Two years with James!

James is two years old! We had party #1 last Saturday at our house, and party #2 will be next Sunday in Augusta. Here are two of his presents: the tricycle that lights up and makes all kinds of sounds, and the Georgia Bulldogs shirt.

This is one of the presents that James actually opened himself. He needed a good bit of help opening most of them, not because he couldn't do it, but because he was too easily distracted by all the other stuff going on. Whatever this present was, it clearly impressed both Uncle Dan and Great-Grandma Wallace.
Mommy, Grandma, and Kristin made these Veggietales cakes (Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber) as well as some cupcakes. They were very good, although James is not much of a dessert person. The rest of us enjoyed the cakes, and everyone including James enjoyed the hot dogs and hamburgers that Papa grilled.

Constantly learning

James is a big fan of animals of all kinds, and we play with his little Fisher-Price animal set for several hours every day. Here we see one of his favorite activities: Mommy or Daddy will name an animal, and James will go find it. James is very good at this now; he can tell the difference between the quail and the nightingale better than Daddy can.

Sorry that the sound is so bad on this one; don't know what the problem is.

James has also figured out that his toys are representations of actual animals. He has a young person's encyclopedia with lots of pictures of real animals, and he likes to pick out a toy animal and then find the picture of the same real animal in the book. He's a little annoyed that his encyclopedia doesn't have a picture of a vulture, though. We had to get the 'V' volume of the grown-up encyclopedia and let him see the vulture's picture in there. Along the same lines, he now knows that the little plastic giraffe seen above is the same animal as his big stuffed giraffe, and they are both the same as the giraffe in his puzzle. When he sees the giraffe picture in his encyclopedia, he brings Mommy or Daddy all the various giraffe-related toys. Same for the penguin, the iguana, and the cat (although he usually tries to grab the real-live cat, which doesn't always go too well).

This understanding of symbolism extends to things other than animals, too. He was wearing a shirt with an airplane on it the other day when he saw an airplane in the sky. He pointed to the airplane, then to the picture on his shirt, and said, "plane, plane." Well, it was more like "pay, pay," but we knew what he meant. Also, whenever he sees the University of Georgia-style letter "G", he says "Grandpa!" because Grandpa has a big UGA sign for his car. So apparently he thinks that the "G" stands for Grandpa, and Grandpa has lots of fans. He'll probably think the whole state loves Grandpa once football season starts.

Speaking of football, with no Little Gym classes this summer, James has developed his own training regimen. Here we see him working on his linebacker drills. We prefer it when he uses cushiony furniture for tackling dummies, but he occasionally employs other things like toys, walls, and Daddy.

Who is responsible for this?

I don't know where this came from, but for some reason when James sees a picture of Superman, he says something that sounds a lot like "it's George Bush." Here's an example:

We're not sure if he's talking about 41 or 43, or perhaps the 19th-century Biblical scholar by the same name. Nonetheless, in an effort to remain nonpartisan, we are trying to teach him to say "Dick Cheney" when he sees a picture of Lex Luthor.

Beach Week

Well, two thirds of the Wallace family is recently returned from the eleventh annual Lundberg Family Beach Week Extravaganza, which was, as always, a blast. James and I were the two thirds able to enjoy it. Patrick had to stay here to do his new job at Camp Twin Lakes. So like him to be all altruistic while I'm off "relaxing" (anyone who has been responsible for a toddler in a non-babyproofed house full of people who insist on leaving expensive electronics on the floor knows that the experience is anything but), but that's why I love him. Although we missed him, James, it turns out, loves the beach.

We drove up there with my mom and my cousin Erik, and it took less than three lifetimes, which was an improvement over last year. We were still the last to arrive, so when we got there, my grandfather, father, two uncles, one aunt, two sisters, and one other cousin were already there. Erin's boyfriend Min met us there later in the week, so I suppose we weren't technically the last to arrive. The house we stayed in was great. Its very best feature was that the beachfront porch had a gate that James didn't know how to work, which meant that when we were out there, I could sit down for approximately three seconds. Of course, we didn't spend very much time in the house anyway. James LOVED the ocean, and he wanted to be running around in it the entire time we were there. He ran through the waves, swam (with some assistance) on calmer days, and had a bevy of family members help him jump over the waves. He loved when people would bring their dogs to the beach and he could pet them, and he very much enjoyed stomping down sand castles that the rest of us made. On top of that, he learned all kinds of new things, one of which was blowing bubbles.

