'Bout time

...for an update. This will be long.

How was everyone's Christmas? Did December go by as quickly for you as it did for us? I can hardly believe it's nearly over already! Next year I need to start doing Christmas-y things early so they all get in there. We didn't even get a chance to go see the lights at the Mesa Temple! (Thankfully, I'm told they're up through January, so even though it will feel kinda funny, we can still go see them.)


I'm six months along now (though not quite, in this picture), and definitely bigger this time around. I seem to be carrying lower, and pants have become a problem. Even one of my pairs of maternity jeans from last time don't fit--they make my hips ache and throw my back or something out of alignment! My first choice of pants these days are Jason's pajama pants. Ugh. Three more months is looking long and uncomfortable from that perspective, though maybe a little too soon in regard to all the changes little No-Name will bring.

Still no real prospects on a name for this little man. We've tossed a few around and looked at some websites and a baby-naming book, but nothing feels right yet. :( Suggestions welcome as long as you're not offended if we don't use it. :) I like names that aren't too common, but not too weird either.

I'm wondering if this baby will be a bit calmer than his older brother. I'm not sure why I think that, though, considering that he's still plenty wiggly. I don't know how he manages it, but he seems to be able to dig way down into BOTH of my hips at the SAME time!

Jamie is doing really well. His vocabulary and ability to formulate sentences seems to improve by leaps and bounds all the time. When we were at Jason's parents' house for Christmas, Uncle Justin was tickling him, and Jamie very clearly said, "Hey, don't tih-toe my feet." Other than asking him to put a "please [pees]" in there, we were proud. He still talks in third person a lot ("Hey, wait for Jamie!" "Jamie no wahn go nigh-night!" "Jamie wahn some tan-dee!"), but that's improved also.

He also likes books a lot more than he used to, which is great. I started cutting back on the amount of TV he watches, and it has helped so much with his obedience, his moods, and just the general peace in our house. He's learned to find other things to do, and he doesn't even ask for TV very much anymore.


Speaking of "other things," jigsaw puzzles are Jamie's current obsession. There are usually between two and six of them out on the table. He's up to ones with 50 pieces, and he's really good at them. Every day, puzzles, puzzles, puzzles.

(I had to pretend to burp to get this face.)

One of his most exciting accomplishments is potty-training! He's doing really great at keeping his big-boy underwear dry all day, most of the time. He has gone #2 in the potty once, but now always goes in the diapers we put on him for bed- and naptime. We're not worried, though; he'll get there, and this is a huge improvement over just two or three weeks ago. Thanks to my sis-in-law, Michelle, for giving us the idea (and the courage) to just put him in underwear all day so he could feel wetness. It's worked great!

I'm remembering a high school newspaper convention that my journalism class went to in my senior year, half because it was in Anaheim and we could go to Disneyland (remember, Crys?), where we had our paper critiqued and learned that graphics make something news-y much more readable. I apologize. I need more pictures. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some to match the subjects of all this text.

Okay, I'm not so great at this--to go back a bit, here are a few highlights from our trip to Nor Cal for Thanksgiving. (I did put pictures up on Facebook right away. It's just so much easier to do on there...)

Okay, this is before we left. I made these, and both cost me less than $3 (with plenty of leftover stuff). I really like how they turned out. I barely finished them a day or two before we left, so next year they'll feel fresh and new.

The group of us, after the meal had been eaten and we had somewhat digested, just before we headed to the Cox-side-of-the-family dessert get-together. I asked my parents to let me take a picture of them at some point, too, but it never happened.

The lone picture I took at the get together--Jamie on Ali's toy horse. I really am a total slacker about taking pictures a lot of the time...

On Saturday, we headed up to Apple Hill again with Rob, Michelle, Conner, and Michelle's dad, her sister Keri, and her two little girls, Corrinne and Lily (Lily's the little one).

Un-toe Rob and Jamie, waiting for the horsey rides to open

Oh my goodness, Jamie loooooved his pony ride.

See that grin?
(He threw a total fit when his ride was over.)

