Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Little climber

++- <----James's contribution to the post, NOT approved by mommy.
We've officially reached the climbing age. Today James has climbed on top of the couch, his push-car, several toys, a box to get up to the piano, and an upturned laundry basket. And right now he's attempting the ottoman without success (yet). Never a dull moment in our house!

Also, James throws full out tantrums when I take something away from him or won't let him have something (like, for instance, the keyboard of my new laptop). It's hard to watch because he throws his head around, sometimes into things by accident, and throws his toys HARD to show his anger. Luckily he's easy to distract, but it's still hard to take. I know it is only the beginning, so I'm trying to take it in stride.

I'll post some pics when I can... right now I've got a billion things to go do!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Happy Turkey Day!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (a day late). We had a wonderful relaxed Thanksgiving at Grandpa's house... James enjoyed getting into all kinds of trouble, including reprogramming the cable box and figuring out how to open the handle to get into Grandpa's room. James is cutting either anothe rmolar or a canine, so he was pretty crabby most of the day. He didn't want to eat anythig really, and I managed to get part of a roll into him and a banana before he called it quits. He ate better today, even trying some of the cranberry sauce. Still won't touch the turkey though... he seems to be on a self-imposed fruit/carb/dairly diet and won't touch vegetables or meat. I'm hoping he grows out of it and am just trying to give him as much good food as I can that he will eat without throwing it on the floor.

This morning, I woke up before dawn to drive my dad to the airport and to hit the black friday sales! I saved hundreds on things we've been waiting to buy for awhile that just happened to be on sale... one of those items was a new PC for me!! I am so excited to be typing this from a brand-new super-fast Samsung i7 750GB 6G Ram 15" screen laptop. It has an amazing video card and LOTS of space so I can actually edit videos again (I had to stop because my old computer ran out of space to be able to edit). I am truly happy with my purchase, and, while transitioning back to a PC after a Mac has been bumpy, I'm figuring it out and like quite a few things more than my mac anyway. They did a good job with windows 7, and it is pretty user-friendly. So Merry Christmas to me, a bit early. :-)

Please enjoy this pics of James from Thanksgiving... sorry I didn't get more shots, he's impossible to catch with a camera because he's always moving!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Friday, November 18, 2011

Quick update

I thought I'd just write a quick note to mention that we are super super busy right now with Eliot working a ton and me getting ready for the holidays. We haven't seen too much progress with James... he is trying to climb up on stuff but can't figure it out, and he "wiggles" when I sing a song about wiggling from storytime at the library.

Other than that, he still doesn't say much and in fact he doesn't seem to want to say "thank you" or anything anymore. I'm trying not to worry that he is just taking his time talking, but it's frustrating for both me and him to have him not saying much right now.

Overall though things are good. James turns 17 months old tomorrow, and I'll try to post a pic of him for that as soon as I can. For now here is a pic of James playing with a toy I used to play with when I was little.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Dining with James

James has become quite adept at using his spoon and fork to eat... he doesn't use them ALL the time, but most of the time! He also sat at the table and ate from a "big kid plate" instead of his highchair this week. Here's a pic:


And here are two videos I took this evening while James was eating his pasta. He uses a fork in this one:


And in this one he chats a bit. He's been saying "Dug-a-dug-a-dug-a-dug-a" for some reason... I think he's just practicing.


James has also been practicing climbing in and out of things. Here he is doing so at a canoe in the mall:


And with the laundry basket!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Saying goodbye

My grandma Lillian passed away October 29th... she lived a good long life and went peacefully as she was on comfort care at the end.

My brother Nathan and I flew out to Chicago with my dad to go say goodbye. Since my grandma was Catholic, they had a family viewing, a public viewing, and a full funeral mass before entombing her in a mausoleum. Some of it was surreal... I shook hands with about 150 strangers who told me how sorry they were, all while my grandma laid in a casket looking like she was about to get up and start talking to us. It was so weird.

In the end, though, I feel like I had ample time to say goodbye. My grandma never once forgot to send me (and James) a card for every occasion, made by her on her computer. She also sent me family recipes and gave me a whole box of them, which I treasure to this day. It was hard to see her, but know she was gone... some people you think will just be around forever, and it's a shock when you realize that's just not true.

The upside to the trip was that it was the first time ALL of the cousins on that side were together. We all live so far apart that it had never happened before. So we of course had to take some pictures...

Here is a pic of me with all my cousins



And me with my grandpa (93 years young)



And here is everyone!


It was SO hard being away from James for the first time and for such a long time. I held my cousin's daughter Nikola (who is one month younger than James) to keep myself from going through toddler withdrawls. But I don't regret going, I am so grateful for the time I got to spend with my family, especially my grandpa who I hadn't seen in years. A big thanks to my husband and mother in law for babysitting and allowing the trip to happen, and to my dad for taking me.


Miss you grandma. <3