The week went by quickly, and James slept very little, but had the Best Time Ever.

When we got back, James eagerly received the gift of a fire truck that Patrick had gotten him, and he learned how to do something vaguely resembling a siren sound.

Another outcome of our trip to the beach was a hunger strike on the part of my twenty-one-month old son. You see, James has never really been a great eater. We have been horrible parents and resorted to letting him watch television while he eats because the dulcet tones of the Veggie Tales and Phineas and Ferb lull him into enough of a stupor that we can shove some food in him without having to hold him down screaming. The plan was that while we were at the beach, we would get him off the television while eating thing. There would be lots of people there, and they would provide enough of a distraction that James would eat there more easily than here, and then, by the time he returned, he would be a champion eater and would scarf anything we put on his plate.

Sadly, that was not to be, and I blame my mother for that. She was helping out the afternoon after we arrived by feeding him lunch. He was, as usual, being difficult and refusing his food, and my mother, whose intentions are always noble, knew that I would be upset if he didn't eat well. In an effort to keep everyone happy, my mother let him play with her iphone while he ate. Her iphone has games like Old MacDonald and The Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider and Fish School, all of which James loves. He was enthralled, and he ate fantastically. All week. With the aid of the iphone. He also learned to take pictures with the phone (cousin Jason taught him that one) and took about forty pictures of his feet, and a good number of the tray on his high chair. Everything went beautifully. Until we got home, that is. Tragically, neither Patrick nor I have an iphone. We do not have The Wheels on the Bus or Itsy Bitsy Spider or a camera that is operated with a touch screen. What we did have was a child who screamed for as long as we made him sit in his chair to eat. We tried everything. Below you will see a video of one of the things we tried. It worked that night and hasn't worked since, but it sure was entertaining at the time.

'

Well, that's all from the land of Wallace for today. It's late, and I'm tired. I'll try to post again soon. James is more and more fun every day, and Patrick is good at catching his cuteness on video. It seems unfair to keep something so adorable all to ourselves, and I'll make an effort to be better about sharing him with the world. :)

The Summer of Waaah!

Unfortunately there are no pictures or videos to post today. We'll try to work on that.

James has been a bit grumpy lately, which might be blamed on one of three things, or a combination thereof:

1) Lots of new teeth coming in at once,

2) The frustration of knowing that he can climb on the kitchen table, counter, desk, etc., but is constantly prevented from doing so by mean mean Daddy, or

3) He thinks crying will actually get him what he wants (he is very very wrong).

According to everyone we know who has kids, the grumpiness is normal - the proverbial "terrible twos" are just a little early. We are trying to help him avoid frustrations as much as possible, but the unfortunate fact is that there are things he is not allowed to do. Things that will hurt him, things that do not belong to him, and activities that violate state and federal law are all no-nos. Hopefully he will learn that soon; right now, he just thinks Mommy and Daddy are mean.

He does have a lot of fun at the pool, however, so we go down there several times a week. He's very comfortable in the water now, which means he'll probably love the beach next week.

Last weekend Mommy's co-worker Anne brought her daughter Jenna, who is about a year older than James. They had tremendous fun playing at the pool, the playground, and in James's room. James isn't quite as fast as Jenna, but he enjoyed trying to keep up with her.

We had our first babysitter (other than Grandma) this week. Mommy had school stuff, and Daddy had some projects at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so Mommy's co-worker Laura stayed with James. James thought Laura was great; he's pretty sick of Daddy by now. Mommy and Daddy were a little worried about leaving him, but he didn't mind at all. We probably won't need a sitter very often, but it's nice to know James is okay with the idea.

James is becoming a food connoisseur, too (or he's just really picky)

Yesterday was Daddy's birthday, so we all went to Provino's, a fancy Italian restaurant where birthday boys and girls get a free dinner. We were kind of worried about how James would behave in the restaurant, but he was quite well-behaved. And he ate a huge pile of fettucini alfredo, too. He wanted to play with the glass of water for a while, but once he tried the pasta he just kept eating. We let him use a grown-up fork (mainly because we didn't bring one of his small forks), which made it even more fun for him. He had the rest of the fettucini for lunch today, and was just as enthusiastic about it. That is very encouraging, considering the trouble we have had lately getting him to eat. We just hope that he'll like eating something other than expensive Italian restaurant food.