Both of us who drove up (I drove my parents' car and Keri drove hers) left our lights on by accident because it had been really foggy down in the valley. Fortunately my parents' battery didn't die, so it was available for jumping Keri's, which did. (It was no big deal, and I enjoyed getting to see how jumper cables work. And the men enjoyed being manly. :))

How about we leave it there for this post? It's taken me all day to get just this much done. I started this morning, did a little more in the afternoon while Jamie napped--or rather, I heard him start talking and yelling from his bed almost as soon as I sat down, and I shamelessly let him sit in there for ten or fifteen minutes so I could do a little more--and now Jason is getting Jamie ready for bed. (I had to sit down. I was standing in the kitchen forever putting together chicken enchiladas and my legs are tired.)

December/Christmas post, hopefully with three, count 'em, THREE videos coming next!

Just blah...

I haven't been posting much lately. I'm not sure many people read this anymore. (I'll be honest. I could really use a little comment love right now. Just tell me if you're still reading, okay?) And with my new Pinterest addiction, most free time is spent cleaning, crafting, or adding to the list of crafts to do by surfing Pinterest.

Tonight I was dying for "my" time (a.k.a. after Jamie goes to bed) to come so I could get sewing and otherwise crafting. Nothing went right. Projects turned out ugly, or I just didn't have the motivation for them. Then I accidentally synced my iPod while trying to charge it and all my music is now gone. (Our old desktop died, and ALL my music was stored on a huge hard drive we had in it. Jason is working on finding some adapter so we can plug the old hard drive into our new computer, but the one he bought didn't work and he's been too busy to get back to Fry's.) So I'm feeling irrationally depressed.

I just feel so blah. Pregnancy hormones can really be the worst!

Well. Why dwell. A few things about Jamie, since I don't want to forget all the precious things once they stop:

He loves to go to the park and feed the ducks and fish, and look for turtles. THANK GOODNESS we are finally getting the "winter" of wonderful weather that, as Jason said the other day, we really earn here by enduring the summers. It's nice to enjoy being outside again!

He LOVES "horsey movie" a.k.a. "Tangled," loves when "Fin" comes on. We watch it every. single. day. Sometimes multiple times a day. It has even replaced his morning episode of Sesame Street, and I now know every song by heart.

He loves a weird book I got at DI before he was born called Oscar's Spots. We read that every day. We usually read Goodnight Moon, about 50% of which he can recite as I read, each night before bed.

He loves to hide from us, listen to us say "where did he go?" then pop out and say "Yeee-eeesss! Jamie hide!" (We're working on getting him to say "I" and "my" instead of using his name all the time.

He likes to try to tickle us back, saying in a high voice, "tih-toe, tih-toe!"

He loves to call Sammy, our cat, inside in the mornings--loudly. "SAAAAAAAAMMY!"

He loves to say prayers, and his prayers are adorable. Today at breakfast he thanked Heavenly Father for "Rob, Shell, Tonner [Conner], horsey movie, Andee, Bahnee [Barney], Opie, Oh-tiss, sip-sures [scriptures]."

Notoriously picky. He basically eats chicken nuggets, peanut butter and jelly/honey, eggs, "oh-nee teese" [macaroni & cheese], and quesadillas if he's in the mood. Other chips, crackers, cereals, etc. he's okay with, but dip the quesadilla in sour cream and salsa, and he won't touch that piece.

Still shrimpy, as I rather bluntly call it. Today he was wearing 2T pants and I had to roll the waistband down so they wouldn't fall off him.

Good at doing things on his own. He loves to "buckle self" into his high chair, car seat, and shopping carts, and yesterday a public restroom changing table. He likes to dress himself as much as possible, doing zippers and velcro, and putting his shirts on by himself often. I like this trait.

He knows all his letters and numbers; he can sing the ABCs and only miss a few (usually because he's putting more of his effort into showing off), and can count to ten or even more without missing any sometimes.

He loves all things transportation-related: "air-peens," trains, heh-dih-dah-ders (helicopters--he can almost say it right if we stop and work on it), motorcytoes, etc.

He loves his "boo [blue] bee-bee/ban-tet [blanket]" that I made for him, and it's hard to get him to sleep with any other. That means a lot to me. And it's a good blanket. :)

He's kind of unbelievably good about being in bed even if he's not sleeping. A little while ago, I heard a little voice singing from his room: "Thaaaaat El-mo wuuuuld [world]!" So cute. And I'm so glad he doesn't mind entertaining himself in the dark. He doesn't usually call for us but we sometimes hear him talking and singing to himself for hours.

