Football

I remembered the other story that I wanted to share yesterday... As we were leaving daycare yesterday, there were some boys playing football in the street.  James LOVED watching them play for a little while but then his mean old Mommy made him get in the car.  James starting throwing a fit (and I couldn't figure out why... until we starting driving.)  James kept saying, "ball, ball" and I thought that he wanted a ball from the car.  Until I finally asked, "Do you want to play football with the boys?"  That's when I got the "YES!!!"  I explained to James that he could play football with the other boys when he got a little bigger and that his Daddy used to play football in the street with his friends.  James seemed pleased with that answer and we were good!  I was just so surprised that James wanted to play with the older boys so much! 
Another potty update... James has been asking to go to the bathroom each morning when I change his diaper and each night either before or after bathtime... and been successful!!!  We got 2 poo-poos and 3 pee-pees in the potty today!!!  I have to remember to be patient and let James be in charge (it's just so hard to do!) 
Anyway, guess that's about all for now!  We have a few more things to do to get ready for Christmas then time to enjoy the holidays with the family!!!!  I can't wait!!!  And, I can't wait for James to get to open his presents on Saturday! 

Ugh... mess!

Tonight, right before bedtime, James was playing with his Mr. Potato head and putting all the pieces back in the potato's behind (the storage place for all the pieces).  After putting most of the pieces in, he turned over the potato to get another piece out of a whole and all the pieces fell out of the behind.  It was so cute because James said, "Ugh... mess!"  I loved it!!!! 

I got brave!

Okay, I got brave and decided to move James.  His hips started sliding off the bed a little and I was fearful that he would fall out of the bed so I moved him.  He woke up and fussed momentarily but thankfully went right back to sleep!  Whew!

Naptime

It was so cute this afternoon... James went down for a nap which meant he played/read/kicked the wall for 20 minutes, then sat at the edge of his bed and sucked his thumb because he did not want to go to bed.  Finally, he laid his head down on the bed, with the rest of him still sitting at the edge of the bed and fell asleep.  Thus, he is sleeping soundly completely folded in half!!!  I am tempted to move him but don't want to risk waking him up!  I guess it's true, if they are tired enough, they will fall asleep anywhere!

Potty Update

After Josh's class up in Reno last week, he had to make a short trip down to SoCal Wednesday-Friday for a sales class.  I think he really enjoyed being with his former co-workers for a few days and getting to catch up with many of them.  He said they spent most of the time trying to convince him to come back to SoCal (with no luck thankfully!)  It was very cute to talk to him one night as he told me about his co-worker who potty trained their children in three days by just putting them in underwear and changing lots of clothes until they got it.  He was so cute to hear the exitement in Josh's voice about the idea and him wanting to try it.  Well, James had been doing so well with going in the potty that we decided to give it a try on Sunday... after 1/2 day, we gave up!  The accidents weren't as bad as I expected but James was starting to resist sitting on the potty.  Not a response I was looking for!  So, we decided to give it up completely for a while.  Well, tonight after his bath, James asked to go to the bathroom and was successful!!!!  Maybe we are still going somewhere with this after all!!!!  I guess I just have to be patient. 

James also got to watch his first movie today!  As we were leaving Walmart, he saw a "choo-choo" movie in the Redbox and got very excited about it!  Since he had been such a good boy, I tried getting it for him but they were sold out so we made a little trip over to Raley's to get the movie.  It was great to use it as bribery for good behavior for the rest of the morning of errands.  His attention span was only about 30 minutes but it was cute to see how enthralled he was in the movie and also very interesting to see that he was scared at certain points.  I loved getting to snuggle with him on the couch while we watched his movie! 

I guess that's about all for now.  I know there are so many more stories I want to write about but I can't remember them because it's too late.  Hope everyone is doing well!  Happy Holidays and love to all!

More random stuff...

I think James has been spending too much time with Auntie Mich... all he wants to do now is wash his hands!!!  Mommy goes potty... James needs to wash his hands, Mommy changes a diaper... James needs to wash his hands, James sees the sink... James needs to wash his hands!!!  Thankfully, the cloth diaper trash can is directly in front of the sink so James can stand on that himself and reach the sink.  The challenge is to stop washing our hands and leave the bathroom!!! 