Today was the last Little Gym class until the fall for James. They had a nice little "awards ceremony" where all the kids got a medal, and then we just played around the rest of the time. Here we can see him on the big donut (although it's backlit pretty bad at the beginning; sorry about that). James has a lot of fun at the Little Gym, and he has learned some impressive stuff there, so we'll have to come up with lots of fun activities over the summer to fill the void.

The pool is open!

The neighborhood pool opened this weekend, so we got James in his suit and headed down there. The water was incredibly cold at first, but eventually felt pretty good. James wore his little floaty-vest, but was still unsure about being in the water. He spent most of his time in the water clutching tightly to the neck of Mommy or Daddy. He did really enjoy a puddle beside the pool, though, and that gave Mommy a chance to swim on her own a little. Next weekend, the neighborhood association is having a you-kill-it, they-grill-it pool party - somebody will set up a grill and cook whatever the people bring. Within reason.

James has a couple of molars coming in, and they occasionally cause him some irritation. This might just be coincidence, but he is also a lot more fussy about sitting down to eat. Could be the teeth, could be the proverbial terrible twos starting early, we don't know. It's a problem, whatever is causing it. Meals take twice as long, and James does a lot of crying and throwing food around. The previous tactic of watching Veggietales doesn't even work anymore. Hopefully we can think of something. Maybe we can find another magic video. Maybe he'll just eventually realize that food is yummy. If any of you have ideas, please share.

The Veggietales don't work for eating anymore, but they have taught James to sing. He doesn't know all the words, but he knows the tunes of such great works as "Where is my Hairbrush?," "The Cheeseburger Song," and "If it doesn't have a tail it's not a monkey." He sings about every fifth word and hums the rest, and he's learning more words to sing every day. Mommy is thinking about composing songs for everything we want him to learn from now on. What sort of tune goes with "Don't eat that; that's the cat's hairball"?

We're becoming hospital food connoisseurs

James was a little sick this past week - coughing, a lot of phlegm, trouble breathing - so we took him to the pediatrician on Tuesday. It wasn't really anything too serious, but unfortunately all of the medicines that would help are on the list of medicines that he cannot take because of the heart medicine. So the pediatrician said to check James into the hospital and let them give him medicine under observation. There were no adverse reactions, and the doctor said James probably just had a virus that wouldn't last long. James was far more irritated by the monitors and the IV and the nurses waking him up every 2 hours than he was by the actual illness. So we went home the next day. James is still coughing a little, and he has to breathe in some medicine from a nebulizer every 6 or so hours, but he seems to be getting over it. In case any of you were wondering, the food at Athens Regional hospital is absolutely terrible. Getting James to sit down and eat is tough enough; getting him to sit down and eat crap is impossible. Daddy nibbled on what might have been a chicken finger, or perhaps jerky, but only because it was the only thing available. Vastly superior is the food at Emory Eastside, where James was born. The Scottish Rite is even better, so if you have a choice, aim your sick kids there and enjoy the make-your-own-sandwich bar. Hopefully we won't get to learn about the food at any more hospitals, though; eating at home is a lot more comfortable. And cheaper.

March for Babies

Today is the day we are hoping to walk in the March of Dimes 5K March for Babies, as part of Magdalena Roberts's team (http://noahandjulieroberts.blogspot.com/). We are hoping to, but the weather outside, as they say, is frightful. Lots of rain and lightning. But we've got the stroller all ready, and we're wearing our matching shirts, so we really ought to walk somewhere. Maybe we'll go to the mall and walk 5 kilometers in there. Lots of people do that anyway, we have found.

(Update Sunday, 4/25)

Okay, we did actually get to walk yesterday. The rain was fairly light for most of the walk, though it poured a couple of times. The weather was not nearly as bad as it was for Noah and Julie in Mississippi, where they canceled the whole walk. Tornados and such. Here, we just had some rain. James was comfortable in his covered stroller, and even went to sleep during the walk. He also got to play for a while in a school bus (he loves school buses) that had been converted to a mobile playground (he loves playgrounds as well) - it had gym mats, a slide, a little trampoline, and other fun things that kept James entertained and out of the rain for a while. We'll try to get the pictures from Grandma soon. And many thanks to all of you who sponsored us in the walk.

Break it down!

