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"?