Really sweet story: on Monday he didn't get a nap, and at bedtime he fell asleep lying next to me on the twin bed in his room while I was singing to him. (Practically unheard-of for him, trust me. He almost NEVER falls asleep in the car or on us.) I just snuggled with him for awhile and enjoyed it, then carefully scooped him up to put him in his crib. (As long as he's not climbing out, I'm milking it for all it's worth.) He shifted, but instead of waking up, he just snuggled into me again and put his little hand on my chest and continued to sleep. I almost never get moments like that with him, so I was standing there holding him and enjoying it, when I suddenly heard a rather sleepy, "Tank you for Rob Shell Tonner, name Jee-sus Thyst, Amen."

I have my hard days, and he can drive me up the wall at times, but he's such a good little guy. He's so sweet, so fun and fun-loving, and so eager to learn. I understand now why all kids seem to sound the same when their parents describe them...it's pretty hard to put into words the tenderness and incredible love I feel for my sweet baby boy. I don't want him to grow up.

I worry about the effect the new baby will have on him. I have trouble giving him all the attention he wants as it is, and it breaks my heart to imagine that he might think we don't love him as much when the baby is in mama's lap and taking up Mama and Daddy's attention. I know, they adjust, things turn out okay...I just don't look forward to the adjustment period.

On a non-Jamie note, I got AMAZING 3D pics of the bun in the oven on Monday. I'll try to put those up soon...if there indeed is anyone out there who wants to see them? Well, grandparents obviously do, so I guess that one is self-evident.

I'd better get to bed. Maybe a decent night's sleep will help my mood...darn hormones.

New gadget

Is that how you spell "gadget"?

Yup, I'm pregnant again! That's probably part of why I haven't written in awhile; I haven't been feeling at my best. My crafting has almost completely cut off for the last month or two--that's pretty drastic for me. Just haven't felt the motivation or enthusiasm, I guess. I've been REALLY tired at times, nauseous at others, suffering from extreme and almost constant hunger at others, and it's seemed like every couple of days for the last 2-3 weeks, I would re-injure my back. I tried to pick up Jamie the wrong way on Wednesday, fell on the floor from the sudden pain, and literally was laying down in pain for almost the entire rest of the day. Thank goodness for Jason. He's definitely been doing more than his share lately, taking care of me and Jamie while I've been feeling bad in one way or another.

I'm not even sure what else there is to say...I'm due March 19, ten days after our anniversary. I had a miscarriage at about 6 weeks in April; that wasn't fun, so I only mention it now since I can quickly skip over it to the happier news. Everyone asks me if I have leanings in the gender department; I'm not sure. I think of the baby as a boy, I guess because that's what I'm used to now, and then it will occur to me that it could be a girl, and I feel a sort of shiver--shock? Fear? Girls scare me now. As cute as little girl clothes and accessories are, I like being able to put just two things on Jamie--a shirt and shorts--and be done. :) I always hear friends who have girls calling them "sassy"--and I'm not a fan of attitude in little kids. Character, silliness, great.

Don't get me wrong though. I would be excited to have a girl. How could I not be? I would just be scared, too. :)

So like I said, I haven't been doing all that much of interest. Reading a LOT. I read The Help in less than a week; I was totally hooked. I think I must be one of the few women I know who hasn't seen the movie, but I figure I'll wait until I can get it at Redbox for $1. I also finished the Duggars' latest book, A Love That Multiplies. Last week I made full-fat yogurt for Jamie, and this week I'm going to try canning a new jam recipe. Exciting, right? :)

Jason has started a new semester, including a new internship at an organization called Anasazi. It's a wilderness therapy program for troubled youth that has been pretty much saving kids' lives since the 70s with an unbelievable success rate. He's learned a lot already and has great respect for the organization and the people there. He went on a three-day trip with just staff to see how it all works, and while there he carved his own spoon from a stick and then ate with it; drank river water; learned which plants will kill you and which make great toilet paper; slept on the ground; and held a freakin' tarantula, among other things. (Even the look of that word creeeeeps me out.) He'll spend ALL day--8 a.m. to midnightish, when you count three hours there and back for travel--on the trail every Tuesday.