James is dancing to "Yo Gabba Gabba," this weird, low-budget, 1970s-looking kids' show on nickelodeon. I can't properly describe it; go to yogabbagabba.com to see the madness for yourself. The part James is dancing to here is at the end of each episode where the freakishly skinny man in the furry hat and the orange unitard (I am not making this up) says, "Can we dance? Are you ready? Well let's do it! Break it down!" Then he does this thing with his hands that James is doing in the third picture here. Other classic songs from the show include, "Don't Bite Your Friends" and "I Like Bugs" Why does daddy endure this, you ask? Because while James is dancing to Yo Gabba Gabba, he is willing to eat whatever Daddy shoves in his mouth. This particular day, he had a plate full of tortellini for lunch. We have never gotten him to eat as much as he should without a big struggle, but it seems that DJ Lance Rock can succeed where we have failed.

Along with the weird dancing, James has been working on his singing too. Mommy sings "Who put the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?" when giving James a bath, and he's starting to sing along. His part goes, "No! Abba na na na na na na cha-doe!" Amazingly, that is the actual harmony part as heard in the original 1901 recording:

http://www.huntingtonhistoricalsociety.com/1901-edward-m-favor-and-mrs-murphys-chowder

Perhaps he'll also like "Whiskey in the Jar" and "Danny Boy."

James also enjoys songs that have a lot of clapping, such as Marc Broussard's "Home,"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuWPseegaKw,

"Trip Through Your Wires" by U2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePUvdJC5xs4

and "Get Ready for the Bettys" from Phineas and Ferb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHaLWp0cac0.

If any of our loyal readers have suggestions for other good clappy songs, please feel free to send them in.

Below is a picture of James with a pretzel stick, his favorite snack. He calls them "fish," because that's what he learned to call Goldfish crackers when we first gave them to him, so now all snacks are "fish." That's fine for now, but it might confuse the lunch lady down the road. It also kind of looks like he has a stogie in his mouth, which is something we wish to discourage as soon as possible. But until he starts saying "I love it when a plan comes together", we'll be okay.

That's an "A-Team" reference, folks.

Happy Easter

James is saying Happy Easter. He looks like he's making you an offer you can't refuse, but that's just the sun in his eyes. We went to a sunrise service that was outside the church, which James seemed to like. Afterward, we went inside where James and his friend Jenna ran around and played tag for an hour or two, and everybody else enjoyed breakfast. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where James got to put on comfy clothes. That's a clip-on, by the way. A fun easter for all of us.

James continues to add to his vocabulary every day. This morning, he looked at a picture of the Lundberg family at Christmas, pointed to Grandpa, and said, "Empah." Close enough, we think. He also says "opah" every time he tries to open anything, which is often: he tries to open doors, drawers, books, bags of pretzels, cups of yogurt, and anything else that looks like it might be openable. And he has learned to count to three on some occasions. He helps Mommy make her coffee in the morning, and together they count out the scoops as Mommy puts the coffee into the filter. We count as we go up and down the stairs as well, although James doesn't make it all the way to eight yet. Throughout the day we try to find other things to count as well.

James is pretty good at throwing a ball now, as we see here. We're going to keep working on the left-handed curveball, however.

Uh-oh, the Bus!

No new pictures today, but we wanted to report a big step in James's vocal development. Yesterday, he used his first multi-word phrase: "uh-oh, the bus!" He was playing a "wheels on the bus" game on Grandma's iphone, something he learned to do on the long car rides at Christmas. Apparently he hit a button that exited the game and returned to the main menu, which caused him to exclaim the above phrase. Mommy and Grandma, who were there to hear him, were quite impressed. Next week we're going to try to get him to say, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy."

Sniffles

James has a bit of a cold. It's not too bad, but he's got a constantly runny nose and he can't sleep very well. Nonetheless, he has enjoyed the warmer weather this week, and has played outside as often as possible. We have been cooped up in the house for too long; it's nice to be able to use our yard and go to the playground.

The above pictures were taken inside, however, because keeping up with James in the yard is now quite difficult. James has learned to run pretty fast, and Daddy can't chase him and work a camera at the same time.

Another wonderful skill James has developed is the ability to work a doorknob. Last week he reached up and grabbed the knob on Mommy and Daddy's bedroom door, and opened it on his own. Shortly thereafter, he opened the pantry and got himself some pretzels. So now we have these big doorknob covers all over the place, making it impossible for anyone to open a door without a fight. Quite exciting when one has to go to the bathroom.