And I am thinking that James is wanting to spend a little more time with Uncle Doug!  James loves his "Good Night California" book and on the front page of that book is a little man running on the beach.  Anytime we see the little man, James says, "Go Dugk, Go Dugk!!!"  It is so cute because he will say it about 20 times before he can go onto the next page!  Luckily we get to say hi to Uncle Doug for a few minutes this weekend and then see him a few more times before he goes back to school! 

The text message I got from Josh was so cute today... A little info first, Josh is very busy at work this week with a class in Reno on Tuesday evening and a class in SoCal on Thursday so he got to see James on Monday night and won't see him again until Friday night.  That's a long time!  Anyway, I got a text message from Josh today saying that he was glad that James woke up in the middle of the night last night because it meant that he got to see him more!  So sweet!  Then tonight, Josh kept calling us (I didn't hear the phone), then finally texted me to call him because he wanted to say good night to James.  It was so cute to hear them have their little conversation on the phone and hear James say, "Night Daddy!"  It seems like an eternity ago that James was just a little baby!  It is so much fun to have him be a little toddler and voice his opinion about everything! 

Anyway, I'm just loving spending time with James and loving this age!!!  My only problem is all the fun stuff that I want to do with him before the new little guy comes and only so much time!  I can't wait for maternity leave so I can stay home more!  Hope everyone is doing well!  Love to all!!!

Napless!!!!

Unfortunately, we had a little potty training set back today... This morning James had the toilet seat fall on his fingers (ouch!!!!) so he wanted nothing to do with the potty, then we went to our friends' house who had tikis in their bathroom which James was very scared of, then we missed naptime so we were very cranky!  Oh well, he at least tried twice today so we'll just keep trying! 

So as far as that napless day... on our way home from our playdate today, James fell asleep in the car.  Great, I'll just transfer him to the bed and get lots of stuff done in my two hours... NOT!!!  When I put James in his bed, he woke up and was done with his nap after the 5 minutes in the car!  We tried a variety of things to return to sleep but to no avail!  Yikes!!!  Luckily, we made it through the rest of the day without too many meltdowns and went to bed VERY quickly! 

James has decided that he is a big boy today!  I was trying to put a few things away in the baby's room... while vacuuming James decided to unlock the back door and open it to let Captain in!  Guess it's time to get a taller lock!  James also decided he was big enough to climb the 6 foot ladder by himself!!!  Luckily I was right next to him for that one (just in case!)  I was also very impressed at our friend's house today when James was able to follow a novel two-step command.  I asked him to find the two balls he had been playing with before lunch (which were in various rooms) and put them in the little microwave (which was inside a little house).  Sorry, I know it's nerdy but I thought that it was really cool that he was able to follow all of that accurately! 

Okay, off the bed for me!  It's way too late as always but I did get a double batch of chocolate chip cookies and a double batch of mint chocolate chip cookes cooked tonight... a good start but still lots of Christmas baking to do!!!!  Hope everyone is having a great December!!! 

So proud...

I am so proud of my little man!!!  He has gone pee-pee and poo-poo in the potty TWICE today and NO poo-poo's in the diaper!!!!  This morning as I was changing his night time diaper, he told me that he had to go potty.  He rarely ever goes that early in the morning so I didn't think that it was going to be successful but IT WAS!!!!  When I decided that I better change his diaper before naptime, he asked to go again and was successful again!!!  I was so surprised and so proud of him!  He then informed me that it was nigh-nigh time and crawled in his bed with a book.  What a big boy he is becoming!!! 
I am also quite proud because he has decided that he is going to nap with the big kids at daycare.  He has always slept in a pack-n-play at daycare and starting last week he asked to sleep on the couch instead.  And, he actually fell asleep on the couch all three days with the other kiddos napping in the room too!  What a big boy!  I guess this is perfect timing to allow the new baby to use the pack-n-play when traveling.  Next step... teach James how to sleep on/in his sleeping bag! 
Anyway, guess that's about all for now.  I need to take advantage of the time James is asleep to get a few things done... laundry, Christmas gift wrapping, etc., etc., etc.!  Josh is busy painting the baby's room which will hopefully be almost done tonight!!!  Can't wait to get the furniture out of the office and back into the baby's room!  Love to all!!!

Potty time!!!!

I decided that it would be much easier to have only one in diapers instead of two come April, thus I decided that James should learn how to use the big boy potty!  He has gone a few times in the past few days but it's usually because I catch him in the act and try to rush him to the potty before he is done.  Well, today at daycare James went potty in the big boy potty!!!!  One of the little girls was going potty and James went over and said poo-poo.  The little girl told Desiree and Desiree helped James to poo-poo!!!  So exciting!!!!  Then tonight before bathtime, James stood on his stool at the potty as always but actually went in the toilet this time!!!!!!  So excited for my little guy!!!  (And for Mommy and Daddy of course for not having to change as many dirty diapers!)  I am just hoping that it sticks because I have heard of so many friends' kiddos who potty trained, then un-potty trained for a few months.  Keeping my fingers crossed! 

Pictures

Well, it appears that my new really easy way of uploading pictures to the blog isn't so effective after all!  I will try to repost everything with the appropriate pictures sometime!  Bummer!!!!

Monday Fun with Uncle Gary

James is lucky enough to have a wonderful Auntie and Uncle who live close by and don't work on Mondays.  This means that James gets to hang out with said Auntie and Uncle when Mommy needs to pick up an extra shift at work.  A few cute pictures from a few weeks ago...

James and Uncle Gary drawing 

My you have a big hand there!!!

Learning how to play the guitar.  It's a good thing there is at least one person in the family with some musical talents to teach James! 

Enjoying listening to "Gee" play the guitar. 

Trick or Treat

James went trick or treating for the first time with some neighbor friends.  He made it about 20 houses but only went up to about 10 houses.  He actually became quite shy... I know, my son, shy?!?!?! 

San Diego Trip Pics

Better late than never... Here are a few cute pictures from our San Diego/LA trip in October.


James teaching his cousin Sophia how to play with her floor gym.  So cute to see the two of them lying on the floor together playing! 

Auntie Sarah with Cousin Sophia and silly Uncle Scott!

James and Daddy on the plane ride home.  James having his own seat is SOOO much easier than sharing but still not quite worth the cost of the extra seat until we have to!   

Quick Arnold Trip

Again, can't move the picture... I'll have to figure that out sometime but I did figure out a much easier way to upload pictures so you may be seeing more pictures on here!  Michelle convinced James and I to make a quick trip up to the cabin on the Monday evening/Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  A few quick pictures... James LOVES to dance!  Above is one of his stellar moves!!! 

James's favorite new word... "bite".  He had to take a few dancing breaks to help Papa with his oatmeal.  (And anyone else who dared bring food near James!)

A beautiful picture of the dock and lake near Mom and Dad's cabin.  Did I mention that Michelle and Gary got an awesome new camera that is so much fun to play with!?!??!  I'm sure you will be seeing lots more pictures lately because of it!

My little cutie pie bundled up in the swing!

Going down the slide with "Mich!"  We have about 50 more like this because using the continuous mode while going down the slide was so much fun! 

Gaga and little Jamers!  So cute!!!

As we walked home from the lake, James noticed some older boys playing hockey in front of their cabin and became facinated!  He couldn't take his eyes off them! 

It was so interesting that James decided to sit right down to watch them play.  The only problem was that his sitting location happened to be in the middle of the street!  The boys were sweet enough to let James hit the puck once with their stick. 

James and his beloved Papa! 

A cool picture of the cabin.  Again, did I mention the cool new camera?!?!? 

We had a great time and can't wait to go back!!! 

Thanksgiving 2011

I can't figure out how to move that picture down so we are just going to have to start here.  We got to celebrate Thanksgiving at our house this year with lots of wonderful family and friends.  Here are a few cute pictures...  The one above is of James hamming it up for the camera!

James and Uncle Gary hanging out and enjoying a snack.  Having a toddler who can reach the appetizer table and loves to eat makes the day much more interesting!

James teaching Uncle Doug how to hang out on the couch and watch football!  As James would say, "GO, GO, GO!!!" 

Hey, Josh and I actually took a cute picture together!  Maybe Michelle and Gary's awesome new camera had something to do with it! 

The crew enjoying some great conversation after dinner!

Mommy and Michellie being cute! 

Thanks everyone for a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!

Christmas Tree 2011

On the Friday morning after Thanksgiving, the whole family made the trek up to Rapetti Farms in Apple Hill to find the perfect Christmas tree for this year!  And, we found it, at least a pretty darn good one!  Here are a few cute pictures from the trip...

James helping Michelle navigate the rough road!

James taking the tree in to be paid for!

It appears that James is happy to play with anyone's ear while sucking his thumb!  Even Uncle Doug's crinkled ones work!

A little family picture.

The whole family!!!  Love having everyone together!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!