Jamie is doing so well. He's talking up a STORM, all day long, and it actually can get pretty aggravating.

"Mommy! Mommy! Mom-MEE! Mommy! Mom-MEEE!!!"
"What??"
"...Water wet."
"Yeah, water is wet."
""Mommy! Mommy! Mom-MEE! Mommy! Mom-MEEE!!!"
"What, Jamie?"
"Water wet."
"Are you kidding me?"

Lol. Obviously, he's just an attention-hungry boy. He can say every letter of the alphabet, spell his name, and count to ten, plus identify lots of teen-numbers. This is all thanks to Sesame Street, which we have had to limit to two episodes a day; otherwise I'm pretty sure he would do nothing else.

No #2 on the toilet yet, unfortunately. I'm hoping I'll get lucky and he'll be trained before the baby's born. I can dream, right?

Jamie LOVES to help. He loves to help me throw dirty laundry in the washer, put ingredients in the bowl when I'm cooking (I can be pouring a bowl of cereal, and he'll see me, start pushing a chair from the table into the kitchen for him to stand on, and say, "helping Mommy"), into the blender (UNPLUGGED!) to make smoothies, etc. He was great to have around yesterday when I was trying not to bend; he picked up things I dropped, and retrieved things for me so I wouldn't have to get up.

He can dress himself, including socks and shoes, as long as the shoes just have velcro or are flip-flops. He can climb up into his car seat and then buckle himself in, which he loves to do. He's very independent and fusses if we try to do something for him that he thinks he can do himself.

He loves to hide, jump, run, climb, etc. When we arrive home, he always says, "Jamie run door!" and then does his funny little run to the front door. Poor kid doesn't get to run enough, our place is so small and it's too hot to set foot outside. Oh, and he speaks in third person. "Jamie doe [go] nigh-night lih-ttle bed, Jamie wate [wake] up, Jamie doe downstairs, watch Elmo." He says this rather monotone until the end, and I tease him about being a robot (adding appropriate noises), to which he says, "no bot. Jamie no bot."

Well, I need to get going. Sorry there aren't any pictures for this post; we've taken almost none lately. One last thing though: last night, since Jason had a night class, I hitched a ride with a friend to a Relief Society activity. Jamie was in his car seat in the back with my friend's 1-year-old daughter, and they were giggling and Jamie was playing peek-a-boo with her. It was SO cute, and, I hope, a little glimpse of precious things to come.

Mmmm...grapes.

Well, we got our tax return. Before tithing was paid, it was nearly four months of living expenses for our very limited budget. But we ended up spending most of it on just one thing:

Our old (if you can call lasting all of four years "old") spring mattress was pretty badly mangled and causing us both sleep problems, but especially Jason. He has a very bad back, which he's in physical therapy for right now. We took a couple days to research, shop around, and pray about spending all that money on it. Turns out it was the right thing to do, and we got a good deal. Jason has pretty much been singing its praises since we got it. He's amazed to have nights without pain! Though it was and is hard for me to have that extra money gone, I love that he's so much happier.
Jason's second semester is coming to a close. Soon we'll have one year down, two to go! He's been learning and growing so much, and gaining the respect of his teachers and classmates. The debt is scary, but we hope it will be worth it in the long run. Note: you wouldn't think typing "Arizona State University" in Google Image search would bring up so many inappropriate results.

Jamie, at almost 27 months, is talking a LOT more, though it's still not too clear. "Dat-un" is only about 5% of his vocab now, as opposed to the previous 90%. He started saying "apple joots" [juice] clear as day today. He goes pee-pee in the potty most days but has yet to do #2. Not for lack of trying, however. Especially since I started giving him a Skittle after each time he pees in the toilet, and told him he'd get 3 for going poo-poo. (There have been times where he wanted that Skittle so badly that he was sitting on that toilet jiggling himself trying to get some pee out. It was so dang funny!)

I started dumping his diaper poops in the toilet with him watching (lovely subject, this), and telling him, "See? Poo-poo goes in the potty," hoping he'd cut out the middleman. Instead, he insists on ALWAYS dumping the poop in the potty, even if we're downstairs (both of our bathrooms are upstairs), and then makes the "candy" sign afterward like he's earned it!

He's going through a phase I don't enjoy much--he has to point out EVERYTHING, and wants me to acknowledge it--correctly. As in, if he's insistently repeating total jibberish, my replying "oh yeah, uh-huh" doesn't cut it. He wants to hear how it really sounds, and he won't quit until I get it right. This is all day long, continually almost, about EVERYTHING.

Jamie still loves planes, yogurt, and his blue blanket I made for him here, which makes me so happy. Oh, and he LOOOOOOVES basketball. He had us turning over his pop-up playhouse so the round door was in ceiling position, so that he could throw balls through it. We finally got him a kids' basketball hoop last week, and he's obsessed. He takes the basketball on walks, takes it to bed with him, and now instead of demanding food first thing when you go into his room to get him in the mornings, it's "ah-bee-bee-bee!!!" (Somehow, that does translate to "basketball.")

We read Goodnight Moon every night before bed, and he loves to pick out the mouse on every page and say "squeak, squeak." He also says "hush" after it's read. He still gets so upset if Jason puts him down instead of me.

Jamie's an INCREDIBLY picky eater. I am definitely getting my comeuppance. (I used to refuse to eat dinner, consent with haughty indifference to threats of getting nothing else to eat, go out to "play" in the backyard, and fill myself up with cherries off our tree. And I once threw up green beans right next to the table--if memory serves me, it was just after my mom said, "see, they weren't so bad, were they?") Anyway, this is why he can still wear 18- or even 12-month sizes sometimes, and the 24-month pants fall off him.

He loves Sesame Street, which, for anyone who knows my family well, you know how happy that makes me. For Oscar, the Count, and Ernie, he identifies them with impressions of their laughs. For Cookie Monster, one of his favorites, it's an impression of him devouring cookies with gusto--"Nom, nom, nom, nom!" in a growly voice. Adorable.

Ehmo - Elmo (LOVES Elmo's World)
Bir - Big Bird
Abby

He knows the colors yellow, blue, and red pretty well, and is getting the hang of green and purple. From watching Sesame Street, he picked up on the letters "O" and "Y" entirely by himself and surprised me to death by pointing out an "O" on my Cordova shirt one day!

Sesame Street, thankfully, is on the Netflix Instant Queue. Recently they consolidated all the episodes, and we thought they'd taken them all off because we couldn't find them. And I seriously nearly cried. I kept thinking, how are we going to get by without Sesame Street??

A few pics:I picked out a thing at Ikea for holding toys in pull-out buckets. Jamie helped put it together by sitting on it, trying to climb on it, picking up the hammer and screwdriver and carrying them away when Dada needed them, etc.

Stinker.

Check out those feet! He loves this sleeper, which is weird because for awhile he was completely anti-sleeper, and now he throws a tantrum when we take this one off.


This was yesterday, during the misnomer Easter Egg "Hunt" at our local park. (They dumped the eggs on a field, even for the older kids, and the kids picked them up. Not at all a hunt, in my humble opinion.) It was dumb, but there was a free bouncehouse, so Jamie was happy and it was worth going for that, and of course for this picture.

He's such a good little guy, who brings unbelievable light and happiness to our lives. I know zillions of parents have already said all this, but it's so amazing to watch him grow and figure things out. He can drive me up the wall, but I'm finding that if I try to focus on teaching him for his own benefit instead of correcting him in anger because he's inconvenienced me with a mess or whatever, it's a lot easier to keep my temper, deal with things as they come, and just love him more.

Jason took a good video of Jamie playing with his basketball hoop, but it wouldn't play when I uploaded it from the camera. I'll have to have Jason look at it.

Jamie's latest words

Boo - Spoon
Emo - Remote
Ehmo - Elmo
On-nur - Conner, his soon-to-be cousin
Shuh - "Shell," what we teach him to call Michelle, his soon-to-be aunt
Zsuh-zsuh (that's the best spelling we could come up with) - Love you
Hum - help
Yeh-yo - Yellow (my favorite)
Apple
Abby - the fairy from Sesame Street

He's doing that explosion thing everyone has told me about, suddenly starting to say or imitate way more words.

By the way, I made a goal to cut way down on my spending at JoAnn this month--but does it count if I went with my mom (we're visiting California) and she insisted on paying?

I used a ton of coupons! I saved us (she got stuff for herself, too) $29.something!

I mean, we're going to be here a week, so I needed something to do, right?

Jamie's Birthday and New Stats

Well, our boy turned 2 a couple of weeks ago, and I have yet to share the pictures of the party. Shame on me! ;)

This was on his actual birthday, the day before the party, opening a present mailed from Grandma and Grandpa Yarwood. We saved the rest for Saturday.

Anna, her son Kellan, and our good friend Elisabeth, hanging out at the table (I know that's where I was most of the time!)

I'm proud to say that for decor and "supplies" (plates, cups) for the party, I spent about $10. Dollar store, baby! The kids had lots of fun with the punch balloons, regular balloons, and party blowers, and I got two "happy birthday" banners in one package, for $1. The food was a different story, because we really wanted to have a good get-together with our friends. We had lots of yummy snack foods.

Man, I really am not a good photographer. Especially when the lighting is so bad and there are seven children ages 4-and-a-half and under running around our tiny townhouse...

Jamie found his presents and started getting into them on his own, and I didn't want to tell him not to since they were his, so we called everyone over.
(By the way, I bought the shiny bag for a dollar, and wrapped everything else in clearanced Christmas paper that I'd gotten at JoAnn for 39 cents! And at least two of the presents the guests bought were in Christmas paper, too! I love it!)

Two candles!

The kids all LOVED this ball cage that Jamie was given. We had some extremely tired, cranky children by the end of this shindig!

And this is just cute. I bought this "harness" at CostCo for use when we're out in crowds, and Jamie loves it. He brings it to us periodically so we can put it on him.


This was a couple of weeks ago. Every once in awhile he gets going like this, which makes us laugh hard, which makes him laugh harder...it's a great cycle!

The new stats:
Weight: 24 pounds (yeah, still a little shrimpy--that's the 7.74th percentile)
Height: 34.75 (61st percentile)
Head Circumference: 18.75 (23rd percentile)

Words:

"Ba" - Ball.
He loves any and all of them.
"Pee-pee" and "poo-poo"
Can say, but doesn't do, at least not in the toilet since last week.
"Mee" - airplane
He points out every single one, even if we're inside and he just hears it flying over.
"Jur-jur" - church
We pass ours on our walk, I always point it out, and now he points out any LDS church we pass.
"Ew-ey"
"El-leh-leh-leh" - elephant
"Bo-bo" - Joey, at whose house Jamie often stays when Mama and Daddy go out.
(His wife thinks this is hilarious.)
"Ehh" (with tongue out) - Ali, his cousin
"Mee" - also Please
"Ba-ba" - Thank you
He's getting better at saying this at appropriate times without prompting.
"Banya" - bathroom
"Sher-jer" - shower
He LOVES to take showers and throws fits when it's time to get out.
"Bee-Bo" - Play Dough (he likes to play with it 5-6x/day)
"Bee-Bah" - SpongeBob
"Zzzzzzee-Ba" - Zebra
"Bye bye, Dada" - this will be illustrated with a video.
He can say each separately, but when you put them together, it's something like "baba duh ba dah bah." SO CUTE.



We're working with him, trying to get him to talk as much as possible, and he does try new sounds most days. I just can't remember everything. At his 2-year appointment, his PA said he was on track for where he is, so we're not worried. Jamie just has his own timetable.

{I'm so proud of myself for actually posting both videos!}

"Too late. Had your chance. Muffed it." {said with British accent}

Anybody recognize what movie that's from? Just curious.

I haven't done a "Jamie update" post for awhile now, and I know I'll be sorry later when I'm trying to update his baby book. I told myself I would do it this time, but I'm a couple days late. Oh well, at least I'm doing it.

