Fun outdoors

Since we got back from the beach, James and Daddy have been trying to find fun outdoor activities that we can try, when the weather permits.  James had so much fun at the beach that Daddy figures he will probably like exploring other terrains.  Our yard is the most frequent outdoor exploration spot, and James does enjoy walking around out there.  He takes small steps, so we still haven't explored the whole yard.  For a little variety, we try to take advantage of the various parks around here.  There's a big state park, Fort Yargo, that's just a few miles away.  It's free on Wednesdays, so we occasionally go for nature walks out there.  It's a lot of jungle and swamp and not much grass, though, so James does more riding than walking there.  Close to Mommy's school is another little park (the name eludes me) that is just a few picnic tables, some trees, and a grassy hill.  James enjoys that one tremendously; the hill is not very steep, but steep enough to make walking interesting.  The pictures here are from a park that's close to our old townhouse in Duluth (the park is actually in neighboring Suwanee); it's a longer drive, but it's a great park.  The round, grassy area in the middle is bigger than a football field, so even if there are a lot of people there we can find somewhere to walk safely.  This particular morning, the park was not crowded at all; school has recently started back, so most kids were otherwise occupied.  James has continued to improve his walking ability, and he walked halfway across the park with no help from Daddy.  He stopped several times to pick up leaves, however.  He loves the leaves.  He will pick up one leaf and carry it around until he spots another good one, then he will put the first leaf down on the ground beside the new leaf, and compare the two.  After a few seconds, he will choose one of the leaves, pick it up, and continue walking.  This makes the walk across the park take a little longer, but for James, it adds to the fun.  As Tolkien said, not all who wander are lost.   What Tolkien did not say was that not all who wander wear pants.  Daddy usually tries to keep his boy decent in public, but we had a little diaper incident and had to go to the backup outfit seen here.  James did not let that spoil his fun, though; he does not share his father's need for pants.  

This is one of James's favorite leaves.  This one made it through several elimination rounds, but eventually James found another favorite.  Unfortunately that favorite was a discarded cigarette.  Daddy had to put the camera down and intervene at that point.   We (well, Daddy) decided that it was time to visit the best part of the Suwanee park, the fountain. 
This is a great fountain, all on ground level so kids (and sometimes fathers) can run through it.  I just discovered that clicking on the picture makes it bigger, which is helpful here - the camera didn't go into the fountain with us, so it's a little far away.   James wanted to go into the fountain solo, but Daddy didn't want to be left behind, so he held onto James's hand.  The spot where we are standing in the above picture is one of the fountains that goes up and down; James loved this.  The water would diminish and disappear, and he would squat down and stare at the spout until the water came out again.  Then he would stand up as the fountain got higher, and stick his hand out to block it when it went past his head.  This made water splash everywhere, which was really exciting.  James spent quite a while at this spot.  We also walked over to the big, constantly-flowing part of the fountain that is at the right edge of the picture, but it was a little too much water for James.  Sticking his hand out didn't do much to slow it down.  He will probably like it a little more when he's a bit taller, and pesky Daddy isn't holding his hand.  We had lots of fun, though, and we'll probably make this a regular outdoor activity as long as the weather is warm.  

This is not in any way related to fun outdoors, but James is having a good time, so we'll show it anyway.  I believe it is green beans that is making him so excited.  

Walking everywhere

James is walking on his own a good portion of the time now.  He will sometimes grab a helper to start out, but then he lets go and heads off on his own.  Daddy still holds onto his hand when we're walking outside or on a hard floor, but that's more Daddy's choice than James's.

What language is this?

James does this weird thing all day now. I hope it's his way of exploring his new teeth, and not the manifestation of a nefarious mutant superpower. Or he could be talking to snakes, like Harry Potter and Voldemort can do. Whatever it is, I'm getting him a costume with a cape.

Update on James

No pictures this time, because we're on a different computer. But as long as internet access is available, we will use it.

James has been walking all over the place. He prefers to walk with a buddy, holding onto their finger with one hand and carrying something to chew on in the other. We walk all around the house like that during the day, and occasionally we go out into the yard and walk around in the grass. Yesterday, we went to the Falcons training camp to see them practice. James didn't care too much about the football practice (although Sam Baker's beard was impressive), but he loved the facilities there. Beside the practice field there is a grassy hill where spectators sit, and James walked and crawled around on it for almost an hour. He would have run around longer, but the practice ended and we had to go home. Falcons practice isn't open to the public anymore, so we'll have to find another grassy hill pretty soon.

James is also improving his independent walking. Today he walked across the living room - eighteen steps - without holding onto anything. After that, Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Auntie Erin sat on the floor and James walked between us for a while. He is doing quite well with his walking technique, and he has learned to steady himself with his arms. Previously he would just flop down on his bum when he started to lose his balance. He is getting more confident in his solo walking abilities, but he still likes to hold onto a finger most of the time.

A second tooth has revealed itself. Both are bottom teeth, so he's probably not ready for corn on the cob yet. But neither tooth caused him much pain when it came out, so hopefully he won't have any problems with the rest of them.

We'll try to get some pictures and videos posted soon.

James has a tooth!

James's first tooth broke through this week.  It's hard to see in the picture, but trust me, it's there.  It's on the bottom, slightly to his right side.  He has been drooling and chewing on things for months now, but the tooth didn't want to come out.  Now that the first one is here, we expect more to follow shortly.  Then we'll all eat corn on the cob together.

James has been working on his walking skills.  He is now an expert at walking while pushing his wheeled toys (he did about 40 laps around the coffee table yesterday), and is very good at walking while holding on to someone's hands (fingers, actually).  He is comfortable enough with this now that he will hold on just with one hand, and carry something to chew on in the other hand.  Daddy gets a lot of exercise (though not much sleep) with James's walking practice.  Though he usually wants to hold onto someone or something,  James has taken up to seven independent steps without touching anything.  Mommy and Daddy sat opposite each other on the floor and helped James walk between us.  One of us would turn him in the right direction and help him steady himself, then let go and let him walk to the outstretched arms of the other person.  He was a little wobbly, but he got better and better at it, finally making it seven steps without falling.  And even when he fell, he enjoyed it tremendously - he landed on his diaper-padded bum on a carpeted floor, so that was fun too.  

This newfound mobility means Daddy has to keep a very close eye on James now, even more than before.  Previously he was hard to keep up with, but I could always assume he was on the floor somewhere.  Now, however, he is learning to climb.  That means Daddy has to watch for vertical threats as well as horizontal ones.  We discovered his new desire to climb last weekend, when he tried to scale the wall of his kennel (see previous blog entries for explanation of 'kennel').  What he once saw as a barrier, he now sees as a challenge.  This morning, he learned how to climb onto the coffee table.  He did quite well (with Daddy spotting), but he didn't really know what to do once he got up there.  So now we are working on our climbing-down technique.  Hopefully James will learn this quickly; right now he's willing to let gravity handle that part of it.  Daddy, however, is not.  

James's tooth isn't visible in the following picture either, but it was a really good picture so Daddy thought it should go on the blog.