We got some encouraging news from the cardiologist on Friday: James's QT interval was within normal range on his EKG. The doctor is unwilling to say that James no longer has Long QT Syndrome, but he said that it's possible that James can grow out of it. We still have to give James medication, and he still can't play competitive sports (not a big problem at 17 months), but if future EKGs show a normal QT interval, then the cabal of cardiologists might think about getting together and rescinding the diagnosis. Of course, that's a long way down the road. But it was nice to get some encouraging news from the doctor, and it gives us hope that maybe James will eventually not have to worry about a heart condition. Either way, he's learning to throw a left-handed curveball.

More James movies

Okay, the movies don't always work, but we're going to try anyway. Hopefully you can see these; they're fun.

James is playing "whisper whisper BOO" with Mommy; a delightful game that he created.

This is his new slide/climb/dunk apparatus that Meme got him. It can go outside, but the weather has been such that it is more useful in the living room. James spends much of his day playing on it now, especially since it will never stop raining. Here we see one of his favorite parts, the basketball hoop. No one showed him how to do this; he just grabbed a ball and dunked it. Who knew basketball was written into our DNA.

Where are the videos?

So, like Uncle Dan, I am getting frustrated with blogger's utter inability to consistently make videos available to readers. Sometimes they're viewable, sometimes they're not. It's an irritation. So, to make myself feel better, I thought I'd post some pictures of James at various intervals from the past several months. And grrrrrrrr, blogger.

This is James reading with his Auntie Erin.

This is James and Grandma at the Botanic Gardens in DC over Christmas. They had this incredible display of trains and little houses and made entirely out of natural materials. It was amazing, but I think James appreciated the trains far more than the intricate craftsmanship.
James saw tons of snow over Christmas in DC. I think it was something like seventeen inches. However, he did not see any snow fall. So, a week or so ago, when snow was falling here, he was euphoric. Apparently snow is the greatest thing ever when it falls out of the sky, but not all that interesting once it reaches the ground.
Sledding was fun though. At least, it looked like James was having fun. I have no idea where my sled is, so there was no big people sledding during this most recent snowfall. Patrick tried to sit in James's sled, but he did not fit.
This, I thought, was incredible. Now, admittedly, I am somewhat biased. However, I drew the heart on the window, and James colored it in. Almost all in the lines! For someone who misses his mouth every other time he tries to stick a piece of macaroni in there, I thought that was pretty good.

Snow day

We got such a tremendous amount (a couple of inches) of snow last Friday that Mommy got a day off from work. We went out and played in it for a while on Saturday, and James got to use the sled he got for Christmas. We didn't think we would have much use for the sled here, but it's a good thing we brought it back with us.

James enjoyed running around in the snow as well. He enjoys running around everywhere, actually. It's been too cold to go to the parks, though, so we've been looking for inside places to run around in - the library, the mall, Wal-Mart, Home Depot. We also run around the house a good bit, but other places are more exciting (and bigger).

James has expanded his vocabulary, and he can now say the following:

mama

dada

up

ball

kittycat

bath

bus

duck

fish

bubble (usually bub-bub-bub-bubble)

moo (what a cow says)

baa (what a sheep says)

woof (what a dog says)

uh-oh

ah-choo

He says a lot of other things, but most are in his own language. Hopefully we can either learn his language soon, or he will continue to pick up English.

One of our favorite indoor activities is drawing, either with markers on paper or on the windows with grease-pencil-type markers designed specifically for that. Occasionally some marks end up on the furniture, but not too much. James is very good at putting the caps back on the markers, which 1)shows very good hand-eye coordination, and 2)is a great habit to learn early.

Haircut!

Mommy gave James his first haircut this week. He just needed a little trim; he was looking a bit like a hippie around the ears.

As you can see, though, there is still plenty of hair to fashion into fun designs using broccoli-cheese casserole as a styling product:

I think he was going for a Flock of Seagulls look.

Acrobatics

James and Daddy went to our Little Gym class again yesterday. We learned how to do this:

Dinner conversation

James is sharing his opinion. On what, we're not sure.

Developing good habits (hopefully)

James has been doing much better eating and sleeping lately. We were having tremendous trouble getting him to eat solid foods, but since we got back home after Christmas he has improved tremendously. He will now sit down and eat three full meals a day, and he snacks a lot between meals (cheese and pretzels, mostly). It sometimes takes him a while to stop playing and start eating, but he will eventually eat. Before, we would often sit at the table for an hour with no success.

Another wonderful development is that James is now sleeping through the night most of the time. This is especially wonderful to Daddy, who was getting up with him several times a night, every night. The weird thing is that he just decided to do it on his own. For weeks we had been trying every variation to his sleeping routine and environment that we could think of - changing the temperature, moving back his bedtime, giving him a bottle right before bed - and none of them worked. Daddy gave up and was ready to accept that he would never get a good night's sleep again. Then one day about 2 weeks ago we woke up and realized that he had slept all night. We didn't do a thing; James did it on his own. Since then, he has only gotten up in the middle of the night once. Hopefully this will continue for the next seventeen or so years.

This week James and Daddy tried out Gymboree and the Little Gym. Both have kind of the same activities, but we liked the Little Gym better. We did more organized activities together there; the Gymboree was kind of a free-for-all. James seemed to like the kids and parents better at the Little Gym, too - most of the parents at the Gymboree were more interested in socializing with each other than with playing with their kids. At the Little Gym, we learned how to do a somersault (James did the somersault and Daddy helped him flip), played with a parachute, walked on a balance beam, and worked on sign language ("up," "down," and "bear [like the animal] "). It was a lot of fun for James and Daddy. We're going to talk to Meme about signing up for a regular class.

Along with his gymnastic activities, James also likes to dance when he hears music on TV. This is one of his favorites, a song from the Disney show "Imagination Movers." If you listen to the song, you can hear that he is going along perfectly with the words:

Since he can now understand and respond to things on TV, we are trying to keep the TV time down, and we are watching what we watch more. Of course James needs to watch football, and we usually watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, but we turn the TV off more and read several books a day (or one book several times, usually). In the morning, though, we still watch some kids' shows like the one above, or Sesame Street. Hopefully this will not turn James into a serial killer.

Another activity James has recently picked up is drawing. Scribbling, actually. We got him some crayons and markers for Christmas, and he is now an excellent scribbler. He even stays on the paper most of the time. The first few times we tried drawing, he put the crayons and markers right in his mouth. After he got tired of the taste, though, he started using them the way they were intended. We'll try to publish some of his works here soon.

Christmas!

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a while. We didn't have any time during the Christmas travel marathon, and then when we got back the computer broke. Well, you know what they say: sometimes you're the windshield; sometimes you're the bug.

Over the Christmas break, we drove several hundred thousand miles to visit relatives. James didn't complain too much about the long hours in the car (less than Daddy did, anyway), but he did require Grandma's Iphone to keep him occupied much of the time. There was a lot of snow in Virginia when we got there, and we took James out to play in it a few times. He was not sure about the snow at first, but he eventually got where he enjoyed it. We found a James-sized sled, complete with a seatbelt, and here we see him going for a ride:

Okay, for some reason the video was pushed to the bottom of the page. Please scroll down. Stupid Apple computers.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the Lutheran Church that Great-Grandpa Lundberg attends. James was well-behaved, though occasionally squirmy. He also chose an inopportune time to practice saying, 'uh-oh', the new word he had recently learned. The preacher was leading one of those group prayers, saying something about judging the living and the dead, when James chimed in with an 'uh-oh'. It was the funniest thing to happen in a Lutheran church in several hundred years.

During the opening of the presents, James was far more excited about the laundry basket on the floor than he was about any of his many gifts. He did play with some of the gifts briefly, but he kept trying to climb into the basket. Apparently we should have shopped for James at Bed Bath & Beyond instead of Babies-R-Us. He is enjoying his gifts now, however. Since he has so many to choose from, we have only gotten out some of them; we can rotate in the rest until his birthday.

James is talking almost constantly now, although Mommy and Daddy aren't always clever enough to know what he's trying to say. From the expression he has when he talks to us, it is apparent that he knows exactly what he's saying. And he has added some English words to his vocabulary as well: the aforementioned uh-oh, bye-bye (complete with the wave), up (meaning 'pick me up'), bus, and bucket. He will also sometimes repeat a word right after Mommy or Daddy say it. We'll have to be careful with that.

Meme had the great idea of getting James into a class where he can practice his jumping and climbing in a more organized setting than the living room, something like The Little Gym. We are looking into our options here in Winder, and we hope to start one soon.

Thanks to everyone who sent us Christmas cards; hopefully our Christmas cards got to everybody. We hope you all had a good Christmas, and that the new year will bring you all blessings.