Jamie at 22 Months

Weight:
about 23 pounds
(believe it or not, this is an improvement--he's a pretty little little guy)

Height:
I think about 33 inches

Sleeps:
About 12-13 hours at night, 1-3 hours during a mid-day nap (usually about 2)

Words he speaks:
improvement here, too!
Mama
Dada
Mamama -- Grandma (after me saying, "you wanna call Grandma?")
"Datun" (the word that means everything)
"Bo" -- Boat
"Da doh doh doo" or other variation -- Don't touch
"Mo" -- More
Uh-oh (whenever something falls, I gasp, anyone drops anything, even strangers)
Uh-uh
Wow
Whoa
"Ba-ba" -- Thank you (in the same sing-song voice I say "thank you" to him in)
"Uhhh" -- Up (only when prompted)

And he'll try once in awhile to make actual sounds to imitate the words we say, instead of just saying "Dat-un."

Words he signs:
More
Eat/Hungry/Food
All done
Milk
Thank you (sort of)
Hat (I made up that one)
Candy (he made up that one!)

Since Daddy had the idea to put him down for naps with a few books to look at until he's ready to sleep, he's been a bit more interested in them, but still not a lot. It's funny to hear the enormous thump of each board book being tossed out of his crib once he's ready to sleep.

We go to Wiggle Worms at the library every Wednesday morning, where he knows the routine well--he makes some of the movements with the songs, and at the end where each child is given a letter stamp on their hand, he hurries forward to the lady before they even announce it, fist outstretched. (He also usually goes back and charms the lady into giving him one on the other hand, as well.)

He loves to help. After his diapers are changed, he loves to take the wrapped-up dirty diaper and put it in the trash can (downstairs, non-poopy) or diaper pail. If we give him something and tell him to "take it to Mama/Daddy," he usually will hurry off. It's so sweet.

Jamie is very independent and wants to be a big boy. If he sees a cup, he'll beg to drink out of it instead of his sippy. He likes big portions of food put before him, though he doesn't usually eat them all. He likes to feed himself, wipe his own face/diaper area, and be like mommy and daddy in any way he can. He still loves putting his feet in our shoes, carrying around my purses, and wearing his own little hat after he saw Daddy wearing his. (This has been nice, because he wouldn't wear it before and loudly complained about the sun being in his eyes.)

He's also very needy and loving. He doesn't like to play by himself, and gets upset if he can tell we're not paying total attention to him. He loves to sit next to one of us (usually not on the lap), squashed into the extra space in a chair.

He has started to rub and pat our backs at times, just like we do to him.

He's fairly friendly with other children; he doesn't really play with them, but isn't afraid to plunge into the middle of a group--especially if food is being offered.

He definitely prefers me putting him to bed over Daddy, probably because I usually sing him a song from the Primary songbook.

He loves to see and point out airplanes flying by. (Since we're sandwiched between Sky Harbor in Phoenix and a smaller airport nearby, there are plenty.)

On Sunday when we pick him up from nursery, he had a picture of a turkey with a scribble on it and the words "I am thankful for ______________." Filled in on that line with crayon were the words "Mama and Dada." When they said, "What are you thankful for, Jamie?" apparently that is how he answered, whether he knew what they were saying or not. I'll be saving that paper. It's on the fridge right now.

I would add pictures to make this more interesting, but
MY CAMERA CORD STILL HAS NOT BEEN SENT BACK TO ME, HINT, HINT, BIG BROTHER!!

By the way, the quote in the post title is from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Random, I know.

Jamie moments

This is another one of those posts that I do mostly for my own record-keeping, but also for those of you who like to hear how and what my little one is doing. (I know it's probably not all of you. No offense taken.)

First off, we had our third Family Home Evening in a row last night; we liked the way we did it before, where we have a very simple theme, we very simply explain it (like, "This is the TEMPLE, Jamie! This is Heavenly Father's and Jesus' house! Can you say 'temple'?"), sing a song or two from the Children's Songbook about the theme--the second one totally made me cry--and say a prayer. It's working for us. Jamie tried to say "Jesus" and "temple" last night, and pointed at pictures of both. So, so sweet. FHE truly makes a difference in our home. We can feel the Spirit more strongly.

Today, I was in Jamie's room and I asked him, "Where's Jesus?" The picture of Jesus in our living room, which he had last focused on (last night), is in the left corner of that room. The one in Jamie's room is in the right corner. So Jamie first looked to the left corner, saw nothing, kept looking farther left, and saw the "INHALATION HAZARD" sign with the skull and crossbones above his changing table, pointed, and said a bit of jibberish that I can only assume meant "Jesus."

I texted that one to Jason. He thought it was pretty funny.

