James's Second Christmas!

Yesterday was James's second Christmas, and it was a good one, for the most part. James has molars coming in right now, so he was CRANKY all day long.

In the morning, we skyped with Mimi and Grandpa, which brought us up to naptime with still half the presents (from us) to go. Then after he woke up early from his nap wailing (only sleeping for 30 min), we skyped with his great-grandparents, grandma, and great-aunt and opened up the rest of his presents.

The poor kid was overwhelmed and exhausted, but happy to have so many new toys. His favorite was the Leaptop from Mimi Helen and Grandpa Mark. I found the whole day exhausting even without having any company, with the cleanup, dinner (ham, potatoes au gratin, and asparagus), and taking care of a tired and in-pain toddler. Gone are our relaxing Christmas days...

Here are a few pics from Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas Eve!

Just thought I'd share a few pics from this Christmas Eve... we had holiday-shaped pancakes this morning, then this afternoon we went to a Christmas Eve service at church. Unfortunately, James had only napped for 45 minutes today because he had teething pain that woke him up, so he was so whiny we didn't make it all the way through the service. SO we stopped at Fred Meyer to pick up a few last-minute things, then came home for our tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve. I got a bath mat that I've wanted for awhile (memory foam!), Eliot got a Toy Story Mania Wii game that is like the ride we went on in Disneyland, and James got a wooden block shape sorter. All in all, not a terrible day!

Merry Christmas to all! Hopefully there will be more pics to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James is 18 months old!

James turned 18 months old on the 19th, and since it's getting near Christmas, I haven't had time to blog about it till now. On his 18 month birthday, we took a ferry boat from Lopez Island to Anacortes, Washington. Then we drove allllll the way back to Portland (with James enjoying Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the back seat with a portable DVD player). Then we celebrated Christmas early with Grandpa, and James had a blast opening... and sitting on... his gifts.

It's hard to believe he's already a year and a half old. Seems like just yesterday I was complaining about him not sleeping through the night...

New things going on with James include:
Getting better at feeding himself with a fork and spoon
Running and "kicking" balls by walking into them
Responding to things on TV, though not usually in understandable English (he doesn't watch much TV, but when he does it's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he LOVES it!)
Saying "yeah" and "uh oh" once in awhile
Saying Mickey once or twice (we think)
Unwrapping presents like a pro
Understanding two-step instructions and following them through
Seeing a (fake) mouse and saying "eee eee eee"
Helping me dress him by pushing his arms through the sleeves and lifting up his foot to put on his socks/shoes
Developing a rash from certain foods, including kiwi, tomatoes, clementines, cinnamon, etc.
Climbing stairs almost entirely independently without putting his hands down on the steps at all
Getting 2 (maybe more) new molars, which is keeping all of us up at night once in awhile.


Here are a few pics from his Turning 18 Months adventure, beginning at the house on Lopez Island and ending at Granpa's house:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes mommy's worries are legitimate...

James had his well-baby appt today since he turned 18 months a few days back (I know I need to post about it, we've been busy!). The doctor says he looks very healthy, his weight percentile is up to 30% instead of 15%, so that's good. He also is developing just fine physically.

The bad thing, though, is she is as concerned about him only saying "dada" as I am. She says he should have 5-10 words by now, and he only has one, plus a few in sign language. So she is recommending he get evaluated by the Early Intervention speech therapists to see if he qualifies for the program to help small children in their language development. They say if they catch problems early on, it makes a huge difference for kiddos. So I'm all for it.

The truly good news is James does NOT have the major warning signs for autism. The doc pointed at something at the wall and was excited about it, and James turned to look at it... she said with autistic kids, they don't get excited or curious about what strangers are excited about, so with that test they wouldn't look where she was pointing. But James is super social and loves to play games. He was so excited about being around the doctor, he even sat on her lap and helped her type things in the computer. :-) He also was sad when both the nurse and doctor left the room... I think he just likes new people.

So not autistic. But maybe speech delayed. She said it is possible for him to catch up and just start talking one day, but she said when they don't even have 2 words by 18 months, they usually like to check it out. We might also get his hearing checked at some point to make sure he is hearing all the frequencies and ruling that out as a problem.

I hope he just surprises me and starts gabbing away one of these days.

Stats for 18mo appointment:
Weight: 23lbs (30th percentile)
Hieght: 31 inches (15th percentile)

Lopez Island: Day 2

James is still fighting a cold, but I decided to get out of the house anyway since we are on vacation, afterall. So I put James on my back and we went for a hike at the Shark Reef Sanctuary, which starts off in the woods and winds it's way out to the edge of the island where there is a view of a rock called Shark Reef. I've been told the seals hang out there, but I didn't see any today, just birds. James also lost his binky somewhere along the way, so he contributed something to the sanctuary (he doesn't normally get his binky during the day, but since he isn't napping and is sick, I thought I'd make it more pleasant for all of us and let him have it).

After the hike, we went back to the house and ELiot made it home from his gig on Orcas Island. We hung out for awhile before heading down to Watmough beach so Eliot could see it. There was a boat docked there this time. After that we had dinner and I prepped James for bed, only to get him up 20 minutes later to go see the first 30 minutes or so of ELiot's concert in town on the other side of the island. James was so cute saying "dada" and clapping with the audience, but he was also exhausted and therefore slaphappy, which made him want to get down and run around. We left early so I could get him to bed at a decent hour.

Overall, though, not a bad day despite James not napping for the 4th day in a row.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few short videos from our hike: