Dance, Dance

 (Yep, I totally stole both these things from Amy's blog)

Over Thanksgiving, my entire family was together for the first time in nearly a year and a half. Of course, to celebrate the occasion, my good mother insisted we have family photos taken.

To get the two little guys to smile, we all did our best to entertain them, only little Jamers ended up entertaining us instead. Check out his dance moves. I sure do love this boy.

I broke the binky?

We did it.

I vowed to get James off his binky by the time he turned two and I did (of course Brian made me be the bad guy). I was so terrified of it for so long but I knew it had to be done so I finally bit the bullet. All I can say is, as with all transitions in this kid's life, it wasn't all rainbows and daisies, but it wasn't the nightmare I suspected it would be either.

Naps were rough for awhile but less than a month later and we are back on track for the most part. Hallelujah!

Oddly enough, the week "the binky broke" was "Put down the Pacifier" week at Sesame Street. Just thought I'd share that tidbit.

And for anyone who is curious, this is the method we used.

Happy Birthday So Much to You!

Our little rascal turns TWO-years-old tomorrow. Man, how time flies.

While we were in Utah my mom spoiled him with a birthday party complete with a truck cake and presents from his aunts (we were sorry Uncle Rob had to go back to Sweden so soon, but so glad his Aunt Lorena and cousins got to stay).

One of my favorite things James says these days is "Thank you so much to you!" We love this kid more than we could ever articulate. Most people say things like "I can't believe our baby is two." But, I can definitely believe it. I feel like James been part of our lives forever and can hardly comprehend what life was like without him.

Thank you, Jamers, for providing so much joy and happiness to our lives. You are one loved kid.

Kids these days . . .

This little pipsqueak has a hard time sitting still. That's a major understatement even. While I certainly know that I survived my childhood without such luxuries, I'm sure glad we've got an iPad to keep this little guy entertained.  Without it, I don't think we'd be able to go out to eat for at least 10 more years (Brian has issues getting a babysitter . . . tell me about it, I know). It worked like a charm tonight. He was up and down and crawling all over the place until we pulled this baby out. He didn't make a peep and barely moved a muscle the rest of the night. Lovely.

Fall Randomness

I know just posting pictures of your kids and "what we've been up to" posts are totally boring and no one really gives a hoot, but here I go anyway.

James' grandma sent him a backpack for his upcoming trip to Utah. James loves the thing and carries it around all over and likes to tote his blocks around in it. This isn't the best picture of it or him, but whatever . . .

He's really in to wearing his Dad's (okay, anyone else's) shoes and hats. Most mornings consist of him wandering to our shoe pile in the hallway (every time I clean that up it always comes back) and then to his dad's hats in the bedroom. By the end of the day we've got shoes and hats all over the house.

Earlier last month, we visited a pumpkin "patch" with some of our favorite Knoxville people. It wasn't much of a pumpkin patch, but James loved the animals, the friends, running outside, oh, and the goldfish I bribed him with to stay happy.

 

Today after Brian got home from work, I heard them laughing in James' room. I walked in to find them laying on the floor with their heads under the crib and James' toy tools in hand. Apparently they were pretending they were working on a car. Boys will be boys. It made me smile.

A minute later, Brian's 5 a.m. start day caught up with him and he was using James as a pillow to sleep. James didn't mind one bit and kept carrying on fixing the "car."

One of James favorite things to play with these days is baking products. His very favorite is flour. I usually have to hide it from him, because as you can see, he loves to make messes by dumping one cup of flour into a bowl and then back and forth again and again and again . . .

This morning, he found the flour, chocolate pudding mix and cinnamon sticks and had at it. When he first started his "baking" projects, my first thought was to freak out, but then I caved because you're only little once and he's just so happy playing with it (and it actually occupies him for more than 5 minutes, which is rare for this kid) that I don't mind cleaning up the mess.

James is pointing at the oven here because I had just put some pumpkins in to cook and they were making a weird whistling sound. It kinda scared me, too, James. Don't worry.

Speaking of pumpkins, I made these scrumptious pumpkin cookies today (with browned butter/caramel frosting, I might add) for a church/service project thing and I have to say, they were some of the tastiest pumpkin treats I've made in awhile.

Oh, and we really do put pants on our kid. He just prefers to be naked and usually kicks them off himself.