Btw, can I brag on that inhalation hazard sign for a sec? When we moved, I was in the ABF trucking office waiting to have the trailer unlocked or something, and let's just say it was not like a doctor's office. There was a cardboard box of such signs sitting under the counter by me, and I saw that sign and mentioned to the guy that I'd love to have it for my son's changing table. He said to take it. I admit, I'm proud of myself for that thing, and boy, is it fitting...

I was finally able to take Jamie for his 18-month checkup on Friday--it's taken that long to get his insurance squared away. I believe he was 22 1/2 lbs and about 33 inches. Really low percentile for weight, and a bit higher than average for height. He got one shot and didn't cry for more than a minute or two. He did get a whopping, scary fever that night, though--over 103. He felt like he just came out of the oven! We nearly rushed him to the ER, but called our Medical Assistant friend, Jina, to ask for advice, and she saved us a trip. Tip: if a fever is not SUPER high and it's the only symptom, the hospital folks can't do much more than you can at home. Once the Tylenol kicked in and Jamie had a lukewarm bath (which he HATED), he was better, though the fever hung around for another day.

This morning I woke up, realized Jamie would be waking soon, and jumped in the shower so I could at least be mostly finished before he woke up. Just as I turned off the water, I heard the first, "Aaah?" on the monitor. But that baby let me dry off, get dressed, do my hair, and put on my makeup (not an everyday occurrence), chattering to himself the whole time and hardly fussing. When I did go in to get him, he was standing in his crib, and he grinned at me and started marching in place with his adorable, sweet little feet, apparently so cheerful and happy to see me that he felt like dancing.

Jamie mostly hates to have his diapers (or dipees, as we call them) changed, and also fights going to bed. If I pick him up around bedtime, he'll reach with both arms for daddy, with an imploring, "Aaah? Aaah?" That's his pick-me-up thing. It's hard to resist. So I'll give him to Jason, he'll start to head upstairs with Jamie, and when Jamie sees this, he does the imploring thing back at me, trying to get someone to save him. It's so funny. He'll also do this to strangers at church, hoping they'll let him run free all over the chapel. He's gotten a lot better about his church behavior, though, and does better in nursery every week.

When it was nearly time for his nap today, he pulled the blanket I made him out of his crib through the slats and spread it over his lap, which I've never seen him do. I picked him up and he immediately put his head on my shoulder and cuddled against me. Sigh. Sometimes I wish he didn't have to grow up. Taking care of a toddler is challenging, but he is so sweet and innocent at this age.

Words Jamie at least tries (or has tried) to say, that we recognize:

Mama (usually it's "Mam" lately)
Dada, Dai-ee
Boat ("Bo")
Gross ("Gro," after me teasing him about a stinky diaper, but that was just once)
Cow sound ("Booo")
Doggie ("Dai-yah")
Temple (I have no idea how to spell how it sounded...)
Jesus (Ditto...)

Yeah, he has a ways to go on accuracy, but we're just glad he's finally trying. :)

11 months stats

My baby is nearly a year old!!!
Far away from the baby book, and almost a week late.

Weight:
was 20 lbs 10 oz on I think Dec. 8 or 9.
Eats:
about the same as last month. Less formula, and still loves his big boy food, esp Cheerios.
Got:
two more teeth. (One is still coming and hasn't broken through.)
Sleeps:
less now. Usually wakes up at about 7:30 and is up two hours in a.m. before taking a nap, and seems to be down to just 2 naps a day, sometimes even less, rebelling against his afternoon nap. (It's hard because he won't sleep and yet acts like a total grump.)
Locomotion:
crawls very well, cruises along furniture and lets himself down to the floor like a pro. Shouldn't be long before he's walking.
Cute stuff:
comes and bangs on the bathroom door when Mama or Daddy is in there, even sticks his little fingers under the door. Loves baths, especially splashing. Wakes up and chatters and squeals in his bed. Loves smiling at people. At church, boogies up the aisle and "hails" anybody who smiles at him. (I.e., smiles at them and lifts his whole arm up and back in an almost regal fashion.) Loves playing peek-a-boo and hide and seek. Basically is just a busy, fairly easy-going, sweet, smiley little baby who scatters sunshine all along his way. :)