- he lives down the street to the left and is 9 days younger than James -- we'll have to get lots of embarrassing pictures of them when they are little so we can bust them out at high school graduation :-)

Caleb's older brother, Luke (2.5 yrs), was a train conductor -- he had the whistle and everything!
Down the street the other way is Mason. He was a lion for Halloween but was already out of his costume by the time we got around to their house. Mason is gonna be a big brother in February!

We caught up with our neighbors and got a group photo. Bella (2.5 yrs) is a frog and Abby (4.5 yrs) is a witch. Abby has the "smile and look amazingly cute for the camera" thing down-pat, doesn't she?!?

Katie came down after her nap to see James so they could get a picture of them both all dressed up. Her mom said she's either a dragon fly or a butterfly -- some kind of a fly -- well, whatever it is, it's adorable! James was NOT happy to be back in his costume here but Katie was quite photogenic...and Yes, Katie really is that much taller than him :-) (well, the picture is a bit deceiving as James is all slouched, but she's got a good inch or two on him I think).

Pumpkin Carving

We spent last Wednesday night (10/28) carving out our pumpkins for Halloween. James got to get in on the action with some new sensory exploration -- he loves to pat the outside of the cool pumpkins but wasn't so sure about the goopy middle :-)
James' little hand almost got lost in all the goopiness (the seeds were great).
James' facial expression as he touched the goop.

I was so stoked with how our first pumpkin turned out!!! It was a team effort: James was going to be a puppy dog for Halloween, I suggested a dog for the pumpkin design, Jimmy found the pattern, I drew it, Jimmy carved it. We ended up with one great Blue (from "Blue's Clues). Good family project and with no fighting! Woo Hoo!
Pumpkin #2 was free-handed -- we all had input but Jimmy did all the carving and overall design -- I added the funny ears :-) Pretty successful first pumpkin carving for the Montalbano's!

One Sick House

It's been a couple weeks now and I think I'm finally caught up on things at home and school (well, as "caught up" as I'll ever be anyway). Two weeks ago I got sick on Sunday and it ended up being the flu -- it was pretty horrible...+103 fever, aches, seal cough, runny nose...the works. I had Jim look up if we could market "I Survived the Swine, 2009" T-shirts, but someone beat me to it. Then James stayed home Monday with us (Jimmy already had the day off but changed it to a sick day to take care of James and I) because he was coughing so hard he couldn't keep his bottle down. He went to day care Tuesday, only to be sent home with a 102 fever. Well, when the doctor found out that I had tested positive for the Influenza A, she decided it was a good idea to treat James for the flu too (that stuff is expensive)! Both of our fevers broke and we were on the mend.
We didn't get too many smiles out of James that whole week -- but he was still willing to play around for a little bit.

Then Tuesday night into Wednesday Jim spiked a fever. I made him go to the urgent care Wednesday when he hadn't heard from his doctor all day to see if he could get a script for Tamiflu since I was sick with the flu...ends up that was a blessing because he had Strep, not the flu. Luckily, James was already on amoxicillin for a possible sinus infection to combat that...so we don't know who the original carrier of the flu and/or strep was (I was negative for strep) but needless to say, we had a realllly long week!

Jimmy is all better, James is still coughing but it's just from his sinus infection and my flu turned in to a sinus infection, so I'm still coughing but MUCH better.
All this sick stuff can just stay away for the rest of time, thank you very much!

James and the Giant...Pumpkin

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